How close does someone have to be to find your funeral home on Google Maps?

No. Google says local results are “mainly based on relevance, distance, and popularity”, and it doesn't publish a fixed distance for any of them. A funeral home can appear for a family five miles away on one search and not for a family two miles away on another.

That's because the three factors are weighed together, for every search. A funeral home that is a little farther away but a much better match, or much better known, can appear ahead of one that is closer.

Google describes distance as how far each business is from the person searching. If the person doesn't share where they are, Google uses what it knows about their location. So the starting point is the family, not your funeral home.

The words in the search matter too. A family who searches for a funeral home in a named town or neighborhood is telling Google where they're looking, which can bring up funeral homes there rather than the ones nearest their phone.

Every search compares you with the funeral homes closest to that particular family. Near your building, you're usually the closest option. On the other side of town, a competitor is closer, and you'll only appear ahead of them if your profile is a better match or your funeral home is better known.

This is why checking Google Maps from your own office tells you very little. What you see there is the view from the best possible spot. Families searching across town see a different map.

Some families arrange a funeral from another city or state, for a parent or relative who lived near you. They can't search “near me”, so they search your town by name. When that happens, what decides the order is how well each funeral home in your town matches the search and how well known it is, which brings you back to relevance and prominence.

No, and it's worth being clear about what not to try. Google's guidelines say a profile must be for your actual, real-world location. Virtual offices, remote mailboxes and addresses you don't operate from aren't eligible, and a location can't have more than one profile.

If you genuinely operate more than one funeral home, with its own staff, each location can have its own profile. That extends where you appear honestly, because families near each location are near a real funeral home.

Work on the two factors you control. They decide how far out your funeral home can compete.

• Relevance: “Funeral home” as your primary category, every detail complete and accurate, and services listed. Google says complete, accurate profiles are more likely to show up.
• Prominence: reviews from families over time, replies to each one, your details consistent across the web, and other websites linking to you. Google names reviews and links as part of prominence.

The complete funeral home Google Maps guide covers each detail, and why competitors rank above you shows how to compare your profile with theirs.

1. 1.Search “funeral home” on Google Maps from phones in different parts of your area, signed out of your business account.
2. 2.Ask staff who live across town to do the same and send you a screenshot.
3. 3.Search your town's name plus “funeral home”, the way a family arranging from out of town would.
4. 4.Note where you appear each time, and which funeral homes appear above you.

A pattern usually appears quickly: strong near your building, weaker toward the edges of your area. The edges are where relevance and prominence make the difference.

To see all of it at once, the free Google Maps rank checker runs the search from 25 spots across your area and shows your position at each.