# Share of Map

> Share of Map is a 0 to 100 score for how much of the available demand a business captures across the markets and categories it competes in, adjusted for whether it keeps the customers it wins.

Version 1, published 2026. Developed by Heady (https://useheady.com). Published rather than licensed, so the arithmetic can be checked and contested.

## The formula

Effective Share of Map = min(100,
  (0.40 x grid_share + 0.35 x longtail_share + 0.25 x capture_rate)
  x clamp(repeat_rate / category_benchmark, 0.50, 1.25))

Position is a share of a finite surface, observed from outside. Retention is a rate, drawn from a company's own data. They are kept structurally separate so the number is not an average of unlike things. Retention multiplies the position score. It is never averaged into it.

## Who it applies to

Any business that sells in more than one place: several locations, several metros, several categories, or a product line carried by other retailers. It is vertical-neutral. If the market is a map rather than a single storefront, the metric applies.

## Unit of measurement

A cell is one product category in one local market: a single line in a single metro, a format in one trade area. A company with six locations across three metros and twelve categories has roughly a thousand cells. Every cell is scored, weighted by demand and strategic value, then rolled up into one figure.

Scoring is per cell rather than per channel because channel reporting is organized around the seller's departments while buyers are organized around geography and category.

## The four pillars

- Grid share (40% of Position Score): share of the visible slots across a geographic grid, on every surface that behaves like a map in the category. The local map pack plus the marketplaces and directories buyers actually browse. For companies that sell through others, presence across the listings that carry them multiplied by position within those listings.
- Long-tail share (35%): share of the full category query universe by market, including brand and product searches and citations in AI answers to questions of the form "where do I buy X in Y".
- Capture rate (25%): share of detected opportunities where a company reached the top three in that cell within 45 days. Opportunities include open cells, competitor delistings, new categories and demand spikes.
- Retention factor (multiplier, 0.50 to 1.25): repeat rate divided by category benchmark. Capped so a single soft quarter cannot zero out a score and a standout is rewarded without running away with it.

## The six ways a cell is lost

1. No listing. The cell does not exist for you. Fix: create the listing or the localized page. Lowest cost, payback in days to weeks.
2. Thin listing. Present but incomplete. Fix: complete the record and keep it fed. Low cost, payback in weeks.
3. No content. Nothing resolves the intent behind the query. Fix: a page that answers the question. Medium cost, payback in one to two quarters.
4. No reviews. Present but losing the click on social proof. Fix: a review system, not a review campaign. Medium and ongoing, compounds.
5. Absent from browse. Ranking for the search but absent from the marketplaces and directories buyers browse. Fix: distribution, feeds and placement. Cost varies, payback immediate on placement.
6. No repeat purchase. The cell is won and the customer is lost. Fix: retention systems. Highest to build, largest payback, and it multiplies everything else.

## Worked example

Illustrative, six locations across three metros, twelve categories, roughly 1,000 cells.

| Pillar | Weight | Score | Weighted |
|---|---|---|---|
| Grid share | 40% | 38 | 15.2 |
| Long-tail share | 35% | 24 | 8.4 |
| Capture rate | 25% | 61 | 15.3 |
| Position Score | | | 38.9 |
| Retention factor | x | 22% / 26% | x 0.85 |
| Effective Share of Map | | | 33 |

This company holds 39 of the position available to it but keeps customers at 85% of the market rate, so its effective Share of Map is 33. Returning retention to benchmark is worth +6 points with no new visibility work at all.

## Published design choices

- Weights are 40/35/25 because that is the order in which the three failures cost money. Absence from the visible surface is unrecoverable downstream; long-tail is the largest addressable surface; capture rate measures speed, which only compounds once the first two are real.
- The retention factor is capped at 0.50 and 1.25 to stop one quarter deciding the score. A company sitting at either cap should read the raw ratio instead.
- Capture rate uses 45 days because that is roughly when an open cell stops being an opportunity and becomes someone else's position.
- Rank is not used as the primary measure. Rank is one position on one surface for one query, cannot report share of a market, does not see browse surfaces, and has no access to what happens after the click.
- A score of 100 is not reachable in practice, and it is also a hard ceiling. Because position is already a share of a finite surface, a retention factor above benchmark closes the distance to the ceiling faster but cannot push a company past it.

## What it runs on

Connected first-party data (analytics, search console, point of sale, CRM) combined with external search and competitive data across the markets that matter. That combination is what lets the score see churn, which no rank tracker can.

## Machine readable

- Full specification: https://shareofmap.com/formula.json
- Methodology page: https://shareofmap.com/

## Citation

Share of Map (v1, 2026). Developed by Heady. https://shareofmap.com