Live data

The Local Search Index

A weekly volatility score for the Google Map Pack, sampled across 100 high-intent local queries. Free to cite. Updated every Monday.

This week

5.3

active

100 queries · June 30, 2026

Trailing 8 weeks

May 12, 2026June 30, 2026
CC-BY 4.0 — link to this page when citing.

Recent updates

All updates →
  • August 19, 2025
    August 2025 Suspected Update

    Practitioners across LocalSearchForum and r/bigseo reported widespread rank shuffling. Google did not confirm an update; volatility tooling registered elevated movement for ~5 days.

    5.5
  • March 4, 2025
    March 2025 Spam Sweep

    Coordinated removal of low-quality and lead-gen Business Profiles across multiple US metros. Particularly affected duplicate listings and virtual-office storefronts.

    6.0
  • November 14, 2024
    November 2024 Local Update

    Map Pack rerankings observed across service categories, with notable shuffling in home services and professional services. Spam-detection signals appeared more aggressive on listings using keyword-stuffed business names.

    7.5

Methodology

Every Monday we capture the top three Map Pack results for a fixed sample of 100 local-intent queries across service, retail, hospitality, professional, and home-service categories in major US metros.

The volatility score is the percent of result slots that changed hands week-over-week, rescaled 0–10. A 5.0 means roughly half of the tracked slots reranked. Anything above 7.0 historically correlates with a confirmed algorithm update inside two weeks.

Sample, queries, and weekly raw data are released under CC-BY 4.0. Email us if you want the underlying dataset.

The Friday brief

What changed in local search this week.

A short, edited briefing every Friday for local SEO agencies, GBP specialists, and multi-location operators. Google Business Profile updates, Map Pack ranking shifts, reviews policy, and the AI Overviews / AI Mode moves that matter for local. Free, no spam.

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