In short: a competitor gets ahead of you on Google for three reasons that come up almost every time: their domain is older and receives more links, their pages target the search term word for word, and their Google listing is better fed with reviews. This guide shows you how to check which one applies in your case, in ten minutes, and where to start.
Your competitors appear above you on Google because their pages match the criteria Google uses to rank sites more closely: domain authority, content quality, technical optimisation and local signals. The good news: every one of those criteria can be improved, and on local searches, 3 to 6 months is enough to turn the situation around.
Before you try to overtake your competitors, you need to understand why they are ahead of you. This guide identifies the 7 most common reasons, with one concrete action for each. No theory, just levers you can pull this week.
Reason 1: their domain is older and has more authority
Domain authority is a score that reflects how much trust Google places in a site. The older a domain is and the more links it has received from other sites, the higher its authority, and the more easily its pages climb the results.
If your competitor has been online for 5 years and you for 6 months, they start with a structural advantage. You cannot catch up on age, but you can make up for it with the quality and the specificity of your content on searches where they are not yet well placed.
Example: Sofia, a career change coach, had an 8 month old site facing a competitor who had been there for 4 years. By targeting specific searches ("skills assessment for managers Île-de-France", "career change coaching at 40") instead of "career change coach Paris", she reached page 1 on 5 searches in 3 months despite her newer domain.
Action: start with long tail searches (4 words and more) where competition is low. "emergency plumber Paris 15" is more within reach than "plumber Paris".
Reason 2: they have more backlinks than you
Backlinks, meaning links from other sites pointing to yours, remain one of the strongest signals for Google. A site with 50 backlinks from credible sources (trade directories, the local press, partners) outranks a site with none, even when the content is similar.
To check your backlinks and your competitors', use Ubersuggest (free up to 3 searches a day) or Search Console (the "Links" tab).
Actions to get backlinks quickly:
Reason 3: their pages target the search term precisely
This is often the main reason. Your competitor has a page titled "Emergency plumber Paris 15, on site within 1 hour" with that keyword in the title, the H1, the URL and the first 100 words. You have a "Our services" page listing your whole catalogue.
Google ranks the pages that answer precisely what the searcher typed. A general page cannot beat a specialised page on the same search.
Action: analyse the top 3 results for your target search. What is their title? Their H1? How long is their content? Build a page that does better on each of those points.
Compare your site's SEO against your competitors for free
Reason 4: their content is more complete and longer
Google measures how deep content goes. On a competitive search, the pages in position 1 average 1 200 to 2 500 words. It is not the length that counts, it is the completeness: does the page answer every question the visitor might have?
If your competitor has an "electrician Versailles" page covering emergency call outs, prices, the areas served, customer reviews and an FAQ, and you have 200 words, they will win every time.
Action: look at Google's "People also ask" boxes for your search. Every question is a potential H2 to enrich your page.
Reason 5: their Google Business Profile is better optimised
For local searches, the Google Business Profile listing often matters more than the website itself. It decides whether you appear in the local pack, the 3 listings shown on Google Maps above the organic results.
What makes the difference on Google Business:
Action: compare your Google Business listing with the number 1 competitor's. How many reviews do they have? How many photos? Do they reply to reviews? Close the gaps one by one.
Reason 6: their site is faster on mobile
Since 2021, Google has used Core Web Vitals to rank sites. A site that loads in 1.5 seconds on mobile will be favoured over one that loads in 4 seconds, even when the content is identical.
Test your speed on PageSpeed Insights (free). If your mobile score is below 70, that is a direct competitive disadvantage.
On Next.js, our stack at ConvertiLab, PageSpeed scores sit around 90 to 98 on mobile thanks to automatic image optimisation and server side rendering.
Test your site's speed for free
Reason 7: they have a better internal linking structure
Internal linking is the way your pages link to each other. A well linked site channels authority towards its most important pages and helps Google understand the hierarchy of the content.
If your competitor has a main "plumber Paris" page that receives links from all their blog and service pages, that page will build up more authority and climb faster than your isolated page.
Action: in every blog article, always link to your most important service page. On every service page, link to your other services. Use Google Search Console to check that your main pages really do receive internal links from the rest of the site.
How do you find out exactly why you are behind?
The fastest method: run an SEO audit of your site and compare it with the site of your number 1 competitor. Most business owners never do this exercise, they fix things at random without knowing what is really holding them back. You will see the gaps on tags, speed, backlinks and content straight away.
At ConvertiLab, our site comparison tool analyses both URLs in 60 seconds and produces a report with the priorities to act on.
A 90 day plan to overtake a competitor on Google
Here is the plan we apply for ConvertiLab clients who start from behind:
Week 1, diagnose
Compare your site and the number 1 competitor's on speed, content, backlinks and Google Business Profile. Identify the 3 gaps that are easiest to close.
Weeks 2 to 4, fix the on page work
Rewrite the target pages with the keyword in the title, the H1 and the first 100 words. Add 400 to 600 words of useful content (FAQ, testimonials, areas served, prices).
Month 2, strengthen the local signals
Optimise or create the Google Business Profile listing. Collect 5 to 10 new customer reviews. Register with the main local directories for your first backlinks.
Month 3, create supporting content
Publish 2 to 4 blog articles targeting long tail searches related to your trade. Each article brings extra traffic and strengthens the authority of your service pages.
What we see at ConvertiLab: 60 to 70% of our clients catch up with their main competitor on at least 3 of their target searches in under 4 months.
Compare your site with your main competitor
The 10 minute diagnosis: why this particular competitor is ahead of you
The seven reasons above explain the general picture. To work out which one applies to you, compare your site and the site that is ahead of you, point by point, in ten minutes.
The point where the gap is widest is the one to work on first. Our site comparison tool runs that comparison automatically on SEO, speed, design and mobile, and sends you the report.
What about ChatGPT, Perplexity and Google's AI overviews?
AI assistants cite the sites they find easy to understand: clear pages, one question per section, direct answers at the start of each paragraph, clean structured data, mentions on other sites. If a competitor shows up there and you do not, the causes are almost always the same as on Google, with more weight given to how clear the content is and to off site reputation. Our AI visibility page explains what we put in place.
Frequently asked questions
Why do my competitors appear above me on Google?
Your competitors appear above you on Google for one of these reasons: their site is older and has more authority, they have more backlinks, their pages are better optimised with the right keywords, their content is more complete, or their Google Business Profile is better filled in with more customer reviews.
How long does it take to overtake your competitors on Google?
Overtaking an established competitor on Google usually takes 3 to 6 months with a serious SEO strategy. On local searches with little competition, results can arrive in 4 to 8 weeks. On highly competitive national searches, expect 12 to 24 months.
Can you overtake your competitors on Google without an SEO agency?
Yes. On local searches with little competition, you can overtake your competitors yourself by optimising your Google Business Profile, creating content targeted at each search term, and collecting customer reviews. For competitive or national searches, the help of an SEO professional speeds up results significantly.
How can I find out why my competitors rank better than me?
To understand why your competitors rank better, analyse their site: look at how many pages they have, how long their content is, their backlinks (with a tool such as Ubersuggest), and their Google Business listing. A free SEO audit of your own site will also pinpoint the weaknesses to fix first.
