Local AI Visibility Grid (Google AI Overviews + Maps)

For local SEO agencies, freelancers and local business owners. Customers now ask Google "best emergency plumber near me" and read the AI Overview before they ever see the map. This Actor asks your customers' questions at every point of a map grid and tells you where Google's AI names your business, where it names competitors instead, and which websites it trusts as sources.

Outcome: a heat grid of your AI visibility share per neighbourhood, next to your Google Maps rank at the same spot, so you can see where you rank on the map but are missing from the AI answer (and the other way round).

• 🤖 Google AI Overviews at each grid point, logged out, location pinned with Google's uule parameter (the same idea geo-grid rank trackers use).
• 🧭 Named businesses matched to Google Maps place IDs. Uses Google's own business cards in the answer (exact IDs), then phone and address. Other branches of a chain are flagged, never counted as you.
• 📍 Your position in the answer (1st, 2nd, 3rd business named) and whether your own site is linked.
• 🔗 Cited sources: real URLs and domains (Google's redirect links resolved), typed as business site, directory/review, forum, social, listicle.
• 🗺️ Maps rank at the same point for the same question, so AI and map visibility sit side by side.
• 🔁 Several samples per point: AI answers change between asks; 2–3 samples give a steadier share.
• 🧪 Google AI Mode (beta, optional, free). Off by default and not charged. Google often blocks automated AI Mode visits; after 4 blocks in a row it is switched off for the rest of the run.
• 📊 REPORT.html + CSV + SUMMARY: visibility share per point, per question and per engine, top competitors, top cited domains.
• 💸 Pay only for real AI Overview answers and successful Maps rank checks. No-answer, blocked and error rows are free. No login, no API key.

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Quick start (first run in about a minute)

1. Click Try for free (or Start in Console). The form is prefilled with William Parrish Plumbing in Raleigh, NC, the question best emergency plumber near me and 3 points: downtown, 8 km north and 8 km west.
2. Click Start. You get 3 rows in Output and REPORT.html in Storage → Key-value store. It finishes in about 1–2 minutes and costs about $0.05 if all 3 points return an AI Overview and a Maps check (3 × $0.015 + 3 × $0.002).
3. Put in your own business and city, clear the Points field, and pick a grid (3×3 for a town, 5×5 for a metro area). Add 2–3 questions and 2 samples per point.

Tip: paste the business's Google Maps URL for an exact match. It matters for chains and franchises with many branches.

What you can do with it

• Local SEO audits: "You rank #1 on the map downtown but Google's AI never names you 8 km north." One picture, no spreadsheet.
• AI visibility reporting: run the same grid weekly and track the share over time.
• Competitor intel: which businesses AI recommends in each part of town, with Maps place IDs, rating and reviews.
• Citation gap: which directories, review sites and blogs the AI cites, so you know where to get listed or reviewed.
• Before/after proof: run before and after Google Business Profile, review or website changes.
• Pair it with Google Maps Rank Tracker (Geo-Grid Local SEO Heatmap) for a deep Maps grid.

Input

Field	What it does
businessName + city / mapsUrl / placeId	The business to check. Maps URL or Place ID is the most precise
questions	What customers type into Google (up to 10). Each question is asked at every point
points	Exact lat,lng points (optional `
center, gridSize, gridSpacingKm / radiusKm	N×N grid (1, 3, 5 or 7 per side). Empty center = the business's location
samplesPerPoint	How many times each question is asked per point (1–5, default 2)
includeAiOverviews	Google AI Overviews (default on)
includeAiMode	Google AI Mode, beta and free, default off
includeMapsRank / mapsKeyword	Maps rank (top 20) per point × question. Optional fixed Maps keyword, e.g. plumber
maxAnswers	Safety cap on paid AI Overview answers per run. The run stops cleanly when reached
maxConcurrency	Parallel browsers (1–4). Default 1. Capped at 1 per GB of run memory: each Google page needs real CPU, and at 1 GB a second page only slows the first one down
country / language	Google gl / hl codes (US English works best for local AI Overviews)
saveScreenshots	Save a screenshot of every answer page (proof for clients)
proxyConfiguration	Optional fallback only. Leave off for normal use

Example (3×3 grid, 2 questions, 2 samples = up to 36 answers):

{
  "businessName": "William Parrish Plumbing",
  "city": "Raleigh, NC",
  "questions": ["best emergency plumber near me", "water heater repair near me"],
  "gridSize": 3,
  "gridSpacingKm": 5,
  "samplesPerPoint": 2,
  "mapsKeyword": "plumber",
  "maxAnswers": 40
}

The prefilled Try-it example is smaller: 3 points × 1 question × 1 sample (about $0.05 if all three return an answer).

Output

One dataset item per point × question × sample (and engine):

{
  "engine": "google_aio", "pointLabel": "center", "lat": 35.78045, "lng": -78.63518,
  "question": "best emergency plumber near me", "sample": 1,
  "status": "answer", "answerFound": true, "charged": true,
  "targetMentioned": true, "targetPosition": 1, "targetOtherBranchMentioned": false,
  "businessesNamed": 5,
  "businesses": [
    { "position": 1, "name": "William Parrish Plumbing", "placeId": "ChIJeYDs30-TrIkRu3swF0b7nxM",
      "hexId": "0x89ac934fdfec8079:0x139ffb4617307bbb", "address": "235 New Bern Pl #301, Raleigh, NC 27601",
      "rating": 4.9, "reviewCount": 2112, "matchMethod": "google_card_hex_id", "isTarget": true },
    { "position": 2, "name": "Out The Door Plumbing", "placeId": "ChIJaddeACeLrIkRPBUfEJJ1qsQ",
      "rating": 4.9, "reviewCount": 511, "matchMethod": "google_card_hex_id", "isTarget": false }
  ],
  "citedDomains": ["michaelandson.com", "outthedoorplumbing.com", "williamparrishplumbing.com", "yelp.com"],
  "sourceDomains": ["yelp.com"],
  "citedDomainTypes": { "yelp.com": "directory/review", "outthedoorplumbing.com": "named business site" },
  "targetSiteCited": true,
  "mapsRank": 1, "mapsKeyword": "best emergency plumber near me",
  "answerText": "AI Overview\nTop-rated emergency plumbers in the Raleigh, NC area ..."
}

• status: answer (an AI Overview was parsed; Google AI Overviews are charged, AI Mode is free), no_answer (Google showed no AI Overview there, free), blocked (free), error (free), skipped_blocked / skipped_time_limit (one summary row for checks not run, free).
• citedDomains = every site linked in the answer, including the businesses' own sites. sourceDomains = sources linked outside the business cards.
• matchMethod: google_card_hex_id (exact ID from Google's own card in the answer) or maps_name_match (score) (name looked up on Maps near that point).

The key-value store also has:

• REPORT.html: visibility heat grid (share % + Maps rank per point), per question, top competitors, top cited sites.
• SUMMARY: the same as JSON: visibilitySharePct, engines, perPoint, perQuestion, topCompetitors, topCitedDomains.
• REPORT.csv: one line per check for Google Sheets or Excel.

Run it on a schedule

1. Fill in your business, questions and grid, then Save as task.
2. Schedule it weekly, e.g. Monday 0 7 * * 1.
3. Send results to a sheet with Google Sheets Export, or to Slack/email via Integrations.

Pricing

Pay per event. You only pay for successful Google AI Overview answers and successful Maps rank checks. No-answer, blocked and error rows are free. Google AI Mode is beta and not charged.

Event	When it fires	Price
ai-answer-google-aio	Google showed an AI Overview and we parsed it	$0.015
maps-rank-check	A Maps rank lookup at that point succeeded	$0.002

Set a maximum cost per run in the run options and use maxAnswers as a second cap.

Example costs at these prices (upper bound if every check returns an answer):

Run	Answers	Maps checks	Cost to you
Prefill / Try-it (3 points × 1 question × 1 sample)	≤3	3	≈ $0.051
3×3 grid × 2 questions × 2 samples	≤36	18	≈ $0.58
5×5 grid × 3 questions × 2 samples	≤150	75	≈ $2.40
7×7 grid × 3 questions × 3 samples	≤441	147	≈ $6.92

How it works and limitations

• Each check is a logged-out visit to Google in a real (non-headless) Chrome window. The searcher's location is pinned to that grid point with Google's uule parameter, not browser geolocation. One browser context (and the consent cookie) is reused across the grid, with a short delay between checks.
• When Google blocks a check, that browser context is thrown away (fresh cookies), the run pauses to let the IP cool down (90 s, then longer), and the check is retried. If Google keeps blocking every retry (8 checks in a row), the run stops early and adds one skipped_blocked row: those checks were not run and are not charged.
• No proxy is needed in normal use. The Actor runs on Apify's US servers. If a large grid returns many blocked rows, you can turn on a proxy as an optional fallback (residential is the usual choice). Proxy traffic is billed separately by Apify and is not included in the event prices above.
• Google doesn't show an AI Overview for every question, every time. Those rows come back as no_answer and are free. Commercial "near me" questions get local AI Overviews most often in the US.
• AI answers vary between asks and through the day. Use 2–3 samples per point and compare shares, not single answers.
• AI Mode is beta and free. Google blocks many automated AI Mode visits. After 4 blocks in a row AI Mode is switched off for the rest of the run (still not charged).
• Each check takes about 15–30 s (Google needs time to write the AI answer), so big grids take a while: 100 checks (5×5 × 2 questions × 2 samples) take roughly 40–50 minutes at the default 1 GB. Long runs stop cleanly before the run timeout: unfinished checks are listed in one skipped_time_limit row and not charged.
• Public Google results only. No login, no personal data. Google can change its page layout; we monitor the parser.

FAQ

Every row says no_answer. Google didn't show an AI Overview for that question there. Try a more commercial wording ("best … near me", "… company in [city]"), keep country = us, and use 2 samples.

My business is never named, but it ranks on Maps. That is the gap this Actor shows. Check topCitedDomains: AI often recommends businesses with strong reviews on the cited directories and a clear website.

It says another branch was named. targetOtherBranchMentioned = a business with your brand name but a different Google listing (another franchise location). It is not counted as you.

The run returned one row with an error. The input could not be used (no question, or the business or center could not be found). The run still succeeds and that row is free. Paste the Google Maps URL and try again.

Is a proxy needed? No. Leave it off. Use a proxy only as a fallback if you see many blocked rows on a large grid.

Why was a row not charged? Only parsed Google AI Overview answers (ai-answer-google-aio) and successful Maps lookups (maps-rank-check) are billed. Blocked, timed-out, no-answer and AI Mode rows are free.

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