← All articles

Executive Local Reports: What to Include and How to Build Them

Executive Local Reports: What to Include and How to Build Them

Hand-drawn map and report title-card illustration

An executive local report is a short, dated summary of a business’s local search visibility, written for the person who decides the budget. It shows a few headline measures (map pack coverage, average grid rank, calls, directions and leads), explains what moved and why, and names one owner and one next action for every weak spot. Everything else, such as keyword lists and point-by-point scan data, goes in an appendix.

This guide is for agencies, consultants and freelancers who report on Google Maps performance. It covers the structure, the measures worth putting on page one, the data limits you must disclose, and a worked layout you can reuse for every client.

Maprank
Show Clients Where They Rank
Maprank tracks Google Maps rankings across customizable neighborhood grids, helping agencies present precise, branded visibility reports to clients.
Explore Maprank

TL;DR

  • Put four to six headline measures on page one and move keyword-level and grid-point detail to an appendix.
  • Measure visibility across a geo-grid, not from one city-centre point, because Google’s local results depend on the searcher’s location.
  • Fix your definitions (keyword, grid size, spacing, device, not-found treatment) so month-to-month comparisons hold up.
  • Keep rankings and business outcomes apart: grid scans show where a business appears, Business Profile data shows what people did.
  • Date every report, call rankings observations rather than guarantees, and attach an owner and a next step to every red metric.

Table of Contents

Why executives need a different report from the one you use

Your working report is built for the person doing the optimization. It has every keyword, every scan point and every change. A business owner, a franchise director or a marketing VP wants to know three things: are we more visible than last time, is that turning into calls and visits, and what are you doing next.

Public-sector performance frameworks solve the same problem. Bristol City Council’s 2025-28 performance framework uses tiers: Tier 1 headline measures go to executive meetings and performance boards, Tier 2 holds divisional metrics, and Tier 3 holds service-level detail. It also says data and narrative are collected quarterly and that red-rated measures get planned improvement actions.

That maps cleanly to local SEO:

Tier Audience Contents
1. Executive page Owner, director, board Map pack coverage, average grid rank, calls, directions, leads, three priority actions
2. Management view Marketing manager Results by keyword group and by area, review and profile trends
3. Working data Your team, the client’s local staff Every keyword, every grid point, scan settings, change log

A report that puts every keyword and grid point on page one may be accurate, but nobody senior will read it. Tier 1 should fit on one screen or one printed page.

Start with how Google decides local rankings

An executive report has to be honest about what an agency can and cannot control. Google’s guidance says local results are mainly based on relevance, distance and prominence, and that businesses cannot pay Google for a better organic local ranking. Google’s practical advice includes verifying the profile, keeping information complete and accurate, responding to reviews and adding photos and videos.

This has two consequences for the report.

First, never promise a position. Present rankings as dated observations. A line such as “Scanned 14 October, 7x7 grid, 0.5-mile spacing, desktop and mobile settings recorded” does more for your credibility than a forecast.

Second, distance is part of the system, and Google uses the searcher’s location when it has it. That explains the most common client complaint: “I searched from my office and we are number one, but your report says we are weak.” Neither result is wrong. Local visibility is spatial, so the report has to show it spatially. A single city-centre rank is not representative of a service area.

Start with how Google decides local rankings — overview diagram

The headline measures worth putting on page one

Choose a small set and keep it for the life of the engagement. Good Tier 1 candidates:

  1. Map pack coverage. The share of grid points where the business appears in the top three results for the target keyword. It is the easiest number for a non-specialist to grasp: “We show up in the top three in 41% of the area, up from 28%.”
  2. Average grid rank. The mean position across all scan points, with a clear rule for points where the business was not found. Say what that rule is, and never change it.
  3. Calls, direction requests and website clicks. These come from the Business Profile, not from your scan, and they answer “is visibility turning into action?”
  4. Leads or booked jobs, if the client shares them. This is the number the owner cares about most, and often the one you have least access to. Ask for it every month.
  5. Profile health status. A simple pass or flag on verification, categories, hours, services, photos and review response.
  6. Priority actions. Three at most, each with an owner and a date.

If you have to cut, cut the keyword table before you cut the action list.

Show the grid as a picture

A heat map of scan points is the single most persuasive element in a local report. A coloured grid makes the gap obvious: strong near the storefront, fading to the north, absent across the river. Pair the picture with one sentence of interpretation and one recommendation. If you want to understand how scan grids are built, our guide to a local SEO grid tracker walks through spacing and radius choices.

Keep the measurement rules fixed

The most useful lesson from government reporting is consistency. Victoria’s mandatory local government performance reporting system uses 59 measures across service areas plus a 27-item governance and management checklist, so councils can be compared like for like. Clients cannot act on a trend if the definition changes underneath it.

Write a short methodology box once and reuse it:

  • Keyword and keyword group
  • Grid size and spacing (for example 7x7 at 0.5 miles)
  • Center point and how it was chosen
  • Device and language settings
  • Scan date and time window
  • Treatment of not-found points (excluded, or counted as a fixed rank such as 21)
  • Comparison period (previous scan, baseline, or same month last year)

If you must change a setting, say so on the page and re-run a baseline under the new rules, instead of quietly comparing the two.

Set a baseline, a target and a named owner

Glen Eira City Council’s integrated planning and reporting framework defines KPIs as measures tracked over time against a baseline and targets, with regular collection and named responsibility. The same method turns a local report from a status update into a management tool:

  1. Baseline scan before any work starts. Keep it in every later report.
  2. Realistic target. For example, raise top-three coverage in the two weakest quadrants over two quarters. Avoid targets like “rank number one everywhere”.
  3. Movement against the target, shown as a simple status: on track, watch, red.
  4. A next action with an owner. Some actions are yours (category changes, service pages). Some belong to the client (answering reviews, uploading photos, confirming holiday hours). Naming the client’s owner is what stops reports from becoming a list of things you are waiting on.

The red-metric rule is worth borrowing directly: no red status without a planned action.

Keep rankings and outcomes in separate sections

Executives tend to read any number on a local report as “results”. Be precise about what each source tells you.

Grid scans measure where a business appears across a market. They are independent observations of Google Maps results.

Business Profile performance data measures how people used the profile. Google describes it as insight into how people discover your profile and what actions they take, and notes that insights rely on public, location-based information and are updated often. Because that data changes, put the reporting date on the page and do not imply a snapshot is permanent.

Analytics integration can centralize interactions. Google’s documentation on linking Business Profile to Analytics lists website clicks, calls, directions, messages, bookings and menus. It also carries limits you should disclose: data is aggregated across multiple linked profiles, cannot be filtered by individual profile in Analytics, and shows only the last 6 months of Business Profile metrics.

API data. If you pull engagement through the Business Profile API, which retrieves location insights for a list of locations over an explicit time range, label it as API-derived. It is a different thing from your measured rankings, and the two should never be blended into one score.

A simple sentence in the report handles all of this: “Rankings show where you appear; profile activity shows what people did when they found you. Both moved this month, and here is how we read them together.”

Offline channels can muddy the picture too. If the client runs flyers, cards or in-store signage, tracking QR code scans gives you another demand signal to place beside profile actions, as long as you label it separately.

Keep rankings and outcomes in separate sections — overview diagram

Add a profile data health check

Google explains that business profile information comes from the business, public sources, user contributions and other data sources. So a drop in visibility or a wrong phone number may have nothing to do with your optimization work. A one-line health check on page one protects you and helps the client.

Check and report on:

  • Verification status
  • Primary and secondary categories
  • Name, address and phone consistency
  • Hours, including holiday hours
  • Services and products listed
  • Photo count and recency
  • Review volume, recent rating trend and response rate

For a deeper look at location-level profile data, a Google Business Profile audit can show you what to collect and how to read it.

A worked one-page layout

Here is a layout that fits a single-location plumber, dentist or restaurant. Every number below is illustrative, not a benchmark.

Header: client name, scan date, reporting period, keyword group.

Block 1, visibility: Top-three coverage 41% (previous scan 33%, baseline 24%, target 50% by December). Average grid rank 6.8 (previous 8.1). Grid heat map with the weak area circled.

Block 2, activity: Calls, direction requests and website clicks this period against the last one, with the source named.

Block 3, health: Five green ticks, one amber flag (photos older than six months).

Block 4, what we read: Two or three sentences. For example: coverage rose in the south after we added service-area pages. The north remains red because competitors with closer addresses dominate it.

Block 5, next actions:

Action Owner Due
Upload 10 new job photos Client office manager 5 November
Add a service page for the northern suburb Agency 12 November
Reply to all open reviews Client owner 1 November

Appendix: methodology box, keyword table, scan-point data, change log.

This is also what makes a report useful for retention. When the owner can see progress, the reason for it and what happens next, renewals stop being a conversation about price. Our piece on client retention reporting goes deeper on that.

Quality check before you send

Run this list every time:

  • Open the failed or not-found scan points. A scan glitch looks like a ranking collapse, and you do not want your client to find it first.
  • Confirm the settings match last month’s. If they do not, say so.
  • Read page one as the owner. Is there any jargon they would have to ask about?
  • Make sure no sentence promises a future position.
  • Check that every red metric has an owner and a date.
  • Make sure the report is branded and sent from your own domain, so the client sees your agency, not a tool.

Our perspective: fewer numbers, more decisions

We build Maprank for agencies, and we see the same pattern in the reports that agencies send. The ones that win renewals are not the ones with the most data. They are the ones where the client can look at one grid, understand where the business is strong and weak, and see what happens next.

That is why we think the grid should be the centrepiece of an executive local report. A single rank hides the geography, and geography is how Google’s distance factor works. It is also why we let you set your own grid size and spacing: a plumber covering a metro area and a dentist drawing patients from six blocks need different scans.

We also think reporting should not get more expensive as your client list grows. Every Maprank plan includes unlimited businesses and white label reporting on your own domain, and scans run without connecting a Google account. Pricing is based on scan credits, seats and grid size, so adding a client does not add a fee. The best executive report is the one you can afford to send to every client, every month.

— Local

Build the report with Maprank

If you want the grid, the branding and the schedule handled for you, Maprank gives you customizable scan grids and white label reports under your own brand. Plans start at $19 per month for Solo ($228 per year), with Agency at $39 per month ($468 per year), Pro at $79 per month ($948 per year) and Scale at $149 per month ($1,788 per year). You can see the details on the Maprank plans page, or try a one-off Google Maps rank check first. For the branded delivery side, see how a white label local SEO reporting tool fits into your workflow.

Common mistakes to avoid

Putting everything on page one. Executives stop reading. Use tiers.

Changing KPIs every month. Consistency of definitions and ownership is worth more than adding metrics. A stable trend is actionable; a shifting measurement is not.

Reporting one rank. A single point, usually the city centre, tells you little about a service area.

Calling an observation a guarantee. Google does not let anyone buy a better organic local ranking, so a report that implies control invites a bad conversation later.

Mixing sources without labels. Grid scans, Analytics and API data each have their own limits. Name the source next to every number.

Skipping multi-location structure. If the client has several branches, give each its own Tier 1 row and roll them up into one summary. Our guide to multi-location rank tracking covers how to organize that.

FAQ

How often should I send an executive local report?

Monthly works for most small and mid-sized local clients, with a fuller review each quarter. Bristol’s framework collects data and narrative quarterly, which suits board-level reviews. Whatever you pick, keep the schedule fixed so comparisons stay clean.

How long should an executive local report be?

One page for the executive summary, plus an appendix for anyone who wants detail. If the summary needs a second page, you have probably included Tier 2 or Tier 3 material that belongs behind it.

Why does my client see a different ranking than the report shows?

Google’s local results depend on relevance, distance and prominence, and it uses the searcher’s location when available. A search from the client’s office shows one slice of the map, while a grid shows many. Explain this once in your methodology box and the question mostly disappears.

Can I use Google Analytics instead of a rank tracker?

No, they answer different questions. Analytics can show aggregated Business Profile actions such as calls and direction requests, but only for the last 6 months and not by individual profile when several are linked. A grid scan shows where the business appears across its market.

Sources