If you have ever Googled your own business and found a competitor sitting above you, you know how frustrating it is. They are getting the clicks, the calls, and the customers that should be yours.
The good news is that most London businesses are not doing SEO particularly well. There are real, exploitable gaps in almost every local market. This guide shows you exactly how to find them and take advantage.
Start by Understanding Why They Rank Above You
Before you do anything else, you need to understand what your competitors are doing right. There are three main reasons a competitor outranks you:
- Their website has more authority (more backlinks from trusted sites).
- Their content is more relevant and detailed for the keyword.
- Their technical SEO is cleaner than yours.
Usually it is a combination of all three. The good news is that none of these are impossible to fix.
Step 1. Identify Your Real Search Competitors
Your search competitors are not always who you think they are. A business you compete with for customers might not be the same business you compete with on Google.
Search for your main keywords in Google and note who appears in the top five positions. Write down every domain that shows up across your most important terms. These are your real SEO competitors.
You will often find:
- Local businesses you already know about.
- National companies with a London presence.
- Review sites and directories such as Yell, Checkatrade or Bark.
- Informational websites ranking for how-to content.
Focus your energy on the local businesses. You cannot outrank Yell in the short term, but you absolutely can outrank the accountant in Islington who built their website in 2019 and has not touched it since.
Step 2. Analyse What Their Pages Are Doing Right
Pick your top three competitors and look closely at the pages that are outranking you. Ask yourself:
How long is the content? If they have 1,200 words on a page and you have 300, that is a likely reason they are winning. Google tends to reward comprehensive content.
What keywords are they using? Read their headings, their opening paragraph, and their page title. Identify the exact phrases they are targeting and compare them to yours.
How fast does their site load? Run their URL through Google PageSpeed Insights. If their score is 90 and yours is 45, speed is part of the problem.
How many reviews do they have? For local searches, review count and recency matter a great deal.
Are they active on Google Business Profile? Look at when they last posted an update and how many photos they have uploaded.
You are looking for weaknesses you can exploit and strengths you need to match or exceed.
Step 3. Find the Keywords They Are Ranking For That You Are Not
This is called a keyword gap analysis and it is one of the most valuable things you can do in SEO.
Using a free tool like Google Search Console or a paid tool like Ahrefs or Semrush, find the keywords your competitors rank for in the top 10 that you do not appear for at all.
These are content opportunities sitting right in front of you. If a competitor is getting traffic from “emergency electrician Hackney” and you offer the same service but have no page targeting that phrase, you are leaving customers on the table.
Build dedicated pages or blog posts targeting those gaps. Each piece of content should be better than what the competitor has published, more detailed, more helpful, and more up to date.
Step 4. Build a Stronger Local Presence
In local search, Google looks at three main things: relevance, distance, and prominence. You cannot change your location, but you can improve relevance and prominence significantly.
Relevance means making sure Google fully understands what you do and where you do it. This comes from your website content, your Google Business Profile categories, and the consistency of your NAP (name, address, phone number) across the web.
Prominence is largely driven by reviews and citations. If your competitor has 80 Google reviews and you have 12, that is a gap you need to close. Start asking every satisfied customer for a review. Make it easy by sending them a direct link to your Google review page.
Also check how many local directories your competitor is listed in compared to you. Use a tool like BrightLocal or Moz Local to audit this quickly.
Step 5. Get Better Backlinks Than Them
Backlinks are still one of the most powerful ranking signals in Google’s algorithm. When a trusted website links to yours, it passes authority that helps you rank.
To outrank a competitor, you generally need to match or exceed the quality of their backlink profile. Here is how to approach it:
Check their backlinks. Use Ahrefs or the free version of Ubersuggest to see which websites link to your competitor. Look for patterns. Are they getting links from local press? Industry associations? Partner businesses?
Replicate the easy wins. If they are listed in a directory you are not in, get listed. If they have a mention in a local newspaper, pitch a story to the same publication.
Go after links they do not have. Look for local London websites, blogs, and community organisations that cover your industry. Reach out with a genuine reason for them to link to you, whether that is a useful resource, a guest article, or a local partnership.
Even five or ten well-placed backlinks from relevant London sources can shift your rankings noticeably.
Step 6. Publish Content They Cannot Match
Most London small business websites have thin content, an About page, a Services page, a Contact page, and nothing else. This is an opportunity.
By publishing genuinely useful, in-depth content on a regular basis, you build topical authority in your field. Google starts to see your website as the go-to resource for your subject, which lifts all of your pages, not just the ones you write about.
Think about the questions your customers ask you before they hire you. Write detailed answers to those questions. A property solicitor in Clapham could write about conveyancing timelines in London, what to expect when buying a leasehold flat, or how to find a good surveyor. None of these articles directly sell your service, but all of them attract the right audience at the right moment in their buying journey.
Aim for one article per month minimum. Your competitors are almost certainly publishing less than that, and consistency compounds over time.
Step 7. Fix the Technical Problems They Have Not Bothered To Fix
Many small business websites in London have fixable technical issues that are quietly suppressing their rankings. Run your site through Google Search Console and PageSpeed Insights and look for:
- Pages that are not being indexed by Google.
- Slow load times, particularly on mobile.
- Missing or duplicate title tags and meta descriptions.
- Broken internal links.
- Images without alt text.
Then run the same checks on your top competitor. If they have a Core Web Vitals score of 60 and you get yours to 90, that is a genuine competitive advantage in Google’s eyes.
How Long Until You See Results?
In most London markets, consistent SEO work starts to show meaningful results within 3 to 6 months. You will typically see rankings improve before traffic increases, and traffic increase before enquiries go up.
The key word is consistent. SEO is not a one-time task. The businesses that beat their competitors on Google are the ones that keep publishing, keep building links, and keep improving their site while everyone else gives up after two months.
Want Someone to Do This for You?
We carry out competitor analysis and SEO strategy for London businesses every day. If you would like to know exactly where you stand compared to your competitors and what it would take to overtake them, book a free consultation. We will walk you through the data and give you a clear picture of what is possible.