How to Spy on Your Competitors with Google My Business

In an effort to encourage more businesses to use the posts feature of Google My Business, Google has introduced a “Businesses like yours are posting!” section in the GMB dashboard. Updated regularly it gives a carousel of latest posts from nearby businesses in the same or similar industry.

It tells you the name of the business, how close they are and if appropriate gives you a link if they choose a “learn more” button.

It’s great for GMB post ideas

If nothing else it gives you ideas for your own Google my Business posts. Studies have shown that the feature has been underused since its launch toward the end of 2017. It only takes a minute or two to create a post, something which most of your other competitors may not be doing.

It’s competitor intelligence delivered to you

This feature compiles recent posts from a range of businesses local to you, in your niche. You don’t have to search for it, it’s there instantly in your Google My Business dashboard. I will state that this can be stretched at times, if there aren’t enough closely rated businesses to show.

Okay so it doesn’t tell you a huge amount but it does let you know a few things:

It tells you what businesses are active with Google posts, they may be considered “ahead of the curve” to some. You can assume that most of your competitors probably don’t use the feature, so the ones that do are the ones to follow in terms of their Google my Business activities.

Personally I think this is the biggest benefit. Businesses that are active with Google My Business posts are probably active in other areas of local SEO. Knowing who these businesses are is the key to finding out what sort of other activities they are involved in. A quick Google search of their name will start to give you answers.

It can show you the sort of activity competitors partake in, the sorts of blogs or content they may be publishing.

It tells you when your competitors are running offers.

Head over to your Google my Business dashboard and see what you find!