A grid point is a single latitude-and-longitude location in a Local Grid where RankGear runs a Maps search and records where a business appears in the results.
| Term | Grid Point |
|---|---|
| Category | Local SEO and Maps |
| Also known as | Scan Point |
| Where it appears | Local Grid report |
What it means in RankGear
A Local Grid report is built from many grid points arranged across a geographic area. Each point is a fixed coordinate — one pin on the map — and at that coordinate RankGear performs a Maps search as if a searcher were standing there, then records the position where the tracked business turned up. One grid point is therefore a single measurement, and the full grid is the collection of those measurements laid out over a neighborhood, city, or region. Because Maps results shift with the searcher’s location, sampling many discrete points is what lets the report show how visibility rises and falls as you move across the map rather than reporting one blended number.
How to interpret it
Read a grid point as one observation taken under a specific set of conditions, not as a verdict about the business overall. Before you trust the pattern a grid point contributes to, confirm the things that define it: the exact coordinate, the search provider supplying the data, the spacing between points, how deep the results were scanned, and which business identity was tracked. A point can return three different outcomes — the business found at a good position, the business not found in range, or a provider error where no data came back — and each means something different. Compare points against their neighbors to see genuine geographic trends, and remember that any single point is a snapshot of one place at one time.
| Point outcome | What it tells you |
|---|---|
| Ranked position | The business appeared in Maps results at that coordinate, at the recorded rank. |
| Not found | The business did not appear within the scanned depth at that coordinate. |
| Provider error | No data returned for that point; treat it as missing, not as a zero ranking. |
Example
You run a Local Grid for a dental practice across a five-by-five grid covering its city. At the grid point nearest the office the practice ranks third in Maps; two points east, near a competitor’s location, it drops out of the scanned results and is marked not found; and at a point on the far edge of the grid the provider returns an error, so that cell is left blank rather than counted as a loss. Reading the three points together shows strong visibility close to the office that thins out toward the city limits — a pattern no single point could reveal.
Important considerations
- Map rankings are highly proximity-sensitive: the result at a grid point can change with the coordinate, the map zoom, the provider’s data, and the time the scan ran, so re-running the grid may shift individual points.
- A provider error at a point means data is missing, not that the business ranks zero there; treat blank cells as gaps in the sample rather than negative results.
- Grid points reflect what a chosen provider reported for a chosen coordinate; they are comparative indicators of local visibility, not Google’s own ranking scores, and a point on the map does not by itself make a business rank.
- The point’s meaning depends on its settings — coordinate center, grid spacing, scan depth, and tracked business identity — so points from grids with different settings are not directly comparable.
Related terms
Part of the RankGear glossary · how RankGear measures · the 870 factors.