Contents7
In short
On Google Maps, a listing’s position depends on where the search comes from, down to the street.
A grid of points around the location turns a single number into a readable map.
The map tells you what to work on: reviews, categories, local pages, or one more location.
Why your ranking changes from one street to the next
City-by-city tracking answers a market question: in which cities is your site visible? On Google Maps and in the map pack of the results, the question gets finer. A customer searching “accountant” or “bakery” from their phone doesn’t see the same list as their neighbour three streets away.
Google itself spells out why. Its Business Profile help says that local results are based primarily on relevance, distance and prominence.
Distance considers how far each potential search result is from the location term used in a search.
Distance is the only one of those three criteria you can’t change without moving. So a listing can be on top outside its own door and absent two kilometres away. Checking your position from the office captures the office, just as results change from one city to the next, but at neighbourhood scale.
The grid: one search, dozens of starting points
Definition
Ranking grid
A check of the same query, at the same moment, simulated from evenly spaced points around a location. Each point gets the listing’s position at that spot, and together they form a map.
A 7 × 7 grid gives 49 check points per query (the arithmetic: 7 × 7 = 49). The spacing depends on the trade: a few hundred metres for a city-centre shop, where customers come on foot, several kilometres for a tradesperson who travels to clients. With 500 metres between two points, a 7 × 7 grid covers a square 3 kilometres across (the arithmetic: 6 intervals × 500 m).
From one search to a neighbourhood map
- Choose
Three to five searches your customers really type.
- Grid
A grid centred on the location, at the scale of its customers.
- Record
The listing’s position and the competing listings, point by point.
- Read
The strong areas, the empty areas, and who holds them.
Choosing the searches matters as much as the grid. “Plumber” and “emergency plumber” don’t give the same map, and a search nobody types produces a beautiful, useless map. The list comes from what customers and their reviews say, not from a hunch.
Reading the map: three zones and competitors
Each grid point takes a colour according to the recorded position. The reading has three levels:
- The top three: the zone where the listing is seen effortlessly, the heart of your territory.
- Present, but lower: the listing is in the list, you have to look for it.
- Absent: beyond the recorded ranking, the listing doesn’t appear for that point.
The shape of the strong zone already says a lot. A regular disc around the address signals a healthy listing whose limit is distance. A strong zone shifted to one side may point to a well-established competitor on the other. A hole in the middle of your own neighbourhood is an alarm: distance works for you there, so it is the listing’s relevance or prominence you need to look at first.
The second reading is about who takes the spot: a closer competitor is logical; a competitor further away has a listing worth studying.
What to do with the map
- Reviews.
Google says it: more reviews and positive ratings can improve your business’s local ranking, and replying shows you value your customers’ feedback.
- Categories.
They help customers find precise results. Google’s guidelines ask you to pick as few as possible and the most relevant ones, never to place keywords. A map that is empty for “emergency plumber” while full for “plumber” often raises this question.
- Local pages.
Beyond the zone where distance carries you on the map, there are still the classic results under the local pack. A page on your site dedicated to a city or neighbourhood can appear there, provided it has content of its own: see when programmatic SEO works.
- Multiple locations.
If a profitable zone stays empty despite a polished listing, distance may be talking. The grid then gives a costed argument for a location decision, provided it is a real place that receives customers.
Watch out
What Google’s guidelines forbid
Adding the neighbourhood name to the listing name, opening a listing at a virtual address or a PO box, creating several listings for one place: Google’s guidelines explicitly forbid it. One listing per location, a name that matches the real business name.
For a network of branches or shops, Google asks for the same names and categories from one location to the next. Each one’s grid then shows which is struggling, and whether its listing or its competitive neighbourhood is to blame.
The limits of a grid
What the grid measures
The listing’s position from each point, at a given moment
The competitors holding each zone
The effect of a change, if you record before and after
What it doesn’t measure
The page a real customer sees, with their history and their device
The number of calls, directions requests or visits
A stable truth: rankings move from week to week
A grid point is a search simulated from a place, not a customer. Google says so in its help: results can also be personalised based on account information, such as search history. The grid therefore describes what a neutral user sees at that spot, which is the right benchmark for comparison, not a promise about what everyone sees.
It is also a snapshot. A single map can land on a bad day: the trend is read over several checks made with the same grid and the same searches, for example every month and after each change to the listing.
Putting a grid to work for your locations
By hand, a grid only makes sense as a trial: five searches on a 7 × 7 grid are 245 checks (the arithmetic: 5 × 49), to redo for each snapshot and each location. It is a systems job: automatic checks, sorting that surfaces the zones that move, and a human reading that decides the action.
Our local visibility and reviews offer rests on that principle: listings brought up to standard, map rankings tracked for your key searches, reviews monitored with a drafted reply for each, and a monthly report per location against its competitors. It relies on the same checks as our Google and AI rank tracking, and no client ranking is published before a before-and-after measurement. If the map is only part of your visibility, our SEO and GEO offer covers the site and AI answers; to know what an agency should deliver on these topics, see our starting guide.
Frequently asked questions
Can you pay Google to rank better on the map?
No. Google’s help states there is no way to request or pay for a better local ranking. The levers are the listing’s relevance (complete information, the right categories) and its prominence (reviews, ratings, sites linking to the business). That is where the work happens, and that is where the grid shows what’s missing.
What grid size should I choose?
The size of your real customer base, not the one that gives the prettiest map. A neighbourhood shop is fine with a tight grid over one or two kilometres, because its customers come on foot. A tradesperson who travels needs a wider grid, even if that means spacing the points out. Once chosen, the grid doesn’t change, otherwise the checks can’t be compared.
My competitor ranks higher although I’m closer: why?
Distance is only one of the three criteria Google cites. Relevance and prominence can win: a competitor a little further away, with more accurate categories and many more recent reviews, can overtake you. The grid shows where it happens, then lets you compare the two listings point by point.
Does the grid replace rank tracking by city?
No, it complements it. City-by-city tracking measures your site in the classic results, across a whole market. The grid measures your listing on the map, at neighbourhood scale. A business with physical locations and customers spread over several cities needs both readings.
Sources
- Google Business Profile Help: tips to improve your local ranking on Google (new tab)support.google.com
- Guidelines for representing your business on Google (new tab)support.google.com
- Google Help: why your search results might differ from other people (new tab)support.google.com
Google Business Profile Help: tips to improve your local ranking on Google
Read on support.google.com(new tab)Google Help: why your search results might differ from other people
Read on support.google.com(new tab)Jim · founder of Brain Plus AI
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