What does grid search mean? How do they handle the inherent variables with search?

[WilliamGMBE]

I am a little confused. What does a Grid Search mean?

When someone searches from a device, there are lot of variables that goes into displaying the business. This include screensize, location, browser, zoom level, device type, gps accuracy and so on. So, if there is a grid search with 3*3 point. Does the 1 point mean that if a possible customer searches from that location, this will be the rank of your business? What are the variables? What does it mean? I am a bit confused. It seems a little vague.

I see there are many vendors out there. How does the vendors handle these variables?

 

[Colan Nielsen]

A grid search, as far as I know, is what we are looking at in the image you shared. It lays out the rankings in a grid, across a specified geo.

I feel like I am missing something so please expand if I totally missed it.

 

[zach.todd]

Hey William, I can't speak for other tools, but I can explain what mine is doing. Yes, each point would represent what a potential customer searching from that location is likely to see. I say likely, because as you mentioned there are many possible variables, including personalization, as well as normal fluctuations that take place even within a day.

I don't know of a vendor (at least providing grid scans) that allows you to control the device used to search. MobileMoxie does allow that flexibility, but is focused on viewing SERPs.

 

[WilliamGMBE]

A grid search, as far as I know, is what we are looking at in the image you shared. It lays out the rankings in a grid, across a specified geo.

I feel like I am missing something so please expand if I totally missed it.

Hi @Colan Nielsen , sorry if my question was not clear.

My understanding of grid search was that it shows you your business' rank in a particular location. Say, if there is a 3*3 grid, the grid search shows you the rank in that position. Now, if you take one of the 9 location, there are other variables too that can determine the rank there. This includes zoom level, our device screensize, device (desktop or phone) and so on. So, there are going to be many variables which determine the business' rank there.

Was wondering what values the different providers use for these variables?

 

[WilliamGMBE]

Hey William, I can't speak for other tools, but I can explain what mine is doing. Yes, each point would represent what a potential customer searching from that location is likely to see. I say likely, because as you mentioned there are many possible variables, including personalization, as well as normal fluctuations that take place even within a day.

I don't know of a vendor (at least providing grid scans) that allows you to control the device used to search. MobileMoxie does allow that flexibility, but is focused on viewing SERPs.

Thank you @zach.todd . This is very helpful.

So, do the vendors use default value when they do the sample search from one location? Like for zoom level, device type and so on?

So, Grid Search is more about theoretically pure data and not always real world data?

 

[Tim Kahlert]

Hi @Colan Nielsen , sorry if my question was not clear.

My understanding of grid search was that it shows you your business' rank in a particular location. Say, if there is a 3*3 grid, the grid search shows you the rank in that position. Now, if you take one of the 9 location, there are other variables too that can determine the rank there. This includes zoom level, our device screensize, device (desktop or phone) and so on. So, there are going to be many variables which determine the business' rank there.

Was wondering what values the different providers use for these variables?

Hey William!

I don't think a device screen size determines rankings. If you use a 3*3 grid size, there is an exact distance between each of the 9 grid points. Each point shows you the exact ranking in that particular location. You can zoom in, it won't change anything. Variables that can influence ranking positions are IP-address, search history, and interactions, browser cache, device type, browser history...maybe a few more. A grid tries to eliminate those variables. However, you should never consider those ranking positions as isolated factors as some vendors use different methods to gather the data. For instance, ranking positions on grids can vary depending on whether you're looking through the place ID, the GMB name or the Maps URL. Those grids will never be 100% accurate and I would only use them as indications.

 

[Yan Gilbert]

Yes, there are variables that change depending on the user and will affect rankings, but with any rank tracker those variables don't really come into play if done well. A rank tracker will never match exactly to every user, the important thing is data consistency so that over time comparisons can be made.

 

[WilliamGMBE]

Hey William!

I don't think a device screen size determines rankings. If you use a 3*3 grid size, there is an exact distance between each of the 9 grid points. Each point shows you the exact ranking in that particular location. You can zoom in, it won't change anything. Variables that can influence ranking positions are IP-address, search history, and interactions, browser cache, device type, browser history...maybe a few more. A grid tries to eliminate those variables. However, you should never consider those ranking positions as isolated factors as some vendors use different methods to gather the data. For instance, ranking positions on grids can vary depending on whether you're looking through the place ID, the GMB name or the Maps URL. Those grids will never be 100% accurate and I would only use them as indications.

Sorry I missed this message before.

Actually my confusion was mainly around the zoom size which they use to simulate the single point of the 3*3 grid. I do see that zoon does affects ranking. To give an example. See the result below. The both are of the same area but the second image is a little more zoomed in. As you can see the result varies, see the second and third ranking items. Now we can call this zoom or view area. It dooes make a difference.

So, what confuses me is how grid search providers adjust for this? Or do they come up with a standard zoom or grid area?

 

[Tim Kahlert]

Sorry I missed this message before.

Actually my confusion was mainly around the zoom size which they use to simulate the single point of the 3*3 grid. I do see that zoon does affects ranking. To give an example. See the result below. The both are of the same area but the second image is a little more zoomed in. As you can see the result varies, see the second and third ranking items. Now we can call this zoom or view area. It dooes make a difference.

So, what confuses me is how grid search providers adjust for this? Or do they come up with a standard zoom or grid area?

Hey William!

The thing is, for standard searches Google uses a predetermined search radius and as soon as you zoom in, you're not searching from a specific location anymore because you're actually just "browsing" GoogleMaps - When you zoom in, Maps will show you the best results based on the individual visible Map that you're seeing. The results vary from what you'd usually see if you were searching from a specific location.
If you try a rank checker like Local Search Results Checker - SERP Checker for Google Local Searches you will see how one grid point's rankings are determined by those tools.