Know whereyou show up.
Local search changes street by street. We measure where your business appears across the places your customers actually search from, and where your competitors get there first.
One ranking does not tell you very much.
Search for the same local service from two different parts of town and Google can show a completely different set of businesses. Distance matters. Relevance matters. Competition changes by area.
That is why a single ranking report can make a business look healthier than it really is.
We measure local visibility across the area you actually serve.
One business. One search. Dozens of different local results.
A map of your real
search visibility.
Six things we can see for a business that a single ranking cannot show.
- Map visibility
- Where the business appears strongly in Google Maps and where it falls away.
- Top-three coverage
- How much of the target area is covered by the map pack, rather than relying on one ranking.
- Competitor pressure
- Which businesses repeatedly appear above you, and where their strongest areas are.
- Town-by-town reach
- Whether visibility extends beyond the premises into the towns and areas the business actually serves.
- Movement over time
- Whether the local search footprint is growing, shrinking or standing still.
- Evidence for what comes next
- Where reviews, local content, Business Profile work and location strategy should be focused.
See the gaps.
The same search, measured from twenty-five points across one town. Each number is the position a customer standing there would see the business in.
- Search
- emergency plumber
- Area
- Stourbridge
- Measured
- this month
| Two miles west | One mile west | Centre | One mile east | Two miles east | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Two miles north | Position 2, in the map pack | Position 3, in the map pack | Position 4, visible, below the map pack | Position 8, visible, below the map pack | Position 12, effectively invisible |
| One mile north | Position 2, in the map pack | Position 2, in the map pack | Position 3, in the map pack | Position 6, visible, below the map pack | Position 10, visible, below the map pack |
| Centre | Position 1, in the map pack | Position 2, in the map pack | Position 3, in the map pack | Position 5, visible, below the map pack | Position 8, visible, below the map pack |
| One mile south | Position 2, in the map pack | Position 3, in the map pack | Position 4, visible, below the map pack | Position 7, visible, below the map pack | Position 11, effectively invisible |
| Two miles south | Position 4, visible, below the map pack | Position 5, visible, below the map pack | Position 7, visible, below the map pack | Position 10, visible, below the map pack | Position 20, effectively invisible |
- 1–3 In the map pack
- 4–10 Visible, below the pack
- 11+ Effectively invisible
- Top-three coverage
- 40%Share of the area where the business is in the map pack.
- Top-ten coverage
- 88%Share of the area where it appears on the first screen of results.
- Average position
- 5.8The one number most reports stop at.
Most reports tell you a number.
We show you the territory.
An average ranking can tell you whether things are generally moving in the right direction. It cannot tell you that you are strong in one half of Stourbridge, invisible in another, or being consistently beaten by the same competitor three miles away.
Local Search Intelligence gives us that context.
It means the next piece of SEO work is based on evidence rather than a generic checklist.
We do not just ask what you rank.
We ask where.
Measure. Find the gap.
Work the gap.
Measure again.
- Stage 01
Measure
Establish where the business is currently visible across its real market, not just at its own front door.
- Stage 02
Understand
Identify weak areas, strong competitors, and the gaps between the area the business serves and the area Google shows it in.
- Stage 03
Improve
Use that evidence to guide Business Profile work, reviews, local pages, content and the other local search work.
- Stage 04
Repeat
Measure again and see whether the footprint is genuinely expanding, or whether the work needs to change.
No single activity moves a single ranking on its own. The measurement tells us where to concentrate the work and whether it is working.
Intelligence is useful because
we act on it.
Local Search Intelligence is not a dashboard we hand over and forget about. It sits inside the local SEO work.
The measurements help us decide what deserves attention. The website, Google Business Profile, reviews, local content and technical foundations are what we work on next.
Explore Local SEOEspecially useful when location
decides who gets the call.
If customers choose between nearby businesses on Google, understanding the geography of that visibility matters.
Trades and home services
An emergency plumber is chosen from whoever appears nearest at eleven at night.
Garages and MOT centres
Drivers rarely travel past three closer options.
Dentists, clinics and practices
Patients search from their own postcode, not yours.
Solicitors, accountants and advisers
Professional services are still chosen town first, reputation second.
Restaurants, salons, shops and showrooms
Footfall follows whoever the map shows first.
Anyone serving several towns
Strong at home and invisible ten minutes away is a common pattern, and an expensive one.
We already measure
what matters.
Our work with Your Local Mechanic shows why local search deserves proper measurement. A year after the rebuild, visits from Google were five times what they had been, calls from the Google listing were up 137%, and the business ranked second for mobile mechanic searches in Halesowen and third in Brierley Hill and Kingswinford.
Those results came from the site, the profile and a review habit. Local Search Intelligence takes the measurement further: from overall performance into the geography behind it, so the next gain is chosen on evidence, town by town.
Questions
we get asked.
Is this the same as normal rank tracking?
No. Traditional rank tracking usually gives you one position for a search. Local results are heavily affected by where the search happens. We measure visibility across the area instead, so you can see where you are strong and where you are not.
Does this tell me whether I am in the Google map pack?
Yes. It helps us see where a business is appearing in the top three local results and where it is outside the positions most likely to be seen.
Can you compare us with competitors?
Yes. Competitor visibility is part of the picture. We can see which businesses repeatedly appear strongly across the same market and use that to understand where the pressure is coming from.
Do I need this if I already use Google Search Console?
Search Console is valuable and we use it extensively, but it answers different questions. It tells you which searches your website appeared for. Local Search Intelligence adds the geographic context that ordinary organic search reporting cannot provide.
Is Local Search Intelligence a separate software subscription?
No. It is part of how Stourbridge Web Studio measures and improves local search performance for suitable clients. There is nothing to log into and nothing extra to renew.
Is it included in local SEO work?
Yes. If we look after your local SEO, measuring your visibility by area is part of the monthly work and the monthly report.
If you only want to know where you stand before deciding anything, we can run a one-off measurement and talk you through it. Ask and we will quote it.
Will this guarantee that I rank in the top three?
No. Nobody can honestly guarantee a Google ranking. The value is seeing the market more clearly, making better decisions, and measuring whether the work is moving visibility in the right direction.
See where you
really show up.
Or just email
hello@stourbridgewebstudio.co.uk