Local Rank Tracker: How to Check Local Ranks

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If you have a local business, local SEO is one of the most fundamental concepts you should master to improve your ranks and get more traffic.

Tracking your local ranks is an INCREDIBLY important part of developing a successful local SEO strategy. Consider the following reasons:

• Your SERP rank varies depending on the location of your searchers. How are you supposed to find out where to focus your efforts if you don’t even know what your rank is in each location?
• Local rankings drive TONS of local foot traffic. 46% of all Google searches have local intent, so ranking for those searches can make or break your business.
• If you don’t track your local ranks, you’ll quickly fall behind your competitors on the local SERPs.

Most people still have several burning questions about local ranks: 

What does it mean to track local keyword ranks?

How is a local rank different from a global rank?

Do you NEED to check your local ranks, or can you get by without it?

These are all critical questions, so we’ll take some time to answer them (and others) in this article.

Let’s get going!

We’ll cover:

• How to Use ProRankTracker to Track Your Local Rankings
• How Do You Rank Locally?
• The Main Sources of Local Traffic
• FAQ
• Conclusion

How to Use ProRankTracker to Track Your Local Rankings

ProRankTracker is one of the best (and most reasonably priced) rank-tracking tools on the market. It has industry-leading features that don’t break the bank, even for smaller businesses.

In this section, we’ll show you exactly how to use ProRankTracker to quickly check local ranks and improve them. We highly recommend that you sign up for ProRankTracker’s 14-day free trial so you can follow along with the tips you see here.

Add Location Data to Your Tracked Terms

First, you need to add location data to each tracked term to tell ProRankTracker what location to check for each keyword/URL combo.

There are 2 places where you can do this:

• Add Wizard
• Advanced Add

The Add Wizard tool is the fastest way to add 1 or 2 new keywords.

Start by inputting your keywords and URL.

Then, select a precise location for each new term. In addition to selecting Desktop Results, I recommend selecting Android Results and iPhone Results because many local searches are done from mobile devices.

Another key component of local rank tracking is adding the language/s relevant to the target locations. If you’re hoping to make it onto the local SERPs in France, you want to make sure you track your ranks for French search terms as well!

In PRT, you can simply select the language/s you want to track in the second step of the Add Wizard.

Click the “Also track Google Snack Pack and Local Finder” button if you want to track your precise location on the Google Maps SERPs (which you should if you’re a brick-and-mortar business)! You will be prompted to input the name of your Google Business Profile to get precise data on how high you rank on Google Maps and the Snack Pack.

If you’re adding many URLs to track, the Advanced Add feature will help you add keywords and URLs to track in bulk.

Create Projects

Are you tracking the rankings for multiple businesses?

One of the best things you can do for your local search tracking efforts is organize your keywords and URLs into projects. This accomplishes a few things:

• Keeps everything in one place, saving you time looking for the correct data
• Allows you to generate reports of individual locations quickly and easily
• Gives you the ability to compare and contrast location data to see where you need to focus more efforts

To add a project in ProRankTracker:

1. Click on the “Manage” tab.

2. Click on “Projects.”

3. Click “Add new project.”

4. Select which URLs and keywords to put in your new project.

Using Projects allows you to glean a ton of essential data from the Project View (discussed further below), including quick visualization features like the heatmap and a daily graph of your ranks.

Steal Your Competitors’ Local Keywords

One of the best ways to grow your keyword strategy is to steal keywords that are already working for your competitors.

The best way to do this is to use ProRankTracker’s Rankings Discovery tool.

Add your competitor’s URL to be tracked, with at least one term. Then, select that URL in the discovery tool. This will show you the keywords they rank for.

After using the Rankings Discovery tool, use the Keyword Suggestions tool to expand your new list of keywords even more. The Keyword Suggestions tool shows you long-tail, high-value keywords based on the keywords you’re already tracking.

Using this method, you can quickly steal traffic from your competitors and grow your keyword strategy.

Use Reports and Notifications to Stay Up to Date

When you expand your SEO tracking to include dozens or hundreds of keywords, keeping track of all your ranks can quickly become unmanageable without a better system in place.

That’s where reports come in.

Reports allow you to automatically gather local ranking data without lifting a finger.

Setting up an efficient reporting system can save you HUNDREDS of hours a year on data collection and analysis.

Here’s how to set up your automated reports in ProRankTracker:

Click on the “Reports Center.”

2. Pick from a selection of over 20 report options.

 

3. Input the required details, name your report, and select an export frequency and method.

4. Receive your rankings directly in your email inbox or via direct download.

Let’s delve into a few key reports that can be used to automatically track your local Google search results.

The “Different Locations” report is invaluable for local rank tracking because it lets you see how the same keyword/URL combo ranks in various geographical areas. For example, when analyzing a single URL/keyword combination across four locations, you might find two rankings while the other two remain unranked.

Here’s what the same type of report looks like when you email it as a PDF instead of viewing it on ProRankTracker’s platform:

The Shared Reports use a live link that agency users can share with their clients, meaning the report is continuously updated with new data daily. It can include a variety of data, including valuable local ranking data.

After generating the report, you can go back to the link and view the updated data anytime. This is an excellent report that keeps clients happy with up-to-date information!

Another extremely valuable report for local SEO is the Projects Summary report, which lets you see selected Projects at a glance. This is perfect for when you’re trying to compare your local progress against your competitors. Simply generate a Projects Summary report and see how you stack up.

You can generate many other types of reports and notifications using ProRankTracker’s Reports Center. These are just some of the highest-yield reports for local rank tracking.

Check the Reports Center using your free trial for a better idea of how much you can accomplish with automated reports!

Use Rankings Views

The heart of ProRankTracker’s system is the Rankings Views that you can (and should) use to track your ranks regularly. ProRankTracker offers daily updates on EVERY plan, so the Rankings Views can change quickly and offer you great insight into what your ranks are doing on the SERP.

There are 6 Rankings Views:

• Dashboard shows you a very high-level overview of all your ranks.

• URL View shows each URL you’re tracking and each term being tracked for that URL.

• Term View is the exact opposite of URL view, showing you each term you’re tracking and each URL targeting that term.

• Daily View shows you a graphical representation of how your ranks have changed over a set period.

• Full SERPs show you an interactive SERP that breaks down every rank’s movement, giving you a detailed look at how the SERP changes daily.

• Project View allows you to view your Projects and gives you key data, such as a daily view, a yearly heat map, and a general overview. This is the perfect place to see how your ranks in a particular location are doing (or whatever other information you’re using Projects to prioritize).

Using all these Rankings Views together allows you to understand your ranks fully. If you followed along in the sections above and added location data to each term/URL combo, these Rankings Views will give you a new perspective on how your searchers’ locations impact your ranks on the SERP.

Use Insta-Check for Quick SERP Checks

One problem with many rank trackers is that they only allow you to get data on URLs/keywords on your tracking list.

This doesn’t leave much room for research, especially in those days (which happen very frequently) when you just need to check a random keyword to get some information.

That’s where ProRankTracker’s Insta-Check tool comes in.

Insta-Check is a pay-as-you-go system that allows ProRankTracker users to simply buy credits and use them to check the SERPs for any keyword they’re interested in (including local SERPs, as shown below). These SERP checks are quick but give you key data to act on.

To generate an Insta-Check SERP report, go to the “Tools” section, select “Insta-Check,” and specify the keyword/URL you want to check.

There are multiple types of Insta-Check reports:

• Single position check (just tells you the current rank for the given URL/keyword/location combination)
• Top 10/20/etc. check (gives you the entire SERP up to the selected number for the given keyword/location combination)

In the context of local rank tracking, the Insta-Check tool is a great way to scout out local SERPs quickly and without using up your long-term plan’s keyword allowance.

Integrate With Google Tools

Local rank tracking is a complex endeavor with many different moving parts. 

That’s why it’s a good idea to bring a suite of tools (in addition to your rank tracker) that will help you collect and understand data regarding your local ranking.

In particular, Google publishes a powerful set of SEO tools that can help users perform better in local search. ProRankTracker offers integrations with each of these tools to further enhance the utility of the data.

• Google Analytics is a powerful free tool for analyzing and understanding local customer behavior.
• Google Search Console helps users optimize how Google views, indexes, and ranks their sites locally and globally. This is a great place to make changes based on ProRankTracker data.
• Google Looker Studio is a visualization tool that allows users to make powerful data dashboards to help them understand their local ranking data at a glance. Below is an example dashboard created to help one user visualize their Google Ads performance.

Over time, combining these tools and using insights from each will form the cornerstone of your monitoring effort. 

For example, your local ranking dashboard on Google Looker Studio could help you associate a drop in ranks (which it knows about because of your PRT data) with a broken website link (which it knows about because of GA4).

Then, you can use the data shown by the Looker dashboard to make informed strategic decisions that would have been random guesses without all the legwork you put in on the front end.

How Do You Rank Locally?

Unfortunately, just knowing the sources of local traffic doesn’t mean you’ll GET any local traffic.

For that to happen, you must take concrete steps toward ranking locally on each source.

In other words, it’s time to talk about targeting Google Maps, Local Finder, and the first page of the Google SERP to ensure your website is visible to searchers in your area.

There are many ways to do this, but there are 2 specific steps you can take over the next few days to DRASTICALLY improve your local rankings and traffic.

Target Local Keywords

One of the best things you can do to improve your local rankings quickly is to target local keywords.

That may sound obvious, but many businesses don’t target local keywords, and it costs them dearly.

What do we mean by local keywords?

Let’s say you have a bike shop in Atlanta, GA. Instead of targeting the keyword, “bike shop,” you should target the keyword, “Atlanta bike shop” or “bike shop in Atlanta.” 

These small changes drastically narrow the number of websites competing for the same keyword, giving you an edge.

You can get even more specific by including terms like your neighborhood, street name, or other local identifiers. 

Find Out What People In Your Area Search For

Second, you should find out what people in your area are searching for instead of just guessing at it.

In other words, people in different areas type different things into their search bars on Google. So you need to find what your local people are searching for and target those words.

For example, people in Michigan probably aren’t searching for t-shirts in the winter, but people in Texas probably are. Little differences in locations can lead to significant differences in search behavior!

One of the best ways to discover what people are searching for is to steal keywords from your competitors. You can also use the dedicated tools on PRT (discussed above) to identify local search trends.

The Main Sources of Local Traffic

To track our local ranks successfully, we also need to understand WHERE local traffic comes from. If we’re tracking the wrong sources, we won’t understand how well our strategy is working.

In other words, you might not want to track keywords on Bing if most of your traffic comes from Google (or vice-versa!).

3 primary sources of online traffic convert local searchers into customers and ultimately push people to your brick-and-mortar store:

• Google Maps: This is the most common navigation tool in the world, and it’s where local searchers are most likely to find your business (which is why you need a powerful Google Maps rank tracker).
• Snack Pack/Local Finder: Snack Pack is the top 3 results of any local search and the local finder is the local Google Maps SERP. If you want your business to get found, you need to rank as high as you can in these local SERPs.

• First page SERP on Google: The best chance your website has of getting clicks is if you can land on the first page of the SERP on Google. Fewer than 1% of Google searches result in a second-page click, so targeting the first page should be a top priority.

FAQ

What is a local rank tracker?

A local rank tracker is any tool that helps you keep track of your ranks on local SERPs. Those SERPs can be Google Maps or the traditional Google SERP, but the important thing is that they help you track your ranking for each individual target location.

In other words, a successful local rank tracker will help you track how high you rank for searchers in multiple different locations (because each person’s SERP will appear different based on their search location).

How do I check my local ranking?

The fastest and most accurate way to check your local ranking is with a local rank tracker, as discussed above. These tools can track your ranks for multiple locations and consolidate all that data into easily-understood tables. You can technically check your local ranking manually, but it’s extremely time-consuming and lends itself to errors.

How does Google determine local ranking?

Google determines local rankings primarily based on how useful it believes your website will be to searchers making a specific search query. It makes this determination based on several key factors like page speed, content usefulness, keywords, and website performance metrics (like bounce rate, CTR, etc).

In other words, the best thing you can do to improve your local ranks is make your website and Google Business Profile HELPFUL to your searchers! 

Conclusion

Speaking of understanding your ranks, understanding is the first step to improving.

The problem with many businesses’ SEO strategies is that they’re taking blind shots in the dark because they don’t ACTUALLY know what’s working and what isn’t.

Tracking local ranks in ProRankTracker allows you to pinpoint the exact areas around you where people are most engaged with your site by adding location data to each tracked URL/keyword combo. 

It should be evident by now that tracking local ranks is super crucial for the success of your business. Without it, there’s no way to intentionally target searchers in your area.

Following the steps outlined above, you should be a pro local tracker in no time!

Good luck!