Local Rank Tracking: Geo-Grid SERP Position Monitoring
Local rank tracking shows your SERP positions on a geographic grid — see how rankings vary by location and where you are winning or losing against competitors.
Local Rank Tracking: Geo-Grid SERP Position Monitoring
Local rank tracking monitors where your website ranks in search results depending on the physical location of the searcher. For businesses with a local service area — restaurants, contractors, medical practices, law firms, retailers — ranking position varies significantly by location. A business might rank #1 in the city center but #8 three miles away.
What Local Rank Tracking Measures
ElasticDomain's local rank module places a grid of virtual "searcher locations" over a geographic area you define. For each grid point, it queries search results for your target keywords and records your ranking position.
The output is a heat map: green cells where you rank well, red cells where competitors outrank you.
Setting Up Local Rank Tracking
- Go to Tools → Local Rank (or find it in the dashboard under your domain).
- Create a new rank tracking campaign:
- Target domain — the domain you are tracking
- Keywords — the search terms you want to rank for (e.g., "plumber in london", "emergency dentist")
- Center location — the geographic center of your target area
- Grid size — how large an area to cover (3x3, 5x5, 7x7, etc.)
- Grid spacing — distance between grid points (e.g., 1km, 2km, 5km)
- Run the initial scan to establish your baseline positions.
Reading the Geo-Grid
The grid map shows a cell for each location point. Each cell shows:
- Your current ranking position (1 = top result)
- Color coding: green (rank 1-3), yellow (rank 4-10), red (rank 11+), grey (not ranking)
Hover over a cell to see:
- Exact ranking position
- URL that ranked (may differ by location)
- Top competitors at that location
Competitor Rank Comparison
Add competitor domains to the same campaign to see their grid alongside yours:
- Side-by-side grid comparison
- Where competitors outrank you (priority areas to improve)
- Where you outrank competitors (areas to defend)
Trend Tracking
Run scans periodically (weekly recommended for local rank) to see how positions change over time. The trend view shows:
- Position changes per grid cell since last scan
- Overall average rank across the grid
- Win/loss count (cells where you improved vs declined)
Use Cases
Local service businesses: See exactly which neighborhoods you are winning and losing, then focus local SEO effort on high-priority losing zones.
Franchise / multi-location: Track each location's local ranking performance independently.
Agency reporting: Generate grid screenshots for client reports demonstrating local SEO progress.
Competitor analysis: Map a competitor's local visibility to understand their geographic strength.
Tips
- Start with a small grid (3x3) to understand the pattern before expanding
- Track your most commercially important keywords first
- Local rankings can fluctuate significantly day-to-day — weekly snapshots give a more stable trend than daily