Competitor ranking higher than me

[Brelia]

Hi everyone, i’m a plumber and i run my own business. i am really interested in SEO and am learning as i go.
My question is regarding the local listings.
Im ranked 5th in my local search for bathroom renovations, i have been posting on GMB for about 6 months and i’m not expecting to be ranked much higher at this stage,as most of the businesses above me have more reviews, better websites etc.
But one competitor, ranked third, has no reviews, not many photos or posts, similar name structure as me,as in business name followed by the area we want to be ranked in. The only thing that they seemingly have on me is that theis website is probably better than mine, as mine is very basic, but their website is actually nothing special either.
What could i be missing that is enabling them to rank 3rd but not having much on GMB?
Thanks in advance.

 

[zach.todd]

Hey @Brelia , a few questions come to mind right away when looking at local ranking issues like this. First, proximity to the searcher is really important. Is it possible that this competitor is the nearest to where you're searching from? A "weaker" listing can rise to the top if it's much closer than the competition.

Next, I'd look closely at the name they are using on their GMB listing. Does the name contain the keyword you're searching for? Listing name has a surprisingly big impact on how Google judges relevancy to the query.

Lastly, links are another factor that you may not have visibility into. It's possible this competitor has a lot more links pointing to their website, which would tend to increase its visibility.

 

[Brelia]

Thanks @zach.todd for taking the time to reply.
So this is why i’m scratching my head !! The area that i’m testing is ‘northern beaches‘ which is a general term that locals use for the area,it is not a specific suburb,rather a group of suburbs and we both have northern beaches in our name. i’ve search with different devices in different areas within the northern beaches and the rankings seem to say the same .
Ive also searched for their backlinks using ubersuggest, and they don’t have enough to even register a result.
As i said, my website probably isn’t as good as theirs, but theirs is nothing special and i seem to have more backlinks.
i feel like i’m missing something.