How Ciphr measures.
Every number in a Ciphr audit comes from a measurement we can point to. Here is what we measure, how the score is built, what happens when data is missing, and where the limits are.
What we measure
For a local business, Ciphr measures the health of its Google business listing (reviews, rating, photos, hours and whether the listing is active) and where it appears in Google Maps results for a search built from its real category and city. We compare review counts with a set of nearby businesses that appear in that same search.
The visibility score
The score is out of 100. It has six fixed components, and the total possible is always the same, so two scores for the same business can be compared week to week.
Reviews vs competitors
35 pointsYour Google review count compared with the median review count of a fixed set of local competitors. Full points at or above that median. If the competitor set cannot be measured, this component is not scored.
Rating
15 pointsYour Google star rating. 3.5 stars or lower earns 0 points; 5.0 stars earns full points, on a straight line in between.
Photos
10 pointsPhotos on your Google listing. Full points at 10 or more.
Hours listed
10 pointsWhether your Google listing shows business hours.
Listing active
10 pointsWhether Google reports your listing as operational.
Local rank
20 pointsWhere you appear in Google Maps results for a search built from your real category and city. When a service-area grid of searches is available we use how often you appear across it; otherwise one city-centered search. Measured as "not in the top 20" earns 0 points. This component is capped so rank alone cannot dominate the score.
Businesses that serve customers nationwide do not appear in a local map pack, so they are scored on a different set of six components, also out of 100: Rating (20), Photos (10), Hours listed (10), Listing active (10), Review volume (20), Domain authority (30). For these businesses, the score is calculated over the components we could measure on that run.
How we handle missing data
Measured, estimated and unavailable are shown differently.
Every value carries a status. A number we measured from a live source is shown as measured. A number we had to estimate is labeled as an estimate. A value we could not get is shown as unavailable, not filled in.
A failed lookup is never shown as zero.
If a search or data source fails, that is a gap in our data, not a result for your business. A real zero (for example, measured as not in the top 20) is recorded only when the lookup actually ran.
A missing signal may only reuse a prior value for the same business, and it is labeled.
When one signal cannot be measured on a run, we may carry forward the last measured value for that same business, and we mark it as carried forward. If there is no prior value, we do not publish a new score; the last real score is shown and marked stale.
Data sources and refresh
- Local rank and nearby competitors come from a rank-measurement provider that runs Google Maps searches.
- Reviews, rating, photos, hours and listing status come from Google business data.
- Website findings come from a crawl of the business's public website.
- For nationwide businesses, domain authority comes from a public authority index.
- Each audit is a snapshot taken at the time it runs. Businesses on a monitored plan are re-measured weekly.
- Written recommendations are generated only from these measured inputs.
Known limits
- Local rank depends on where and when the search happens. Someone searching from a different street, at a different time, or while signed in may see a different order.
- Our rank search is centered on your city (or a grid across your service area when available), which may differ from what a customer sees at their door.
- Competitors are a sampled set: up to 10 businesses from the same Google Maps search, kept fixed between runs so the comparison holds still. It is not every business in your market.
- Listing data such as review counts can lag behind what Google shows at a given moment.
- The score describes your current local presence. It is not a guarantee of rankings, traffic, leads or revenue.
Accuracy results
Benchmark results will be published here once our first verified sample is complete.