In today’s competitive online world, local SEO is very important and can’t be ignored. Businesses that rely on local customers, like physical stores or service providers, need more than a good online presence. They also need to be seen in the right places.
This is where geo grid ranking tools are really helpful. These tools are more advanced than regular SEO statistics because they show how your business performs in local search results, measuring it area by area, block by block, and mile by mile.
Since people often use their phones to search for things and find local services, it’s important to know how your business shows up in different areas where you operate. Geo grid tools show a clear map of where your website ranks in search results.
This helps you plan better and focus your efforts for SEO. If you want to beat your competitors, check how well you’re doing, or reach more people in your area, a geo grid ranking tool is a helpful tool for getting noticed and growing your customers, and we will see how to do it in this post.
What is a Geo Grid Ranking Tool?
First, it’s important to know that “geo grid” is not a commonly used name for these tools in the industry. We’ve also heard them called search grids, local map rank trackers, and other names. In this post, we will call them “geo grids”.
It’s a tool that shows how a business appears in local search results in a specific area (the ‘geo grid’). Geo grid ranking tools come with different functions, features, and price plans. However, they all share one main thing: they show colored pins on a map that represent local Google rankings.
Geo Grid Rank Trackers are tools that help you see how well your website ranks in search engines for different locations. This grid is a type of “heatmap” showing how much the business is prominent in the local area based on its main keywords.
What is the Need to Use a Geo Grid Ranking Tool?
Geo grid local ranking tools have become popular recently because of how Google lists businesses (or their Google Business Profiles) for local-intent search terms. Local-intent search terms are when someone clearly wants to find something nearby.
For example, This means that when people search for something online, they might include the name of their city or “near me” in their search. Google also tries to figure out if the search is meant to find local information by using the person’s location.
If someone searches for a restaurant, Google can show local options based on where they are, like “top places to eat,” “HVAC,” and so on. The search results someone sees can change depending on where they are located.
For example, a person looking for a “restaurant” in the middle of a city will probably find different options than someone searching on the edge of the city, because being close to the searcher matters a lot.
This means that checking a business’s ranking from just one place, like many old tracking tools do, doesn’t show the whole story of how well it’s doing. A business is more likely to show up high in local searches when people are close by, rather than a little farther away.
That’s why using a geo grid ranking tool is helpful. It gives a full view of how well a business is doing in local search results in a specific area. Let us look in detail at some of the benefits the geo grid tools offer.
Local SEO Accuracy
A geo grid ranking tool gives detailed information about how well your business shows up on search engines in specific locations. Unlike regular SEO tools that provide average rankings for a whole city or area, geo grid tools display how your search rankings differ from one block to another or from one mile to another.
This is important because Google changes local search results depending on where the customer is located. You could be in 1st place in downtown but drop to 10th place just a mile away. This tool helps businesses find changes accurately.
If you know where your visibility is low, you can take specific steps, like improving your content or getting more local links, to boost your rankings in those weak areas. This level of detail is important for physical stores or service businesses that depend a lot on customers coming in from the local area.
Competitor Analysis
Geo grid ranking tools help you see how well you show up in local searches and how your competitors rank in the same areas. This shows a clear picture of the competition, highlighting your strengths and where others are doing better than you.
With this information, you can see how your competitors do things differently. Are they getting more reviews? Do they have better local links? Are their business listings set up better? Knowing what they do well can help you figure out their successful strategies.
Also, it helps explain your rankings. You might not be doing badly because of your own mistakes, but because someone else is doing really well. Geo grid tools show this information in a way that makes it easy to see areas where your brand can do better.
Monitoring Performance
One main reason to use a geo grid ranking tool is to keep track of how well your local SEO work is doing over time. SEO isn’t something you do just once; it needs regular updates and changes.
Geo grid tools help businesses check how well they are doing in search results in different places. This lets them compare their performance every month or even every week. You can observe changes, whether good, bad, or steady, in certain areas.
If you’ve made changes like adding local information or getting more local mentions, these tools can help you see if those changes are really improving your rankings. Also, using a geo grid to watch performance can help find outside things that affect it, like changes in Google’s rules or what local competitors are doing.
Improved Marketing Plans
Geo grid ranking tools are important for creating accurate marketing plans based on data. Traditional marketing usually tries to reach big areas, which can waste money on ads and make campaigns less effective.
A geo grid tool helps businesses find areas or zip codes where people can’t see them online. This helps marketers focus their efforts, like local ads, promotions, or content, on places that need it most and can benefit the most.
For example, a restaurant might find out that they don’t do well just outside their delivery area. This could be a chance for them to reach more customers there or make their listings better in that area.
The tool helps make special plans for different areas of a city, based on how well they can be seen and how many customers they might get. This approach focuses on specific areas, making things work better, more relevant to local people, and increases ROI.
Google Map Pack Insights
Getting a good spot in the Google Map Pack is very important for businesses that need to be seen by local customers, like restaurants, hair salons, and service companies. The Map Pack shows up at the top of regular search results and usually gets the most clicks.
Being in the Map Pack doesn’t happen the same way everywhere, it’s very dependent on the location. A geo grid ranking tool shows you where you appear in the Map Pack and where you don’t.
This information is really helpful because it shows you how various places affect how visible you are, how much traffic you get, and how many sales you make. If your business only shows up in the local Map Pack within a small area, you could be losing potential customers who are just a few miles away.
The tool helps you take action, like getting more reviews, updating your GBP, or making sure your business details are the same everywhere, so you can reach more people. Basically, it provides the useful information you need to excel in local searches and do better than nearby competitors.
Things to Consider When Choosing a Geo Grid Ranking Tool
There are many things to consider when choosing a geo grid tool. First, think about what you want to accomplish. Here are a few key things to look for:
Cost
Every time someone searches, it costs the tool provider money. They pass this cost onto the user, usually as “credits”. Each credit gives you a search result, or “a number on the grid”.
The cost of using a geo grid rank tracker mainly depends on how many keywords you want to track in different reports and how big of a grid (or how many individual searches) you need for the results.
For example, if you want to get results for two keywords in two reports, and each report has a grid size of 5×5, you would need 50 credits. That’s because 5 times 5 equals 25, and then you multiply that by the two reports, which gives you 50.
When you use a tool for the first time or try a demo version with free credits, you don’t need to worry about this right away. However, it’s a good idea to start thinking about how many keywords and business locations you want to keep an eye on for results.
This will help you understand how many credits you’ll need each month and make it easier to compare the different tools available. Some providers have packages that include a set number of credits each month. It’s clear that low cost is important, especially when you want to keep track of local search results on a large scale.
Different Grid Sizes
Businesses in different industries reach different groups of people and expect to attract customers from different areas. For instance, a bar in the middle of the city is mostly competing with other bars close by, while a good lawyer is likely trying to get clients from the entire city and even farther away.
This is why having different grid sizes is helpful, especially when you’re dealing with different kinds of businesses. Grid size refers to how many spots or points there are in a square on a local map.
For example, a 3×3 grid has 9 points, a 5×5 grid has 25 points, and a 7×7 grid has 49 points, and so on. You can decide how detailed you want to be with your geo grid ranking. The more grid points you have and the easier it is to change the grid size for each report, the better you’ll be at finding insights that your competitors can’t see.
Tracking Competition Ranking Factors
The best geo grid ranking tools do more than just show you numbers on a grid; they also tell you which competitors are doing better than you and, importantly, give you reasons why they are succeeding.
It’s good to know their rankings, but the best tools will explain why they are ranked that way. These insights include important things that affect rankings, like the number of reviews, links to the website, the site’s Domain Authority, how many times it’s mentioned, and more.
With this information, you can find out where to improve and change your local search strategy as needed. Without this data, your geo grid tool is just a colorful map with numbers.
Keeping Track Over Time
A business’s SEO is always changing. There are some things you can’t control, like changes in search engine rules, and there are strategies you can use to improve results. This is why it’s important to clearly see how the geo grid data has changed over time.
You can show this timeline to your clients how your SEO efforts have made things better, which can help them see more value in it. A regular ranking tool shows you how your rankings have changed over time, so it makes sense that a geo grid tool should do this too.
A timeline like this gives you an early warning that your rankings need some attention. If you suddenly notice a lot of red results in a place that used to be green, it’s time to act quickly. If the geo grid ranking tool you picked also gives information about your competitors, then you’re already ahead of the game.
Monitor Several Keywords for Each Location
If you have several client locations or need to keep track of many keywords for your own business, this is a very useful feature to have. The cost will stay the same whether you have separate reports for different keywords or not.
However, being able to use the tool more easily and switch between different keyword lists on one page makes this feature really useful for anyone who wants to keep track of rankings efficiently.
Screenshots of SERP
Many clients often doubt local SEO because search results change so frequently. That’s why it’s helpful to show them proof of the search results page that the tool found when checking their rankings.
Some tools let you view a screenshot of the search results page at the time it was taken. This lets you show how correct the report is, either for yourself when you use the tool or when teaching clients. This isn’t something you see often, but it’s still important.
Free Trial
We all enjoy getting something for free, especially when looking at different SEO tools. Many websites give free credits or limited-time access to their tools. We suggest paying attention to these things because trying the tool yourself is the best way to understand how it works and see how it can work for you.
Also Read: Leveraging Popular Times as a Local Ranking Factor
8 Top Geo Grid Ranking Tools
BrightLocal
Tagline: “Get your rankings on the map”
BrightLocal’s Local Search Grid is one of the tools they offer to help local businesses and agencies improve their local SEO. It helps users succeed in local search by monitoring reviews, tracking rankings, building citations, and checking website pages.
Started in 2021, Local Search Grid has many helpful tools for people who want to know why their places are ranked the way they are. Being able to scan nearby competitors and see why they are doing better than you is helpful for getting noticed in results pages.
Features
- Reports with no brand name on them
- Competition ranking factors show the five main things that help your competitors rank higher
- Comparing where competitors are located
- Average Map Rank: a special measurement used by them
- Screenshots of search results pages
- Track several keywords for each location
- Good for businesses that serve specific areas
- Report spam listings of GBP competitors to Google
- Access to the BrightLocal platform, along with other local SEO tools
Available grid sizes
BrightLocal offers three standard grid sizes in its packages, but you can customize your grid with as many as 49 grid points. You can change the distance between points on the grid to fit your needs.
- 3×3
- 5×5
- 7×7
Can I choose when my report runs?
Yes, you will be able to choose a date and time for when your report will run.
Pricing
BrightLocal’s subscriptions offer a grid that can be 7×7 in size, and they include 5 keywords in it. You can choose to run these every month or every week, based on how often you want to see the results.
If you want to use bigger grids or more keywords (up to 30), you can find some extra options in your account. Prices begin at $0.0035 for each grid point search, based on the amount of locations and the size of the grid.
Free trial
BrightLocal gives you a free trial for 14 days. You can check up to 50 places and use five keywords for each place.
Local Falcon
Tagline: “Achieve 100% Local Search Visibility”
Local Falcon was the first tool to show local search ranking in a grid format, and it started doing this back in 2018. A year later, dbaPlatform bought it. They provide various tools for local searches and advertising. Since then, it has concentrated on adding new features, with the latest one being smart recommendations and analysis using AI.
Features
- Different types of reports and templates are available, including one you can brand as your own
- Keeping track of factors that affect competition rankings
- Using AI to analyze data and suggest ways to do better than competitors and boost performance
- You can change where the grid points are located
- Metrics like SoLV™ (share of local voice)
- Several keywords for each place
- Save as CSV
- Good for businesses that operate in specific areas or have several locations
- Suggestions for keywords related to map scans
- Integration with Google Looker Studio
- Zapier integration
- Users can also check how their Apple Business Connect listings are doing in local search results on Apple Maps
Available grid sizes
Local Falcon offers nine different grid sizes. You can easily change where you want to place the grids.
- 3×3
- 5×5
- 7×7
- 9×9
- 11×11
- 15×15
- 17×17
- 19×19
- 21×21
Can I choose when my report runs?
Yes, you can choose when you want your report to run.
Pricing
Local Falcon has a credit system. You can choose to pay for a monthly plan or an annual plan.
- Starter: $24.99 a month for 90,000 credits
- Basic: $49.99 each month, giving you 180,000 credits
- Pro: $99.99 each month for 372,000 credits
- Premium: $199.99 each month and comes with 756,000 credits
Free trial
You get 100 credits, which is like getting 11 3×3 scans.
Local Viking
Tagline: “See the GMB Rankings In A New Light”
Started in 2017, Local Viking mainly provides tools to help manage Google Business profiles. This includes features for automatic posting, handling reviews, and creating content automatically.
It collects information using the Google Places API and often adds new features. At the time this was written, the newest feature was the ability to compare two GeoGrid reports next to each other to see ranking changes over a certain time.
Features
- You can save reports as CSV files
- You can make a GIF report that shows how things change over time
- The public link option lets you see the results from different viewpoints, allowing you to move around, zoom in, and turn the view
- White-label reports (available only with Pro, Agency, and Enterprise plans)
- GeoGrid tool to help get leads from your website (available only for Pro, Agency, and Enterprise plans)
- Pictures of search engine results pages
- Keep an eye on how competitors are ranked
- Access to the Local Viking website, along with other tools for local search optimization.
- Feature to report unwanted listings
Available grid sizes
Points are adjustable, so you can leave out parts you don’t need. There are five different grid sizes you can choose from:
- 3×3
- 5×5
- 7×7
- 9×9
- 13×13
Can I choose when my report runs?
No. You can create a report whenever you want, but you can’t set it up to run automatically at a certain time on a specific day. You can pick one day of the week.
Pricing
Local Viking’s grid tracker comes with their other tools and can’t be bought separately. You can choose from five packages, and you can pay for them monthly or once a year. If you choose the yearly plan, you get two months for free.
- Single: $39 each month, which includes 7,500 GeoGrid credits
- Starter: $59 a month for 8,100 GeoGrid credits
- Pro: $99 each month for 16,200 GeoGrid credits
- Agency: $149 each month gives you 24,300 GeoGrid credits
- Enterprise: $200 each month with 32,400 GeoGrid credits
Free trial
No. Local Viking doesn’t have a free trial right now, but you can get your money back within seven days if you’re not happy after signing up.
Local Dominator
Tagline: “The most affordable and accurate Google Maps rank tracker, built with you in mind”
Local Dominator’s geo rank tracker is a feature of a bigger set of tools for Google Business Profile. It has many tools for agency businesses, like keyword research, checking backlinks, and scheduling Google Business Posts. It has an easy-to-use dashboard and useful information. There is an affiliate program for agencies that suggest this tool to their clients.
Features
- Reports made under a brand’s name
- Link to share ranking info with clients
- Get information about your competitors to understand how other nearby businesses are doing better than you
- Rolling credits
- Get extra tools to manage your Google Business Profile
- Leads Extractor plugin helps with finding potential customers for sales
- Finding a lot of keywords at once
Available grid sizes
There are eight different grid sizes you can choose from, and you can decide which pins to keep or remove. The sizes of the grids are:
- 6×6
- 7×7
- 8×8
- 9×9
- 10×10
- 11×11
- 12×12
- 13×13
Can I choose when my report runs?
Yes.
Pricing
There are four monthly payment plans you can choose from:
- Advance: $59 each month for 15,000 credits
- Pro: $97 each month gets you 36,000 credits
- Powerhouse: $197 each month for 81,000 credits
- Enterprise: $399 each month for 178,000 credits
Free trial
Local Dominator doesn’t have a free trial, but you can get a 95% discount in the first month.
Semrush
Tagline: “Track your Google Maps rankings with pinpoint accuracy”
Semrush was started in 2008 and is well-known for helping with SEO. The all-in-one tool provides many options for marketers handling SEO, PPC, PR, content, and other online campaigns.
Map Rank Tracker used to be only part of the Listings Management tool, but now it has been improved and is available as its own separate tool with many new features. It provides information about keywords, competition, and how to improve online visibility.
Features
- Local visibility measures include how many people are talking about you, your average position in searches, and how our rankings are spread out
- It’s easy to get information about competitors, including their top 20 rankings for any search term
- You can download PDF reports
- Keep an eye on as many keywords as you want
- Keep track of how things are going over time
- Choose your favorite grid size and distance for better ranking information
Available grid sizes
Semrush offers six different grid sizes, and you can adjust the points as needed.
- 5×5
- 7×7
- 9×9
- 11×11
- 13×13
- 15×15
Can I choose when my report runs?
No. The scheduler lets users choose how often they want a report and what day of the week, but not a specific time of day.
Pricing
Map Rank Tracker is included in larger Semrush packages, and you can also buy it on its own. If you just want to use the Map Rank Tracker tool, there are two options you can pick from:
- Map Rank Tracker Basic: $30 every month. You get 4,000 credits and can run one campaign.
- Semrush Local Premium: Costs $40 each month. You get 2,500 credits, and you can run one campaign.
You can buy extra credits for $5 for every 1,000 credits, and you can get more campaigns for $10 each month.
Free trial
Yes, there is a free plan that gives you 50 credits, which is enough to do two 5×5 grid searches.
Places Scout
Tagline: “Geo-matrix ranking reports”
Started in California, USA, in 2011, Places Scout is a complete SEO tool for local businesses and agencies. Its automatic local SEO check looks at more than 400 different pieces of information.
Other tools include managing your reputation, keeping track of mentions of your brand, checking your brand’s health, studying your competitors, and finding potential customers. The Geo-Matrix Ranking Reports tool was first launched in May 2020.
One of its best features is the ability to create animated GIFs that can be customized to show performance changes in an interesting and easy-to-understand way.
Features
- Animated map tool that creates GIFs to show how things perform over time
- Simple reporting that can be customized with pictures on a map, and it’s only available in PDF format
- Get access to the Places Scout platform and other local SEO tools
- You can change where the grid points are located
- Keeping track of what affects competition rankings
- Good for businesses that serve specific areas
- More than one keyword for each place
- Save as CSV
- Pictures of search engine results
Available grid sizes
You can choose to ignore places you don’t want. There are six different sizes of grids available. You can also make your own grid if you need to.
- 3×3
- 5×5
- 7×7
- 9×9
- 11×11
- 13×13
Can I choose when my report runs?
Yes, you can set up reports to run just once, every hour, every day, every week, or every month. You can also choose the day and time to run the reports.
Pricing
Pricing information is not available to the public. To get a custom quote, you need to fill out the package request form.
Free trial
No, Places Scout does not have a free trial, but you can set up a demo.
Localo
Tagline: “Find new customers in your area with the help of our local SEO tool”
Localo started in 2020 and is located in Krakow, Poland. Its local rank tracker is one part of a bigger set of tools for improving local SEO. These solutions also have tools to make and plan Google Business posts, manage listings, and create web pages for local businesses.
It also has a tool that helps business owners and local SEO experts know what to do to improve their visibility in local searches on Google.
Features
- An Area Difficulty Index shows how easy or hard it is to get a good rank in a specific place.
- Available for local businesses everywhere in all languages
- Automated tracking of positions
- Good for businesses that provide services in a certain area
- Watching what competitors are doing
Available grid sizes
Localo uses a smart grid that automatically adjusts the grid and size based on a system that decides how hard and crowded different areas are. Only users who pay for the bigger Agencies plan that lets you manage several locations can choose a custom grid size.
Can I choose when my report runs?
No.
Pricing
Localo’s pricing is different from most other choices in this post because it doesn’t use a credit system. Instead, it limits the number of places and words to keep track of and charges a set amount.
The geo grid ranking monitoring tool is included in a larger set of local SEO tools and cannot be used by itself. You can choose between two plans: pay every month or pay once a year.
- Growth: $29 a month for each location, covering up to 10 keywords
- Agencies: $99 each month for up to four places, using 10 keywords for each location
Free trial
Yes. Localo has a free plan that allows you to use one Google profile and up to ten search terms.
GMB Crush
Tagline: “Local 3-pack domination made easy”
GMB Crush is a tool that helps manage local business listings. It has features for checking, improving, and tracking how well your listing is doing. You can use GMB Crush to check out your competitors’ Google Business Profile details.
This includes their categories, labels, tags, number of reviews, keywords, and descriptions. You can also look at their media and posts. By comparing this information to your own listings, you can see what changes to make to get ahead of them, automatically.
Features
- The easy-to-use geo-grid heat map helps you quickly identify areas of strong performance and where improvements are needed
- The location authority feature finds the best profile that works well in specific areas
- Comparing with competitors
- White label reporting
- Downloadable reports in PNG and PDF formats
- Follow several keywords
Available grid sizes
There are six different grid sizes you can choose from
- 3×3
- 5×5
- 7×7
- 9×9
- 11×11
- 15×15
Can I choose when my report runs?
Unknown.
Pricing
The grid tracker tool is included in a larger set of local SEO tools and cannot be bought separately. You can pick from three package options, and you can either pay monthly or yearly.
- Sidekick: $39.99 a month includes 16/250KM Grids and 100 credits
- Local Hero: $89.99 a month includes 40/250KM and 200 credits
- Superhero: $139.99 each month, includes 120/250KM Grids and 900 credits
Free trial
No, GMB Crush does not have a free trial.
To Conclude
Geo grid ranking tools are very important for any business that wants to succeed in local search results. These tools give clear information about how well a business is doing in different areas.
This helps business owners and marketers see what parts of their SEO are successful and where they need to make changes. Instead of using broad rankings that don’t give much information, geo grid tools provide detailed insights about your visibility in specific neighborhoods or service areas.
This level of detail helps make better marketing choices, use resources more effectively, and gain a better competitive edge. You can keep track of your progress, change your plans easily, and make sure your business remains in the top spots on Google Maps.
Using a geo grid ranking tool helps target customers better, brings more local visitors, and improves sales. For businesses that want to grow in their local area, using this software isn’t just useful, it’s necessary for long-term success.
FAQs
How does a geo grid ranking tool operate?
The tool uses a grid of points in a chosen area to mimic keyword searches from different locations. It then shows your rankings at each point, often using colored labels. This helps you understand how well your business is doing in local search results. You can see a clear visual picture of your local SEO performance for the whole area or city, all the way down to individual blocks.
Can geo grid tools help me do better than my competitors?
Of course. Geo grid tools show you where your competitors are doing better than you in certain areas. By finding those areas, you can look at what your competitors are doing, check how many reviews they have, see what their content is like, and how they make their listings better. This information helps you improve your SEO work better by allowing you to focus on content, references, or interactions in specific areas.
How often should I do a geo grid scan?
Most businesses should run a geo grid scan at least once a month to see how they are doing and to notice any changes in performance. If you are working on improving your local SEO or dealing with new competitors or changes in search engine rules, it’s best to run checks every week or every two weeks. Keeping an eye on things helps you notice changes in visibility, change your plans fast, and stay noticeable in important local places.
Will a geo grid ranking tool make my SEO better on its own?
No, a geo grid ranking tool doesn’t make your SEO better directly, it helps you see where you can make improvements. It’s like a chart that shows where you do well and not so well in local rankings. With this information, you can make smart choices for SEO. This means you can improve your Google Business Profile, create better local content, get more reviews, or build citations using real data about local rankings.
What makes a geo grid ranking tool different from regular rank tracking tools?
Traditional rank trackers often show average rankings for a whole city, which can mask how your visibility varies in different areas. Geo grid tools help you see your ranking at specific locations. This helps analyze very specific areas and is particularly helpful when your customers are in different neighborhoods or when local competitors impact how visible your business is from one street to another.
