You replied to every review last month, added photos and fixed your hours. The question now is simple: is it working? A single reading cannot tell you. Movement can.
Your market keeps moving whether you do or not. Businesses open, collect reviews, let their listings go stale, and change their websites. Reading that movement tells you whether your work is paying off, and what to do next.
In this article
- 1. Why direction matters as much as position
- 2. The four things that move your place in the market
- 3. Reading a drop without panicking, and planning around your season
Direction matters as much as position
Being sixth of 18 tells you where you are today. It does not tell you whether you were ninth three months ago and climbing, or third and sliding. Those are two very different businesses with the same number.
Your place is relative, too. You can stand still and drop, because someone else got better. You can also climb without lifting a finger, because a competitor let their listing go. That is why a habit of checking the direction is worth more than any one reading.
Key point
Standing still while others improve is a slide. Your place depends on what the businesses around you do, not only on what you do.
What moves your place
When your position changes, the cause is almost always one of four things. Your own work is the first: a fixed listing, a run of new reviews, a faster website. Second is a competitor's work, like a rival who overhauls their listing and starts replying to every review.
Third, a new business arrives. One that launches with a full listing, good photos and a burst of reviews from friends and family can push everyone down a place. Fourth, a business closes or goes quiet, and everyone below it moves up.
Only the first is yours to control. The other three are why you check the market, not only yourself.
How the change shows up
A change you make today does not show the same day. Google has to show the change first, and then it has to be read at the next check of your market. Marketbase checks your whole market again each month, so give any fix a full cycle before judging it.
When fresh results arrive, three places show the movement. Every report has a Health History chart that draws your line over time, and an arrow beside each of your numbers when it has moved. The market list at the foot of each report shows every business that has gone up or down since the last check. Refresh your roadmap and it opens with what changed: the tasks you ticked, the rank you travelled, and anything that slipped back.
You did nothing wrong. Someone else just did something right.
Reading a drop without panicking
When your rank drops, the instinct is to assume something broke. Often nothing did. You did nothing wrong. Someone else just did something right.
The right response depends on which it is. If your own listing slipped (an old phone number, hours not updated for summer, reviews gone unanswered), fix what broke. If a competitor got better, look at what they changed and decide whether it matters to your customers.
Picture this
A physio clinic in Tauranga slips from fourth to sixth over two checks, though nothing about it has changed. The owner assumes her listing has a problem.
The market list says otherwise. Two clinics that sat below her both moved up, and their listings now carry fresh photos and a reply under every review. Her listing is fine. She has been overtaken, and the fix is to match the replies and photos, not to rebuild anything.
Small wobbles are normal as fresh data comes in. Look for the same direction across two or three checks before acting. One place down and back again is noise. Three months of slipping is a signal.
Watch the pace, not only the place
Some movement shows up before it reaches anyone's rank. Reviews are the clearest case. A business with 60 reviews and none since last winter looks tired next to one with 35 and three from this month, and customers read the dates.
Open the listings of the two or three businesses just above you and check how recent their newest reviews are. If one of them is adding several a month and you add one, it will pass you sooner or later. Matching the pace is usually cheaper than chasing the total: ask every happy customer, by text, the day the job is finished.
Keep an eye out for new arrivals as well. A name you do not recognise near the top of your search is worth a look, because a business that opens with everything done well moves fast.
Plan around your season
New Zealand work runs in seasons. Landscapers and painters get busy in spring, cafes near the beach fill up over summer, accountants feel the pressure before the tax deadlines. Your competitors know their season too.
Because a fix takes a month or more to show, do the work before the rush, not during it. Ask for reviews from your winter jobs, update your photos and hours, and sort your listing in the quiet months. When the busy weeks arrive, you are already in the list.
Start reading the movement
5 minutes today
- Write down your current place in your market and the date
- Note the businesses directly above and below you
30 minutes this week
- Look at any business that has moved past you and note what changed on its listing
- Mark your busy season on the calendar, and the month before it as your prep month
Each month
- Check your place again and compare it with last month's note
- Act only on movement that holds for two or three checks
Where Marketbase comes in
Tracking this by hand means a notebook and the same searches every month. Marketbase checks your whole market each month and keeps the line for you, with what changed named on your roadmap.
Your free report shows where you stand today. Find your business to see it, then take 7 days' free access for the how and the monthly tracking. Sort it yourself, or we'll do it for you.