Guides
The Merkat Field Guide
How local search actually works for service businesses, in plain words, with the evidence and its date beside every number. Written for owners who read on their phone between jobs.
- 1st
- 2nd–3rd, in the pack
- 4th–10th
- 11th–20th
- Not in the top 20
The map pack and geo-grids
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Study · HVAC
How much of their city do HVAC companies cover on Google Maps?
1,620 searches across 10 Canadian cities. No HVAC company was in the top 3 across even a fifth of its city.
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Map pack
How the Google map pack decides who shows up
Relevance, distance and prominence: what each one means for a contractor, and which of them you can actually change.
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Geo-grids
Why you rank on one street and vanish two kilometres away
The map pack is different at every address. A geo-grid is how you see all of it at once instead of one search from your office.
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Geo-grids
How to read a geo-grid heat map
Five patterns that show up on real maps, what each one usually means, and the mistakes people make reading them.
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Geo-grids
Free geo-grid scan vs Local Falcon vs Whitespark
Published prices compared fairly, what each tracker gives you, and when you should buy the tool instead of the service.
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Your Google profile
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Google profile
Google Business Profile categories: the setting that matters most
Your primary category is the strongest ranking lever you control. How to choose it, and when changing it is a mistake.
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Google profile
A Google Business Profile checklist for contractors
Every setting worth getting right, in the order we work through them, with the ones that get profiles suspended marked.
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Google profile
Service-area business or storefront: the address question
Whether to show your address, what Google's rules require, and the ranking trade-off nobody likes to mention.
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Google profile
Google Business Profile suspended? How to get it back
Suspension or ranking drop, why it happens, what to send in your one appeal, and what not to do.
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Google profile
Google Business Profile verification: what to film
The methods Google picks for you, what a verification video has to show, how a home-based trade films it, and what to do when it fails.
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Reviews
Google reviews disappeared? Why, and what you can do
Filtered or deleted, which reviews Google will remove, and how to ask for a real one back.
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Reviews
Reviews: what actually helps, and what breaks Google's rules
A steady flow beats a big pile. Ask every customer, filter nobody, pay nobody.
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Pages, listings and AI search
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Pages
Service-area pages that rank without being doorway pages
Why swapping the town name fails, and the test every town page has to pass before it goes live.
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Listings
Directory listings and citations for Canadian contractors
Which Canadian directories matter, in what order, and why a wrong phone number costs more than a ranking.
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AI search
Getting recommended by ChatGPT and AI search: what the evidence says
What AI assistants lean on when they name a local business, and the popular tactics with nothing behind them.
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Money
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Buying
What local SEO costs in Canada in 2026, and what you should get for it
Published market prices from map-tracking apps to large agencies, and the questions that separate them.
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Buying
How to compare local SEO agencies in Ontario
Ten questions to ask any agency before you sign, from a published price in CAD to cancelling by email.
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Buying
What a ranking guarantee really covers
Which searches, measured from where, page one of what, and what you get if it is missed.
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Buying
Paid ads or the Google map: what to fund first
What the click studies show, how far to trust them, and when to fund ads, the map or both.
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Buying
What an ‘enquiry’ is, and isn't
Enquiries, leads, booked jobs and revenue are different numbers. Five questions to ask any agency.
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Buying
Google Local Services Ads vs SEO
Which Canadian categories can run pay-per-lead ads, what they cost, and the one thing they share with the map pack.
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Attribution
How to tell if your marketing is making money
From a search to a call to a booked job to revenue: how to connect them using the job software you already run.
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How these guides are written
Every number has a source and a date
If we could not find where a figure came from, it is not here.
Google's own rules first
Where Google has said something plainly, we quote it rather than guess.
No promises
Nothing here promises a position, a lead count or an AI mention, because nobody can.
Canadian by default
Canadian directories, Canadian anti-spam law, and the words BC customers actually search.
See your own map.
The free scan checks where you show up across your area, with the number at every point and the businesses taking the spots you are missing. About a minute, no account, no call.