# Google My Business Rank Tracker This tool lets you track your Google Business profile's ranking on Google Maps search results for specific locations. It also provides insights about your competitors, helping you develop strategies to improve your ranking.

### Setup the Google Places API 1. Visit 2. Choose an existing project or create a new one. 3. Search for "**API & Services**" in the top search bar.

4. Click on the "**Library**" in the left sidebar.

5. Search for "Places API" in the search bar and make sure to select **Places API (New).** Then enable it.

6. Do another the search for "**Maps JavaScript API**" in the search bar and enable it.

7. Do another search for "**Geocoding API**" and enable it.

8. Visit the **Key & Credentials** from the left sidebar. Then, click the "Create Credentials" button at the top to add a new **API key**.

9. *\[Optional]* After creating an API key, you can name it for easy identification. There's no need to restrict the key since it stays on your machine and remains invisible to others.

Click the "Edit API Key" button to name your API Key.

10. Finally, copy the API key and paste it into SEO Utils's settings page.

You can access the settings page from the top-right **App dropdown** in SEO Utils app.

{% hint style="warning" %} Google might require adding billing information because Google Places API is an enterprise API. However, they will give you $200 free credit every month, and SEO Utils only use that API to search for the location. It's not even a $1 per month fee. {% endhint %} ### Create Your First Rank Tracking Grid After setting up a Google Places API key, go to the Google My Business (GMB) Rank Tracker tool in the left sidebar. Then, click the "Create Rank Tracking Grid" button to start creating your first rank tracking grid.

Access the Google My Business Rank Tracker tool

You'll find a search bar at the top. Start typing the name of your target business, and it will suggest business locations using the Google Places API that you integrated in the first step.

**Updated June 13, 2024: Adding a business using Google Maps URL.** Since version 1.15.3, you can add a business using a Google Maps URL. This is especially useful for adding Service Area Businesses (SAB) that don't have a physical address and therefore aren't listed in the Google Places API.

*This is an example of a Google Maps URL:* After selecting a business, you can choose a grid size from the Gird Size dropdown.

The **"3x3" preset** creates 9 markers on the map, each with its own coordinates to track the ranking of your business. You can click on a marker to enable or disable it. If a marker is disabled, SEO Utils won't track the ranking for that location. To remove a marker, simply click the "X" button attached to it.

{% hint style="info" %} **Tip**: To save resources, you should disable or remove markers in areas where you know nobody will be searching for keywords, such as in the sea or other irrelevant locations. You can do this automatically using the **Auto-Disable Uninhabited Markers** feature described below. {% endhint %} #### Auto-Disable Uninhabited Markers When you place a grid over coastal areas, islands, or regions with large forests or deserts, some markers will inevitably land on locations where no one lives — making them pointless for tracking rankings. Instead of manually disabling each one, you can use the **Auto-Disable** button to handle this automatically. Click the **Eraser button** in the top-right corner of the map. SEO Utils will check all enabled markers against OpenStreetMap data and automatically disable any that fall on: * **Water** — oceans, seas, lakes, rivers * **Forests & woodlands** * **Deserts, sand, and bare rock** * **Wetlands & marshes** * **Glaciers** * **Military zones**

The Eraser button auto-disables markers in uninhabited areas like water and forests

After the check completes, a notification will tell you how many markers were disabled. You can always re-enable any marker by clicking on it. {% hint style="info" %} The check sends your marker coordinates to public OpenStreetMap servers — no API key is required. For a 7×7 grid, it typically takes 3–5 seconds to complete. {% endhint %} You can also add a custom marker by clicking anywhere on the map.

{% hint style="info" %} The "No preset" option provides you with a blank map, allowing you to add all markers manually. {% endhint %} #### Use Radius Field The “**Use Radius**” field lets you choose between two methods for defining grid spacing. When enabled, it allows you to create a grid centered on a specific point using a defined radius. For example, if you set the radius to 2 miles and the grid size to 11x11, SEO Utils will generate a grid extending 2 miles in all directions from the center point.

Alternatively, if the “**Use Radius**” field is turned off, you can directly adjust the spacing between individual grid points.

Use Radius is OFF & Grid Point Spacing = 2 miles

{% hint style="info" %} In crowded areas, a smaller radius, like 1-1.5 miles, is typically better. In rural areas, you might want to expand the radius up to 10 miles. You can change the "**Unit**" setting to Miles or Meters. SEO Utils automatically sets the unit to Miles if your default location is in the US; for other locations, it uses Meters. {% endhint %} When everything is set, click the blue "**Play**" button to continue. A modal will pop up; let's go through all the fields together to fully understand them.

1. **Report name:** You can set a report name in this field. Default value is your business address. 2. **Location / Language:** Select the location and language relevant to where your business is situated. 3. **Keywords**: Enter the list of keywords you want to track. 4. You can also choose how often you want the report to be updated. There are four options:

* **Weekly**: SEO Utils will check the ranking for all keywords every Monday. * **Twice per month**: SEO Utils will check the ranking twice per month - once during the 1st-14th period and once during the 15th-end of month period. * **Monthly**: SEO Utils will check the ranking for all keywords on the first day of each month. * **One time**: The ranking will be checked just once after you create the report, but you can rerun the report manually whenever you choose. 5. If you want to schedule report runs during business hours or days for more accurate ranking results, you can set it up as shown in the following image:

{% hint style="info" %} To have SEO Utils automatically re-run the report, you will need to keep the app open. {% endhint %} #### How Schedule Day Selection Works When you disable "Run on any days", you can select specific days for your report to run. The selection type depends on your schedule frequency: | Schedule | Selection Type | Behavior | | ------------------- | ----------------------------- | -------------------------------------------------------------------- | | **Weekly** | Multi-select (checkboxes) | Report runs once on **each** selected day per week | | **Twice-per-month** | Single-select (radio buttons) | Report runs once per period (1st-14th, 15th-end) on the selected day | | **Monthly** | Single-select (radio buttons) | Report runs once per month on the selected day | **Examples:** * **Weekly + Monday & Friday selected**: Report runs every Monday AND every Friday (2 runs/week) * **Monthly + Monday selected**: Report runs once per month, only on Mondays (if the 1st is a Wednesday, it waits until the first Monday) * **Twice-per-month + Friday selected**: Report runs on the first Friday of each half-month period (2 runs/month max) {% hint style="warning" %} For Monthly and Twice-per-month schedules, only one day can be selected. This prevents confusion about when exactly the report should run within each period. {% endhint %} {% hint style="info" %} **Manual runs affect scheduled runs:** If you have a Weekly report scheduled for Sunday but manually run it on Wednesday, the scheduled Sunday run will be skipped because a snapshot already exists for that week. The same applies to Monthly and Twice-per-month schedules—one snapshot per period. {% endhint %} 6. **Scrape Data With**: Select the method you want to scrape the SERP data. * **SERP API: DataForSEO**. Use SERP API from DataForSEO to scrape SERP data. * **My IP (Coming soon):** SEO Utils use your IP to scrape SERP data. This is not recommended if you have over 100 grid points to check. * **Proxies (Coming soon):** Use proxies to scrape SERP data. See how to set up a proxy [here](https://help.seoutils.app/guide/how-to-use-proxies). {% hint style="warning" %} **Important:** To use the SERP API, you must have your own DataForSEO account. [Renting API key services](https://help.seoutils.app/guide/rent-dataforseo-api-key) isn't viable because DataForSEO restricts certain endpoints that I utilized to implement the Queue mode. If multiple users rely on a rented API key from my account, it will slow down the process for everyone. For the quickest results, using your own DataForSEO account is the best approach. {% endhint %} This section will also display the cost for each run, but only for the **SERP API: DataForSEO** method, as the other methods do not involve pay-as-you-go costs.

Cost for each run using **SERP API: DataForSEO** method.

After clicking the "Create Report" button, you will be redirected to the report dashboard. Here, you can view all the snapshots within that report, see the rankings for each grid point, and check the list of competitors. #### Updates on v1.21.0 Since v121.0, you can set the grid shape to Square or Circle.

#### Custom Polygon Grid In addition to Square and Circle grids, you can select **Polygon** as the grid shape. This lets you draw a custom boundary on the map and distribute pins only inside that area — useful for targeting specific neighborhoods while avoiding water, forests, highways, or other irrelevant zones. **How to use:** {% stepper %} {% step %} **Select Polygon Grid Shape** In the Grid Shape dropdown, select **Polygon**. Drawing mode activates automatically — you'll see the "Drawing Mode" button highlighted and a help text prompting you to click on the map.

Polygon mode with drawing indicator active

{% endstep %} {% step %} **Draw Your Polygon** Click on the map to place polygon vertices. Click the first point again to close the polygon. After drawing, you can drag vertices to adjust the shape.

{% endstep %} {% step %} **Choose Distribution Mode & Generate Pins** Select a **Pin Distribution** mode and click **Generate Pins**: | Mode | Description | | -------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | **Grid-based** | Places pins in a uniform grid pattern inside the polygon, spaced according to your Grid Spacing setting | | **Random** | Distributes the specified number of pins randomly inside the polygon |

Grid-based pins distributed inside the polygon

{% endstep %} {% endstepper %} {% hint style="warning" %} For **Grid-based** distribution, make sure the Grid Spacing is small enough relative to your polygon size. For example, a polygon covering a 1-mile area needs 0.1 miles spacing (not 0.5 miles) to generate a dense grid. If the spacing is too large, you'll see very few pins. {% endhint %} {% hint style="info" %} Generated polygon pins work exactly like regular grid markers — you can enable/disable, drag, delete, and use the Auto-Disable Uninhabited Markers feature on them. {% endhint %} ### How to Use the Report Dashboard Please check out the images below to see how to navigate and use the report dashboard effectively.

You can select different keywords to view their respective data.

Statistics of the current report:

Click on a grid point to view the competitors that are ranking at that specific location.

Click on a grid point to view more data.

You can navigate to the "Competitors" tab to view a list of competitors who are ranking for the selected keywords.

View all competitors across all grid points in the current snapshot.

You can also click on the business name to see where your competitors rank on the map, making it easy to compare with your own ranking.

Click on the Business Name to view its ranking on the map.

### Marker & Map Interactions #### Moving Markers You can move a marker by dragging and dropping it to a new position. You can also hold the **Shift** key to select and move multiple markers simultaneously.

#### Bulk Delete Markers You can hold the **Shift** key to select multiple markers and press the **Delete** or **Backspace** key to delete them all at once. #### Use Measuring Tool [Since v1.30.0](https://help.seoutils.app/changelog#v1.30.0), you can measure the distance between two or multiple points on the map using the measuring tool.

#### Demographics Layer (Census Data) The Demographics layer lets you visualize population data directly on your ranking grid map. This helps you identify which areas have the most potential customers and understand the demographics of your service area.

**Data Sources:** * **US Locations**: Data is pulled directly from the **US Census Bureau** (free, no API key required). This provides detailed tract-level data including population density, median household income, homeowner percentage, and median age. * **UK Locations (England & Wales)**: Data is pulled from the **ONS Census 2021** and **ONS Small Area Income Estimates** (free, no API key required). This provides LSOA-level data including population density, average household income (£), homeowner percentage, and median age. * **Australia**: Data is pulled from the **ABS Census 2021** (free, no API key required). This provides SA2-level data including population density, median household income (A$), homeowner percentage, and median age. * **Canada**: Data is pulled from **Statistics Canada Census 2021** (free, no API key required). This provides ADA-level data including population density, median household income (C$), homeowner percentage, and median age. Covers all of Canada including rural areas. * **Other International Locations**: Uses **Geoapify API** (requires API key). This provides basic population and density data at the city/locality level. {% hint style="info" %} **US, UK, Australian, and Canadian users don't need to configure anything** — demographic data works automatically without any API key. UK data covers England and Wales (Geoapify is used as a fallback for Scotland and Northern Ireland). {% endhint %} **Setup for Other International Users:** If you're tracking businesses outside the US, UK, Australia, and Canada, you'll need a Geoapify API key: 1. Visit [geoapify.com](https://www.geoapify.com/) and create a free account 2. Go to your dashboard and create a new API key 3. In SEO Utils, go to **Service Settings** > **Google My Business Rank Tracker** 4. Paste your API key in the "Geoapify API Key" field {% hint style="warning" %} **Note**: Geoapify data is less granular than US, UK, Australian, or Canadian Census data. It only provides population and density at the city/locality level, without income, homeowner, or age demographics. {% endhint %} **Visualization Modes:** Click the Demographics button (people icon) in the top-right corner of the map to toggle the layer.

When enabled, you can switch between four visualization modes: | Mode | Description | Use Case | | ----------------- | -------------------------------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------ | | **Density** | Population per square mile | Find high-traffic areas | | **Median Income** | Household income levels ($, £, A$, or C$ depending on country) | Target areas with higher purchasing power | | **Homeowners** | Percentage of owner-occupied homes | Perfect for HVAC, roofing, solar, home services | | **Median Age** | Median age of residents | Target specific demographics (55+ for estate planning, healthcare) | All modes use a heat map color scale: 🟡 Low → 🟠 Medium → 🔴 High **Using Demographics Layer:** 1. Click the **Demographics button** (people icon) to enable the layer 2. Select a visualization mode from the dropdown that appears 3. Click on any colored area to see detailed statistics 4. The legend in the bottom-left shows the color scale for the current mode {% hint style="success" %} **Pro Tip**: Use the Homeowner % layer to find neighborhoods with 80%+ homeowners - perfect for home service businesses like HVAC, roofing, or solar. Use the Median Age layer to find areas with 55+ demographics for estate planning or healthcare services. {% endhint %} #### Money Map Money Map is an overlay layer that displays where your website visitors and phone calls are coming from, directly on the ranking grid map. This helps you visualize which areas are generating the most engagement for your business.

**Requirements:** To use Money Map, you need a [RingTonic](https://ringtonic.app) account with the Agency plan. RingTonic is a call tracking and visitor analytics platform that provides the location data. **Setup:** 1. **Get your RingTonic API Key:** * Log in to your RingTonic account * Follow the [RingTonic API guide](https://help.ringtonic.app/guides/api) to generate an API key * In SEO Utils, go to **Service Settings** > **Google My Business Rank Tracker** * Paste your API key in the "RingTonic API Key" field 2. **Set the Campaign UUID for each report:** * Edit your GMB Rank Tracker report * Go to the **Integrations** tab * Enter your RingTonic Campaign UUID (found in your RingTonic campaign settings) **Using Money Map:** Once configured, click the Money Map button (banknote icon) in the top-right corner of the map to toggle the layer on/off.

The layer displays: * **Blue heatmap & markers**: Website visitors with known locations * **Orange heatmap & markers**: Phone calls with known locations A legend in the bottom-right corner shows the visitor and call counts, along with the date range (30 days ending on the selected snapshot date). {% hint style="info" %} **Tip**: The Money Map data automatically refreshes when you switch between snapshots, showing you the 30-day period leading up to each snapshot date. {% endhint %} {% hint style="info" %} **Tip**: Zoom in on the map to see individual location markers with exact counts. At lower zoom levels, only the heatmap is shown for better performance. {% endhint %} #### Expand Map If you need more space to work on the map, you can easily adjust it by following the instructions in the image below.

#### Bird's Eye View This view provides an overview of the ranking and rank changes for all snapshots in your campaign through color progression. It displays data not just for your business, but also for your competitors. It is compatible with both preset and custom grids.

### Manage Keywords You can easily manage your keywords in the **Manage Keywords** section—enable, disable, add, or delete them as needed.

{% hint style="info" %} Disabled keywords are **excluded** from both scheduled and manual tracking. {% endhint %} Need to track a single keyword? Just use the filter to quickly disable all others, allowing you to run a snapshot for the one that matters most.

### Export Your Reports You can export the Local Grid Report in PDF or HTML format. Additionally, you can personalize the report cover with your own branding. Please watch this video to see it in action. {% embed url="" fullWidth="true" %} #### Interactive Maps in HTML Exports When exporting a report as HTML, you can enable **Interactive Maps** so that anyone opening the file can pan, zoom, and interact with the Google Maps in the report — just like in the app. Since the exported HTML file will be shared publicly (e.g., sent to clients), you should **not** embed your main Google Places API key. Instead, you need to create a separate, restricted API key that only works on specific websites. **Setting Up a Restricted API Key:** {% stepper %} {% step %} **Enable Maps JavaScript API** Make sure the **Maps JavaScript API** is enabled for your project. You can check this under **APIs & Services** > **Library** and search for "Maps JavaScript API".

{% endstep %} {% step %} **Create a Restricted API Key** Go to [Google Cloud Console](https://console.cloud.google.com/) > **APIs & Services** > **Credentials** and click **Create Credentials** > **API Key**. You can configure the restrictions directly on the creation screen: * Give it a name like "Interactive Maps in HTML Exports" * Under **Application restrictions**, select **Websites** * Under **Website restrictions**, click **Add** and enter the domains where the HTML file will be hosted. For example: * `https://yourdomain.com/*` * `https://clientdomain.com/*` * Under **API restrictions**, select **Restrict key** and choose **Maps JavaScript API**

Create and restrict an API key in one step

{% hint style="warning" %} Do not reuse your main Google Places API key. Create a separate key specifically for HTML exports. {% endhint %} {% hint style="info" %} If you're opening the HTML file locally (from your computer), the referrer restriction won't apply and the map won't load. The file must be hosted on a web server matching the allowed referrers. {% endhint %} {% endstep %} {% step %} **Save the Key in SEO Utils** Go to **Service Settings** > **Google My Business Rank Tracker** and paste the restricted key in the **Interactive Maps API Key** field. This key will be pre-filled automatically whenever you export an HTML report with interactive maps.

{% hint style="info" %} You can also enter the key directly in the export modal each time if you prefer not to save it. {% endhint %} {% endstep %} {% endstepper %} **Exporting with Interactive Maps:** 1. Open the report preview and click **Download HTML** 2. Toggle **Enable Interactive Maps** on 3. Enter your restricted API key (or use the pre-filled key from settings) 4. Click **Export HTML**

Toggle **Enable Interactive Maps** on when exporting as HTML file.

The exported file will include the Google Maps JavaScript API and all map data, allowing recipients to fully interact with the ranking grid maps. {% hint style="danger" %} **Never share your main API key** in exported files. Always use a restricted key with HTTP referrer restrictions. An unrestricted key embedded in a public HTML file can be stolen and used to rack up charges on your Google Cloud account. {% endhint %} ### How to Use Comparison Tool [In v1.18.2](https://help.seoutils.app/changelog#v1.18.2), I've just added a comparison tool to the GMB Rank Tracker. It's flexible, allowing you to compare rankings in different ways. You can select the same snapshot and two different businesses to compare your rankings with competitors, or you can compare the same business across two snapshots to see how rankings change over time.

Access the comparasion tool from the Action dropdown in the report page.

Next, you need to select a candidate to compare.

Select a snapshot and a business to compare

You can choose 2 businesses in the same snapshot to compare your ranking with your competitors.

You can choose 2 snapshots from one business to see how the rankings change over time.

### Opening Hours Since v1.18.3, SEO Utils allows you to quickly compare your opening hours with your competitors' to see if hours are impacting rankings.

See the opening hours in the Competitors tab.

{% hint style="info" %} To see the **open/closed indicator**, SEO Utils uses the timezone you set when running the report. If the timezone isn’t set, SEO Utils won’t display the indicator since it can’t determine the correct opening hours. {% endhint %} ### Annotations [Since v1.30.0](https://help.seoutils.app/changelog#v1.30.0), the GMB Rank Tracker timeline has been updated to support annotations directly on the snapshot tree. This lets you easily add notes about important changes you’ve made to your Google Business Profile—like updates to your business info, new photos, or review responses—so you can better track what might be influencing your local rankings.

You can add your own annotations and hide them from the tree.

{% hint style="success" %} SEO Utils automatically adds **Google Update annotations** to your ranking timeline, making it easy to see how major updates impact your rankings. {% endhint %} ### Tracking Grid Styles #### Markers: Color & Size By default, SEO Utils only show 3 main colors for the markers, if you would like to display more colors, you can toggle the "Show More Color Variants" switch on. You can also set a smaller marker size for your ranking grid if you have a small screen. You can visit the **Google My Business Rank Tracker** settings page from the **Service** settings menu on the left sidebar to view all the options.

Display additional color variants for the ranking grid points.

#### Glow Effect The Glow Effect adds a subtle luminous border around ranking markers on the map, making them more visually prominent and easier to spot at a glance.

To enable or disable the glow effect: 1. Go to **Service Settings** > **Google My Business Rank Tracker** 2. Toggle the "**Enable Glow Effect**" switch 3. The change applies immediately to all ranking grids {% hint style="info" %} **Note**: The glow effect is automatically removed when exporting reports to PDF to ensure clean, professional-looking documents. HTML exports will preserve the glow effect if enabled. {% endhint %} ## Troubleshooting #### Snapshots Stuck When Using DataForSEO If you’re using DataForSEO to scrape SERP data and notice some snapshots remain stuck loading for hours, you can resolve the issue using the “**Free Stuck GMB Rank Trackers**” tool. Here’s how: 1\. Navigate to Service Settings > DataForSEO Settings. 2\. In the DataForSEO Actions dropdown, select “Free Stuck GMB Rank Trackers”

{% hint style="warning" %} The process may take some time to complete, and you won’t be able to use the app until it finishes. {% endhint %} ### Multi-Location Businesses If you manage multiple locations for the same business, you can group your reports together for a unified dashboard with aggregated visibility scores, rankings, and trends across all locations. {% content-ref url="google-my-business-rank-tracker/report-groups" %} [report-groups](https://help.seoutils.app/guide/google-my-business-rank-tracker/report-groups) {% endcontent-ref %}