Local
How far from your shop can you actually rank on Google Maps?
This explains more local search frustration than any other single fact, and almost nobody is told it before they start paying for local SEO.
The searcher's location is part of the query
When someone searches for a service near them, their position is an input. Google is answering who is relevant and close, not who is best in the city.
So two people in the same city searching identical words get different results. Your ranking is not one number, it is a different number at every point on the map.
The drop-off is sharper than expected
Businesses commonly find they are strong within a small radius of their address and fall away quickly outside it. Exactly how far varies by category and by how dense the competition is, but the pattern is consistent.
This is why checking your ranking from your own premises is so misleading. You are standing at the one point on the map where you look best.
What this means for a service business
If you travel to customers across a wide area, the map pack will only ever deliver a portion of that area, and no amount of profile optimisation changes the geometry.
Setting a large service area does not help. It describes where you will travel, not where you appear. That misunderstanding costs businesses a great deal of effort.
What actually extends reach
A genuine presence in another place is the only honest way to compete in its map pack. That means a real location, not a mailbox, which gets profiles suspended.
Beyond that, the reach comes from outside the map pack. Ordinary search results have no proximity ceiling in the same way, so pages that genuinely address a place and its specifics can rank for it from anywhere.
Assistants are also less bound by proximity, which is a real and currently uncontested opening. See how AI recommendations differ from the map pack.
The useful reframe
Stop trying to beat the radius and start competing where the radius does not apply.
For most Alberta service businesses that means being genuinely excellent in the map pack close to home, and using content and consistency to reach the towns you travel to.
Common questions
How far can a business rank in Google Maps results?
Not far. Proximity is one of the strongest factors in local results, and businesses commonly find visibility drops off sharply within a few miles of their location. Ranking across an entire city from one address is unrealistic for most categories.
Why do I rank near my shop but not across town?
Because the searcher's location is part of the query. Someone searching from the other side of the city is asking a different question than someone standing outside your door, and businesses closer to them are more relevant answers.
How do businesses rank in multiple cities?
Legitimately, through a real presence in each place, or by competing outside the map pack entirely with ordinary search results and content that names those areas. Fake addresses work until the profile is suspended.
Does a service area setting extend my map ranking?
No. Setting a large service area tells Google where you are willing to travel. It does not extend where you appear in map results, which is a common and expensive misunderstanding.