Frequently Asked Questions about Local Falcon

Evaluates the quantitative aspects of a business's Google reviews, focusing on the frequency and total number of reviews. The RVS is composed of two equally weighted sub-metrics: Review Velocity and Total Reviews.

Review Velocity
Measures the average number of reviews per month, with a maximum score achieved by maintaining an average of 10 reviews per month in the last 90 days.

Total Reviews
Considers the cumulative number of reviews a business has received, with a minimum of 50 total reviews required to earn the maximum score.

Calculated by multiplying the Review Quality Score (RQS) and the Review Volume Score (RVS), resulting in a single percentage value that represents the overall strength of a business's online reputation.

Each AI Reviews Analysis Report is priced at $19 per location and includes analysis for you + 3 competitors.

Local Falcon's AI Reviews Analysis Reports contain detailed insights drawn from every last word in customer reviews, so the strategic suggestions it provides could be related to anything that customers have mentioned. 

For example, a report might suggest providing additional training, coaching, or mentorship to improve staff skills. Or, it could suggest implementing a client portal on your website to streamline communication. 

There's really no limit to what tips the AI can provide — if reviews mention an issue, the AI Reviews Analysis will suggest ways to fix it to improve sentiment about your business!

Yes, every AI Reviews Analysis Report includes analysis of your top three competitors' reviews. This allows you to quickly compare your review sentiments and identify opportunities to improve your business's offerings and service compared to competitors. Ultimately, this can go a long way towards helping you outrank them and achieve better overall visibility in local search.

Focuses on the qualitative aspects of a business's Google reviews, taking into account three key sub-metrics: rating percentage, responded to percentage, and review freshness.

Rating Percentage
We use an exponential decay function to emphasize high ratings: 5 stars get 100%, 4.5 stars get 95%, 4 stars get 80%, 3.5 stars get 50%, and 3 stars or below get 0%.

Responded to Percentage
Responding to every review, regardless of rating, shows that a business values its customers' feedback. The score rewards businesses that actively respond to a high percentage of reviews, with a 100% response rate receiving the maximum score.

Review Freshness
Fresh reviews provide an up-to-date view of a business's quality. We use an exponential decay function to calculate the score: reviews from the last day get 100% weight, within a week get 80%, and those older than 30 days get minimal weight.

Review Velocity measures the average number of reviews a business receives per month, with a maximum score achieved by maintaining an average of 10 reviews per month in the last 90 days.

The star rating on a Google Business Profile listing.

The total number of reviews for a Google Business Profile listing.

Gives more weight to recent reviews by using an exponential decay function. Reviews posted within the last day receive a weight of 100%, reviews within the last week closer to 80%, and reviews older than 30 days receiving a very small percentage.

The number of reviews which have not been responded to by the owner of the Google Business Profile. Please note: This total is considering just the most recent 100 reviews.

The number of reviews posted to the Google Business Profile by a 'Local Guide', Google's program for active participants in the Google Maps community.

The number of reviews analyzed in this report.

Local Falcon is a complete local SEO intelligence platform. It helps businesses and agencies understand, optimize, and automate their local search visibility across Google, Apple, and leading AI-powered search platforms.

With Local Falcon, you can:

• Track local rankings with geo-grid scans for Google Business Profile and Apple Business Connect.

• Measure AI visibility across platforms like Google AI Overviews, Google AI Mode, Gemini, ChatGPT, and Grok.

• Analyze Google reviews and understand sentiment with the AI-powered Reviews Analysis tool.

• Get AI-generated performance insights and optimization recommendations from Falcon AI.

• Automate ongoing reporting and visibility tracking for multiple locations and platforms with Campaign Reports.

• Research local keywords for both traditional and AI search with the Local Keyword Tool.

• Monitor Google Business Profile changes and performance metrics with Falcon Guard.

• Analyze competitors with detailed Competitor Reports that compare rankings, visibility, and opportunities to increase share of voice.

Local Falcon gives you a single place to see how your business appears across local and AI search, and the tools to improve that visibility at scale.

The number of reviews on this Google Business Profile listing which include an image.

In your Scan Reports, ARP = Average Rank Position and ATRP = Average Total Rank Position.

The difference is that the ARP is an average of only the pins that actually have a result (position 20 or less), while ATRP averages all the pins, even when a business is not found (20+).

This difference helps you compare if a business is ranking well across a wide area, or if they are ranking well in only a small area within the search grid.

Local Falcon tracks where your business appears in Google's local pack results (the Google 3-Pack) across your entire service area. Unlike basic rank trackers that check your average position from a single location, Local Falcon creates a geo-grid around your business and checks your rankings from multiple points, showing exactly where you rank well and where you don't at the hyperlocal level. Beyond GBP rank tracking, Local Falcon's Falcon Guard can also monitor your Google Business Profile for changes, wanted or unwanted, and tracks key GBP Performance Metrics, including clicks, calls, and direction requests.

A Google Business Profile (GBP) is a free business listing on Google that allows you to manage how your business appears on Google Search and Maps. It includes your business name, location, hours, photos, services, products, reviews, and other important information that helps customers find and learn about your business.

As accurate as possible. While there's no one "right" SERP result, we wouldn't have released the tool if it wasn't providing accurate information. If you want more details, check out this article where we compare our scan to two other local rank trackers.

We can process payments through credit cards, ACH/Bank Accounts, Apple Pay, Google Pay, and Amazon Pay. 

Yes! Our geo-grid rank tracker works for all businesses, including Service Area Businesses (SAB) with hidden addresses.

To provide as much flexibility to our clients as possible, we offer four retail packages, four enterprise packages, annual packages for both, and a pay-as-you-go system. Credits in the annual packages do not expire until the end of your billing year, credits in the monthly package plans expire at the end of the billing month, and individual credit purchases do not expire and will stay in your account until they are used.

Rankings are highly variable and dependent on many factors. These variables include whether or not you're logged into Google, if you're browsing "Incognito," whether or not the IP address has been used for similar searches, and more. Even the zoom level of your map can affect your final results. Local Falcon pulls data from "clean" Google searches that aren't influenced by previous search history; therefore, they may be slightly different. There is no "perfect" rank scan for local results, because everyone sees slightly different results in a real-world scan.

All subscriptions can be managed from this page. Your existing monthly credits will be available for use until the end of your billing cycle. If you have any individual credits left in your account, those will not expire and will still be available to you after the end of your billing cycle.

Note: By canceling your credit package, at the end of your billing cycle, your payment method will remain on file, and your Local Falcon account will downgrade to "pay as you go" (with no recurring monthly credit package charges). This is done in order to accommodate any Auto Scans you may have set up. In order to remove a payment method entirely, all packages must be in a state of cancellation or fully cancelled, and Auto Recharge needs to be disabled.

Once the address is officially updated on Google Business Profile, you can update the address in your account by navigating to your "Saved Locations" from the "Locations" drop-down and clicking the button with the pencil icon to enter a new address for your listing. This will ensure you continue to receive accurate scan results.

SoLV stands for "Share of Local Voice". This shows how often a business ranks in the top three positions (the local pack or Google's 3-Pack) on the geo-grid you are viewing. Share of Local Voice is an invaluable metric that can help estimate the true possibilities for improvement for any local keyword. Additionally, over time, SoLV may be an excellent tool for understanding brand lift. SoLV is a registered trademark of Local Falcon LLC. 

We will only ask for information that is necessary to be in compliance with the law. For example, we will need your address when upgrading your account to comply with tax regulations. All scan data is saved in your account for future reference and that information is kept on our servers. We are in compliance with GDPR and will not release any information about you or your account without your authorization or being compelled to by law.

Local Falcon works everywhere in the world and with any language!

No. You can use Local Falcon without signing up for any Google API keys.

The average number of reviews posted by the individuals who posted a review on this Google Business Profile. This can be helpful to spot fake reviews.

Yes. You can group multiple locations together in a Campaign Scan to automate multi-location visibility tracking.

Every scan you perform is saved in your account. Numerous reports are available after each scan. Saved scan results can be found in the "Reports" drop-down menu in your Local Falcon Dashboard.

Definitely! You can initiate a visibility scan for any business, though our reports will show you exactly how your competitors rank as well when you run a scan for your own business.

Using the Local Falcon Map Scan tool only takes a few simple steps. You can run scans manually with the Quick Scan tool, automate them with Campaigns, or even trigger them through the API. Here's how to get started with a Quick Scan:

1. Choose a business and keywords.
   Go to the Quick Scan tool and select the business you want to analyze from your location list. Add at least one keyword to scan, though we recommend starting with 5-10 for better insights. (Tip: check the Suggested Keywords to discover search terms your business already ranks for as well as AI-generated ideas.)

2. Set your Map Scan Radius and Grid Size.
   Pick your grid size (the 9×9 grid is most popular) and choose a radius based on your market type:

   • Urban: ~2 miles

   • Suburban: ~5 miles

   • Rural: ~10 miles

3. Run your scan.
   Click "Run Scan" to start analyzing your local rankings.

4. View and share your results.
   When the scan finishes, open the Scan Report to see your rankings on the map grid. You can share it instantly by clicking the Share icon.

5. Automate your tracking (optional).
   Set up a Campaign Scan for multiple locations or schedule a recurring Auto Scan from an individual Scan Report to automatically track visibility over time.

Yes. In addition to our monthly subscription packages, you may also elect to purchase an annual package, where your credits do not expire each month (instead, this happens only once per year). In addition to this, annual and enterprise users will enjoy virtually unlimited access to Falcon Assist, Local Falcon's AI assistant. 

Other rank trackers make you choose a location, usually a zip or postal code, and then scan from one spot within that area. Since even a small amount of distance can lead to a different map ranking scan result, it's normal for slight differences to appear.

You are not limited to only scanning from the business location. You can drag the red center pin on the map to move it and begin scanning from any point you want. You can always re-center the point by clicking the "Center Map" button in the bottom right-hand corner of the map.

You can always try loading the Map Scan page in another browser. If the map loads, then the issue is specific to one browser and you may need to change a setting. Here are some setting updates that may fix the problem:

Chrome Fix

Firefox Fix

Internet Explorer Fix

Microsoft Edge Fix

Mac/Apple Fix

Please contact us via the live chat or email us at account [at] localfalcon.com if you still do not see a map on the Map Scan page.

Normally the best ranking position (the greenest) should be at the location of the business, and then the numbered positions should get higher as you radiate away from the center (shifting from yellow to orange to red the further away you get from the location).

If you see very irregular scan results, such as rankings that get better further away from the center point, this can indicate an error and we would be happy to take a look at the specific search.

If your business specifically isn't showing up in your Scan Report, it's possible you're either using the wrong scan settings or your business simply isn't visible in the scanned area.

If you're sure your scan settings are right and your business is visibile on the platform(s) you're scanning, it's also possible that there's a technical issue. There are millions of businesses with all kinds of different variables and, although we have done our best to account for the majority of them, there will always be some that don't fit the mold for whatever (technical) reason.

As always, we appreciate your continued use, and if you have any questions feel free to contact us at account [at] localfalcon.com.

Yes. Local Falcon offers two different types of API access: Data Retrieval and On-Demand Scan.

• Data Retrieval API: This API pulls scan data from standard Local Falcon scans and pools them in your custom reporting tool.
• On-Demand Scan API: This API allows you to build your own custom interface and reporting tools. This grants you full control over the input and output of Local Falcon data.

Access to Local Falcon's on-demand API requires a subscription fee of $199 per month. There are also reasonable usage fees of $0.0032 per request or $3.20 for 1,000 requests. You can find full API pricing and usage fee details here.

This occurs when the API was not able to find a center point for your listing because of a hidden address. To correct this issue, navigate to your "Saved Locations" from the "Locations" drop-down and use the pencil edit icon to manually set a center point.

Yes! You get 100 free credits when you create an account. 

Yes! If you are on the "Basic" subscription tier or higher, all of the data which appears in Looker Studio is white-labeled.

There are numerous applications for creating custom Local Falcon reports using Looker Studio, and getting started is simple! Our Knowledge Base has a step-by-step tutorial on how to get started: Using the Looker Studio Integration for Local Falcon.

Local Falcon's data retrieval API is free with any credit package larger than the "Starter" monthly plan. The "Basic" monthly credit package, the lowest level of monthly plan required to gain access to the data retrieval API, costs $49.99 per month. You can also gain access by signing up for the "Starter" annual plan for $299.88 per year.

The larger the grid you select, the more data points your Map Scan uses, which means you get more detailed data and more accurate ARP and ATRP scores.

In general, it's always better to use more data points, but each data point you use also adds to the cost of your Map Scan, which is why you may sometimes choose to use smaller grids, depending on your budget and the number of locations you want to run scans for.

For example, Map Scans using 11 x 11 grids offer a good balance between detail of data and cost, which is why this is one of the most popular grid sizes among Local Falcon users, especially those running lots of scans for multiple locations.

In addition to finding us on our live chat, or by emailing us directly, you can also use the step-by-step guide found over in our Knowledge Base. We've created a detailed article here: Using the Looker Studio Integration for Local Falcon.

Nope! This is a free tool provided by the data nerds at Local Falcon. It is important to point out that you must be using a "Basic" subscription (or higher) in order to connect to Looker Studio.

A credit in Local Falcon is defined as one data point, often referred to as a "map pin," used on the geo-grid during a scan. To put it simply, if you conduct a 5x5 grid scan, this grid will utilize 25 credits from your account, as each point on the grid represents one credit.

Broadly speaking, the more densely populated the area is, the smaller the radius should be. For a densely populated urban area, a radius of 1-2 miles or so is a good place to start. For a sparsely populated rural area, on the other hand, you might use a 10-mile scan radius. It also depends how far you think people are willing to travel or schedule a service from in your target market, which will come down to personal knowledge and experience.

Yes! There are many ways to do this; however, you'll need to run a scan at least twice in order to export in bulk or use Campaigns. You can also use this Looker Studio Template if neither of those cases are applicable to you.

Disable any data points over large bodies of water or other irrelevant (unpopulated) areas, like big national parks, where people are not likely to be searching for your business. This will both save credits and ensure you are only looking at the most relevant data.

Rather than charge any type of flat fee, Local Falcon uses a flexible credit system, wherein each credit is equal to a map pin used in a geo-grid rank tracking scan. This allows you to tailor your scans and credit usage to perfectly suit your needs and budget, paying either monthly or annually depending on what makes the most sense for you and your business. You can find detailed credit package pricing information for all available plans on our pricing page.

If you want to receive Suggested Keywords based on actual search terms and their volume of impressions, you must connect the Google Business Profile account you use to manage your business listing(s). If you don't, you will still receive AI-generated suggestions as well as suggestions based on your business locations' current Google Business Profile categories.

Campaigns work best when you group together businesses that are in areas with similar population densities, such as businesses in rural areas and businesses in urban centers. You can also create Location Groups, and add those groups to a Campaign Scan.

Weekly and bi-weekly scheduled scans are the most cost-effective options, as they offer a good balance between data frequency and credit usage. If budget is a concern, you may opt to run Campaign Scans on a monthly basis instead. You don't really ever need to run daily scans, except in very niche scenarios. 

Campaign Scans allow you to automate recurring scans for one or more business locations using the same scan settings and delivering automated Campaign Reports to you and anyone else you want to keep in the loop each time a scan is completed.

We'd like to think that it has, yes! We've been pretty well-reviewed over the years, we've even been covered by Ranking Academy, Local Search Forum and others.

Yes! You can edit the business locations and keywords, Campaign Scan schedule, and Campaign Report notification email, as well as toggle the Campaign on and off, at any time after you create a Campaign in Local Falcon. Grid Size and Scan Radius settings can be edited up until the first scan runs.

Yes! It's easy to share the results of your Local Falcon scans. Just tap the "Share" button on the report page and choose how you want to share (URL, email, social, etc.). Sharing is available on all report types and for all account types. No login is necessary to view the results of a scan you share.

Local Falcon's Suggested Keywords will appear in the keyword search bar drop-down when you go to the Map Scan tool and select a business location to run a scan for.

You can enable auto-recharge or upgrade to one of our retail or enterprise packages. We would also highly recommend you consider moving to an annual package, because you will get a full year's worth of credits immediately (and those credits do not expire until the end of your yearly billing cycle).

Pay-as-you-go credits purchased through auto-recharge have the benefit of not expiring. However, we're continuously adding new features, so your credits won't go to waste if you upgrade your monthly subscription!

If your needs exceed the number of credits in the available enterprise credit packages, you can email us at account [at] localfalcon.com for a custom pricing package.

The ultimate SoLV goal is always 100, but in most cases that isn't going to happen for a number of reasons.

We recommend running a few scans to see how far you currently reach (i.e., grid points where you have a SoLV above 0), then using that info set a goal on how far you want to reach in X number of months. Use that distance goal when setting up your reports, then strive to get your SoLV to as close to 100 as possible.

However, depending on how competitive the area is, getting your SoLV to 100 may not be possible. You could then use the Competitor Report to see who has the highest SoLV in the area and set the goal to surpass them.

The Map Scan radius is a search area defined by the distance from your business that your Map Scan covers (in all directions), as well as the number of data points you are using within the search area.

Changing these parameters allows you to see better, more detailed data on how your business ranks for different keywords at specific distances, so you can pinpoint exactly where your rankings for different keywords start to fall off.

To understand the number of credits you will need for Local Falcon, there are six variables to keep in-mind: 

+ Grid Size (for example, a 7x7 grid is 49 credits). 

+ Number of keywords you plan to scan (the average user typically scans about 10 keywords). 

+ Number of locations you want to scan (keep in mind you may also want to schedule dedicated scans for competitor's listings as well). 

+ Whether or not you would like to use Falcon AI for scan report analysis and recommendations (the average user adds Falcon AI on their listing scans, but not on competitors; also keep in-mind Falcon AI is just 25 credits per scan report). 

+ The platforms you plan to track your rank on (Google, Apple Maps, AI search platforms).

+ The frequency of how often you want to run your scans (we recommend either weekly or bi-weekly to get a good trend analysis).  

Once you've determined what makes the most sense, take a look at the packages on our pricing page. Keep in mind you may want to leave some extra room for experiments and one-off scans as well!

Local Falcon's Suggested Keywords feature provides relevant keyword recommendations for Map Scans. These suggestions are based on terms consumers use to find your business on Google. This feature also shows you the estimated monthly impressions your business is getting for those terms. You'll also receive additional AI-generated keyword recommendations thanks to Falcon AI, as well as ideas based on the business's currently suggested GBP categories.

You can ask Falcon Assist anything you want, but the AI is built specifically to respond to queries related to Local Falcon, local SEO, your scans, and your business, so you should stick to these topics in order to get helpful responses.

Yes. You can select as many keywords as you want from the Suggested Keywords and you can manually add as many other keywords as you want as well. From there you can run simultaneous Map Scans for all of them. Keep in mind that each scan will still cost the same number of credits.

Various credit packages are available, ranging from $24.99 to $199.99 when billed monthly (for 7,500 to 63,000 monthly credits) or $299.88 to $2,399.88 when billed annually (for 90,000 to 756,000 annual credits). 

Local Falcon also offers enterprise credit packages ranging from $499 to $4,999 when billed monthly (for 157,000 to 1,570,000 monthly credits) or $5,988 to $59,988 when billed annually (for 1,884,000 to 18,840,000 annual credits).

Scan settings are various parameters you can set for running Map Scans in Local Falcon to optimize your local rank tracking data visualization and Local Falcon credit usage.

Looker Studio Templates are custom report templates we've built out for different types of Local Falcon reports, making it easier to instantly get the data visualization you need when you send reports to Looker Studio.

Yes! Any Local Falcon report you send to Looker Studio, including those generated using Looker Studio Templates, is fully downloadable, editable, and shareable.

All of them! In addition to the standard Local Falcon reports (Scan Reports, Competitor Reports, Trend Reports, Keyword Reports, and Location Reports), power users of Looker Studio can blend data to create custom outputs and reports.

Many of the scan settings, such as grid size, scan frequency, and the keywords scanned for, will come down to preference. For scan radius, however, you want a majority of your data points to be green or yellow; if most of them are red, you'll want to use a smaller radius until you start ranking further away from your business location. Check out our blog post on choosing scan settings for more info.

The main scan settings you can change for any business location are the scan radius and grid size, the keywords scanned for, and the scan frequency for Campaign Scans.

No. You can choose not to send Campaign Report notification emails while creating a new Campaign Scan, or turn them off for existing Campaigns at any time.

As-needed pricing is still available upon creating an account and logging into the portal, but we think you'll find the cost of our packages much more affordable than purchasing individual credits. Create an account today to learn more.

There are two ways to send reports to Looker Studio. You can either view and send any report directly from the report's screen in Local Falcon, or select a recent report to send using a Looker Studio Template.

Falcon AI works by analyzing data from your Scan Reports and organic search results to provide notes on potential problems with your listings as well as suggestions for how to optimize them. It also identifies relevant citation opportunities that can help you improve visibility in organic search results.

Local Falcon's Credits Explorer tool gives you a high-level overview of your credit usage, breaking down what types of scans your credits are going towards for a selected time period, including forecasting your credit usage for upcoming scheduled scans.

Falcon AI is Local Falcon's built-in, AI-powered analysis tool that reviews your scan results and search data to give you clear, actionable insights. It helps you identify potential issues with your Google Business Profile, highlights optimization opportunities, and suggests relevant citation sources to improve your local search visibility.

Running Map Scans for Apple Maps locations works exactly the same as doing so for Google Maps locations. You can run a one-off Quick Scan or set up a Campaign Scan to automate your Apple Maps rank tracking for multiple locations.

We recommend running individual "baseline" scans for the business locations you want to run Campaign Scans for in order to get an idea of what settings to use. This will also help you determine which business locations make the most sense to group together in Campaigns.

Local Falcon's Sales Enablement Tool finds and populates sales lead lists (in CSV files) with local ranking data and additional information pulled from the Google Business Profiles of sales leads. This enrichment provides the ability to outreach to prospective clients with personalized local ranking information.

One credit is one data point (we call the map pins used on the geo-grid "data points"). If you are running a 5x5 scan, you will use 25 credits. 

You must have a Basic Local Falcon subscription or higher in order to use the Looker Studio integration and all of its features.

There are six variables to keep in-mind when planning your credit usage: 

+ Grid size (for example, a 9x9 grid is 81 credits). 

+ Number of keywords you plan to scan (the average user typically starts scanning about 10 keywords). 

+ Number of locations / listings you want to scan (keep in-mind you may also want to schedule dedicated scans for your competitor's locations as well). 

+ Whether or not you would like to use Falcon AI for scan report analysis and recommendations (the average user adds Falcon AI on their listing scans, but not on competitors; also keep in-mind these are just 25 credits per report). 

+ The platforms you plan to track your rank on (Google and Apple).

+ The frequency of how often you want to run your scans (we recommend either weekly, or bi-weekly to get a good trend analysis).  

Once you've determined what makes the most sense, take a look at the packages, above. Keep in-mind you may want to leave some extra room for experiments and one-off scans as well :) 

Another helpful tool for keeping an eye on credits as you schedule Campaigns and Scheduled Scans, is Local Falcon's Credit Explorer; a usage estimator that is available in your account. 

Location Groups allow you to create groups of business locations that you plan to run scans using the same Scan Settings for. When setting up Campaigns and other types of scans, you can then simply select a Location Group instead of manually adding each business location.

Location Groups also make it easier to filter reports, as you can choose to filter by group in order to only view reports for certain sets or subsets of business locations.

Yes, Local Falcon supports local rank tracking for Apple Business Connect listings. Running Map Scans for Apple Maps locations works exactly the same as doing so for Google Maps locations.

Falcon AI is automatically turned on for all Scan Reports and you can turn it on or off at any time in your account preferences or scan settings.

To analyze a past Scan Report with Falcon AI, simply open up any existing Scan Report that has run in the last 48 hours and click the "Generate AI Report" button (indicated by the OpenAI icon).

Although the same subscription tiers are available for both annual and monthly subscribers, annual subscriptions offer some additional features at lower tiers that monthly subscribers don't get access to.

When you go to the hub for any report type, hit the "Filters" button and set parameters to filter the reports by. Once you set these filter parameters, you'll see all reports that meet those criteria in the hub.

Google Maps locations are businesses listed via Google Business Profile, while Apple Maps locations are businesses listed via Apple Business Connect.

In terms of relevance, Google Business Profile listings are much more widely used, as it's the preferred maps app for the majority of mobile users, regardless of device type. On the other hand, Apple Maps is the default maps app for iOS users, though many users replace the native Apple Maps app with Google Maps.

Yes, you can create a subgroup to further segment business locations within Location Groups by choosing to file a new Location Group under an existing one when creating the new group.

The Sales Enablement Tool is ideal for agency and white-glove users looking for ways to personalize outreach emails and communication to improve their odds of converting leads into clients for services related to improving businesses' local search rankings.

Yes! Local Falcon offers a number of annual credit packages, which are the most cost-effective way to use Local Falcon.

You can prevent your unused credits from going to waste by signing up for an annual credit package. That way, your credits only expire a year from the date you signed up for an annual subscription to Local Falcon.

Go to "Credits Explorer" in the "Billing" drop-down from your account dashboard to see how many credits you have remaining and what your predicted credit usage is for upcoming scans.

If you don't have enough credits, the Credits Explorer tool will let you know and you can purchase more credits or change your subscription level accordingly.

Falcon Guard Costs $0.10 cents per location each month (minimum of $1, which covers 10 locations). 

Go to your saved locations and click the "Text Search" button, then toggle the platform selection to Apple Maps. After that, search for the business location by its name or address and click on it to instantly add it to your Saved Locations.

Alternatively, you can search for and add an Apple Business Connect location when setting up a new Quick Scan. Just click the "Search" button at the bottom of the locations drop-down to pull up the same text search box described above.

Yes, Local Falcon offers a range of annual enterprise credit packages for large enterprises that need significantly more credits than our standard annual subscription packages offer.

Yes, you can filter the data within individual Campaign Reports using Location Groups and subgroups to see only the data for certain business locations within that Campaign. You can then easily share these filtered reports with stakeholders by clicking the "Share" button.

Falcon Assist, launched February of 2024, is Local Falcon's AI-powered Local SEO assistant, available to answer all your questions and provide guidance related to Local Falcon, local SEO, your business location(s), and more.

There are two ways to do this. The first is by opening up a Campaign Report and selecting the group you want to filter for from the "Filter Campaign Data by Group" drop-down. The second is by going to the hub for any report type, clicking the "Filters" button, and setting a Location Group as one of your filter parameters.

Falcon Assist is available to all subscribers in a limited capacity, however, annual and enterprise users will enjoy virtually unlimited access to Falcon Assist, Local Falcon's AI assistant.

Falcon Guard provides two daily alerts when changes are detected. You'll be notified immediately via email and through the notifications section of your Local Falcon account whenever changes are detected, allowing you to decide whether to take action before the changes impact your business's visibility or reputation.

Local Falcon's integrations, including the Looker Studio and Zapier integrations, are free with any credit package larger than the "Starter" monthly plan. This means you can gain access to these integrations with either the "Basic" monthly package, which costs $49.99 per month, or even the "Starter" annual plan, which costs $299.88 per year.

Using Falcon AI to receive AI-powered analysis and optimization recommendations for a scan always costs just 25 credits per report.

Falcon Guard monitors critical changes to your Google Business Profile, including edits to business name, address, phone number, website, business hours, categories, latitude, longitude, business description, star rating, review count, store code and Place ID. Monitoring these fields helps ensure you are alerted when any changes have been made to your listing, whether they're authorized or unauthorized.

You can filter reports according to a wide range of criteria, including platform, business location, location groups and subgroups, scan type (i.e., manual, auto, or campaign), scan date, scan configuration (settings), and ARP, ATRP, and SoLV scores.

Share of AI Voice (SAIV) is a metric to quantify a brand's presence and prominence in AI-generated search results. SAIV measures how frequently a brand is mentioned when an AI summary is triggered for the given keyword across the area you searched, and brand mentions were detected within that summary (we do not factor AI summaries with no mention of any brand into the score). 

A higher SAIV score indicates greater visibility for the given keyword and grid area, potentially leading to increased brand awareness, relevance and customer engagement.

Falcon Guard can protect an unlimited number of locations. For just $1 per month, you can monitor up to 10 locations. Every set of 10 locations after that costs $1 more.

Yes, it does. Your local rank can be different when your business is open vs closed. 

While some changes come from legitimate sources like a coworker, customer, or even a suggestion from Google's AI, unauthorized "Suggested edits," such as moving your business's map pin miles away or altering your contact information, can hurt your visibility and customer trust. Falcon Guard will alert you to all changes. 

Yes, Falcon Guard can also track changes made to competitor listings, giving you insights into any shifts in their profile that could impact your business in local search rankings. To monitor a competitor's listing, simply add the location to your Local Falcon account and activate the monitor in Falcon Guard settings.

Falcon Assist is included free of charge with all annual and enterprise credit package subscriptions, which have entry-level price points of $299.88 and $5,988 per year, respectively.

Credits for monthly credit packages expire at the end of each month and credits for annual plans expire at the end of each year. So, if you're on a monthly plan and find you're not using all your credits every month, consider upgrading to a yearly package to roll your credits over at the end of each month!

Remote MCP is a cloud-hosted server managed by Local Falcon. It's fast, easy to set up, and requires no technical work.

Local MCP is a self-hosted option that gives developers full control by running the MCP server on their own machine or infrastructure.

The geo-grid is Local Falcon's signature feature that displays your rankings at specific points on an interactive map (the Scan Explorer). It shows exactly where your business appears in local map pack results or AI-generated search results for any keyword across your service area, helping you visualize your visibility patterns and identify areas for improvement.

Google AI Overviews is a new Google Search feature that replaces traditional local business listings (like the Google 3-Pack) with AI-generated summaries, personalized recommendations, and contextual information drawn from multiple sources across the web. Instead of just showing business listings, it creates comprehensive overviews highlighting key attributes and answering common questions.

Local Falcon measures Share of AI Voice (SAIV). The tool will perform a search at every pin on your geo-grid, it will then record whether a Google AI Overviews result was present or not, and it will record whether your brand is mentioned/cited. Your SAIV score is the percentage of map pins where you're mentioned. We also display the AI Overviews response itself, and show you the sources Google chose.

Local Falcon's Sales Enablement tool costs 1 credit per lookup. In other words, it costs 1 credit to pull detailed Google Business Profile information and local ranking data for 1 lead.

If you happen to run out of credits for the month or year and wish to purchase additional credits, you can do so on an as-needed basis from within the "Credits and Subscriptions" section of the Billing menu in your Dashboard. These pay-as-you-go credits cost $0.05 per credit and never expire.

Yes, Campaign Scan geo-grids are fully customizable for each location included in the scan. Simply click on any grid point (map pin) you want to disable when setting up or editing Campaigns.

MCP stands for Model Context Protocol. It allows AI tools like ChatGPT and Claude to securely connect to your Local Falcon account and access real-time scan data, rankings, competitor reports, and more, all to deliver smarter, context-aware SEO insights.

If you ran the scan before July 26, 2024, the business information displayed in reports (name, address, reviews) automatically updates to the most recent info. All reports from scans run after July 26, 2024 will display the business info as it appeared at the time of the scan.

Falcon Guard stores your locations' Google Business Profile performance data forever, allowing you to track performance over time, including for the past 7 days, 30 days, 3 months, 6 months, 12 months, and year-over-year (once we have enough data). You can also toggle between seeing daily and monthly metrics for the chosen timeframe.

The Relevant Citations section will appear any time the search engine results page (SERP) shows a result that can be considered a citations website on the first page of search results. If the section does not appear, it means that for that keyword at that time and location Google did no present a citations website on the first page of search results.

MCP-enabled tools can retrieve scan reports, keyword trends, grid ranking data, competitor comparisons, campaign reports, Falcon Guard alerts, GBP Performance Metrics, and more — anything your Local Falcon account has access to.

The easiest way is to track both changes and GBP Performance Metrics with Falcon Guard, which automatically scans your GBP listing twice a day and keeps a record of all changes while also updating stats on the most important profile interactions, including calls, website clicks, and requests for directions.

You can ask things like:

• "How far from my business do I rank for [keyword]?"
• "What's changed on my Google Business Profile since last week?"
• "What should I do to outrank this competitor?"
• "How many competitors are in my area?"

The AI will pull real data from your account and provide answers based on your actual performance.

Not at all. If you use the Remote MCP option, the setup is simple and does not require technical knowledge. If you choose the Local MCP path, some developer experience is helpful for installation and configuration.

Just click the "Import From Google Account" button on the Saved Locations page and check the box next to the manually added location to make the connection.

Yes, but you need an "On-Demand API" subscription.

The local pack, also known as Google's 3-Pack, is a prominent feature displayed at the top of Google's local search results, typically showing three Google Business Profile listings that match the user's search query. It's one of the most visible and competitive spaces for local businesses aiming to attract nearby customers.

Remote MCP:

• Claude "Pro" plan or higher, so you have access to "Integrations"
• Local Falcon "Basic" monthly plan or higher, so you have access to the "Local Falcon API"

Local MCP:

• Any Claude plan, but you'll have to download Claude Desktop.
• Local Falcon "Basic" monthly plan or higher, so you have access to the "Local Falcon API"

No, but you need the monthly "Basic" plan or higher. 

If your business wasn't mentioned in any Google AI Overviews, it could be due to a few reasons:

• The keywords used didn't trigger Google AI Overviews results (they could be too short or general).
• Your business isn't mentioned in the types of online sources Google AI Overviews pull from (e.g., Reddit, social media, and other third-party platforms).
• Competitors have stronger content presence or more online authority for those queries.

Yes, Local Falcon allows online credit card payments through the Stripe system using the 3D Secure protocol for two-factor authentication. This ensures that users in countries where 3DS authentication is required can sign up for Local Falcon and make payments without any issues.

AI systems are designed to generate unique responses each time, even for identical queries. This variability is why our multi-sample approach (AI Visibility Grid) is crucial—by collecting 9 (3x3) to 441 (21x21) different responses, we can determine how consistently AI mentions your business and identify patterns in when you're included versus excluded.

As AI assistants like ChatGPT become increasingly popular tools for everyday searches, including local business recommendations, understanding your visibility in these platforms is becoming crucial. Businesses that appear prominently in AI-generated responses gain an advantage in capturing customers who prefer conversational search interfaces.

Yes, all reports for scans run after July 26, 2024 show the business name, address, and review score/number of reviews as they appeared at the time of the scan. Any reports from before then automatically update to display the most recent information.

Yes, you can disable grid points for any location included in a Campaign Scan to customize the shape of its geo-grid, optimizing credit usage and data visualization. You can also choose a different scan radius or grid size for any location in your Campaign.

Yes, you can modify the grid size and radius for each location.

Falcon AI identifies top-performing and underperforming locations, highlights successes and challenges, analyzes competitor rankings and keyword strategies, and offers strategic suggestions to improve local SEO efforts. It also categorizes specific issues by priority, making it easier to focus on the most impactful optimizations first.

By default yes, but you can opt to associate specific keywords with specific locations if you don't want to scan all keywords for all locations.

Yes. Both MCP options are permission-based. You control what's shared and when. Nothing is accessed without your authorization.

Local Falcon is the first comprehensive solution designed specifically to help businesses track and understand their visibility within Google's AI-generated search results at a local level. The tool monitors when your business appears in an AI Overviews response.

Simply run a Campaign Scan in your Local Falcon dashboard (Falcon AI is automatically enabled, with the option to disable it). Once completed, Falcon AI's analysis will be instantly available within the Campaign Report, ready to help guide your local SEO strategy with actionable insights.

Yes. Whether you choose Remote or Local MCP, all connections are secure and encrypted. Your data is never shared with other users, and nothing is stored or used outside of your session unless you explicitly request it.

Ideally, you should track your rankings weekly or bi-weekly to stay responsive to any significant changes.

Yes, Local Falcon reveals which external sources and citations the AI references when generating results about your business. This transparency helps you prioritize which third-party platforms and review sites to focus on for better AI visibility.

Local AI visibility tracking monitors how often and how prominently your business appears in AI-generated responses from platforms like ChatGPT and Google AI Overviews. Unlike traditional rankings where you have a specific position (1st, 2nd, etc.), AI visibility measures whether your business is mentioned, how it's described, and what sources AI cites when discussing your business.

Local rank tracking shows you how visible your business is across local search platforms, inlcuding Google Search and Google Maps (Google Business Profile rankings), Apple Maps (Apple Business Connect rankings), and even AI-powered search experiences (AI visibility). By measuring your rankings for specific keywords at specific locations, local rank tracking acts as your local SEO scoreboard, helping you spot trends, diagnose issues, and find new opportunities to improve visibility.

Absolutely. Local rank tracking provides insights that allow smaller businesses to compete effectively against larger companies.

Each grid point represents a separate AI query sample. Since AI gives varying responses, Local Falcon uses multiple grid points anywhere from 9 (3x3) up to 441 (21x21) to collect enough samples for statistically meaningful insights about your business's AI mention rate and consistency in the local area.

The Local Keyword Tool helps you discover locally relevant keywords your customers are actually searching with, using AI to generate suggestions based on your location, business type, and local market conditions and trends. The tool also provides the AI's reasoning behind each keyword recommendation for added context.

It couldn't be easier! You can download the GBP Performance Metrics as a SVG, PNG, or CSV file and work them into your existing reporting according to your needs. You can also share a whole Falcon Guard Protection report, GBP insights included, with clients via a direct link, PDF, or CSV. This is much easier than extracting the stats from Google, which requires a complex technical process or an expensive third-party tool.

The stats for calls, website visits, and direction requests are the same, with a key difference being that Local Falcon lets you see data from further back in time. GBP only shows interaction metrics for a limited time, while Falcon Guard Reports show you the data forever.

WYN stands for Weighted Yield Number. The WYN score estimates how valuable a keyword is for your business based on local search volume, intent, competition, and trends.

Traditional local rank tracking shows your numerical position in search results (1-20+). Local AI Visibility tracking measures presence and prominence in conversational AI responses where there are no rankings—just inclusion or exclusion. It's about whether AI recommends your business and how favorably it's presented in ChatGPT and Google AI Overviews.

It suggests two types: traditional local search keywords (for Google Search, Bing, etc.) and AI search keywords (for AI search platforms like ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews, etc.). 

Traditional local search keywords tend to be around 5 words long, whereas AI local search keywords are longer and more conversational, typically phrased as complete questions.

That's easy! All you have to do is ensure you have a Falcon Guard subscription ($0.10 per location you want to monitor), connect a Google Account to Local Falcon, and import the locations you manage from the account. Then, add one or more of those locations to Falcon Guard and it will take care of the rest, automatically updating GBP stats for the location twice daily according to its protection scan schedule.

Yes! You can add any of the suggested keywords to your list by clicking the "+" icon. You can even enter new search parameters to generate new recommendations and keep adding keywords until you have a comprehensive list you're happy with.

Absolutely! Local Falcon's Local Keyword Tool uses any combination of seed keyword and location to generate hyperlocal keyword ideas tailored to your market. You can even use it to research keywords and competition for markets you're considering expanding into.

ChatGPT is an AI assistant that's changing how people search for local businesses. Instead of typing queries into traditional search engines, users are asking ChatGPT for local recommendations, expecting comprehensive, immediate, and trustworthy answers. This represents a significant shift in how consumers discover and evaluate local businesses.

Yes. Developers can use the Local Falcon MCP server to build custom dashboards, AI assistants, or internal automations powered by Local Falcon data.

A seed keyword is what you type into the Local Keyword Tool to start the process of getting keyword ideas. The tool then uses AI to generate related keywords that people in your area are actually searching with.

As you build your keyword list, you can even use a suggested keyword as a seed keyword to generate a more targeted list of similar recommendations.

Falcon AI automatically generates Campaign Report analysis when you run a Campaign Scan, providing a high-level overview and actionable insights to improve performance for your local SEO Campaigns. The AI looks at aggregated data from all the Scan Reports generated for individual locations within a Campaign, identifying strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and competitor insights across multiple locations.

Similar to our other tracking services, Local Falcon uses a geo-targeted approach to show how your business appears in ChatGPT responses across your service area. The system helps you identify whether your business is being cited and what types of prompts generate local responses that include you or your competitors.

Yes. You can launch a Quick Scan or create a new Campaign Scan directly from your keyword list, with the keywords prepopulated in the scan settings. You can also add keywords to an existing Campaign.

AI search is conversational and contextual, allowing users to ask questions in natural language and receive comprehensive answers rather than lists of links. Users can ask follow-up questions, compare options, and get detailed information all within a single conversation, creating a fundamentally different discovery experience than traditional search engines.

Traditional Google Business Profile rankings focus on how prominently your business appears in the local pack (Google's 3-pack) for location-based searches. These results are heavily influenced by GBP optimization and reviews, as well as a person's proximity to the business or use of relevant geographic keywords when they search.

Google AI Overviews visibility refers to whether or not your business is included in Google's AI-generated summaries, which are often based on broader web content like your website content, specific review feedback, and third-party mentions. Google AI Overviews can appear above the traditional local search results, making them even more prominent than the local pack when they surface.

Use the WYN score to prioritize keywords with high potential value, which are those that have strong local demand and commercial intent but manageable competition. After building a keyword list, validate high-WYN keywords with a geo-grid scan to see where your business has a realistic chance to rank.

Yes, Falcon AI is enabled by default for new Campaign Scans and will automatically generate a high-level analysis of performance for all locations and competitors found in your Campaign Report.

It's based on a weighted algorithm that considers local search volume, commercial intent, and competition, adjusted for your local market conditions.

Absolutely! Campaign Reports are fully connected to your Falcon Assist copilot, allowing you to discuss specific reports and generate even more AI-powered insights and strategic recommendations to boost your Campaign's performance.

Yes! You can see stats on the most important GBP interactions, including calls, website clicks (visits), and direction requests, directly in Falcon Guard Protection Reports.

Google AI Overviews are AI-generated summaries that appear at the top of some Google Search results, especially for longer, more complex queries. When displayed, they are more visible than traditional local search results.

Tracking your visibility in Google AI Overviews helps you understand if (and how often) your business is being recommended in these summaries, giving you a competitive edge in understanding AI-driven search visibility and providing a more comprehensive view of your overall visibility in local search.

As consumers increasingly adopt AI assistants for daily recommendations and navigation help, businesses that understand and adapt early will have a competitive edge. Local Falcon's ChatGPT rank tracking gives you a proactive way to monitor and respond to these shifts, positioning you ahead of competitors as the local search ecosystem evolves.

ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews, Google AI Mode, Gemini, Grok, and more coming soon!

Yes. By manually entering a competitor's location in Local Falcon's Local Keyword Tool, you can generate local keyword ideas for that market and analyze what terms might be worth targeting to compete more effectively, whether you're there now or looking at expanding into that market in the future.

Yes, you can. 

You'll want to edit the Campaign settings to remove any locations which you don't want scanned on the next run.

After the next run you can add the locations back into the Campaign if you wish.

All share URLs/reports will stay working and accurate. 

If this is going to happen frequently, we recommend you create multiple Campaigns to save time.

Yes, and no, the email address can be changed, but it needs to be changed by a Local Falcon team member. If you wish to change your account email, please make a request via the "support" live chat, and we'll be able to make that change quickly. 

Yes! We offer several ways to access and use your Local Falcon data:

• Direct Exports:
  • CSV & PDF exports - Download your scan data and reports for use in spreadsheets, presentations, or client reporting
  • Shareable URLs - Create public links to share specific scans or reports with clients and team members who don't have Local Falcon accounts
• Integrations & API
  • API access - Pull your data programmatically into custom applications or internal dashboards
  • Looker Studio connector - Visualize your Local Falcon data alongside other marketing metrics in custom dashboards
  • Zapier integration - Automate workflows by connecting Local Falcon with 5,000+ other apps
  • MCP (Model Context Protocol) - Connect your Local Falcon data directly to AI assistants like Claude for advanced analysis and insights

Whether you need data for client reports, internal analysis, or automated workflows, these options ensure your Local Falcon data works seamlessly with your existing tools and processes.

You'll want to add it as the primary phone number and then move your business phone number as a secondary. This way the tracking number will capture usage properly while not impacting NAP consistency.

The AI Reviews Analysis tool instantly analyzes Google reviews for your business and its top competitors. It provides an in-depth report on overall sentiment, highlighting what's working and what's not, giving you valuable insights drawn from specific feedback, and offering up strategic suggestions for how to get more positive reviews that could boost your ranking in local search results.

Metric Insights are advanced data points included in Scan Reports that help you understand how your business compares to competitors across the scanned area. These metric insights — SoLV Distance, OSoLV, and Competitors — highlight your geographic ranking reach, your potential to close the gap with top performers, and the number of businesses that truly compete with you for top-ranking positions. They provide deeper context beyond ARP, ATRP, and SoLV so you can make more informed local SEO decisions.

SoLV Distance measures how far away from your business you rank in the top 3 compared to how far your competitors rank in the top 3 from their locations. A higher SoLV Distance means your high-ranking visibility covers a wider geographic area. The goal is to match or exceed the competitor average to demonstrate strong local reach.

• Your Distance: The average distance to all grid points where you rank in the top 3.

• Competitor Average Distance: The same calculation averaged across all competitors.

OSoLV measures your opportunity to become the top-ranking business by comparing your Share of Local Voice (SoLV) directly to the best-performing competitor in the scan. Closing the gap between your SoLV and the Top SoLV indicates progress toward market leadership in your local area.

• Your SoLV: How often you appear in the top 3 search results.

• Top SoLV: The highest SoLV among all competitors.

The Competitors metric shows how many businesses appear in the scan area and how many are actually competing with you for top rankings. This helps you understand the true competitive landscape by distinguishing between all local listings and the smaller group that directly impacts your visibility.

• Total Competitors: Every unique listing detected in the scan.

• Active Competitors (SoLV > 0): Only businesses that show up in the top 3 at least once.