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Map local rankings
Find your Google Business listing, check its profile and reviews, and run a geo-grid around it.
Local SEO works from your Google Business listing: find it once, then check how complete its profile is, read its reviews, and map how well it ranks across the area you serve.
Find your business
Search Google Maps
Open Local SEO. On Find a business, search for your business the way a customer would; the name with the town works best, for example
Acme Plumbing Austin. Click Search Maps ($0.07; a repeat within a day is free). Tick Prefer results around a point if your business shares its name with others elsewhere.Mark it as yours
Click This is my business on your listing. The choice is remembered in this browser for this project, and the other tabs work on it.
Check the profile
On Profile, click Load profile ($0.05). OpenSEO checks it against what a complete listing needs:
| Check | Passes when |
|---|---|
| Phone number | A phone number is listed. |
| Website | The listing links to a website. |
| Opening hours | Hours are listed. |
| Categories | There is more than one category. |
| Photos | At least 5 photos. |
| Rating | A rating of 4.0 or higher from at least 10 reviews. |
Read the reviews
On Reviews, choose how many (10 to 150) and the order, then click Get reviews. It costs $0.015 per 100 reviews, at least $0.01. You get the rating breakdown, the average of the sample and the owner reply rate, then every review with its reply. Reviews without a reply are flagged; answering them is one of the easiest wins in local search.
Map your rankings with a geo-grid
Local results change from one street to the next. A geo-grid runs the same Maps search from a grid of points around your business and records your place in the results at each one.
Choose a keyword, a size and a spacing
On Geo-grid, enter what a customer types, such as
plumber. Choose the grid size (3×3, 5×5, 7×7 or 9×9 points) and the distance between points. The form shows how far across the grid reaches.Confirm the price and run
Each point is one Maps search at $0.07: 3×3 is $0.63, 5×5 is $1.75, 7×7 is $3.43 and 9×9 is $5.67. Click Run grid and confirm. You can cancel a running grid; points already searched are kept and billed.
Read the map
Each cell shows your position at that point: green for 1–3, yellow for 4–10, amber for 11–20, grey when you are not in the top 20. The pin marks your business. Hover or tap a cell to see the top places there, with yours highlighted. The grid also gives your average position where you were found, and in how many points.
For rankings in the normal Google results from an exact spot, use a rank tracker with exact coordinates; see Track your rankings.