SoLV (Share of Local Voice): The Revenue-Connected Metric

SoLV is the percentage of geogrid scan points where a business appears in the local pack top 3. It’s the geogrid metric most directly correlated with actual business outcomes — leads, calls, and revenue.

Definition

SoLV = (grid points where business ranks 1-3) ÷ (total grid points) × 100

A 7x7 grid has 49 points. If your business ranks in the top 3 at 22 of those points, your SoLV is 44.9%.

Higher is better. SoLV of 70% means you’re in the top 3 for 70% of the searches across your service area. SoLV of 15% means you’re only capturing top-3 visibility in 15% of your market.

Why SoLV Is the Revenue-Connected Metric

Map pack click behavior is heavily concentrated in positions 1-3:

Position 1: Captures roughly 25-35% of clicks
Position 2: Captures roughly 15-20% of clicks
Position 3: Captures roughly 10-15% of clicks
Positions 4-7: Share the remaining 20-30%
Below 7: Minimal clicks

A business appearing at position 4-7 consistently is essentially invisible to most searchers. The clicks go to the top 3.

SoLV measures the geographic coverage where you’re actually capturing leads. It answers: What percentage of my market am I winning?

SoLV Benchmarks and Targets

Highly competitive markets:

Dominant: SoLV 60%+
Strong: SoLV 40-60%
Competitive: SoLV 25-40%
Struggling: SoLV below 25%

Moderate competition:

Dominant: SoLV 70%+
Strong: SoLV 50-70%
Competitive: SoLV 35-50%

Low competition:

SoLV 80%+ is achievable for well-optimized businesses

Local Falcon’s research has connected SoLV directly to lead volume. Businesses that double their SoLV typically see proportional increases in GBP-driven leads.

SoLV Improvement Trajectory

SoLV improvement requires converting positions 4-7 to positions 1-3 across the grid. This is harder than it sounds.

Realistic timeline:

SoLV improvement from 20% to 30%: 2-3 months with active optimization
SoLV improvement from 30% to 50%: 4-6 months
SoLV improvement from 50% to 70%: 6-12 months

What moves SoLV:

Review velocity and count (strongest signal)
GBP completeness improvements
Citation consistency cleanup
Local link building
Category and attribute optimization

SoLV improvement gets harder as you climb. Moving from 20% to 40% is more achievable than moving from 60% to 80%.

SoLV as a Client Reporting Metric

SoLV resonates with clients better than ARP or ATRP because it maps to intuitive business language.

Instead of: “Your ARP improved from 5.2 to 4.1”

Say: “You’re now visible in the top 3 for 45% of searches in your service area, up from 28%. That’s a 61% increase in geographic market coverage.”

Clients understand market coverage. They understand “45% of people searching in your area see you in the top 3.” This connects to revenue in a way abstract position metrics don’t.

Reporting format:

MARKET COVERAGE TREND

January: 28% SoLV (visible in top 3 for 28% of your market)
February: 33% SoLV
March: 41% SoLV
April: 45% SoLV

You've expanded top-3 visibility by 61% in four months.
At current trajectory, we'll reach 55% coverage by July.

SoLV Geographic Analysis

SoLV can be broken down by geographic zone:

SOLV BY QUADRANT

Northwest: 62% (strong)
Northeast: 48% (moderate)
Southwest: 38% (moderate)
Southeast: 21% (weak)

Priority: Southeast quadrant has significant opportunity

This geographic breakdown identifies where to focus optimization work.

How LocalSEOSkills Uses SoLV

The geogrid-analysis skill uses SoLV as the primary success metric:

"Analyze our geogrid results for [keyword].
What's our current SoLV and what would it take to get to 50%?"

Claude interprets SoLV in context:

Compares to competitive benchmarks
Breaks down by geographic zone
Identifies the positions 4-7 that could flip to top 3
Recommends actions to improve SoLV

SoLV appears in monthly reports as the headline metric for geographic visibility.

SoLV vs. ARP vs. ATRP

Metric	What It Measures	Best For
SoLV	% in top 3	Revenue correlation, client reporting
ARP	Average position	Trending, overall position
ATRP	Average with penalty for non-appearances	Dead zone identification

Use SoLV as the primary success metric. Use ARP and ATRP for diagnostic detail.

ARP: Average Rank Position
ATRP: Average True Rank Position
Geogrid: The scan methodology producing SoLV
Local Falcon: Tracks SoLV trends over time
LocalSEOData: geogrid_scan returns SoLV
geogrid-analysis skill: Interprets SoLV data

SoLV (Share of Local Voice)