Why Your Competitors Outrank You (And How to Fix It)

Your competitor shows up first when someone searches for HVAC repair in your city. You show up fifth. Or worse, not at all.

The #1 position in Google’s Local Pack gets 24.4% of all clicks. Position #4 and beyond barely register. The difference between ranking first and ranking fourth is the difference between steady leads and wondering why the phone doesn’t ring.

Here’s what’s actually happening and how to fix it.

How Google ranks local service businesses

Google’s local algorithm weighs three main factors: relevance, distance, and prominence.

Relevance is how well your business matches what someone searched for. If they search “emergency water heater repair” and your Google Business Profile only mentions “plumbing services,” you’re less relevant than the competitor who explicitly lists water heater repair as a service.

Distance is exactly what it sounds like. Google prioritizes businesses close to the searcher. You can’t move your business, but you can influence how Google understands your service area.

Prominence is where most ranking battles are won or lost. Prominence measures how well-known and trusted your business appears online. Reviews, citations, website authority, engagement signals, and links all feed into prominence.

67% of local ranking factors fall into the prominence category. These are the signals you can influence.

The specific things your competitor does better

They have more reviews and fresher reviews

Review quantity is the single most visible ranking factor. Contractors with 200+ Google reviews rank 2.7 positions higher on average than those with 50 reviews or fewer.

Review velocity matters as much as total count. A business getting 15 reviews per month outranks a business with the same total reviews but only 2 per month. Google interprets consistent review flow as a signal of ongoing customer satisfaction.

If your competitor has 340 reviews to your 89, that gap explains most of your ranking difference. And you won’t close it overnight. At 10 new reviews per month, it takes two years to match their count, and they’re still adding reviews too.

The solution is systematic review generation. Automate the ask via SMS within 2 hours of service completion. Train techs to set expectations. Make leaving a review a one-tap process with a direct link. Read more about automated review generation.

Their Google Business Profile is more complete

Google measures profile completeness and rewards thorough listings. An incomplete profile is an easy problem to fix.

Check every field: business description, service areas with specific neighborhoods, all relevant categories, business attributes, complete hours including holidays, a local phone number, and products/services sections filled out.

Then check photos. Businesses with 100+ photos get 520% more calls than average. Most contractors have 10-20 outdated photos. Weekly photo uploads signal an active, legitimate business.

Posts matter too. Weekly Google Business Profile posts correlate with 2x engagement compared to monthly or sporadic posting. Your competitor might be posting every Tuesday while you haven’t posted since you set up the profile.

A complete, active GBP optimization strategy can move rankings within 30-60 days. See the full Google Business Profile optimization checklist.

They have location-specific website content

Your competitor has a page for “HVAC repair in Mesa” and another for “HVAC repair in Tempe” and another for every city they serve. You have one service page that mentions “the Phoenix metro area.”

Google matches search intent to content. Someone searching “AC repair Scottsdale” gets better results from a page specifically about AC repair in Scottsdale than from a generic page that happens to mention Scottsdale once.

Service area pages with 1,000+ words of unique, location-specific content rank 3x better than thin pages with just the city name swapped. The investment in unique content for each area pays off in dedicated search visibility.

If your competitor has 15 location pages and you have none, that’s 15 opportunities where they show up and you don’t. See our service area page template for how to build these right.

Their website loads faster

Google has explicitly stated page speed is a ranking factor. A site that loads in 1.5 seconds outranks an identical site that loads in 4 seconds.

Core Web Vitals measure loading performance, interactivity, and visual stability. Google reports these in Search Console and uses them in rankings.

Run your site through PageSpeed Insights and check your Core Web Vitals score. If you’re in the red or orange, speed improvements will help rankings. Compress images, enable caching, remove unused plugins, and consider better hosting if your current provider is slow.

The typical contractor website has bloated images, unoptimized code, and cheap shared hosting. A 2-second improvement in load time can move you up 3-4 positions.

They have more and better backlinks

Backlinks remain one of the strongest ranking signals. These are links from other websites to yours. Your competitor might have links from the local chamber of commerce, equipment suppliers, industry associations, and local news mentions. You might have none.

Check your competitor’s backlinks using Ahrefs, Moz, or Semrush. Look for patterns: Where are they getting links that you’re not?

Common backlink opportunities for home service businesses include local business associations and chambers of commerce, supplier and manufacturer partner directories, local sponsorships and community events, industry association memberships, and local press coverage for newsworthy projects.

You won’t match a competitor with 200 backlinks quickly, but every legitimate link helps. Focus on quality over quantity. One link from your city’s news website is worth more than 50 links from random directories.

They’ve been at it longer

Domain age and business history influence rankings. A competitor who’s had their website since 2012 has accumulated years of signals that a 2024 website hasn’t.

You can’t change your domain age, but you can accelerate trust signals. Consistent content publishing, steady review generation, and regular GBP activity build the signals that normally accumulate over years.

This is a long game. Accept that competitors with a 10-year head start have structural advantages. Focus on the factors you can control now while building the signals that compound over time.

How to analyze your specific competitors

Stop guessing. Use data.

Google your target keywords from an incognito browser. Note who ranks 1-3 in the Local Pack and who ranks 1-5 organically. These are your actual competitors, not who you think competes with you.

Compare Google Business Profiles:

Count reviews. Note the average star rating. Check review dates to estimate velocity. Look at photo count. Read their business description. Check which categories they use.

Compare websites:

Run both sites through PageSpeed Insights. Note the speed scores. Check if they have location-specific pages. Look at their service pages and note how detailed they are. Use a backlink checker to compare link profiles.

Identify gaps:

Where are they stronger? Reviews? Content? Speed? Links? The factors with the biggest gaps are where improvement will have the most impact.

Make a list of specific deficits. “They have 287 reviews, we have 63” is actionable. “They rank better” is not.

Prioritizing your fixes

Not all ranking factors are equally fixable. Prioritize based on impact and effort.

Quick wins (1-4 weeks):

Complete your GBP profile with every field, every category, every attribute. Add photos to reach 100+. Start posting weekly. Update your website’s meta titles and descriptions for each page. Fix obvious speed issues like oversized images.

Medium-term improvements (1-3 months):

Implement systematic review generation. Add 5-10 location-specific pages with unique content. Build landing pages for each major service. Get listed in local directories and associations. Improve Core Web Vitals scores.

Long-term investment (3-12 months):

Build a backlink acquisition strategy through PR, partnerships, and community involvement. Publish regular blog content targeting long-tail keywords. Develop relationships that generate ongoing links and mentions.

Catching up and pulling ahead

Closing a ranking gap requires sustained effort over months, not a weekend project. The competitor ahead of you didn’t get there overnight, and you won’t overtake them overnight.

But ranking positions aren’t permanent. The business that stops investing gets passed by the one that keeps improving.

If your competitor has more reviews, you can generate reviews faster. If they have more content, you can publish more content. If their site is faster, you can make yours faster.

The contractors who rank well in 2026 aren’t using secret tactics. They’re executing the basics better and more consistently than everyone else. Reviews, content, technical performance, and off-page signals compound over time.

Start with your biggest gaps. Fix what you can control. Measure progress monthly. Rankings follow effort, usually with a 60-90 day delay.

You know why your competitor outranks you now. The only question is what you’re going to do about it.