Visibility score
A combined view of leading positions, Top 10 coverage, rank where visible, and how stable the pattern is across measured points.
Local search grid
Local Search Grid & Google Maps Rank Tracking
One search from one address cannot describe an entire local market. Vicin measures Google Maps results for your tracked search terms at points around a business location.
Read the pattern behind an average rank: where you appear, where you reach the Top 3 or Top 10, and which businesses show up at individual points.
What the grid measures
A search term, a place, and a date belong together.
Choose a business location and keyword. Vicin samples the selected grid points, records the returned position at each measured point, and saves the capture with its date.
Grid Settings controls the area and point layout. A 3 by 3, 5 by 5, or 7 by 7 grid samples different places; a wider radius asks a different geographic question. A point represents an observation from that location, not every address around it.
Read every summary against its keyword, capture date, and grid geometry.
Six complementary measures
One number cannot tell the whole ranking story.
Use the six measures in our local rank tracker to compare strong positions, broad coverage, and reach. Subtract Top 3 coverage from Top 10 coverage to find the share ranking fourth through tenth.
Average rank where visible
The average position only at measured points where your business appeared. Read it beside Appears in: this average can improve even when coverage shrinks.
Appears in
The share of measured grid points where your business appeared in the returned results.
Top 3
The share of measured points where your business reached one of the first three positions.
Top 10
The share of measured points where your business reached the first ten positions.
Visible out to
The farthest qualifying measured distance band from the business, using half-mile bands where at least half the measured points reached the Top 10.
The map shows where each summary came from. A longer visible distance does not mean every address inside it has the same result.
Keyword tracking
Each search term has its own ranking geography.
A business may appear widely for one service and barely appear for another. Change the tracked term to read its own grid, summary, and capture history.
A location can track up to five keywords. Comparing them on the same business and grid settings shows whether a visibility gap belongs to one service or spans several searches.
A phrase such as “service in city, state” is measured as that exact phrase from the grid points. Including a city name in the query does not itself prove that the business ranks across the city.
The grid marks the city center as a reference point when it can resolve one. Distance from that pin puts the business location in context; it is separate from ranking for a city-name query.
Point-level competitors
Open a point to see who ranks there.
Select a measured point to inspect your observed position and the ordered businesses returned for that search at that place.
The list can include available ratings and review counts. A business above yours at one point may not lead at the next, so the local ranking list is more useful than a single market-wide rival label.
A numbered point shows a measured position. A measured absence means the business did not appear in the returned top results. An unmeasured point had no usable lookup and stays out of the summary calculations.
The list shows who appeared at that point and time. It cannot explain why Google ordered the businesses that way.
Area context
Put the ranking point in its local Census area.
A weak ranking shows where visibility is limited. Census context describes the area associated with that point, so you can inspect the surrounding market without guessing who made the search.
Available U.S. Census American Community Survey measures include population, households, median household income, age, and housing characteristics for the associated block group. Source period and geographic coverage matter when comparing points.
Several points can map to the same block group. Summing their population or households may count the same area more than once; use those totals as directional context rather than a unique headcount inside the grid.
Census data describes an area. It does not identify a searcher, measure customer demand, or explain the ranking.
Dated captures
See where visibility changed over time.
Each saved capture gives a keyword a dated ranking record. Compare later captures with an earlier one to see movement in coverage, leading positions, average rank, and measured reach.
A before-and-after view helps locate points that improved, declined, appeared, or disappeared from the returned results. The first capture is the start of the record; earlier rankings cannot be recreated after the fact.
If the grid was resized or moved, it sampled different ground. Compare each capture on its own terms rather than treating its point-to-point change as like-for-like.
Grid Experiments
Record a change. Read the grid before and after it.
Connect a recorded Google Business Profile or SEO change to dated ranking captures for a tracked keyword. See what changed in the grid after the update.
Grid Experiments pairs an existing baseline capture with follow-up captures. It brings coverage, leading positions, average rank, measured reach, and point changes together with the recorded change.
A baseline must predate the update. The 14-, 28-, and 90-day follow-up checkpoints use captures that exist on or after those dates; the checkpoints do not start a new measurement.
This is an observational comparison. Ranking movement after an update does not, by itself, prove that the update caused it.
A repeatable investigation
Turn colored points into useful questions.
Which tracked terms have broad appearance but few Top 3 positions? Those are different visibility problems.
Where does the business disappear, and which businesses appear at those exact points?
Do weak points sit in areas that matter to the business, based on the available Census context and its own service area?
After a recorded profile or SEO change, did the same keyword move at comparable points across later captures?
Who uses it
One location or many, the question stays local.
Use our local ranking tool to track each business address by keyword, geography, and capture date. Keep grid size and radius consistent when comparing locations instead of relying on one marketwide average.
Business owners
See where services appear in the local market, where visibility weakens, and which businesses rank at points that matter to you.
Marketing agencies
Show clients a dated grid, point-level ranking businesses, and a clear record of what moved after work was done.
Freelance marketers
Anchor a recommendation to a term, measured place, returned businesses, and the capture dates being compared.
Multi-location businesses
Review each location against its own surrounding search area instead of assuming company-wide visibility tells the local story.
Measurement boundaries
Know what the grid can establish.
A capture records returned Google Maps results for sampled points and a selected term when the measurement ran. Results can vary later or on another device.
An unmeasured point is not a measured absence. Census context is not customer data. Movement after a change is not proof of cause. These distinctions keep a useful grid from turning into a claim it cannot support.
Quick answers
Frequently asked questions
When can I capture the same keyword again?
A new capture is available after the keyword’s 14-day interval. Earlier saved captures remain available for comparison.
Does opening the page start a new capture?
No. The page reads saved results. A new measurement starts when someone uses Refresh ranks and the capture is available.
Stop asking where you rank. See where you rank.
Measure the searches that matter across your local market, then inspect the points, businesses, area context, and dated changes behind the pattern.