Geo-grid rank tracking checks where a business ranks in Google Maps from many points around it instead of one. Each point is a search made as if a customer stood right there. Put the results on a map and you see where the business is strong, where it fades, and who takes its place.
One search, one rank
Google Maps builds its results around the searcher. Distance is one of the three things Google says it ranks on, next to relevance and prominence, so the same search gives a different list on every street. If you search for your own trade from your own counter, you are standing on the one spot where you are most likely to win.
That is why a single rank check misleads. It tells you how you rank for people who are already at your door. The customers you want are the ones a mile away, and for them the list looks different.
How a grid scan works
A grid scan does the same search from a set of points and records what each one sees. The steps are the same in every tool that does it:
- Pick the business and a keyword. The keyword is what a customer types, such as “emergency plumber” or “dentist”.
- Lay a grid over the area. A 7×7 grid is 49 points. The spacing sets the reach: 400 m between points covers a neighbourhood, 1.5 km covers a town.
- Search from every point. From each one, the tool runs the search as a local searcher would and notes the position of the business in the list, usually down to 20th place.
- Colour the map. Each point gets the rank it found. Green for the top 3, yellow and orange for the middle, red for 11 to 20, and a marker for points where the business did not appear at all.
How each reading is taken matters more than it looks. Some tools ask a ranking database for the list at each coordinate. Others open a real browser at that location and search. The browser sees what a customer sees, including listings with no street address, and that is the method RankShark Track uses. In our tests, a 29-point scan finishes in under a minute.
The numbers a grid reports
The picture is the point, but a few numbers travel better in a report. Every grid scan produces the same four:
| Number | What it counts | In the example above |
|---|---|---|
| Found | Points where the business appeared in the top 20, out of all points. | 47 of 49 |
| Average rank (ARP) | The mean rank across the points where it was found. | 5.8 |
| Average total rank (ATRP) | The same mean, with every missing point counted as 21, so a hole in the grid costs something. | 6.4 |
| Share of local voice (SoLV) | The share of points where the business is in the top 3, the part of the list most people look at. | 17 of 49, 35% |
Share of local voice and the two averages each have a guide of their own, with worked examples and the cases where they mislead.
What a grid is good for
- Finding the weak streets. The grid shows the edge where you stop winning. That edge is where the next piece of work goes, whether it is a service page for that neighbourhood or a push for reviews from customers who live there.
- Measuring before and after. Scan, change one thing on the profile, scan again a few weeks later with the same grid. The difference is the effect.
- Seeing who wins where. Every competitor in the results can be drawn on the same grid. The one who takes your south side is often not the one you thought.
- Explaining the work to a client. A map with green on it is understood in a second. A spreadsheet of ranks is not.
What it cannot tell you
A grid measures visibility, not business. It does not count calls, direction requests or bookings, and a green grid for a keyword nobody searches is worth nothing. Pick keywords people use.
A scan is also a snapshot. Google Maps results move a little every day, so a point that reads 3 today may read 4 tomorrow without anything having changed. Read trends over several scans, not the difference between two.
When a grid is worth running
If customers come to you, a grid tells you how far your pull reaches and where a rival cuts it off. If you go to customers, as a plumber or an electrician does, the grid is the only way to see your reach at all, because your address is hidden and your service area is a circle nobody can look at. Service-area businesses have their own guide.
One scan answers “where do we stand?”. Scans on a schedule answer “is the work paying off?”. Most agencies settle on a weekly or monthly scan per keyword and keep the grid the same so the months line up.