How to spy on the map pack: competitor analysis for UK trades
The three businesses above you in the map pack are showing you their homework — categories, reviews, photos, services, all public. Here's how to read a competitor's profile like a specialist, and turn what you find into your own work list.
The businesses beating you in the map pack aren't hiding their strategy. It's published — on their public profile, in their categories and services and reviews, visible to anyone who looks with intent. Most owners glance at a rival's star rating and stop. The specialist reads the whole exhibit.
In short
Map pack competitor analysis is reading rivals' public profiles for the signals Google actually ranks: primary category, services structure, review velocity and content, photo freshness, and reply behaviour — then converting each gap into an action on your own profile. It's free, legal, and it turns "why are they above us?" from a grievance into a work list.
Free: see exactly where you rank on Google Maps — checked by a human.
Get your free check →Start with the only three that matter
Search your money keyword — "emergency electrician [your town]" — from the area you care about, and take the three pack results. Not the ten organic links below; the pack ranks profiles, not websites, and it's the profiles you're about to read.
Read their identity: category and name
Their primary category sits under the business name on the listing, and it's the single highest-value fact on the page. If all three winners run "Electrician" and you're on "Electrical installation service", you've found your first fix without touching anything else.
While you're there, read the name critically. If a rival's profile name is stuffed with keywords their signage doesn't carry, note it — that's a rule-breaker renting rankings (and if it's blatant, Google's "suggest an edit" and reporting routes exist for exactly this; we document and report these as part of client work, and the fakes do get cleared out).
Read their review engine, not their review count
Four hundred reviews looks intimidating for about thirty seconds — until you sort by newest. Then you're reading the real signal:
- Velocity: when did the last ten arrive? Eight a month says active engine; none since March says the total is a museum.
- Content: do reviews name services and places ("rewired our shop in Didsbury")? Those feed relevance in ways star counts don't.
- Replies: does the owner answer, fast, in a human voice? Unanswered one-stars are an open wound you can outclass immediately.
The work-list conversion: match their velocity, not their total. A steady ask-at-the-right-moment system out-earns any historic pile, month by month.
Read the shop window: services and photos
Open their services section — is every job type listed, described, priced? Google matches these against searches, so a rival with forty structured services is entered in forty contests you might be skipping. Then the photos: dated, real, recent work — or a logo and a 2019 van? Photo freshness is both a ranking signal and the two-second credibility test customers run in a panic.
Turn the exhibit into a work list
Every observation converts: their category → check yours against the winners. Their velocity → fix your ask-moment. Their service depth → complete yours honestly. Their photo cadence → schedule a weekly one. Their unanswered reviews → answer all of yours this week and keep the streak.
What the public profile can't show you is the geography — where exactly they beat you across your patch, street by street, and where they're weak. That's what a proper grid scan is for: it turns "they're above us" into "they're above us in the north-east squares and nowhere else, so that's where the next quarter's work aims." The free version below is where that map starts.
Quick questions
Is analysing competitor profiles legal? +
Entirely. You're reading public listings the same way customers do — nothing here involves accounts, scraping tricks or anything private. Google publishes this information precisely so people can compare businesses; you're simply comparing with intent.
How do I see a competitor's categories? +
The primary category is shown right on their listing under the business name. Secondary categories aren't displayed directly, but their services list, the searches they appear for, and free category-checking browser tools reveal the picture. Their category set is usually the first "oh, THAT's why" moment.
My competitor has 400 reviews and I have 40. Is it hopeless? +
No — Google rewards trajectory as well as totals. A profile earning eight genuine reviews a month with owner replies frequently outranks a big, stale pile whose last review is a year old. You can't close a 360-review gap this quarter; you can absolutely out-earn them from today.
Should I copy what the #1 business is doing? +
Learn from it, don't mirror it. Their category choice and service structure are evidence about the contest; their weaknesses — unanswered reviews, dead photo sections, missing services — are your openings. Copying makes you a slightly worse version of them; the analysis is for finding where to be better.
How often should I re-check competitors? +
Monthly is plenty — the same rhythm as your rank tracking. What you're watching for is change: a rival suddenly gaining review pace, adding categories, or refreshing photos tells you the local contest is heating up before the rankings move.
Want this handled for you?
Start where every climb starts: find out exactly where you rank on Google Maps right now. Free, no card, no account needed.