Google Maps rank

When someone nearby searches Google Maps for "bakery near me", the businesses at the top get the visits. Chiffchaff checks where you show for a few searches you pick, from a grid of points around your location, so you can see where you're easy to find and where others come first.

How many searches

• Solo and Duo: 3 searches, checked every 2 weeks from 25 points (a 5 by 5 grid).
• Crew and Group: 5 searches, checked every week from 49 points (a 7 by 7 grid). On Group that's for each location.

The free trial has Crew's 5. To compare plans, see Plans and billing.

Pick your searches

Owners and managers set them in the Google Maps rank section of the Listing page.

1. We suggest searches from your Google category and services, like "bakery near me" or "birthday cakes". Click Track these searches to start with them.
2. To add your own, type it under Add a search and click Add. Plain words work best; leave out quotes and minus signs.
3. Stop tracking takes one off. Its past results stay.

The first check runs within the hour, then on your plan's schedule.

How far the grid reaches

How far your customers come from sets how far the grid reaches from your location in every direction. Auto uses about 1 mile for shops, cafés and barbers and 10 miles for trades that travel to customers. Pick a bigger area if people come from across town.

Reading the map

Each square is one point on the grid, with north at the top and your location underlined in the middle. The number is where you ranked in the map results from that spot:

• The darkest squares are the top 3, the ones most people see.
• Lighter squares are 4 to 10, then 11 to 20.
• An outlined square marked 20+ means you weren't in the top 20 there.

Click a square to see who ranked above you from that spot. Show as a table lists every point.

Next to the map:

• Average rank across every point, counting a point outside the top 20 as 21, and how it changed since the last check. Lower is better.
• Most often ahead of you: the businesses that ranked above you at the most points. If you compare with them in Compare with nearby businesses, it says so.
• Ways to climb: when your average is outside the top 3, the open items from your profile checklist. A complete, active Google profile is one of the things Google weighs.

In your monthly recap

Your monthly recap lists each search's average rank at the month's last check and how it changed since the month before.

What we send

To check a search we send the search words and the grid points' map coordinates to our data provider, DataForSEO. To find your location on the map the first time, we send your business name and address. Never anything about your customers.