Why am I in the map pack near my office but nowhere a few miles away?

No. Local results are built around the searcher's location, and Google describes local ranking as a mix of relevance, distance, and prominence. Distance is measured from where the person is when they search, not from the center of your service area.

That is why a single rank check is misleading. It tells you how you rank from one point, usually the one nearest your listing. A grid check runs the same search from many points around your location and shows how rank changes as you move away. A strong core with a sharp fall-off at a few miles is normal, and it is the pattern most local businesses have.

What you can change:

1. Prominence. More reviews, better ratings, relevant mentions, and links from local sites help you hold rank farther out.
2. Relevance. Choose the primary category carefully, add the secondary categories that match real services, and keep the services list and description specific.
3. Your website. A page for each core service, with the towns you really serve named in useful context, supports the profile. Do not publish near-identical pages for every town.
4. Competitors. Look at who holds the grid in the weak areas. A competitor with 10 times your reviews is a different problem from one with a closer address.

What not to do: do not add a fake address or a virtual office in the next town. It breaks Google's guidelines and can get the listing suspended.

Track it over time with the same grid settings. Doily's map pack grid shows rank at each point around your listing, so you can see whether the fall-off is moving outward.

Why one rank number misleads.

Google says local results are mainly based on relevance, distance, and prominence. Distance is measured from the searcher, so your position changes from block to block. A single rank check describes one point on the map.

A grid run from many points shows the shape: a strong core, then a fall off. Compare grids taken with the same settings, and expect the edge to move slowly.

Nobody can sell you a better position.

Google's help page says there is no way to request or pay for a better local ranking. Anyone selling a guaranteed map pack spot is selling something Google says does not exist.

What you control is relevance, through complete and accurate profile details, and prominence, which builds from reviews and links to your business.