Google Maps Local Rank Monitor

Track where a target business ranks in Google Maps for local keywords, locations, and optional grid points.

What It Does

Google Maps Local Rank Monitor checks bounded Google Maps result sets and returns the target position alongside competing local businesses. It is built for monitoring and reporting, not broad lead extraction.

Use Cases

• Local SEO rank tracking
• Google Business Profile reporting
• Competitor visibility monitoring
• Franchise and multi-location checks
• Weekly or daily scheduled rank snapshots
• Local pack audit exports

Who Is It For

This actor is for local SEO agencies, franchise operators, in-house marketing teams, agencies managing Google Business Profiles, and local businesses that need repeatable evidence of Google Maps visibility.

Input

Provide a target business and the local searches to check.

Target Business

Use targetName for normal matching. Add targetPlaceId when you know the Google Maps CID or place ID and want stricter matching.

Keywords

The keywords field accepts a list such as:

• pizza
• emergency plumber
• dentist
• coffee shop
• personal injury lawyer

Locations

The locations field accepts city, neighborhood, region, or address text. Each keyword is combined with each location.

Grid Points

Use gridPoints when you want rank checks from exact map coordinates. Each point accepts:

• label
• lat
• lng
• zoom

Result Limit

maxResults is capped at 20 per search. This keeps the actor focused on local rank monitoring and avoids exhaustive pagination.

Competitor Rows

When includeCompetitors is enabled, the dataset contains every ranked competitor row plus target rank metadata.

Summary Mode

When includeCompetitors is disabled, the actor outputs only the matched target row for each search. If the target is not found, it outputs a summary row with targetMatched=false.

Output Fields

The dataset includes:

• checked time
• keyword
• location
• grid point
• search query
• target name
• target matched flag
• target position
• competitor rank
• target row flag
• business name
• category
• rating
• address
• neighborhood
• website
• phone
• CID
• place ID
• map URL
• latitude
• longitude
• competitor count

Example Input

{
  "targetName": "Serious Pie Downtown",
  "keywords": ["pizza"],
  "locations": ["Seattle, WA"],
  "maxResults": 20,
  "includeCompetitors": true
}

Example Grid Input

{
  "targetName": "Serious Pie Downtown",
  "keywords": ["pizza"],
  "locations": ["Seattle, WA"],
  "gridPoints": [
    { "label": "Downtown", "lat": 47.6062, "lng": -122.3321, "zoom": 14 }
  ],
  "maxResults": 20
}

Output Example

{
  "keyword": "pizza",
  "location": "Seattle, WA",
  "targetMatched": true,
  "targetPosition": 2,
  "rank": 2,
  "isTarget": true,
  "businessName": "Serious Pie Downtown",
  "category": "Pizza restaurant, Italian restaurant, Pizza Takeout",
  "rating": 4.5,
  "address": "2001 4th Ave, Seattle, WA 98121",
  "mapUrl": "https://www.google.com/maps?cid=..."
}

Scheduling

Run the actor on an Apify schedule to build a rank history over time.

Monitoring Workflow

1. Choose one target business.
2. Add the keywords that matter commercially.
3. Add city or neighborhood locations.
4. Optional: add exact grid points.
5. Export the dataset to compare rank changes.

Matching Behavior

Name matching is case-insensitive and ignores punctuation. CID or place ID matching is preferred when provided.

Google Maps Data

The actor extracts from the Google Maps web response. Available fields may vary by query, location, and Google response format.

Limits

This actor does not crawl every Google Maps page. It checks the top visible Maps results for the requested search combinations.

Pricing

The actor charges a small start event and a result event for output rows. Final tiered pricing is calculated after cloud validation.

Reliability Notes

Google Maps is dynamic and may change its internal response format. The actor keeps extraction bounded and validates output fields to reduce noisy results.

Best Practices

Use specific commercial keywords and realistic locations. For grid reports, keep the first run small and expand after verifying the target match.

Troubleshooting

If the target is not found, try adding the exact Google Maps CID or place ID, checking a narrower location, or increasing maxResults up to 20.

Data Export

The dataset can be exported as JSON, CSV, Excel, XML, RSS, or HTML through Apify.

Recommended Columns

For reporting dashboards, start with these columns:

• keyword
• location
• gridLabel
• targetPosition
• rank
• isTarget
• businessName
• rating
• category
• address
• mapUrl

API Usage

Run the actor through the Apify API with the same JSON input used in the console.

Node.js:

import { ApifyClient } from 'apify-client';

const client = new ApifyClient({ token: process.env.APIFY_TOKEN });
const run = await client.actor('automation-lab/google-maps-local-rank-monitor').call({
  targetName: 'Serious Pie Downtown',
  keywords: ['pizza'],
  locations: ['Seattle, WA'],
  maxResults: 20,
  includeCompetitors: true
});

const { items } = await client.dataset(run.defaultDatasetId).listItems();
console.log(items);

Python:

from apify_client import ApifyClient
import os

client = ApifyClient(os.environ["APIFY_TOKEN"])
run = client.actor("automation-lab/google-maps-local-rank-monitor").call(run_input={
    "targetName": "Serious Pie Downtown",
    "keywords": ["pizza"],
    "locations": ["Seattle, WA"],
    "maxResults": 20,
    "includeCompetitors": True,
})

items = client.dataset(run["defaultDatasetId"]).list_items().items
print(items)

cURL:

curl -X POST "https://api.apify.com/v2/acts/automation-lab~google-maps-local-rank-monitor/runs?token=$APIFY_TOKEN" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"targetName":"Serious Pie Downtown","keywords":["pizza"],"locations":["Seattle, WA"],"maxResults":20,"includeCompetitors":true}'

MCP

Use the Apify MCP server to run this actor from AI tools that support Apify actors. Pass the same JSON input shown above and read the default dataset items for rank rows.

Claude Code setup:

$claude mcp add --transport http apify "https://mcp.apify.com?tools=automation-lab/google-maps-local-rank-monitor"

Claude Desktop, Cursor, and VS Code setup:

Add this actor-scoped server to each client's MCP JSON configuration and authenticate with your Apify account when prompted:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "apify-google-maps-local-rank-monitor": {
      "url": "https://mcp.apify.com?tools=automation-lab/google-maps-local-rank-monitor"
    }
  }
}

Example prompts:

• Run automation-lab/google-maps-local-rank-monitor for Serious Pie Downtown with keyword pizza in Seattle.
• Check my target rank for three plumbing keywords across these five grid points.
• Export the competitor rows from the latest run and summarize businesses outranking the target.

Legality

The actor collects public Google Maps search result data. Users are responsible for using the output lawfully, respecting applicable terms, and avoiding prohibited personal-data workflows.

FAQ

Does this scrape every Google Maps result? No. It intentionally checks the bounded top result set for rank monitoring.

Can I monitor multiple keywords? Yes. Add multiple keywords and locations; each combination is checked.

Should I use grid points? Use grid points when you need location-sensitive local SEO heatmap reporting.

Related

Related actors in this workspace include Google Maps Reviews Scraper, Google Search Scraper, and Google News Scraper.

Privacy

The actor works with public Google Maps search results. Do not submit private credentials or personal account data.

Changelog

Initial development version for APIA-1471.