📋 Overview
Local SEO Heatmaps in Search Atlas show keyword rankings across a geographic grid, giving you a visual snapshot of how your business performs in different parts of a target area. Because rankings are pulled based on precise geographic coordinates, small changes in grid settings, pin placement, or system configuration can cause rankings to shift — or appear as not rated — even if your actual Google Business Profile (GBP) performance has not changed.
This article explains the most common reasons for ranking fluctuations and what you can do to get consistent, reliable results.
🔍 Common Reasons Rankings Fluctuate or Show 'Not Rated'
Several known factors can cause keyword rankings to change unexpectedly or display as not rated for specific grid locations:
- System location dependency with pinned grids: When a pinned grid is used, ranking results can vary depending on the underlying system location at the time the scan runs. If the system location differs between scans, results for the same grid point may not match.
- Pin count exceeding 20: When the number of pins in a heatmap grid exceeds 20, ranking results become dependent on system location. This can introduce inconsistency across scans, especially for outer grid points.
- Pinned base address changed automatically: After April 25th, some heatmaps experienced an automatic change to their pinned location (base address). If your base address shifted without you changing it manually, this would alter which geographic coordinates are scanned and produce different ranking results.
- Rankings not matching live Google SERP: There is a known issue where heatmap rankings for positions above 10 may not accurately reflect what appears on a live Google Search results page. This is an active area of improvement in our engineering roadmap.
- Natural ranking volatility: Google's local search rankings fluctuate organically due to algorithm updates, competitor activity, review velocity, and proximity factors. A location showing not rated may simply mean your business did not appear in the top results for that grid point at the time of the scan.
✅ Steps to Troubleshoot Fluctuating Rankings
- Verify your pinned base address. Open your Local SEO Heatmap and confirm that the base address (pinned location) is correctly set to your business address. If it has changed, update it and re-run the scan to get accurate results.
- Check your pin count. If your heatmap grid uses more than 20 pins, consider reducing the number of grid points. Keeping pin count at 20 or below helps ensure ranking results are consistent and not affected by system location variations.
- Compare scan dates. If rankings dropped or disappeared after a specific date, check whether the scan was run after April 25th. Heatmaps affected by the automatic base address change may need their pinned location to be manually corrected before results become reliable again.
- Re-run the heatmap scan. After confirming your base address and pin settings are correct, trigger a fresh scan. Rankings for previously not rated locations may reappear once the correct grid coordinates are used.
- Cross-check with live Google results. For rankings you expect to appear in positions 1–10, manually search your target keyword on Google while setting your location to the grid point in question. This helps you determine whether the discrepancy is a display issue in the heatmap or a genuine ranking drop.
- Allow time for stabilisation. If you recently corrected your settings, run scans across two or three consecutive days. Local rankings can fluctuate naturally, and a single scan may not represent a stable baseline.
💡 Best Practices for Consistent Heatmap Results
- Keep your grid pin count at 20 or fewer to avoid system location dependency issues.
- Always confirm your pinned base address matches your verified business address before running a scan.
- Run heatmap scans at consistent times of day to reduce noise from real-time ranking fluctuations.
- Use the Rank Tracker (Left sidebar → Keywords → Rank Tracker) alongside your heatmap to monitor keyword trends over time and spot genuine ranking drops versus scan anomalies.
- Document your baseline results after a confirmed correct scan so you have an accurate reference point for future comparisons.
🛠️ Known Issues Being Addressed
Our engineering team is actively working on improvements to Local SEO Heatmap accuracy. A known regression affecting rankings above position 10 — where heatmap results do not match the live Google SERP — is currently in development. Updates will be reflected in the platform as fixes are released. No action is required on your end for this specific issue.
🙋 Need More Help?
If you have checked your base address, reduced your pin count, and re-run your scans but rankings are still showing as not rated or appear inconsistent, our team is happy to investigate further. If you need further assistance, open the chat widget in the bottom-right corner of the platform and type human teammate to be connected with a member of our team.