Average rank position (ARP) is the mean rank across the grid points where a business was found in the top 20. Average total rank position (ATRP) is the mean across every point, with each missing point counted as 21. ARP says how well you rank where you appear. ATRP says how well you rank across the whole area.
What ARP and ATRP measure
A grid scan gives one rank per point, from 1 to 20, or a blank where the business was not in the top 20. To turn 25 or 49 of those into one number you take an average, and the question is what to do with the blanks.
ARP drops them. It adds up the ranks at the points where the business was found and divides by the number of those points. A blank has no rank, so it is left out.
ATRP keeps them. It gives every blank a rank of 21, one worse than the last place a scan reads, adds everything up and divides by the total number of points. A blank now costs something, and the more blanks there are, the further ATRP moves from ARP.
When the business is found at every point, the two are the same number. They separate as soon as a point goes blank, and the gap between them is itself a reading: it tells you how much of the grid the business is missing from.
A worked example on a 5×5 grid
Add up the 23 ranks that were found: 110. Divide by 23 and ARP is 4.8. Now count the 2 missing points as 21 each: 110 + 42 = 152. Divide by all 25 points and ATRP is 6.1.
Two blank corners moved the average by 1.3 places. ARP did not notice them at all. Take the same grid and fill those two corners with a rank of 20 instead, and both averages become 6.0. So a business reading 20 and a business reading nothing look alike to ATRP, and quite different to ARP.
| Number | Working | Result |
|---|---|---|
| Found | Points with a rank in the top 20 | 23 of 25 |
| ARP | 110 ÷ 23 | 4.8 |
| ATRP | (110 + 2 × 21) ÷ 25 | 6.1 |
| Share of local voice | 10 points at rank 1 to 3 ÷ 25 | 40% |
Share of local voice is the third number from the same grid, and the geo-grid guide explains where the grid itself comes from.
Which average to put in a report
Report ATRP. It is the honest average, because it cannot be improved by disappearing. A client reading ATRP sees the whole area they are paying to be seen in, holes included.
Use ARP to diagnose. While you are working on the profile, ARP tells you whether the places where you already appear are getting better. It separates “we are climbing” from “we are spreading”, and both are worth knowing.
A report that shows one average without the other invites a wrong reading. The fix is to show three things together: found at N of M points, ATRP, and ARP. The found count says how much of the grid the business covers. ATRP says how well it covers it. ARP says how it does where it shows up. RankShark Track reports all three on every scan and sets two scans side by side, so the found count moves on the same page as the averages. For a client, the report guide covers how to lay them out.
When ARP improves for the wrong reason
Here is the reading that catches people out. A business gets worse, and its ARP gets better.
Take the grid above a month later. Nothing on the profile has changed, but a competitor has moved in on the east side, and the two points that read 12 and 11 now read nothing. The business is found at 21 of 25 points instead of 23.
| Scan | Found | ARP | ATRP |
|---|---|---|---|
| Scan 1, the grid above | 23 of 25 | 4.8 | 6.1 |
| Scan 2, two more points lost | 21 of 25 | 4.1 | 6.8 |
ARP fell from 4.8 to 4.1, which reads as a climb of 0.7 places. What happened is that the two worst ranks left the sum: 110 became 87, and 87 ÷ 21 is 4.1. The ranks that remain were always better, so their average is better. ATRP went the other way, from 6.1 to 6.8, because the two new blanks cost 21 each. The found count fell from 23 to 21. Two of the three numbers say the business lost ground, and they are right.
Whenever ARP improves, look at the found count in the same breath. If it dropped, the improvement is probably the business falling out of the top 20 on its weakest points. The reverse happens too: a business that starts appearing at new points, at rank 17 or 18, sees its ARP get worse while its reach grows. That is good news reading as bad.
How to read the two together
A plain way to hold it: ARP is the depth, ATRP is the depth and the width together. If ATRP sits close to ARP, the business covers nearly the whole grid and the work is about climbing. If ATRP sits well above ARP, there are holes, and the work is about appearing at all on those streets. A gap that is widening is a shrinking reach, even when the averages look steady.
Remember what moves them. Google ranks local results on relevance, distance and prominence, and distance means the points at the edge of the grid will read worse than the ones near the business. A wider grid lowers both averages for the same business on the same day. Compare averages across the same grid and nothing else, and read a change over two or three scans, not one.
To see the three numbers for your own business, run the free audit and read the found count before either average.