📍 What a local heatmap actually shows
A local heatmap does not give one rank for a whole town. It checks your Google Business Profile at many map points inside a circle and colors each point by position. A strong pin in Pike Creek and a weak pin a few miles north can both be correct at the same time.
Google weighs three things for each searcher location: how close the business is, how relevant the profile and website are to the keyword, and how prominent the business looks compared with nearby competitors. Distance is often the strongest factor once you leave the immediate area.
📉 Why you can be number 4 in town and outside the top 20 nearby
Ranking about number 4 at the center and falling out of the top 20 roughly three miles north is a common distance drop, not a broken scan. At the northern points, Google is comparing you with businesses that are physically closer to those searchers.
- Proximity: each grid point acts like a different searcher. Competitors nearer that point usually win even if you lead at your own address.
- Competition: a denser cluster of similar businesses north of town can push you down only on that side of the grid.
- Relevance: if your categories, services, and location pages match the town center better than the northern area, ranks fall off faster in that direction.
- Scan keyword: a broad keyword and a service-plus-city keyword can produce very different grids. Compare the same keyword across scans.
Months without movement usually means competitors are matching or beating the same signals, not that posts failed to publish. Map ranks also move slowly. One strong month of activity rarely shifts a stable grid.
📸 Why posts and photos alone rarely move the grid
Google Business Profile posts and new photos help keep the profile active and can support clicks, but they are a small part of local rank. If those are already in place, focus on signals that change who wins at each pin.
- Primary category and services: confirm the main category matches the keyword you track. Add only services you actually offer.
- Reviews: ask recent customers for honest reviews that mention the service and the area. Reply to new reviews. Steady review velocity matters more than a one-time burst.
- Name, address, and phone: use the same business name, address, and phone on the profile, website, and major directories.
- Website relevance: give the tracked service a clear page with the city or neighborhood in the title, headings, and body. Link that page from the profile when Google allows a website or appointment URL.
- Citations: fix outdated listings that still show an old address, phone, or name.
Do not stuff the business name with cities or keywords. That can lead to a profile suspension and will not fix a distance drop.
📏 Why the saved radius can show 6 miles instead of 5
The radius is the distance from the center pin to the outer edge of the scan, not a promise that every labeled point lands on exactly five miles. A grid has a center point plus evenly spaced rows and columns. Search Atlas places those points so the circle is covered. Depending on grid size, the outer points can sit slightly past the number you typed, so a scan you think of as five miles can save and display as about six miles.
Also check which report you opened. The radius on screen belongs to that saved scan. An older run, a duplicated report, or a different keyword can still be set to six miles even after you changed a newer draft to five.
- Open the heatmap and confirm the keyword, center address, grid size, and radius before you run it again.
- Save only after those fields match what you want to compare.
- Compare ranks only between scans that use the same keyword, center, grid size, and radius. A larger circle adds farther, harder points and can make the map look worse.
- If you need a tighter view of Pike Creek, rerun with the smaller radius and the same grid size, then use that new scan as the baseline.
🛠️ A practical plan when the grid has been flat for months
- Pick one primary keyword and keep the center on the profile address.
- Note the three-mile northern pins that fall out of the top 20 and list who outranks you there.
- Improve the profile signals above, then publish or refresh the matching service page.
- Rerun the same scan after a few weeks, not every day. Look for pin-level gains, not only the center rank.
- Treat the northern drop as a proximity gap. You will rarely own every pin several miles away unless competitors there are weak.
💬 When to contact support
Contact support if the radius still changes after you save a new scan, if the center is not your business address, or if two scans with the same settings show different radii. If you need further assistance, open the chat widget in the bottom-right corner of the platform and type human teammate to be instantly connected with a member of our team.