Free Ways to See What Your Competitors Are Doing Online

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By Brandon Aubey

In short: Four free ways to learn why a competitor ranks above you on Google. Then use what you learn to write better pages of your own.

If someone ranks above you on Google, they’re getting your calls. You can guess why. Or you can look. Looking is free, and it takes about an hour.

SEO means showing up on Google when people search for your service. Most owners don’t know where to start. Here’s where I’d start. Look at who’s already winning.

Why look at competitors at all

The top result on Google isn’t there by luck. Google decided that page answered the search best. That page is a clue. It shows what Google thinks people want.

You don’t need a paid tool to see it. You need Google, a free traffic checker, and an AI assistant. You probably have all three already.

One thing before we start. This is for learning what the market wants. It isn’t for copying. You’ll see why that matters at the end.

Step one, find who ranks first and study their best page

1. Go to Google. Type in the search you want to win. Something like “AC repair El Paso.”
2. Note who ranks first. Skip the ads at the top. You want the first normal result.
3. Go to Ubersuggest or Neil Patel’s website traffic checker. Both are free. Type in that competitor’s website.
4. Scroll down to the section called top SEO pages. That shows which of their pages bring in traffic.
5. Pick one strong page or blog post. Copy the text or the link.
6. Paste it into an AI assistant. Ask it to find weaknesses you could improve on.
7. Read the answer. Then write your own page on that topic. Make it clearer and more complete.

That’s the whole first method. It takes maybe twenty minutes. The writing takes longer, and it should.

Step two, compare the top three to yours

Method one looked at one page. This one looks at the whole top of the search.

1. Google your service and your city. “Plumber El Paso” works.
2. Copy the links for the top three results.
3. Paste all three into an AI assistant. Ask it what those pages cover.
4. Now paste in your own page. Ask it what you’re missing compared to them.
5. Here’s the part most people skip. Ask the AI to interview you. Tell it to ask about your own knowledge, your jobs, and your data.
6. Answer the questions like you’re talking to a customer.

That interview step is what makes the content yours. The top three pages tell you the gaps. Your answers fill them with real experience. Nobody else has your answers.

Step three, read their Google reviews

Reviews are customers talking in their own words. That’s hard to get anywhere else.

1. Google your service. Find your top competitor.
2. Open their Google Business Profile. Click to view all their reviews.
3. Copy all of them. Yes, all of them.
4. Paste them into an AI assistant. Ask it to pull out common questions, worries, and objections.
5. Turn each one into an FAQ on your site. FAQ means a short question and answer.
6. Turn the bigger ones into full articles.

Say the reviews keep mentioning the tech showed up late. That’s a worry. Write a page on how you handle arrival times. Say people kept asking about financing. Write an FAQ on it. These are real questions from real El Paso customers. That’s what your pages should answer.

Step four, find real questions on Reddit

People ask honest questions on Reddit. They don’t phrase them like a marketer would. That’s useful.

1. Go to Google. Type your service, then add site:reddit.com after it. Example: “water heater replacement site:reddit.com.”
2. Find a question someone actually asked.
3. Answer it in an article on your website. Use your own knowledge.
4. Put a short summary answer at the top of the article. Two or three sentences.
5. Add a link to the matching service page on your site.

If the question is about water heaters, link to your water heater page. The article brings the reader in. The link gets them to the page where they can call you.

Where to draw the line

I want to be plain about this. Everything above is research. You’re learning what the market wants and what Google rewards.

Don’t copy a competitor’s page. Don’t paste their text onto your site. Don’t fake reviews or make up questions. Google can tell, and so can customers.

Use what you learn to write something better. Better means clearer, more honest, and based on your own work. The interview step and the Reddit step are there for a reason. They pull your own knowledge out of your head and onto the page.

Pick one and do it this week

You don’t need all four at once. Pick the one that sounds easiest. Do it this week. Write one page. Then do the next one.

If you’d rather we handle it, that’s what our SEO services are for. Or book a strategy call and we’ll look at your competitors together.

We can do this for you

You can do everything above yourself. Most owners do not have the hours. Dead River Management builds and runs it for home service businesses. We work in El Paso and across the country. You keep running jobs. We handle the search work. You judge us on booked jobs, not reports. See SEO services, read about the Demand Flow guarantee, or book a strategy call.

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