This local pack case study uses a grid scan of 81 separate Google Maps searches run across a Perth computer repair business’s catchment. We have not named them. Every position shown is a real search result recorded on the same day.
Most businesses check their Google Maps ranking by searching from the shop, or from home. Both give you one answer to a question that has hundreds of answers. Where you are standing changes what you see, and that single fact explains most of the confusion local businesses have about their own visibility.
Why one ranking number is useless
Ask this business where it ranks for “computer repair” and the honest answer is: between first and outside the top twenty, depending which street the customer is on. Ask about “MacBook repair” and it is first within two kilometres and invisible five kilometres out.
Neither of those is a number you can put in a report. So we stopped using one. Instead we run the same search from 81 fixed points spread across a ten kilometre square, and map what comes back.
The three maps
Same business, same day, three search terms. Each square is one real search run from that location. The outlined square is the shop.
Three maps, one business, one day. Read left to right they look like three different companies.
What the maps show
| Search term | Average | Best | In the top 3 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Computer repair | 3.7 | 1 | 52 of 75 points |
| Laptop repair | 6.3 | 1 | 22 of 47 points |
| MacBook repair | 11.1 | 1 | 14 of 73 points |
All three reach position one somewhere. Judged on best position alone, this business is number one for everything. Judged on where its customers actually are, it dominates one term, competes on the second, and is largely absent on the third.
The finding that surprised us
MacBook repair is this business’s strongest area on their website. Their MacBook screen page grew 657% in six months and is their best performing page by a distance. They fix Macs all day.
On the map, MacBook repair is their weakest term. Position one at the front door, outside the top twenty around the entire perimeter. The website has built demand across the city that the Google Business Profile cannot serve past about two kilometres.
Without the grid you would never see this. Search from the shop and MacBook repair looks like their best result, not their worst.
Distance decay, and what it tells you
Every local business fades as you move away from it. That is Google working correctly — someone five kilometres away usually wants someone closer. What matters is how fast you fade, because the rate is something you control.
| Search term | Holds top 3 to | Falls away at |
|---|---|---|
| Computer repair | ~5 km | Barely, one corner |
| Laptop repair | ~3.5 km | North-west edge |
| MacBook repair | ~2 km | The whole perimeter |
Same business, same profile, same reviews, same address. The only thing that differs is how strongly Google associates this business with each service. Computer repair reaches five kilometres. MacBook repair reaches two. That gap is not about location — it is about how completely the profile and the site describe the work.
Reviews are not the whole answer
This business has 309 reviews at an average of 4.89, with 99% of them replied to. That is a better rating than every established competitor in its area, and more reviews than the business sitting third in the local pack for the main city-wide term.
| Business | Reviews | Rating |
|---|---|---|
| This business | 309 | 4.89 |
| Competitor A | 396 | 4.5 |
| Competitor B | 326 | 4.7 |
| Competitor C | 88 | 4.8 |
Despite that, they do not appear in the local pack for the city-wide search at all, while Competitor C and its 88 reviews does. Reviews are necessary and they are not sufficient. Proximity and relevance decide the rest, and no amount of five-star feedback moves a shop closer to the city.
Which is the argument for stopping chasing the city term. A business with this review profile winning its own five kilometres is worth more than the same business coming ninth across a city it cannot service quickly anyway.
Run this on your own business
You do not need a paid tool to get most of the value. Work out how much of your catchment you are actually covering, and what it costs you.
What this local pack case study does not prove
It is one day. Local pack results move, sometimes daily, and a single scan is a photograph rather than a trend. The value comes from rerunning the identical grid and comparing, which we do quarterly.
Two limits in the data itself. Squares marked 20+ are capped by the scanner, so the true position could be far worse than twenty. And a handful of points near the shop returned an unusual zero value which we have read as top position, since they sit tightly around the address and every neighbouring point is first or second.
It also does not prove map position converts. This business ranks first across most of its area and its calls from Google were slightly down year on year. Ranking and revenue are related, not the same thing, and anyone selling you the first without measuring the second is selling you half a service.
Local pack questions, answered
What is a local pack grid scan?
It runs the same Google Maps search from many fixed geographic points around a business and records the ranking at each one. This scan used 81 points across a 5km radius, 1.25km apart. The result is a map of visibility rather than a single ranking number.
Why does my Google Maps ranking change depending on where I search from?
Because proximity is one of Google’s three main local ranking factors, alongside relevance and prominence. Google assumes someone searching for a local service wants a nearby one, so your position falls as the searcher moves away. In this scan one business ranged from first to outside the top twenty for the same search term on the same day.
Will more Google reviews get me into the local pack?
They help, but they will not override distance. The business in this case study has 309 reviews at 4.89 and still does not appear in the local pack for a city-wide search, while a competitor with 88 reviews does — because that competitor is closer to the searcher. Reviews win you your own area, not somebody else’s.
How far should a local business expect to rank?
It depends on competition density and how completely your profile describes what you do. In this scan the same business held the top three to roughly five kilometres on its strongest term and only two kilometres on its weakest. The difference was relevance, not distance, which means it is fixable.
How often should I scan?
Quarterly is enough for most local businesses, using identical grid points each time so the comparison is real. Scanning more often mostly captures normal day-to-day movement rather than genuine change.
If you run a local business
Search your main service from your shop, then from a suburb three kilometres away, then from one five kilometres away. If the answer changes sharply, you have the same gap this business has, and you now know roughly where it starts.
We run grid scans for every local client and publish what they show, including the terms that go backwards. If you want to see your own coverage mapped, get in touch, or read how the rest of the work fits together on our local SEO page.
Two companion pieces: our plumber SEO case study covers a business six months in where rankings moved before traffic did, and the law firm SEO case study covers twelve months where the traffic did arrive.
