The short answer: competitor research means searching the way your customers do, in Google and in AI assistants like ChatGPT, Gemini, Copilot and Perplexity, and writing down who shows up, what their pages offer and what they leave out. Those gaps become your plan: the services, answers and proof your site will cover better than anyone else.
This is step 1 of the nine-step series in everything a website needs to bring in customers. Do it before you write a single page; it shapes everything after it.
What competitor research for a website actually is
Competitor research for a website is a structured look at who currently wins the searches and AI answers you want, and why. It is not spying, and it is not copying. It is the same thing a smart owner does when opening a shop: walk the street, see who else is there and figure out what customers are not getting.
Online you have three kinds of competitors, and most owners only think about the first:
- Business competitors: the companies you already lose jobs to.
- Search competitors: whatever ranks for your searches. Often that includes directories, lead-generation sites and review platforms, not only other businesses.
- AI-answer competitors: the businesses and sources that assistants name or cite when someone asks for a recommendation or a price range.
All three take attention away from you, so all three are worth a look.
Why researching competitors brings you more customers
Research matters because a customer only compares the handful of options in front of them. If you know what those options look like, you can make your page the clearest and most complete one on that list. In my experience it also prevents the most expensive mistake in small-business websites: building pages for words nobody searches while ignoring the questions customers ask every day.
It also tells you how hard the fight is. If the first page for "house cleaning Mesa" is full of national directories, you will likely need strong service pages and a Business Profile. If it is full of thin, outdated local sites, a well-built page has a real opening.
How to research your competitors in Google, step by step
You can do this with nothing but a browser, a spreadsheet and a free afternoon. The example uses a made-up business, Sol y Sombra Cleaning, a house-cleaning company.
List 10 to 20 searches your customers make
Write them the way a customer would say them: the service plus your city ("house cleaning Mesa"), "near me" versions, problems ("move out cleaning checklist") and price questions ("how much does a deep clean cost"). Include Spanish searches if you serve Spanish speakers.
Search in a private window, and on your phone
Results are affected by location and device, so a private window gives you a cleaner view than your logged-in browser. Repeat a few key searches on a phone, since that is how most local customers search.
Record the top results for each search
Note who appears in the map results (for local searches), the first organic results and any ads. Mark which ones are businesses and which are directories or lead sites.
Look up the advertisers
If competitors run ads, Google’s Ads Transparency Center lets you see ads published through Google. Their ads often reveal which services they consider most profitable.
Open each competitor’s page on your phone
Check: does each service have its own page? Is the phone number and quote button visible right away? Do they show their service area, licenses or insurance, real photos and reviews? Do they answer the questions on your list? Is there a Spanish version? How slow does it feel?
Check their Google Business Profiles
For local businesses, note their main category, number and recency of reviews, photos and whether they reply to reviews. Google says local ranking is mainly based on relevance, distance and prominence, and reviews are part of prominence.
Do not judge a competitor only by how their site looks. A plain site with one strong page per service and dozens of recent reviews will usually beat a beautiful site with one vague services page.
How to see which competitors AI assistants recommend
To research AI answers, ask the assistants your customers use the same questions you listed, and write down which businesses they name and which sources they cite. Use ChatGPT, Gemini, Copilot, Perplexity and Google’s AI Mode or AI Overviews where they appear.
Ask full questions, the way people talk
For example: "Who does reliable house cleaning in Mesa, Arizona?" or "What should a deep cleaning include and what does it usually cost?" People type longer, more conversational questions into assistants than into a search box.
Record the businesses named and the sources linked
ChatGPT search, for example, shows inline citations and a list of sources. Note each cited page: is it a competitor’s service page, a directory, a review site, a forum thread or a news article?
Repeat each question more than once
In my experience, answers vary from one try to the next and between assistants, so a single answer is a snapshot, not a ranking. Look for names and sources that keep coming back.
Note what the cited pages have in common
This part is observation, not a published rule: cited pages tend to answer the question directly near the top, state concrete facts and come from sources that appear in many places across the web.
Keep what you observed separate from what you assume. "Perplexity cited Competitor A’s pricing page twice" is an observation. "AI prefers long pages" is an assumption until you see it repeatedly. Google itself documents only that pages must be indexed and eligible to show a snippet to appear as links in AI Overviews and AI Mode, with no special markup required.
A simple competitor research worksheet
A spreadsheet with one row per competitor and these columns is enough for most small businesses:
| What to record | Where to find it | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|
| Searches where they appear | Your list of searches, private window | Shows who you are really up against |
| Map position and reviews | Google Maps and their Business Profile | Reviews and categories affect local visibility |
| Service pages | Their menu and site pages | One page per service is what ranks and gets quoted |
| Questions they answer | Their pages and FAQs | Unanswered questions are your easiest wins |
| Proof and trust | Licenses, insurance, photos, guarantees on their pages | Shows the minimum proof customers expect |
| Path to contact | Home page and service pages on a phone | Reveals how easy they make it to call or book |
| AI mentions and citations | Answers from each assistant, repeated | Shows who assistants trust for your topic today |
| Languages | Their site and profile | A missing Spanish version can be your advantage |
How to turn competitor findings into your website plan
Your findings become a plan when each gap turns into a page, a section or a proof point. Look for patterns like these:
- Missing service pages: if every competitor lumps services together, give each service its own page.
- Unanswered questions: price ranges, what is included, how long it takes, what to prepare. Answer them clearly and honestly.
- Weak proof: stock photos and no license or insurance details leave room for your real photos and verifiable details.
- Hard-to-use phone pages: a buried phone number on competitors’ pages is your opening for a tap-to-call button on every page.
- Language gaps: if nobody serves Spanish-speaking customers well online, a real Spanish version can set you apart.
Aim to be the most useful page on the list, not the longest. Google’s guidance on helpful, people-first content warns against writing to a word count or mainly summarizing what others wrote. Add what only you know: your process, your area, your real photos and the questions your customers actually ask. That list feeds directly into step 2, content strategy.
How long competitor research takes
For a local business with a handful of services, plan on four to eight hours the first time: about an hour to build the search list, two to four hours reviewing results and competitor pages, an hour or two on AI answers and an hour to write up the gaps. These are my estimates, not a rule. After that, a light check every few months keeps you current. If you want ongoing tracking, the storefront’s SEO tool at $6.99 a month includes keyword suggestions and rank tracking; see it under marketing on our prices page.
Common competitor research mistakes
- Copying a competitor’s structure or wording instead of improving on it. Copying gives customers no reason to pick you.
- Only studying big national brands. For a local business, the real competition is usually the other local providers in the map results.
- Researching from your own logged-in desktop. Your results may not match what a customer across town sees on a phone.
- Treating one AI answer as the truth. Repeat questions and look for patterns.
- Ignoring directories and review sites. If they win the search, you may need a presence there as well as a strong page of your own.
- Researching and then never writing it down. A one-page summary of gaps is what makes the next steps faster.
When to hire help with competitor research
Hire help when the time is better spent running your business, when your market is crowded, or when you sell in several cities or nationwide and the list of searches grows large. If we build your site, we can include competitor research in your written quote, with a fixed price before we start. Ask for a quote and tell us which areas and services matter most.
Next in the series: step 2, content strategy, where these findings become a list of pages. Or go back to the full nine-step overview.