Maps rankings

People searching from different streets see different Google Maps results. A customer two kilometers away may never see you, even if you rank first when you search from your own office. Maps rankings shows the real picture: it searches your keyword from a grid of points around your business and puts your rank at each point on a map.

It is built for local businesses, multi-location brands and the agencies that manage them. You will find it in the sidebar under Project → Maps rankings (open it).

How it works

A campaign is one keyword plus one business plus one grid. Every scan searches Google Maps once from each grid point and records where your listing appears in the results for that spot.

• Grid size: 1 × 1, 3 × 3, 5 × 5, 7 × 7, 9 × 9, 11 × 11 or 13 × 13 points. The grid is centered on your business.
• Radius: the distance from your business to the edge of the grid, from 250 m up to 50 km. Points are spaced evenly, so a 5 × 5 grid with a 2 km radius has a point every 1 km.
• Device (Desktop or Mobile) and Language of the searches.
• Switched-off points: click any point on the preview map to switch it off, for example over water or in areas you don't serve. Switched-off points are never searched and don't use your quota. The center point (your business) always stays on.
• Scan schedule: Manually only, Daily, Weekly or Monthly. Monthly scans run on the same day each month.

Plan limits

Plan	Campaigns	Largest grid	Maps searches per month
Starter	1	5 × 5	1,000
Pro	10	9 × 9	10,000
Agency	50	13 × 13	50,000

One search is one active grid point in one scan. A 7 × 7 grid with four points switched off uses 45 searches per scan; scanned weekly, that is about 196 searches a month. Searches that fail (unreadable points) are not counted, and the quota resets at the start of each billing month. The form shows the searches per scan, the estimated monthly total for the chosen schedule and how many searches you have left before you save. Larger grids appear in the grid size list marked (upgrade) when your plan doesn't include them. See Billing for plans.

Step by step

1. Open Project → Maps rankings and click New campaign (shortcut).
2. Enter the Keyword to track: what customers type into Google Maps, such as a service or category ("dentist", "emergency plumber").
3. Under Your business, type your Business name, pick a city or region in Near and click Find my business. Choose your listing from the results. If it isn't found, click Enter the location manually and enter the name exactly as it appears on Google Maps, plus latitude and longitude (the website is optional).
4. Under Grid, choose the Grid size, Radius, Device and Language. The map preview updates as you go.
5. Click points on the preview to switch off any you don't want searched.
6. Under Schedule and alerts, pick how often to Scan and set the Alert threshold (points).
7. Click Save and start the first scan. The campaign page shows the progress and refreshes itself; most scans finish within a few minutes.
8. Later, use Scan now for an extra scan, Edit to change settings and Export CSV to download one row per grid point (coordinates, status, rank, whether a sponsored listing was shown and the top three businesses).

If the first scan can't start because of your plan limits, the campaign is still saved and the page tells you so. Check Billing, then start a scan.

What the numbers mean

Each point on the map is colored by your rank there: Top 3, 4–10, 11–20, Beyond 20, Not found, Unreadable (the search failed) or Switched off. Click a point to see the listings Google Maps showed there.

Metric	Meaning	How it's calculated
Local presence score	Overall visibility, 0–100	Each readable point scores ((21 − rank) / 20)²: rank 1 = 1, rank 3 ≈ 0.81, rank 10 ≈ 0.30, beyond 20 or not found = 0. The average × 100. Rank 1 everywhere = 100.
Top 10 coverage	How much of the area sees you	Points where you rank in the top 10 ÷ readable points. The subline also shows the top 3 count.
Average map rank	Typical position where you appear	Average rank over the points where you were found.
Sponsored density	How crowded the ads are	Share of readable points that showed a sponsored listing.

• Competitors that outrank you: businesses that ranked above you, or appeared where you weren't found. Points won counts those points; Top 3 at and Avg. rank show how strong each one is.
• Local pack: the Google Search 3-pack shown at your business location for the keyword, with your listing marked (you) if it's there.
• Score trend and Coverage trend chart each scan, and Scan history lists every scan with its grid, score, coverage and top 3 count. Click View to open an older scan.

Unreadable points are left out of every number, so a failed search never looks like "not found". The page tells you how many were left out.

Tips

• Start with a radius that matches how far customers actually travel to you. A tight grid in a city and a wide one in rural areas give the most useful map.
• Switch off points over water, parks or neighboring towns you don't serve. They save searches and keep the score honest.
• Weekly scans are enough for most businesses. Use daily scans for short campaigns where you want to see the effect of a change quickly.
• Track the main service keyword and one or two variations as separate campaigns rather than one very large grid.
• Look at Competitors that outrank you to find who wins the neighborhoods where you are weak, then compare their Google Business Profile with yours.

FAQ

When do I get an alert?

After each finished scan, serp.ac compares it with the previous one, point by point. You are notified when your business entered or dropped out of the top 3 at least at as many points as your Alert threshold (points), or when the local presence score moved by 10 or more. Scans are only compared when the grid size and radius are the same. Choose where alerts go under the Maps ranking changes (local grid) event in notification settings.

What happens when I run out of Maps searches?

A scan that needs more searches than you have left doesn't start, and the message tells you how many are needed and how many are left. Scheduled scans are retried a day later, and you get a notice (at most once a week) that a scheduled scan was skipped. The quota resets with your next billing period, or you can move to a larger plan.

Can I change the grid of an existing campaign?

Yes. Click Edit on the campaign. Changes apply from the next scan; earlier scans keep the grid they were made with. Alerts only compare scans with the same grid size and radius, so the first scan after a grid change won't trigger one.

Why does a scan say "already running"?

A campaign can only have one scan in progress. Wait for the current one to finish (the page refreshes automatically), then start another.

Can I get Maps results through the API?

Yes. GET /api/v1/maps/campaigns lists your campaigns with their latest score, coverage and average rank, and GET /api/v1/maps/scans returns a campaign's scan history and the grid points, competitors and local pack of a scan. AI assistants connected through the MCP server can read the same data. See API & MCP.

How do I delete a campaign?

Open the campaign, click Edit and use Delete campaign at the bottom. This deletes the campaign and all of its scans and can't be undone.

Related guides

• Rank tracking for classic Google positions
• Notifications
• Reports
• Billing