Rank grid

Why your position changes across town

Google names distance as one of the three main factors behind local results, and defines it as how far each business is from the customer who is searching (Google Business Profile Help).

So your business has no single position. A customer at the end of your street and one at the far edge of your area can type the same words and get different lists, because each is closer to a different set of competitors. A rank grid tries to show many of those lists at once.

How a grid is made

Picture a net laid over a map of your area. At each point where the lines cross, a tool runs one search, such as the name of your trade, as if a customer were standing there, and notes where your business came in the local results. Each point is colored by that number, so the strong and weak parts of your area stand out at a glance.

The result is a snapshot of one search term on one day, from one set of points, and every dot on it is a single search at a single moment.

Reading one without being misled

A few things skew what a grid shows. It covers one keyword, and your customers use many. It records one moment, and a later search may come out differently. Its outer points may fall beyond the area you serve, where a weak showing costs you nothing. And a real customer searches on their own phone, with its own location and settings, which a point on a map does not copy.

To compare two grids fairly, change nothing but the date. Run the same search term from the same center, with the same number of points set the same distance apart. Move the center or widen the spacing and the new grid measures something else, so any change you see may come from the grid itself.

A grid shows position. It does not count calls, bookings or new customers, which are the reason position matters at all.

What no grid can change

Google states that a better local ranking cannot be requested or bought (Google Business Profile Help). A grid measures an outcome; it cannot buy one. A seller who shows you a map of red dots and promises to turn it green is offering something no one controls.

What you can work on are the inputs Google describes, such as complete and accurate profile information and more reviews (same page). A grid is one way to watch whether that work shows up across your area over time.

Grids, our Local plan and the scan

Our Local plan covers, in the plan's own words, "map-pack tracking and a monthly report against your day-one baseline". A baseline taken before any work starts gives every later report something fair to be measured against.

The free scan does not measure map-pack position; it is on the list of what the scan does not cover. It reads your website instead, and checks such things as whether your homepage names your city.

Questions

The grid says I am third, but I come up first when I search. Which is right?

Probably both. Your own search ran from wherever you were standing, and distance is among the main things Google weighs (Google Business Profile Help). Near your own premises, few competitors are closer than you are. The grid point sat somewhere else. Use the grid for the pattern across your area, and treat your own search as one point on it.

How often is it worth running a grid?

Often enough to see a trend, and no more often than you will act on it. One grid is one moment, so a pattern needs several taken the same way. Pick an interval, such as once a month, and keep to it with the same term and the same points.

Does a greener grid mean more customers?

Not by itself. A grid records positions, not phone calls. Better positions can bring more calls, but the calls and the jobs are the numbers to watch, so keep a count of them beside every grid you look at.

Where this fits in our work

We handle this as part of Local SEO: Your Business Profile, reviews, listings and site worked on together for the map results and local searches your customers make.

Related reading

Related terms

• Map pack: The short list of local businesses Google shows with a map, and the three things Google says decide who appears.
• NAP consistency: Keeping your business name, address and phone number the same on your site, your profile and everywhere else.
• Local citations: Mentions of your business name, address and phone on other websites, and which ones are worth your time.

Sources

• Google Business Profile Help: Tips to improve your local ranking on Google. Checked September 26, 2026.