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The Competitors tab is where you manage the businesses you monitor. You can add competitors one at a time or let NearIQ suggest them automatically based on your location. Once added, each competitor shows a live snapshot of their Google Maps presence, and clicking one opens a detail panel with their full history and analytics.

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Adding competitors

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Add a single competitor

1

Click Add Competitor

The button appears in the top-right area of the Competitors tab.
2

Search by name or address

Type the business name or street address. NearIQ searches Google Places and returns matching results.
3

Select the business

Click the correct result to add it to your tracked list.

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Find Nearby

Click Find Nearby to let NearIQ automatically suggest competitors. It searches Google Maps for businesses in the same category near your address and shows you a list to choose from. This is the fastest way to populate your list when you are just getting started.
Run Find Nearby when you first set up your account, then add individual competitors as you learn of specific businesses you want to monitor.

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Competitor list

Each row in the competitors list shows:
FieldDescription
NameBusiness name
RatingCurrent Google star rating
ReviewsTotal review count
30-day deltaChange in review count over the last 30 days
CategoryGoogle business category
AddressStreet address
Health score0–100 composite score (see Dashboard overview)
Click any competitor row to expand the detail panel below it.

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Competitor detail panel

The detail panel shows everything NearIQ has collected about a competitor.

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Summary metrics

The panel opens with a set of key metrics calculated from snapshot history:
  • Reviews (7d / 30d) — how many new reviews the competitor received in the last 7 and 30 days
  • Rating change (7d) — whether the star rating rose or fell over the last week
  • Daily review rate — average new reviews per day based on all available history
  • Projected weekly — expected reviews over the next 7 days, based on recent pace
  • Surge indicator — shown when the competitor’s review velocity is more than double their historical average

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Business details

Scroll down to see the competitor’s phone number, website, physical address, price level, and service options fetched from their Google listing. The operational status (OPERATIONAL, CLOSED_PERMANENTLY, etc.) is shown prominently so you can quickly see whether a competitor is still active. The current hours for today are displayed alongside an open/closed indicator. You can expand the hours section to see the full weekly schedule.

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Rating and review history charts

Rating and review history charts require a Growth plan or higher.
When you have a Growth plan, the detail panel includes line charts showing how the competitor’s rating and review count have changed over time. Use the range selector (7D, 30D, 90D, All) to zoom in or out. Hover over any data point to see the exact value and date. A bar chart shows daily new reviews, making it easy to spot spikes or sudden surges.
Popular times data requires a Growth plan or higher.
The popular times grid shows typical busyness by hour for each day of the week. Click a day tab to see its hourly bar chart, then click any bar for details. A weekly heatmap at the bottom gives a compact overview of all seven days at once.

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Competitor reviews and sentiment

Competitor reviews and sentiment analysis require a Growth plan or higher.
The reviews section lists the competitor’s recent Google reviews. You can filter by star rating, date range, and keywords, and sort by newest, oldest, highest rating, or lowest rating. AI sentiment analysis surfaces the themes that appear most in the competitor’s reviews — tagged as positive, negative, or mixed — along with top keywords. This lets you quickly understand what customers praise or complain about without reading every review yourself.

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Health score breakdown

Expand any score component to see exactly how it contributes to the overall health score:
  • Star rating — up to 45 points
  • Review volume — up to 30 points
  • Rating trend — −10 to +10 points
  • Review velocity — up to 15 points

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Alerts toggle

Each detail panel includes an alerts toggle. When enabled (the default), NearIQ generates alerts when this competitor’s rating, review count, hours, or website changes. Turn the toggle off if you want to stop receiving alerts for a specific competitor without removing them from your list.

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Plan limits

  • Starter — Competitor list, detail panel, business info. No charts or sentiment.
  • Growth — All Starter features plus rating/review history charts, popular times, and competitor sentiment analysis.
  • Agency — All Growth features plus multi-location support.