What does MyBizGrade check?

We analyze your website speed, SEO tags, Google reviews, social media presence, and accessibility. Each area gets its own score and letter grade.

How is the grade calculated?

Each category is scored from 0 to 100 based on real data from your site. The overall grade is a weighted average across all five categories.

Yes, the full audit and grade are completely free. You can upgrade to a Pro report with copy-paste fixes for $39 if you want help improving.

What's in the Pro report?

You get a priority action plan, copy-paste ready fixes for every issue, time estimates, and a downloadable PDF. It tells you exactly what to change and how.

How long does the audit take?

Most audits finish in under 30 seconds. Complex sites with many pages may take up to a minute.

Do you store my data?

We store your audit results so you can revisit your report. We never sell your data or share it with third parties.

How often should I check my grade?

We recommend running a new audit every month. Your online presence changes as you update your site, get new reviews, and post on social media.

MyBizGrade was built by a small team of developers who wanted to make online presence auditing simple and affordable for small businesses.

How to Find Out What Your Competitors Are Doing Online

## Your Competitors Leave a Trail Online. Here Is How to Follow It. Every business leaves digital footprints. Your competitors post on social media, collect reviews, update their websites, and run ads. All of this information is public. You don't need expensive tools or a marketing degree to find it. A competitor online analysis helps you understand what works in your market. It shows you gaps in their strategy where you have an opportunity to win. And it takes less time than you think. This guide walks you through the exact steps to research what your competitors do online, using free tools and simple techniques. ## Step 1: Identify Your Real Competitors Before you start analyzing, make sure you know who to analyze. Your real online competitors might not be the same businesses you compete with on the street. Open a private browser window. Search for the main service or product you offer plus your city. Write down the first 10 results. For example, if you run a bakery in Austin, search "bakery Austin TX." The businesses showing up in Google Maps and organic results are your online competitors. Pay attention to: - Businesses in the Google Map Pack (top 3 map results) - Businesses ranking on page one organically - Businesses running Google Ads for your keywords Pick 3 to 5 competitors for a focused analysis. Trying to track too many at once leads to information overload. ## Step 2: Analyze Their Google Business Profile The Google Business Profile (GBP) is the single most visible piece of online real estate for local businesses. Start your competitor research here. Search for each competitor by name. Look at their knowledge panel on the right side of search results. Check these elements: - **Business category:** What primary and secondary categories did they choose? - **Photos:** How many do they have? Are they professional or phone snapshots? - **Reviews:** Total count, average rating, and how recent the latest reviews are - **Posts:** Do they publish Google Business updates? How often? - **Q&A section:** Have they answered common questions? - **Hours and contact info:** Is everything complete and accurate? Take notes on each element. A competitor with 200 reviews, weekly posts, and 50 professional photos signals a business investing heavily in their GBP. ## Step 3: Study Their Website Visit each competitor's website and evaluate it like a potential customer would. **First impression test:** Does the site load fast? Is it mobile-friendly? Does it look modern or outdated? Run their site through Google PageSpeed Insights (pagespeed.web.dev). Note their performance score, largest contentful paint time, and any flagged issues. **Content audit:** Browse their main pages. Look at: - How they describe their services - Whether they have a blog or resource section - The calls to action they use ("Call now," "Book online," "Get a quote") - Testimonials and trust signals (badges, certifications, awards) - Their about page and team bios **SEO signals:** View the page source (right-click, "View Page Source") and check: - Title tags for their main pages - Meta descriptions - Header structure (H1, H2 tags) - Whether they use alt text on images You don't need to be an SEO expert. Look for patterns. If a top-ranking competitor has detailed service pages with specific keywords in their titles, you know what Google rewards in your market. ## Step 4: Read Their Reviews (All of Them) Reviews are the most honest source of competitive intelligence. Customers tell you exactly what a business does well and where it fails. For each competitor, read through their Google reviews. Focus on: **5-star reviews:** What do customers praise most? Speed? Quality? Price? Friendliness? These are the strengths you need to match or beat. **1-star and 2-star reviews:** What do customers complain about? Long wait times? Poor communication? Hidden fees? These are opportunities for you. **Owner responses:** Does the business respond to reviews? How quickly? Do they handle negative feedback with grace or get defensive? Don't limit yourself to Google. Check Yelp, Facebook, and industry-specific review sites relevant to your business. Create a simple spreadsheet with columns for each competitor. Log their total reviews, average rating, top 3 praised qualities, and top 3 complaints. ## Step 5: Audit Their Social Media Visit each competitor's social media profiles. Most businesses focus on Facebook and Instagram, but check LinkedIn, TikTok, and YouTube too. For each platform, note: - **Follower count:** A rough measure of their audience size - **Posting frequency:** Daily? Weekly? Monthly? Abandoned? - **Content type:** Photos, videos, stories, reels, text posts? - **Engagement:** Do posts get likes, comments, and shares? Or do they post into a void? - **Tone and style:** Professional? Casual? Funny? Educational? High engagement with low follower counts means strong content. High followers with zero engagement means they bought followers or lost their audience. Look at what types of posts get the most interaction. This tells you what your shared audience responds to. ## Step 6: Check Their Business Listings Business listings (also called citations) on directories like Yelp, Yellow Pages, BBB, and industry-specific sites affect local search rankings. Search for each competitor on: - Yelp - Better Business Bureau (bbb.org) - Yellow Pages (yellowpages.com) - Industry directories relevant to your field Note whether their name, address, and phone number (NAP) is consistent across all listings. Inconsistent NAP data hurts rankings, so if a competitor has mismatched info across directories, they have a weakness you should avoid in your own listings. ## Step 7: Monitor Their Online Advertising You don't need to see their ad spend to understand their advertising strategy. **Google Ads:** Search for your main keywords. Do competitors show up in the sponsored results at the top? Note their ad copy, offers, and landing pages. **Facebook Ad Library:** Visit facebook.com/ads/library and search for any business. You see every active ad they run on Facebook and Instagram, including the creative, copy, and when it started. This is a goldmine. If a competitor has been running the same ad for months, it is working. If they cycle through ads quickly, they are still testing. **Social media promotions:** Watch for boosted posts, sponsored content, and influencer partnerships. ## Step 8: Set Up Ongoing Monitoring A one-time analysis is useful. Ongoing monitoring is where the real advantage lives. **Google Alerts:** Go to google.com/alerts. Set up alerts for each competitor's business name. You receive an email whenever Google indexes new content mentioning them. News articles, blog posts, reviews, and press releases all show up. **Social media follows:** Follow competitors on every platform. Turn on notifications if you want to see their posts in real time. **Monthly check-in:** Block 30 minutes each month to revisit competitors' GBP, website, and reviews. Look for changes. New services? Rebranding? A spike in negative reviews? ## Free Tools for Competitor Online Analysis You don't need to pay for expensive marketing software. These free tools give you everything for a solid competitor analysis: - **Google Search (private browsing):** See real rankings without personalization - **Google PageSpeed Insights:** Test any website's speed and performance - **Facebook Ad Library:** See all active ads for any business - **Google Alerts:** Automated competitor monitoring - **SimilarWeb (free tier):** Estimated website traffic and sources - **GradeMyBiz:** Get an instant online presence score for your business and compare it to competitors ## How to Use What You Learn Gathering information is step one. Turning it into action is where you gain ground. **Find the gaps:** If every competitor ignores social media, a strong social presence differentiates you. If every competitor has great websites but poor reviews, a review generation strategy gives you an edge. **Copy what works, improve what doesn't:** Borrow proven strategies from competitors. Use their review complaints as your selling points. "Fast response times" hits harder when customers complain about competitors making them wait. **Set benchmarks:** Use competitor data to set realistic goals. If the top competitor has 150 reviews, aim for 200. If they post on social media twice a week, post three times. **Revisit quarterly:** Markets change. New competitors appear. Old competitors adapt. Make competitive analysis an ongoing habit, not a one-time project. ## For more on this topic, read [Real Estate Agent Online Presence: Stand Out in Your Market](/blog/real-estate-agent-online-presence). For more on this topic, read [Gym and Fitness Studio Online Marketing Guide](/blog/gym-fitness-online-marketing).Start With Your Own Score Before you spend hours analyzing competitors, find out where you stand. A clear picture of your own online presence shows you exactly where to focus. GradeMyBiz gives you a free, instant grade covering your website, Google Business Profile, reviews, social media, and business listings. Get your score at [https://grademybiz.vercel.app](https://grademybiz.vercel.app) and use it as your baseline for competitive comparison. The businesses winning online are not always the biggest or the best. They are the ones paying attention. Start paying attention today.