Yext Research explainer · 1:57
Why does my rank change a block away?
Since mid-May 2026, Google results on phones got 48.7% more different from one map pin to the next, about five times the change on desktop.
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What this film covers
An urgent care clinic in Chicago ranks third on a phone at its front desk and sixth on a phone two blocks away. Across 8.16 million Google search results, each searched from a pin on a map, results on phones got 48.7% more different from one pin to the next after mid-May 2026, about five times the 9.6% change on desktop. The share of nearby pins showing the front-door rank fell from 38.9% to 31.5%. Check your rank across the whole area your customers search from, and keep your details complete on every platform.
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Transcript
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- 0:13Say you run an urgent care clinic in Chicago, and you search for it on your phone at the front desk.
- 0:18Your website comes up third.
- 0:20Two blocks away, a patient searches the same thing on a phone and gets a different list. You're sixth.
- 0:26Since the middle of May 2026, that happens a lot more.
- 0:31At Yext Research, we looked at 8.16 million Google search results, each searched from a pin on a map.
- 0:38Every business sat in the middle of a grid of pins spread around it.
- 0:42We compared the top ten results at pins next to each other, before mid-May and after.
- 0:47More different means more of those ten results moved or changed.
- 0:51On phones, the results got 48.7% more different from one pin to the next.
- 0:57On desktop computers, they got 9.6% more different. Phones changed about five times as much.
- 1:03And near me searches on phones got 30.2% more different.
- 1:08Now take one business, and its rank at the center pin, its own front door.
- 1:13Before mid-May, 38.9% of the pins around it showed that same rank. After, 31.5% did.
- 1:21The pins within one place of that rank fell from 70.6% to 56.1%.
- 1:27So a rank checked at your door tells you less about the streets around it.
- 1:31In healthcare and dental, results got 21.2% more different, and every report we matched went up.
- 1:39So check where you rank across the whole area your patients search from.
- 1:43And keep your clinic's details complete on every platform, the maps, directories and apps they use.
