In this Drive-By SEO short, Joshua Albanese, founder of Spearleaf, looks at Dental Boutique Fort Myers from its parking lot. It has more reviews than a competitor 0.2 miles away at the same star rating, yet it isn't first on Google Maps or listed on Perplexity, and he explains how authoritative content and backlinks, core parts of local SEO, close that gap.
Read the full guide: 5 Reasons a Competitor Outranks You on Google and How to Catch Up →
Video Transcript
So here's another episode of Drive-By SEO. Today we're going to interview and look at Dental Boutique Fort Myers. So I go ahead and go on Google Maps; we're right in their parking lot right now. The biggest problem that I'm seeing is they're actually not showing up number one. They have a competitor that's about 0.2 miles away.
So they're actually missing authority signals. That's their biggest opportunity, and that's what's lacking inside their Google Maps. I would say they should be number one. Why aren't they number one? Generally, there's a lack of authority, even though they have more reviews. They have 610 reviews compared to 450, same star rating. This is a big difference.
And then the next one that I'm really seeing is when I go to Perplexity and I type in "dental office in Fort Myers," they're not even listed on here. And I'd say that this is always one of the bigger opportunities, which is really just a brand moat and authority that needs to happen.
And so what you would advise them to do is create more content on their website, blog, authoritative content, but also using the keywords that their target audience is using. And then, obviously, securing what's called backlinks. These are trust handshakes from other websites, essentially establishing them as an authority. If they do that, they'll not only take the number one spot on Google Maps, but they'll also take the number one spot on all the AI chats, which is really the future.
Read the full guide on why a competitor outranks you and how to catch up →