How to Run a 9-Point Geo-Grid Scan in SEO Autopilot

One rank number lies to you by omission. You can be #1 at your own front door and gone by the third traffic light - and a single "you're ranking #4" tells you none of that. SEO Autopilot's Geo-grid rank tab fixes this by running a live 3x3 scan across nine points around your business and showing you exactly where you win, where you disappear, and who's beating you at each spot. This is a walkthrough of how to run it and, more importantly, how to read what comes back.

A single rank number can't tell you if you have a ranking problem or just a 'my own neighborhood' problem - the grid can.

What the 9-point scan actually does

Open the Geo-grid rank tab in SEO Autopilot and you'll see a 3x3 grid overlaid on a map, centered on your business address - nine points spaced roughly 2km apart, like a tic-tac-toe board dropped over your service area.

When you run the scan, SEO Autopilot queries a live Google Maps search API at every single one of those nine points, for the keyword you're tracking. This is the same live data source behind RankLocalToday's free rank-check tool, not a modeled estimate.

At each point, it records two things: your Map Pack rank at that exact spot (or "not found" if you're outside the top 20), and the competitors who ARE showing up there - their name, star rating, and review count.

Reading the aggregate numbers

Once all nine points finish scanning, SEO Autopilot rolls the results up into a scorecard: your average rank across all nine points, your best rank, your worst rank, and how many of the nine points you're visible in at all.

The number to actually care about is Share of Local Voice (SoLV) - the percentage of the nine points where you land in the top 3. Average rank can look fine while SoLV tells a much rougher story, because one great point close to home can drag the average up while you're invisible everywhere else.

If your average rank looks decent but SoLV is low, that's the tell. It means your visibility is concentrated in a small radius, not spread across your actual service area.

Drilling into a single grid point

Every one of the nine tiles is clickable. Tap a tile and SEO Autopilot opens that point's detail: your rank there specifically, and the full list of competitors outranking you at that exact spot, with their rating and review count.

This is where the grid stops being a pretty visual and starts being a work list. If you're missing at the three points furthest from your business, that's a different problem - and a different fix - than missing at a point three blocks away.

Use this view before you touch a single competitor's listing. Knowing who's actually beating you at the point that matters saves you from optimizing against the wrong business.

Checking demand alongside rank

Next to your rank data, SEO Autopilot pulls live monthly Google search volume for every keyword you're tracking, via a live keyword-data API. Rank without demand is a vanity number - you want to know both at once.

Pair this with the cross-grid competitor leaderboard, which shows which rival businesses show up most often across your nine points: their appearance count out of 9, their share percentage, average rank, best rank, and rating/reviews.

A competitor who appears at 8 of 9 points with a mediocre rating is a more urgent target than one who appears once with five stars. The leaderboard tells you which rival is actually eating your visibility, not just who looks impressive on paper.

FAQ

How far apart are the 9 grid points?

Roughly 2km apart, arranged in a 3x3 grid centered on your business location - similar to a tic-tac-toe board laid over the map.

Is the geo-grid scan using real data or an estimate?

It's live. Each of the 9 points runs a real-time query against a live Google Maps search API, the same data source behind RankLocalToday's free rank-check tool.

What is Share of Local Voice (SoLV) and why does it matter more than average rank?

SoLV is the percentage of the 9 grid points where your business lands in the top 3 of the Map Pack. Average rank can be skewed by one strong point near your address, while SoLV shows how consistently you actually win across your service area.

Can I see which competitors are beating me at a specific point?

Yes. Click any of the 9 grid tiles to open that point's detail, which lists the top competitors ranking there along with their name, star rating, and review count.

Why would my rank be great at one point and invisible a few blocks away?

Map Pack ranking is highly location-sensitive - proximity to the searcher is one of Google's strongest local ranking signals. A business can dominate right around its own address and drop out of the top 20 just a short distance away, which is exactly what a single rank number hides.

Does the grid also show search demand, not just rank?

Yes. SEO Autopilot pulls live monthly Google search volume for every tracked keyword via a live keyword-data API, so you can see rank and demand side by side instead of chasing a keyword nobody searches for.