How to check area competition before launching new store

[MuneebRahmani]

Hello,
One of my clients has a Cell phone repair shop in Vancouver, CA and he is planning to launch more branches in the upcoming months so his friend who also owns 7 stores in Vancouver told him that whenever he opens a new store he check how much competition is there.
So my question is that something really exist? if yes then how can I check that?

 

[Phil Rozek]

@MuneebRahmani, yes, that's generally a good idea. As long as one doesn't go crazy with the research and develop analysis paralysis. It's always a judgment call in the end, and there are always trade-offs.

A few good ways to check:

1. Type directly Google Maps some of the search terms you care about and zoom WAY in on the neighborhood(s) your client is considering. See who else is in that specific neighborhood.

2. See if those competitors are the same businesses that rank elsewhere in the city, outside of the neighborhood, and for the big terms you care about (e.g. "phone repair Vancouver").

3. Run a temporary and (we hope) inexpensive AdWords campaign, go to "Auction insights," and compare your impression share to competitors'. If they have much more impression share than you do, they're probably going heavy on the AdWords. Doesn't mean they rank well, but they probably do, and AdWords activity is usually a good reflection of how competitive a market is.

 

[MuneebRahmani]

@MuneebRahmani, yes, that's generally a good idea. As long as one doesn't go crazy with the research and develop analysis paralysis. It's always a judgment call in the end, and there are always trade-offs.

A few good ways to check:

1. Type directly Google Maps some of the search terms you care about and zoom WAY in on the neighborhood(s) your client is considering. See who else is in that specific neighborhood.

2. See if those competitors are the same businesses that rank elsewhere in the city, outside of the neighborhood, and for the big terms you care about (e.g. "phone repair Vancouver").

3. Run a temporary and (we hope) inexpensive AdWords campaign, go to "Auction insights," and compare your impression share to competitors'. If they have much more impression share than you do, they're probably going heavy on the AdWords. Doesn't mean they rank well, but they probably do, and AdWords activity is usually a good reflection of how competitive a market is.

Thank you @Phil Rozek for the helpful reply i told my client about what you said but he said that this is not what he is looking, he said there is something called "Local Authority" which helps GMB listing to rank easily.

 

[Phil Rozek]

@MuneebRahmani, it's possible your client is referring to a real thing that usually goes by a different name, and of course Google has internal metrics and measurements that nobody else can see. But "Local Authority" isn't something that third parties (you, me, your client, etc.) can measure, if it even exists at all. Based on what you've described, I'd say it's imaginary: a made-up metric. More like Moz's Domain Authority than internal PageRank.

 

[djbaxter]

"Local Authority" isn't something that third parties (you, me, your client, etc.) can measure, if it even exists at all. Based on what you've described, I'd say it's imaginary: a made-up metric. More like Moz's Domain Authority than internal PageRank.

Exactly. And if the client is referring to "Domain Authority" or a variant of that, advise him/her that Google has repeatedly said that doesn't exist and is not a Google ranking factor.

 

[Yan Gilbert]

It may be the 'Local Authority' that is mentioned by dbaPlatform? This is a calculated metric based on different factors but does not coincide with a Google measurement.

You can use a grid scanning tool like Local Falcon to run a scan over the target area. It won't directly show you how high competition is in a specific spot, but it will help you see which listings are dominant. It may help you draw some conclusions looking through various reports.

 

[skyalphabet]

Hello,
One of my clients has a Cell phone repair shop in Vancouver, CA and he is planning to launch more branches in the upcoming months so his friend who also owns 7 stores in Vancouver told him that whenever he opens a new store he check how much competition is there.
So my question is that something really exist? if yes then how can I check that?

1. maps.google.ca
2. type "calgary cel phone repair" in the search box (or whatever city)
3. A "local pack" will show up on the left with all of the businesses that meet the search criteria.
4. scroll through the listings; the more stars is usually the dominant business.
image attached

 

[johnlavapie_SEO]

@MuneebRahmani check my reply to this thread on how to check rankings on keywords for either a general city/town or specific geolocation:

BrightLocal | Local SEO Tools & Software

I'm just curious if anyone else has had terrible experiences with BrightLocal recently. I am so disappointed and will never use them again. I upgraded my account for the rank tracking software. However, most of the locations we manage would show any keyword volume for the location. When I...

localsearchforum.com