The one-number version of a heatmap
A heatmap shows exactly where a business ranks, point by point — which is precise, but not always what a client, a prospect, or a manager wants in the first ten seconds of a conversation. Share of Local Voice (SoLV) compresses that same grid into a single percentage: what share of the scanned area does this business actually own the top 3?
SoLV is calculated as the percentage of scanned grid points where the business lands in Google Maps’ top 3 results — the positions that get seen and clicked before a searcher scrolls further. Find it in the top 3 at 30 out of a 49-point grid, and SoLV is roughly 61%.
Why top 3, specifically
The local pack — the map plus the three business results Google shows above the organic listings — is where the overwhelming majority of “near me” and local-intent clicks happen. A business ranked 6th at a given point is still findable if someone scrolls, but it isn’t in the set of results most searchers actually see without extra effort. SoLV measures presence in that visible set specifically, which is why it reads closer to “how visible is this business, really” than a raw average position does.
Where SoLV fits next to ARP and ATRP
SoLV is a coverage metric, not a position metric — it answers “how much of the map do I own,” not “how good are the rankings where I show up.” A business can have a strong ARP (great average position at the points where it’s found) but a mediocre SoLV, if it only shows up at a small cluster of points near its address. The reverse is also possible: broad but shallow presence across the grid at 4th–6th place would score worse on SoLV than a tighter cluster of top-3 rankings, even with a similar average position. Reading SoLV alongside ARP and ATRP — covered in ARP vs. ATRP: why average rank position alone is misleading — gives a fuller picture than any single number alone.
It’s also the metric behind competitor analysis: ranking every business that appears across a grid by how often it lands in the top 3 is exactly how SeoMap identifies who’s actually winning a given area, not just who a business happens to be aware of as a competitor.
Using SoLV in practice
SoLV is one of the three headline numbers every scan produces automatically, alongside ARP and ATRP — no separate setup or extra credits required. It’s usually the number that lands hardest in a sales pitch or a client report, because “you own 24% of your own neighborhood” is easier to act on than a list of coordinates and positions. Every SeoMap plan starting at Starter includes it on every scan.