'Near Me' Searches: How Google Decides Which Three Tradies to Show

When someone searches "electrician near me" on their phone, Google shows three businesses under a map. It picks them based on where that person is standing, how well each profile matches the search, and how trusted each business looks. That's why you can be first outside your workshop and missing two suburbs away. Here's how it works, and what you can do about it.

What happens when someone searches on their phone

Picture a homeowner in Parramatta with a safety switch that keeps tripping. They pick up their phone and type "electrician near me". Google reads the phone's location, finds electricians whose profiles match the search, and shows three of them under a small map, with stars, review counts and a button to call.

Someone in that situation wants a number to call, and the three in that box are right in front of them. If your business isn't there, you're relying on them tapping through to the longer list, and a stressed customer with no power may not bother.

Distance is measured from the searcher, not the suburb

For a "near me" search, the starting point is the person searching. Google doesn't measure from the centre of Parramatta, or from the suburb painted on your van. It works from what it knows about where that phone is. Two people in the same suburb, a few streets apart, can see different results for the same search.

When someone types a place instead, like "electrician Parramatta", Google leans on the place they named. That's a slightly different search with slightly different results, which is one more reason a single check from your own phone doesn't tell you much.

Why you can be first at your workshop and missing two suburbs away

Distance is one of the three main things Google says it weighs, alongside relevance and prominence. Close to your business address, distance works in your favour, and a decent profile can put you on top. As the searcher moves further away, other electricians are closer to them, and you need stronger relevance and prominence to beat them on their home turf.

So a business can look great from the owner's driveway and be invisible where a lot of its customers actually live. The owner searches, sees their business first, and assumes everything's fine. Meanwhile the calls from two suburbs over are going to someone else. It also explains why two electricians can argue about who ranks better and both be right: each one is looking from their own patch.

Service-area businesses and hidden addresses

Plenty of tradies don't have a shopfront. If customers don't come to you, Google's guidelines say to hide your address and set a service area instead. That's the right call, and it's what Google's guidelines expect. If you do see customers at your premises, such as a showroom or a trade counter, you can show the address and list a service area as well.

What catches people out is that hiding your address doesn't hide your location from Google. Google still knows the address you verified, and as far as anyone outside Google can tell, it still measures distance from there. A wide service area tells customers where you travel, but it won't make you rank across that whole area by itself. To show up further from home, you need the relevance and prominence to earn it.

Don't try to get around this with a virtual office or a borrowed address in a suburb you want to rank in. Google's guidelines don't allow it, and profiles caught doing it can be suspended.

Seeing it for yourself: the grid

Because the results change with the searcher's location, the useful question isn't "where do I rank?" but "where do I rank from here, and here, and here?" A ranking grid answers that. You run the same search from nine points laid out three by three across your suburb and write down your position at each one, by driving it, or with a tool that does it for you.

Often the grid tells a clear story: strong near your base, fading towards the edges. It shows you which part of your area to work on first, and it gives you something to measure against a month later. Nine points won't catch every street, but they show the shape of the problem, which a single search never will.

What to do about it

You can't change where the searcher stands, and you can't move your business. What you can do is make your business the most relevant and most trusted option for more of those searches.

Start with your profile: the right primary category, every field filled in, services listed in plain words, and real photos from real jobs. Then build a steady flow of reviews, ideally ones that mention the jobs you did and the suburbs you did them in. Why recent reviews beat a big old total explains how to keep them coming.

Next, give each suburb you already work in its own page on your website, with real local detail rather than a list of place names. And keep your business name, address and phone number exactly the same everywhere they appear online, so Google never has to guess which listing is you.

None of this is a quick trick, but together it gives you the best chance of showing up across more of your area. It's also the work covered by a local SEO service, done every month rather than once.

Your next step: see your whole suburb, not just your driveway

If you've only ever checked Google from your own phone, you've seen one point on the map. A free ranking report runs your main search from nine points across your suburb, shows where you appear at each one, and names the three businesses Google shows instead of you. It's free, and it shows which parts of your area you're missing from.