What a local rank checker should measure
Google ranks the map pack on relevance, prominence and distance, and distance is measured from the person searching. So a business can be first on its own street and fourteenth a short drive away. Any tool that reports a single position for a keyword is describing one spot, and you do not know which one.
A useful local rank checker answers a different question: across the area my customers come from, where do I show up and where do I not? Every point below follows from that. If a tool cannot answer it, the rest of its features will not make up for it.
1. Grid scans, not one position per keyword
The first thing to check is whether the tool scans a geogrid: the same search repeated from a grid of points around the business, with the position recorded at each point. A grid shows the shape of your visibility, such as strong to the north and weak across the river, which a single number cannot.
Questions to ask:
- How large can the grid be? A 7×7 grid is a good start; wide service areas need more.
- Can you choose the spacing between points to match how far customers travel?
- Does it show the position at every point, or only an average?
If you are new to grids, our guide to reading a geogrid cell by cell explains what the settings and colours mean.
2. Settings you can keep fixed from scan to scan
A scan only means something next to the one before it. That works only when the centre, grid size and spacing are identical each time. Check that the tool saves these settings per keyword and reuses them, rather than asking you to place the grid by hand every week.
Small differences add up. Move the centre by a few hundred metres and some cells will change rank for reasons that have nothing to do with your work. A tool that makes repeat scans easy is a tool you will actually use for months, not once.
3. Results that match what a real searcher sees
Each point on the grid should be a real coordinate, and the result for that point should be what someone searching there would see on Google Maps. Check a few cells yourself: search the keyword on your phone from one of the grid points and compare the order with the tool’s.
Expect small differences, because results shift through the day and with search history. Large, consistent differences, such as the tool always placing you higher than your own checks, mean its numbers will flatter you every month.
It also helps to see which businesses outrank you at a given point. Knowing who holds the top spots in the cells you lose tells you who you are really competing with for a google map ranking, which is not always the business you expect.
4. Saved history and scheduled checks
Rankings wobble from day to day. One scan can catch a bad morning; four weekly scans show a trend. Look for a tool that keeps every scan, lets you open any two side by side and can check tracked keywords on a schedule without you remembering to run them.
- Can you see every past scan for a keyword, not just the latest?
- Can tracked keywords be checked weekly on their own?
- Can you re-scan on demand after a change, such as a new category?
Without history, a local rank checker is a snapshot. With it, you can see which change moved which part of the map, which is the whole point of tracking.
5. Results you can read in a minute
A 13×13 grid is 169 positions. Nobody reads 169 numbers, so the tool has to summarise them well. Two things matter most: colour bands that make strong and weak areas obvious at a glance, and summary numbers per keyword.
For the numbers, look for both the average rank across the grid and the share of points where you are in the top few. Average rank is useful as a trend line, but one weak corner towards an area you do not serve can drag it down while the streets that bring customers improve. The share of top positions is closer to “how much of the area can find us”.
6. Reports someone else can understand
If you report to an owner, a manager or a client, the tool’s output has to leave the tool. Check whether it exports a report, what the report contains and whether a reader who has never logged in could follow it.
A good search engine ranking report for local SEO shows the grids then and now, the trend for each keyword and what changed in between. Our guide to what a monthly ranking report should show lists the seven parts. Compare that list with a sample export from any tool you are testing; the gaps are the parts you will be building by hand every month.
7. How scans are paid for, and how to test before you pay
Grid scans cost the tool money to run, so most charge by usage in some form. A bigger grid usually costs more than a smaller one. Work out what your normal month looks like, such as three keywords scanned weekly on a 7×7 grid for each location, and check what that costs on each tool, including what happens to usage you do not spend.
In NearPinn, rank-grid scans use credits based on grid size, unused credits roll over, and extra packs can be bought at any time. Each plan includes monthly credits, weekly checks for a set number of tracked keywords and a set number of locations, all in one workspace. Competitor comparison is on Pro and Expert, and performance and ranking reports export as PDFs. The plans are compared in the pricing section.
Whichever local rank checker you consider, test it on your own business, not a demo. Scan your main keyword, check a few cells by hand, scan again a week later and see whether the two are easy to compare. You can see how a grid scan works on our free Google Maps rank checker page.
Frequently asked questions
- What is the difference between a local rank checker and a normal rank tracker?
- A normal rank tracker reports one position per keyword, usually from one location or a whole city. A local rank checker repeats the Google Maps search from many points around the business and shows the position at each one, because the map pack changes with the searcher’s distance.
- What grid size does a local rank checker need?
- Enough to cover the area your customers come from. A 7×7 grid suits most single locations in a city; a wider grid, up to 13×13, suits businesses that serve a district or travel to customers. More important than the size is being able to keep it fixed, so every scan can be compared with the last.
- Is a free local rank checker good enough?
- For a one-off look, often yes. For ongoing work you need saved history, repeat scans on the same grid and a way to report the change, which free one-off checks rarely keep. Test any tool on your own keywords before committing to it.
- How often should a local rank checker scan?
- Weekly for the keywords that matter most, plus an extra scan after a big profile change such as a new primary category. Daily scans mostly record noise and cost more without changing what you would do.