What is the Audit Area?
The Audit Area is used only for tracking how your rankings improve for the target keywords you selected earlier. It creates a heatmap that shows where you rank well (green) and where you don’t (red).
👉 Important: This does NOT affect your rankings. Making the audit area bigger will not help you rank farther away — it’s strictly for measurement and tracking.
How the Audit Area Works
The audit area is built on a 13 × 13 grid of points.
Paige checks rankings at each point.
Smaller area = points closer together = more detailed data
Larger area = points farther apart = harder to see changes
If the area is too large, you may never see noticeable improvements on the heatmap.
Setting the Center Point
If your business has an address, the red pin will default to that location.
You can:
Drag the red pin to adjust the center, or
Search for an address in the search bar to reposition it
Choosing the Right Audit Size (Very Important)
It’s best to keep the audit area as small as possible while still covering your service area.
Recommended Sizes
City / Major metro:
Do not exceed 6.5 × 6.5 miles
You may even want 1.1 × 1.1 miles in dense cities like NYC
Small city / suburban area:
Up to 6.5 × 6.5 miles
Rural area or very few competitors:
Up to 9.75 × 9.75 miles
⚠️ Only use larger sizes if you are truly rural or have very little competition.
Not Sure Which Size to Pick?
Use this simple rule of thumb:
City: Start with 3.25 × 3.25 miles
Rural: Start with 9.75 × 9.75 miles
After your first baseline heatmap:
✅ All green? You can safely expand the area a little.
❌ All red? The area is likely too large — shrink it.
Why This Matters (Read This Carefully)
Changing the audit area later will reset your baseline heatmap
That means you lose your historical comparison data
Taking a few extra minutes now saves headaches later
Paige will still geotag images across locations inside your audit area, regardless of size — but tracking works best when the area is tight and focused.
Final Tip
When in doubt, go smaller. You can always expand later — but only after you’ve confirmed your baseline data looks healthy and usable.