How should agencies measure proximity, relevance, and prominence in local search without oversimplifying rankings?

Use geographic sampling and query segmentation instead of one city-level rank.

For proximity, measure the same query from a grid of points across the actual service market. Record distance to the business and the resulting local visibility. This shows where proximity likely dominates and where the listing can compete farther away.

For relevance, compare performance across query categories: primary service, secondary services, branded, emergency/urgent, product-specific, and informational-local queries. Review GBP categories/services and landing-page relevance for weak query groups.

For prominence, track signals that can extend competitive reach: review quality/velocity, local links, citations/entity consistency, brand demand, organic authority of the linked website, and sustained engagement.

Do not collapse these into a fake formula. Instead report patterns:
- strong near-location / weak farther out may indicate proximity limits or insufficient prominence;
- weak even at close points may indicate relevance, profile quality, filtering, or strong competitors;
- strong organic but weak maps can indicate GBP/entity issues;
- strong maps but weak organic may indicate website/local landing-page weaknesses.

Overlay conversions where possible. A #1 position at an edge-of-market grid point is less important than calls and leads from the neighborhoods that matter commercially.

Use the same grid and query set over time so changes are comparable. The purpose of local rank tracking is diagnosis and trend analysis—not pretending the business has one fixed local ranking.