Local SEO - Near Me SERP Analysis

I've been digging deep into the trenches of local SEO, specifically "near me" searches, and uncovered an absolute ton of niche-specific websites that rank in multiple cities who are competing for the many of the same searches as your websites or your clients, especially if you're targeting searches with location (near me, nearby, closest to me, etc.), quality (best, top rated, reviews, etc.), or singular vs. plural modifiers (new york dentist vs. nyc dentists) added to them or want to target Q&A/FAQ/supportive content (cost, comparison, reviews, etc.).

Aside from the usual suspects (Angieslist, Thumbtack, Yelp, HomeAdvisor, etc.), I found a bunch of similar, almost knock-off websites, which rank well and are built in much the same way as the above (directory, lead generation, reviews, etc.)...

https://www.expertise.com
https://www.thervo.com
https://www.contractorculture.com/

In the case of the these local niche authority websites, they either focus on a particular vertical (home services - AngiesList, HomeAdvisor, Thumbtack, retail/restaurant - Yelp) or cover multiple industries that aren't necessarily related to each other (Expertise, Thervo).

In any event, you can input any of the above websites into ahrefs and see the number of "near me", "niche + city", "brand/business name" and Q&A/FAQ/supportive content searches they rank for.

For example, according to ahrefs, angieslist.com ranks on the first page for the following...

24,388 keywords with the word "how"
4,358 with the word "what"
693 with the word "who"
1,213 with the word "when"
749 with the word "why"
7,953 with the word "near me"
2,237 with the word "cincinnati"
1,901 with the word "orlando"

HomeAdvisor...

How = 57,464
What = 4,220
Who = 792
When = 136
Why = 61
Near Me = 7,921
Cincinnati = 2,496
Orlando = 4,071

Thervo... ranks on the first page for 846 "near me" searches

Expertise... ranks on the first page for 5,649 "best" searches and 1,338 "top" searches.

Contractor Culture... ranks on the first page for 550 "best" searches, 92 "review" searches, and 407 "near me" searches.

In addition to these websites, there are a number of websites which target a specific niche and rank on the first page of organic results in many different cities across the US, for "near me" searches, "niche + city" searches, "quality" searches and/or for Q&A/FAQ content searches.

Here's a sample of a few of them:

https://www.dentists4kids.com/
https://www.mikescarwash.com/
https://www.keysmiths.com/
https://www.garagedoorservice.com/
https://www.lawnlove.com/
https://www.emergencydentistsusa.com

Plug those into ahrefs and you'll find lots of interesting things you can use to add content to websites in the niches you're targeting (FAQ/Q&A, etc.), discover new keywords to target, and backlinks you can secure for your own website.



Jason