Two different questions about the same business
“Which searches bring us traffic?” and “where do we actually rank on Google Maps for those searches?” sound like the same question. They’re answered by two different tools measuring two different things, and neither one substitutes for the other.
Google Search Console answers the first: it reports impressions, clicks and average position for a domain’s pages in Google’s organic results, aggregated over time. It’s real data about real queries — but it’s a web-search measurement, not a map. It says nothing about where a business’s Google Business Profile lands in the local pack for a searcher standing three streets away, because that’s not what it measures. Local pack rankings run on a different mechanic entirely — proximity, Business Profile completeness, prominence — and Search Console simply doesn’t observe that side of Google’s results.
What the Search Console import actually does
SeoMap’s Search Console import isn’t a ranking report — it’s a keyword-research shortcut. One click connects a Search Console property, and SeoMap uses it to do two things automatically: create the project, and pre-fill its keyword list from that property’s top search queries over the last 90 days.
That matters because the queries already bringing a business impressions and clicks are a far better starting point than a guessed keyword list. A dentist might assume “dentist Cologne” is the term that matters and be tracking exactly the wrong phrase if Search Console shows most of the real search volume is actually landing on “emergency dentist Ehrenfeld.” Importing real query data means the first geo-grid scan starts from evidence instead of assumption.
From imported keyword to heatmap
Once the import has pre-filled a project’s keywords, the workflow is the same as any other SeoMap project: pick a keyword, set the grid size, see the cost estimate, run the scan. The map fills in point by point, and the result rolls up into ARP, ATRP and SoLV for that specific keyword — the local-pack answer to the question Search Console could only half-answer.
Worth doing for more than one query. Search Console typically surfaces several genuinely different search intents behind one business (a plumber might see real impressions on “boiler repair,” “burst pipe” and “plumber near me” as three separate patterns) — scanning each of the top imported keywords separately shows whether local-pack visibility is consistent across all of them or concentrated in just one.
Where this fits for an agency
For anyone managing several client accounts, the import removes the slowest part of onboarding a new project: guessing at keywords before a first scan can even run. Connect Search Console, get a project with real keywords pre-filled, and the first heatmap for a new client is minutes away instead of a research task.