What 1,000,000 Grid Ranks Have to Teach Us About Local SEO

At Local U Global 2025, Andrew Shotland (Local SEO Guide) shared findings from a large-scale study in partnership with Semrush, using their Map Rank Tracker (MRT) a geo-grid tool that maps Google Business Profile (GBP) visibility across physical locations.

Over 1 million Local Pack ranking points were analysed across 10 industries in 10 U.S. cities. Businesses were grouped into the top (10%), mid (20–50%), and low performers, and Semrush’s web data (backlinks, traffic, meta info) was overlaid to uncover what actually drives Local Pack visibility.

TL;DR: What Should You Be Doing in Local SEO Right Now?

• 🗳️ Collect reviews consistently — freshness matters more than perfection
• 🏙️ Use location + service keywords in title tags, URLs, and H1s
• ❌ Avoid redirects in GBP website links
• 🏷️ Choose all relevant GBP categories
• 🔗 Prioritise high-quality backlinks from domains that link to you more than once

🔍 Key Insights from the Study

✅ Review volume & recency correlate with higher rankingsMore reviews, especially recent ones, had a stronger impact than average star ratings.

❌ Star ratings don’t impact rankingsA business with a lower rating but more reviews often outranked one with a higher rating and fewer reviews.

🏷️ More GBP categories = better performanceBusinesses that selected multiple relevant categories tended to outrank others — likely reflecting better marketing.

🔗 Redirects in GBP website URLs hurt rankingsListings linking to redirected pages performed worse, reinforcing the importance of clean, direct URLs.

📍 Ranking proximity is still realMost GBPs don’t rank far from their physical location. The average Share of Local Voice (SOLV) across an 11x11mi grid for top performers was just ~2%.

🌐 On-page signals (titles, URLs, H1s) still matterUsing city names and category keywords in your GBP landing page and homepage content helps — classic local SEO.

🧩 Quality of backlinks > sheer volumePost-March Core Update, Google seemed to favour sites with more links per domain and diverse linking domains. Spammy link footprints (lots of one-offs) underperformed.

Bonus Insight: AI Is Changing the Local Search Game

Greg Sterling’s follow-up notes highlight a growing trend: AI Overviews (AIOs) are now showing in local results. While their impact on the Local Pack is still unclear, they’re reducing organic CTRs — pushing even more importance onto GBP optimisation and visibility in map results.

This study is part of a broader effort to quantify local SEO at scale. Shotland’s team plans to release more quarterly reports.

Link to Presentation