## **🎯 Who This Article Is For**

This guide is for SEOs and agency users who need to run a local competitive analysis or prospect audit but do not have access to a Google Business Profile (GBP) for the site they want to analyze. You do not need a GBP, an active GBP Projects entry, or any special location settings to follow this workflow.

## **🧠 Understanding the Right Tool for This Job**

Search Atlas has several tools that touch on local SEO, so it helps to know which one fits your situation:

- **GBP Projects (left sidebar → GBP Projects):** Manages GBP projects, posts, reviews, citations, and media for locations you own or manage. Requires GBP access.
- **Local SERPs:** Simulates search results from a specific geographic location. Useful for rank tracking, but still tied to a project or keyword set.
- **Site Explorer → Topical Dominance:** Compares any two URLs head-to-head across topic clusters — no GBP, no project, no location restriction required. **This is the correct tool when you cannot access a competitor's or prospect's GBP.**

If the location field in Site Explorer defaults to USA and you are analyzing a local business, Topical Dominance still gives you meaningful competitive insight because it evaluates organic topical authority, not a location-locked data set.

## **🔍 How to Use Topical Dominance for Local Competitive Analysis**

1. From the left sidebar, navigate to **Site Metrics (Site Explorer)**.
2. Enter the **client or prospect URL** in the primary search field and run the report.
3. Inside the report, locate and click the **Topical Dominance** tab.
4. In the comparison field, enter a **competitor URL** you want to benchmark against.
5. Review the topic clusters where your client leads, is tied, or is outranked by the competitor.
6. Repeat step 4 for each additional competitor to build a full competitive picture.

Because Topical Dominance works at the URL level, it does not require either site to have a verified GBP or an active GBP Projects entry in Search Atlas. The comparison is based entirely on indexed content and organic keyword data.

## **📊 What You Can Learn From This Analysis**

Topical Dominance surfaces competitive gaps and strengths across content categories. For local businesses, focus on these signals:

- **Topic clusters the competitor dominates:** These are content areas where your client has the greatest opportunity to publish or improve.
- **Topic clusters your client already leads:** Reinforce these with internal linking and fresh content to protect the advantage.
- **Clusters where both sites are weak:** Early-mover opportunities — producing authoritative content here can establish dominance before competitors act.
- **Service and location-specific topics:** Even without geo-filtering, local businesses naturally rank for city- or region-specific queries. Topical Dominance will surface these clusters if the content exists.

## **🏢 Auditing Prospects Without GBP Access**

Agencies frequently need to audit a prospect's website before winning the account — meaning there is no GBP access yet. Topical Dominance is purpose-built for this scenario:

1. Enter the **prospect's URL** in Site Explorer.
2. Identify 2–3 of their strongest local competitors by searching for their primary service keywords and noting who ranks consistently.
3. Run a Topical Dominance comparison against each competitor URL.
4. Export or screenshot the results to include in your pitch deck or audit report.

This workflow gives you a data-backed content gap analysis you can present to the prospect without ever needing their login credentials or GBP access.

## **⚠️ Common Mistakes to Avoid**

- **Using Local SERPs as a substitute:** Local SERPs simulate geographic search results but are not designed for URL-to-URL content authority comparison. They work alongside Topical Dominance, not instead of it.
- **Assuming USA default limits the analysis:** The location default in Site Explorer affects keyword volume display, not the topical comparison itself. The competitive gaps identified in Topical Dominance are valid regardless of the default location setting.
- **Skipping multiple competitor comparisons:** Running the analysis against only one competitor gives an incomplete picture. Compare against at least two or three local rivals to identify consistent patterns.

## **💬 Need Help?**

If you need further assistance, open the chat widget in the bottom-right corner of the platform and type **human teammate** to be connected with a member of our team.