Relevance
How well your Business Profile matches what someone searched. If your profile clearly says you do roof repair, Google can match you to “roof repair near me.”
Google Maps heat map
Where do you really show up on Google Maps?
A Google Maps heat map (also called a local rank grid or geo-grid) is a grid of points spread across your service area. Each point shows where your business ranks in the Google Maps 3-pack and local results for a search like “roofer near me,” as if a customer searched from that exact spot.
- Green: top 3
- Yellow: 4 to 10
- Red: 11+ or not found
How Google picks who shows up
Why you can be #1 at your shop and invisible 5 miles out
Google doesn’t show everyone the same map. It picks local results for each person, based in part on where they are when they search.
“Local results are mainly based on relevance, distance, and popularity.”
Google, from its Business Profile help page “Tips to improve your local ranking on Google”. The page breaks it down into three factors: relevance, distance and prominence.
Distance
How far your business is from the person searching. The same search can show different businesses a few streets apart.
Prominence
How well-known your business is. Google says this includes things like how many reviews you have and how many websites link to you.
Why the map changes from block to block
Near your shop, you’re the closest match, so you can rank #1 even with a so-so profile. Five miles out, other businesses are closer to the person searching.
To beat them there, your relevance and prominence have to make up the difference. A heat map shows you exactly where that happens, and where it doesn’t.
Why the top 3 matter most
On a phone, Google usually shows a map with three businesses first, each with a button to call. Everyone else is hidden behind a tap for more results.
Those three get seen first and can be called with one tap, so that’s where most of the calls go. If you’re not in them where your customers live, those calls go to someone else.
What moves your rankings
Five things matter. You control four of them.
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1
A complete, accurate Google Business Profile
The right primary category plus secondary categories, your list of services, the areas you serve, correct hours, real photos of your work, and regular posts. Google says businesses with complete and accurate info are more likely to show up in local results.
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2
Steady, fresh reviews, with replies
A steady flow of new reviews beats a burst once a year. Reviews that mention the job and the town, in your customers’ own words, tell Google and shoppers what you do and where. Reply to every review, good or bad.
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3
The same name, address and phone everywhere
Your business name, address and phone number should match on your website, your Google profile, Facebook, Yelp and other directories. Mixed-up info makes it harder for Google to trust which version is right.
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4
A website with service and town pages
A page for each main service and each town you serve gives Google more to match to searches like “water heater repair in [your town].” It also gives customers a reason to call you.
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5
Proximity You can’t change this one
Where your shop or office sits. Nobody can move you closer to every customer. The other four are how you compete outside your own neighborhood.
No one can guarantee a ranking. Google says there’s no way to request or pay for a better local ranking. What you can do is give Google every reason to show you.
Example
How to read a heat map
Here’s a made-up roofing company and the search “roofer near me,” checked from 49 spots around its service area.
Before
Strong next to the shop, missing in most of the service area.
20+20+20+1820+20+20+
20+151191220+20+
17106471320+
148312916
20+94251120+
20+14108121920+
20+20+20+1520+20+20+
After
After work on the profile, reviews and website, the green spreads out.
96546812
7432359
5321236
4211125
6311237
85323610
1396571015
- Each circle is one spot in the service area. The middle circle is the shop.
- The number is where the business ranked for that search, from that spot. “20+” means it didn’t make the top 20.
- Green is where you’re getting seen. Red is where your customers are finding someone else.
Illustration only. These numbers are made up to show how a heat map works. This is not a real client and not a promised result.
How Oakwire helps
We start by showing you where you show up today. Then we work on the things that move it, as part of one connected system.
Google Business Profile optimization
Categories, services, service area, hours and photos set up to match the real business and kept accurate.
Review engine
Automatic review requests go to every customer, so fresh reviews keep coming in. Growth adds automatic review replies and weekly Google posts.
A website that matches
A fast website or landing page that matches your Google info, with every form sent straight into your CRM.
Heat map analysis
See your own heat map
Tell us your business, your town and the search you want to win. We’ll map where you show up across your service area, walk you through it in plain English, and show you what’s worth fixing first.