You will compare your profile with the top three local competitors and plan improvements.
Wei Ming's nephew had fixed the category, added a menu and uploaded new photos. The family wanted to know what else to do, and how they would know whether it was enough. Part of the answer was sitting in Google Maps all along, in the three stalls that appeared above them, whose profiles anyone could open and compare.
In about thirty-five minutes, this exercise compares your profile with the top three local competitors, field by field, and turns the gaps into a short plan and a monthly routine.
Start a new tab in your spreadsheet. Make four columns, one for your business and one for each of the three competitors you recorded in lesson 7.1, How local results are chosen. If you did not record them, search your main service plus your area in Google Maps on your phone, from where your customers are, and take the top three.
Down the side, list the rows: primary category, secondary categories, description filled in, products or services listed, number of photos and how recent the newest one is, number of reviews, average rating, date of the most recent review, whether the owner replies to reviews and how, hours including special hours, and posts or updates in the last month.
Open each profile in Google Maps and fill in the rows. Be factual. Count photos and reviews as they appear, and note dates where you can see them. For owner replies, read the last five reviews on each profile and note whether the owner replied, how quickly if dates are shown, and whether the replies are specific or copied and pasted.
Then step back. For each row, ask whether a competitor clearly does better than you, and whether that gap is one you can close honestly. A competitor with more recent photos is a gap you can close this week. A competitor with far more reviews is a gap you can close over months by asking every customer, as lesson 7.3, Reviews: ask, respond and stay within the rules, described. A competitor that is simply closer to where people search is distance, which you cannot change. Note it and move on.
The second part of the audit is consistency. Lesson 7.2, Set up and complete your business profile, explained why your name, address and phone number should be identical everywhere.
Write down your exact name, address and phone number as they appear on your profile. Check your own website next, footer and contact page included. Then search your business name in Google and open the directory and listing sites that appear, such as food guides, business directories, review sites, booking platforms and social media pages, and compare the three details on each. Note any that differ, even slightly: an old phone number, a missing unit number, a former business name.
Fix the ones you control directly, such as your website and social media pages. For directories, look for a way to claim or edit the listing, or contact the site.
Wei Ming's table showed four clear gaps. All three competitors had at least three times his number of reviews, with replies from the owner on most of them. Two had photos added in the past month, while his newest was from the week before. Two listed their full menu with prices. None of the three had special hours set for public holidays, which was one thing his profile now did better.
His consistency check found his old stall number on a food guide site and a different phone number on a social media page his nephew had set up years earlier.
From those, the family wrote five improvements: put a review QR code card on the counter and ask every regular for a few weeks; reply to every review within a few days, with specifics; add the full menu with prices; update the food guide listing and the old social media page with the right stall number and phone; and add new photos each month. The competitors' review counts would take months to match, and they accepted that.
Local profiles drift if nobody looks after them. Hours change, photos get old, reviews go unanswered. A short routine stops that, and it takes less than an hour a month.
Each month, add a few new photos and, if you use them, one post or update. Check that hours are right and add special hours for any public holidays in the next two months. Reply to every review that came in. Check the profile for edits suggested by Google or the public, which can change your details if nobody reviews them. Once a quarter, rerun the consistency check on your main listings.
Put the routine in your calendar on a fixed day. Lesson 9.4, Build your monthly SEO review routine, folds it into your wider monthly review.
Open Google Maps and your spreadsheet, fill in the table for your profile and three competitors, and then write your improvements and routine, as the activity below describes.
Complete the local audit table for your profile and three competitors, then write five improvements and a monthly upkeep routine.
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