Adding Heatmaps

A heatmap shows where your business appears in Google Maps when someone searches a keyword from different spots around your area. Each circle on the map is one spot, and the number is your position there.

Heatmaps live in the Rankings tab of your project, in the Heatmaps sub tab next to Prompts.

Adding a heatmap

Click Add Heatmap. Pick the keyword, the area and the grid size, and choose your business profile. Click Add Heatmap in the dialog and the scan starts right away: the heatmap appears in your table immediately and fills in a few minutes later.

Use a local keyword and the area your business is actually located in. Google Maps only shows businesses that are in the searched area, so a heatmap for a town you have no address in will show little or nothing.

There are two kinds. Map Rankings shows your own positions across the area. Competition shows how many competing businesses appear across the area and their average Google rating.

Monthly rescans and changes

Every heatmap you add is rescanned automatically once a month, so you can compare each month with the one before. The table shows your average position, how much of the area you are found in, and the change since the compared scan, for example "4th (+2)" means you moved up two places. On the map itself, each spot that moved carries a small green or red badge with its own change.

By default the comparison is this month against last month. Use the calendar button to pick a different period, or look back at a past month.

Looking at the history

Click the arrow at the end of a row to open the heatmap. You'll see every monthly scan with its figures, and you can view the map of any scan. The three dots next to a scan let you download its PDF, add the heatmap to your reports, rescan it right away (once a day), or archive or delete it.

Reports

Heatmaps that are added to reports appear in your report PDFs and report links, with the same changes shown. If you'd rather not show changes in a report, tick Hide Change Metrics in the report builder.

Heatmaps are unlimited on service projects. On SEO Software projects they need an active plan, which includes 100 heatmap scans per keyword block per billing period.