📍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.

Google My Business Rank Tracker tool

Setup the Google Places API

1. Visit https://console.cloud.google.com/

2. Choose an existing project or create a new one.

3. Search for "API & Services" in the top search bar.

Search for "API & Services"

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

Select "Library" from 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.

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.

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.

Search for your target business.

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: https://www.google.ca/maps/place/Sequoia+TreeScape+Tree+Service/@44.043951,-79.4501204,17z/data=!3m1!4b1!4m6!3m5!1s0x882ad2157062b6c3:0xe060d065957c4103!8m2!3d44.043951!4d-79.4501204!16s%2Fg%2F1hhwl0yp8?entry=ttu

After selecting a business, you can choose a grid size from the Gird Size dropdown.

Select a grid point preset

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.

Disabled markers

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 also add a custom marker by clicking anywhere on the map.

Add custom markers

The "No preset" option provides you with a blank map, allowing you to add all markers manually.

The "Spacing" field allows you to adjust the radius of the grid around each marker. 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.

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.

Create report modal

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 three options:

• Weekly: SEO Utils will check the ranking for all keywords every Monday.

• 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:

Set time window and timezone.

To have SEO Utils automatically re-run the report, you will need to keep the app open.

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.

Important: To use the SERP API, you must have your own DataForSEO account. Renting API key services 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.

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.

How to Use the Report Dashboard

Please check out the images below to see how to navigate and use the report dashboard effectively.

Report dashboard in the first view

You can select different keywords to view their respective data.

Statistics of the current report:

View statistics of the current report in the Overview tab.

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.

Moving markers around

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.

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.

Expanding the map to have more space.

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.

Bird's Eye View

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.