The auto mechanic industry can be highly competitive in local search, as many people rely on Google Search, Google Maps, and other search engines and navigation apps to find local auto mechanics — especially when they're looking for immediate solutions to their car troubles!
Because of the nature of the services that auto mechanics offer, "near me" type searches for mechanics are often looking for right-now solutions, making it crucial for businesses in this industry to rank well in local search results.
But there are many factors that influence how difficult it is to rank high in local search results for auto repair businesses.
The number of competitors, the quality of their business listings and websites, the effectiveness of their local SEO strategies, and the accuracy/relevance of their business information all contribute to the level of competition in local search for auto mechanics.
In this article we're going to provide tips and tricks for how Local Falcon can help auto mechanics find their competitors, which is the first step towards outranking them in local search results!
How Local Falcon Helps Auto Mechanics Find Their Competitors (And Outrank Them)
Local Falcon can help auto mechanics find their competitors by providing detailed insights into the local search landscape, down to a hyperlocal level. Here are a few of the important features of Local Falcon that help with this process:
- Location-Specific Results: Local Falcon shows local search result rankings as they appear in specific locations, allowing auto mechanics to see who their local competitors are in their immediate area or at any specific point up to 100 miles away.
- Competitor Analysis: By analyzing Local Falcon scan results, auto mechanics can identify which competitors are ranking well for relevant keywords. This information can help them understand their competition and develop strategies to compete effectively.
- Keyword Insights: Local Falcon provides information about the keywords that are driving traffic to competitors. Auto mechanics can use this data to optimize their own listings for similar keywords to improve their visibility in local search results.
- Ranking Changes: Local Falcon tracks changes in rankings over time, allowing auto mechanics to monitor their competitors' performance and adjust their own strategies accordingly.
- Map View: Local Falcon offers a bird's-eye map view, which can help auto mechanics visualize the geographic distribution of their competitors and identify specific areas where they may be underrepresented in local search.
How To Find Competitors in the Auto Mechanic Industry with Local Falcon: Step-by-Step
In order to find your competitors in the auto repair industry using Local Falcon, you'll need to run a few baseline scans for relevant keywords that you want to rank for, using the appropriate Scan Settings. Here's how:
1. Choose the Right Map Scan Radius and Grid Size
In order to choose the right Map Scan Radius and Grid Size for your scans, you'll want to consider your business's location and how far your potential customers are likely to travel in order to reach a mechanic.
For example, if your auto repair shop is located in a major city, you probably want to set a radius of only about 1-2 miles, as there are likely many mechanics around and people typically want to visit one very close to them.
For a smaller city or a small town, you might increase the radius to 5-10 miles, since people might be willing to/have to go further to pay a visit to an auto repair shop.
For mechanics located in very rural areas and not near any major cities or towns, you could potentially set the radius as high as 30 miles or so.
You will have a better understanding of your unique local area and how far people might potentially travel to receive services, so use this to guide your settings.
As far as the Grid Size goes, this will be more dependent on your budget, since each data point on the scan grid uses credits when you run a scan. The bigger your grid, the more detailed the overview of your competition will be, but you'll also use credits faster.
For a good balance between budget optimization and data visualization, we recommend a 7x7 or a 9x9 grid to get started. You can always adjust this for future scans.
2. Select Relevant Keywords
Next you'll need to decide what keywords to scan for, which will allow you to see all your competitors for those keywords in the given area.
Naturally, you'll probably want to check out the competition for big, general keywords like "auto mechanic" and "auto repair shop," but you should also run scans for some more specific, long-tail keywords based on the services you offer, like "auto tune up service" and "radiator repair service."
Local Falcon's Suggested Keywords feature can make this easier by offering keyword suggestions based on your business's Google Business Profile categories and related search terms that people are using to find your business and others like it.
3. Run the Scans and Check the Scan Reports
Once you're happy with all your Scan Settings, run the scans and check their Scan Reports to see how your business ranks and identify your top competitors for each keyword scanned for.
At the bottom of each Scan Report, you'll find a list of all competitors found in the scan, including your business, allowing you to see exactly where you're ranking among the competition for that particular keyword.
Depending on your ranking and the competition, this list can help you identify opportunities to improve your ranking, guiding your overall local SEO strategy.
Local Falcon's Scan Reports also contain Falcon AI analysis and recommendations, which can take care of a lot of the work of identifying competitors and opportunities for you.
For example, it might tell you something like:
"On a pin to the northwest (where you are ranked #2), you have an opportunity to outrank Prospect Lake Auto Care, who is ranked #1 and has a star rating of 4.7 with 205 reviews. Prospect Lake Auto Care is using the following categories which are different from yours: "Auto air conditioning service", "Auto parts store", "Brake shop", "Car repair and maintenance service", "Diesel engine repair service", "Mechanic", "Tire shop", "Transmission shop" and "Vehicle inspection service".
So, not only do Scan Reports help you find your competitors in the auto repair industry, they also give you immediate, actionable recommendations for how to start optimizing your listing to try and outrank them.
4. Look at Competitor Reports
After you've checked out the Scan Reports for your baseline scans, you should also look at Local Falcon's Competitor Reports for each keyword scanned for.
Competitor Reports show a list of all the competitors found in a scan, similar to the list found in Scan Reports, with the key difference being that it includes an interactive map view — you can click on any competitor to see how the scan's grid looks for that business.
Comparing this grid for your business and competitors allows you to identify exact points on the map where you are either being outranked or strongly outperforming the competition, so you can find your top competitors at a hyperlocal level and better decide where to focus your optimization efforts.
What's Next? Using Competitor Results To Improve Rankings!
Once you use Local Falcon to find your competitors in the auto repair industry, it's time to start using competitor analysis to help guide your optimization efforts.
As we mentioned earlier, Falcon AI can help you get started with this right away with its AI-powered analysis and optimization recommendations.
You can also use your SoLV score to decide what keywords to focus your optimization efforts on for the most potential ROI.
For example, let's say you see in the Scan Report for the general keyword "auto repair" that you have competitors in the top 3 positions with very high SoLV scores of 100, 75.51, and 57.14, and that you're further down in the results, with a SoLV score of only 4.08 for that keyword.
While this certainly tells you that there is room for improvement here, the gap is also so big that it might not be the most cost-effective place to start — it would take a lot of time and resources to improve your SoLV score for such a highly competitive keyword, and you still likely wouldn't be appearing in the top 3 results on Google for most searches.
However, let's say you see in the Scan Report for the more specific long-tail keyword, "auto tune up near me," that your top 3 competitors have SoLV scores of 75.51, 71.43, and 57.14, and that you're in the 4th position with a SoLV of 42.86.
In this case, the gap between you and your top competitors is much smaller, so you have a much better opportunity to start appearing in the top 3 results on Google more often if you focus on optimizing for this keyword.
These are just a couple of examples of how finding and analyzing your competitors in Local Falcon can help guide your local SEO strategy, but they should give you a good idea of how to get started!
Wrapping It All Up
Before we sign off, it's important to know that the strategies discussed above for using Local Falcon to find competitors in the auto mechanic industry can be applied to businesses in other industries as well.
Whether you're doing local SEO for a restaurant, a retail store, or any type of service provider, understanding your local competition is crucial for improving your visibility in local search results.
By using Local Falcon to analyze local search landscapes, identify competitors, and optimize your business listing, you can improve your chances of outranking competitors and attracting more local customers.
So, if you're looking to boost your local search ranking and stay ahead of the competition, consider using Local Falcon to find your competitors today!