Heatmap metrics

What every figure, colour and arrow on a Map Rank Tracker heatmap means, and exactly how each one is worked out.

#The basics every figure shares

• Position is where a business sits among the businesses Google listed at one grid point. A paid ad at the top of the results is not counted, so the first business listed is position 1.
• Top 20. Positions run from 1 to 20. A business below that is Out of Top 20.
• An answered point is one where Google returned a result. A point with no result is left out of every figure.
• One keyword at a time. The Heatmap, Competitors and Keywords tabs show one keyword per figure. The Avg. Rank and Share of Voice on a campaign card cover every keyword in the latest scan together.

#Avg. Rank

Your average position across the grid. Lower is better.

It is the mean over every answered point. A point where the business was not in the top 20 counts as 21.

Under the figure, "on 12 of 25 points" means the business was in the top 20 on 12 of the 25 answered points.

Competitors are averaged the same way, over the same points, so their Avg. Rank figures compare directly with yours.

#Share of Voice

Your share of the map against the other businesses on it. Higher is better.

At each answered point:

1. Each business in the top 20 gets a weight of 1 ÷ its position. First is 1, second is 0.5, tenth is 0.1, twentieth is 0.05.
2. A business's share at that point is its weight divided by the total weight of every business listed there.

Share of Voice is the average of those shares across the points that returned a list, as a percentage. The shares at every point add up to 100%, so a whole Competitors table adds up to 100% too.

Ranking first on every point does not give 100%. With 20 businesses listed at each point, first place everywhere is about 27.8%. When Google lists fewer businesses at a point, first place there is worth more.

#The four bands

Each answered point falls into one band by the listing's position there. The Heatmap tab shows each band as a percentage of the answered points, with the count under it.

#Business Visibility

How visible the business is to people searching this keyword on Google Maps across the scanned area, from 0% to 100%.

Each answered point scores (21 − position) ÷ 20. Position 1 scores 1, position 2 scores 0.95, position 10 scores 0.55, position 20 scores 0.05, and a point outside the top 20 scores 0. Business Visibility is the average of those scores, as a whole percentage.

Business Visibility and Share of Voice answer different questions. Visibility measures the listing against the top of the list. Share of Voice measures it against the other businesses shown beside it.

#Area Difficulty

How hard it is to rank here: how established the top three near the business are, judged by their reviews. Lower is easier.

1. At each answered point, take the businesses in positions 1 to 3.
2. Score each one log10(reviews + 1) ÷ 3, capped at 1. A business with 1,000 reviews or more scores the maximum. One with 100 reviews scores about 0.67, one with 10 about 0.35.
3. Average those scores for the point. A point with nobody in the top three scores 0.
4. Average the points across the grid, counting points nearer the listing more. Each point's weight is 1 ÷ (1 + its distance from the listing in km).

The result is shown as a whole percentage with a band:

Business Visibility and Area Difficulty are the two figures behind Growth potential in Client Acquisition. On the Heatmap tab they always describe your listing, even when you pick another business to show on the map.

#Pins

Each pin sits on its grid point. The number is the position there.

Hover a pin to see its distance from the centre of the grid and the position, for example "2 km from the centre — position 4". Click a pin to open Results here, the list Google returned at that point. Click a business in that list to show its positions across the whole grid.

When you pick another business, the pins show that business's positions and a marker shows where its listing is.

#Movement since the previous scan

On the Heatmap, Competitors and Keywords tabs, each figure is compared with the previous scan.

On a campaign card, the arrow beside Avg. Rank and Share of Voice points the way the number moved, and its colour says whether that is good. An Avg. Rank that fell shows a green ↓.

The small trend lines beside Avg. Rank and Share of Voice draw that figure for this keyword across every stored scan. Two scans taken with a different grid, radius or centre measured different areas.

#Related

• Map Rank Tracker
• Rank Checker
• Client Acquisition
• Glossary

Last updated 18 October 2026