Read a heat map like a doctor reads an X-ray.
Why this mattersYou ran the three-location test. You saw the pattern. Today we cover what a real heat map looks like and what every piece of it means. Once you can read a heat map, every later lesson in this module makes sense. We use LeadSnap as the example because it is the tool I use with clients and the most accurate on the market.
Read this once. Sit with it before you answer.
When you look at a grid of colored dots laid over your service area, what exactly is happening at each point, and what is the color telling you about your business?
Where you stand right now.
By the end of this lesson, you will be able to:
- 1Identify the four pieces of metadata on any heat map (keyword, grid resolution, center point, date/time).
- 2Read the standard color legend (green/yellow/orange/red/X) and translate each to a rank range.
- 3Distinguish between a snapshot heat map and a historical heat map comparison.
- 4Read a sample heat map the way a doctor reads an X-ray.
The whole lesson in a few points.
- 01A heat map is a grid of points laid over a real geographic area. Each point is a separate search performed from that exact GPS coordinate.
- 02Common grid sizes: 3x3, 5x5, 7x7, 9x9, 15x15. Resolution matches market size.
- 03Color legend: dark green (positions 1-3), light green or yellow (4-10), orange (11-20), red (21+), X (no rank).
- 04Four metadata pieces required before interpretation: keyword, grid resolution, center point, date/time.
- 05LeadSnap saves every heat map automatically, organized chronologically. History is what makes the tool a trend tracker, not just a snapshot generator.
The grid.
A heat map is a grid of points laid over a real geographic area. Each point on the grid represents a separate search. When LeadSnap runs a heat map, it tells Google "search this keyword from this exact GPS coordinate" hundreds of times in parallel, once per grid point. At each point, it records where your business shows up in the map pack. Then it color-codes the result on the map.
The grid sizes you will see most often: 3x3 (9 search points, good for tight urban areas); 5x5 (25 points, the most common size for a typical service business with a defined service area); 7x7 (49 points, for businesses spread across larger areas); 9x9 or 15x15 (81 to 225 points, for businesses serving entire counties or regions).
You also set the spacing between points. In a tight urban market, points might be a quarter mile apart. In a rural or suburban service area, they might be one to three miles apart. The grid size times the spacing equals the total area covered.
Once the heat map runs, you have a snapshot of your ranking across every one of those points at the moment the search ran. Move one block over, your rank can be completely different.
The colors and numbers.
Each grid point gets a color and a number. The number is your rank position at that point. The color groups numbers into ranges so the pattern is visually scannable.
Green or dark green. Position one to three. You are in the local pack at that point. You are winning.
Light green or yellow. Position four to ten. You are visible if the customer scrolls past the top three. Decent, but not top of mind.
Orange. Position 11 to 20. You appear if the customer expands the map results. Most customers will not.
Red. Position 21 or worse. You are functionally invisible at that point.
X or no color. You do not rank at all at that point.
Some tools, including LeadSnap, also show a "share of local voice" percentage, which averages your visibility across all the grid points into a single number. That is useful as a summary, but the real intelligence is in the pattern, not the average.
The metadata.
Every heat map you look at has four pieces of metadata you need to identify before you start interpreting.
The keyword. What search term was used. Your heat map for "roof repair Clanton AL" looks completely different from your heat map for "emergency roofer near me." Always check which keyword the map was run on.
The grid resolution. 5x5, 7x7, whatever it is. A 3x3 in a 10-mile area gives you a rough picture. A 15x15 in the same area gives you neighborhood-level detail.
The center point. Where the grid is anchored. Usually centered on your business address, but you can run heat maps anchored on a competitor's address to see what their visibility looks like from their perspective.
The date and time. Heat maps are snapshots. The one you ran last Tuesday at 9am is not the same as the one you ran this morning. Google's rankings shift constantly. Always note when the map was captured.
If you cannot identify all four of those pieces from a heat map, stop and find them before drawing any conclusions.
How LeadSnap stores history.
One important detail about LeadSnap specifically. Every heat map you run is saved automatically and organized chronologically. You do not have to manually save anything. The platform stores the historical data so you can compare any two points in time side by side.
This is the feature that makes heat maps useful for tracking progress. Run your baseline heat map this week. Run it again in 30 days. LeadSnap shows you both maps next to each other with a third panel showing the change at each grid point. You can see exactly which neighborhoods improved, which ones got worse, which ones stayed flat. That is your strategic intelligence.
If you use a different tool, check whether it stores historical heat maps automatically. Some do. Some do not. Without history, heat maps are just snapshots. With history, they are a trend tracker.
A grid of points. Colors show pattern. Metadata shows context. History shows progress.
The next lesson is where you set up your first one.
The vocabulary that follows you.
- Heat map
- A grid of search points laid over a geographic area, each running the same query from a unique GPS coordinate, color-coded by your rank at that point. Reveals the geographic shape of your visibility.
- Grid resolution
- The dimensions of the grid (3x3, 5x5, 7x7, 9x9, 15x15) multiplied by the spacing between points. Determines how much detail you see and how much area is covered.
- Share of local voice
- A summary percentage that averages your visibility across all grid points into a single number. Useful as a health check. The pattern is more strategic than the average.
- Heat map metadata
- The four pieces of context required before interpretation: keyword, grid resolution, center point, date and time. Without all four, the map is unreadable.