How to check where you rank on Google Maps

Why searching for yourself is misleading

Google ranks local businesses using relevance, distance and prominence (Google explains it here). Distance means the answer changes with where the searcher is. A plumber can be 1st for "plumber near me" outside their own office and 15th three miles away, where most of their customers live.

• Location: you're probably searching from your office or home, which is usually your strongest spot.
• Your history: Google knows you've visited your own profile many times.
• Device and time: results shift during the day and between phone and computer.

Check it yourself, the manual way

1. Pick your 3 most important searches, the words a customer would actually type: "ac repair", "emergency plumber", "pool cleaning".
2. Open a private or incognito window and turn off your browser's location history, or ask a friend in another part of town to search.
3. Search each phrase on Google Maps and note where you appear in the list, from 1 to 20.
4. Repeat from a few places across your service area: north, south, east and west, near and far.
5. Write it down with the date, so you can compare next month.

This takes time and only gives you a handful of points, but it's free and better than one search from your desk.

Check it properly: a grid scan

A grid scan runs the same search from many evenly spaced points around your business and shows your rank at each one on a map. You see exactly where you're strong, where you fade, and who beats you there.

Our free scan searches from 81 places (a 9 by 9 grid) for one search, then gives you a Visibility Score out of 100, the businesses beating you and your top 3 fixes. No card needed. How it works explains the score.

What to look at in the results

• Top 3 places: the top 3 show in the map pack on Google Search and get most of the calls.
• Where you drop off: if you're top 3 near the office but gone 3 miles out, that's where to focus.
• Who beats you: compare their categories, review counts and photos with yours.
• Change over time: check the same searches every week or month; one-off checks can mislead.