Journal · 20 October 2026

Why your map ranking changes between Allestree and Alvaston

Local results in Derby shift from district to district. Here is why that happens, how to measure it properly and what you can do to widen your reach.

Derbyshire high street with shops and people walking in spring daylight

A business owner checks Google from their office in Allestree and sees themselves third in the map results. A customer in Alvaston searches the same phrase and the business is nowhere. Both are seeing accurate results. Google's local results are personalised to the searcher's location, and in a city the size of Derby that location can make a big difference.

This piece explains why that happens, how to measure your real local visibility, and what tends to widen the area where you appear.

The three factors Google describes

Google says local results are based mainly on three things: relevance, distance and prominence.

Relevance is how well your profile and website match what the person searched for. Categories, services, the text on your site and what reviewers say all feed this.
Distance is how far you are from the searcher, or from the location named in the search.
Prominence is how well known and trusted your business is. Reviews, links, mentions across the web and your organic rankings all contribute.

You cannot change distance, short of moving. You can change the other two, and the stronger they are, the further from your address you will tend to appear.

Why Derby makes the effect obvious

Derby is compact, but it is ringed by the A38, A52 and A6 and divided by the Derwent. Population is spread across distinct suburbs, each with its own cluster of businesses. A search for "dentist" in Mickleover will usually surface practices in Mickleover, Littleover and Mackworth before anything in Chaddesden or Spondon, even though they are only a few miles apart.

For businesses that customers travel to, this is fair: most people do want the nearest decent option. For businesses that travel to customers, such as plumbers, roofers, cleaners and mobile mechanics, it is frustrating. Your service area might cover the whole city and beyond, but the map results still lean heavily on where your verified address is.

Measuring it properly

Checking Google on your own phone gives you one point on the map, influenced by your search history. To see the real picture you need to check from several places.

The simplest approach is a grid. Take a set of points across the area you want to cover, for example one every mile across the city, and record where you rank for your main search at each one. Several tools automate this. The result is a coloured map showing where you are strong and where you fall away.

When we set the baseline for a local client, we run this for their two or three most important searches. It shows immediately whether the problem is general weakness (low everywhere), a narrow footprint (strong at the office, weak a mile out) or a specific gap (strong to the north, weak across the river).

What widens your footprint

Get the category right

The primary category on your Google Business Profile is the single strongest relevance signal you control. A kitchen fitter listed as "Contractor" or a physiotherapist listed as "Medical clinic" is giving away relevance. Look at the categories used by the businesses that rank well for your main search and choose the most specific accurate option.

Build your services list and website pages to match

Add the specific services you offer to your profile. Then make sure your website has a page for each important service, with a clear title and content that explains it properly. Google reads your site when deciding how relevant your profile is.

Collect reviews steadily

Reviews help prominence and give searchers a reason to choose you. The number matters, but so do recency and what reviewers write. A steady flow from real customers, asked at the right moment, beats a burst followed by silence. Reply to them, including the critical ones. Never buy reviews or write your own; Google removes them and can suspend profiles.

Earn local mentions and links

Links from Derby websites, such as local news coverage, a community group you support, a trade association directory or a supplier's partner page, all strengthen your connection to the area and your general prominence.

Write area pages that say something

If you genuinely work across the city and beyond, pages for the main areas you serve can help, provided each one says something specific: the kind of jobs you do there, local considerations, examples of work in that area. A page that swaps "Littleover" for "Spondon" in otherwise identical text does little and can drag down the quality of your site overall.

Keep your organic rankings strong

The listings below the map pack and the map results themselves are separate, but they are related. A strong, well-linked website helps your profile too.

A word on addresses

Some businesses try to appear in more places by adding virtual office addresses or listing staff home addresses as branches. This breaks Google's guidelines and tends to end with suspended profiles. If you genuinely have more than one location, each can have its own profile. If you do not, the honest route is a strong single profile with a correctly set service area, plus the relevance and prominence work above.

How long it takes

Category and profile fixes can change results within a few weeks. Building prominence, through reviews and links, takes longer and compounds over months. In most Derby categories it is realistic to widen your footprint noticeably over a few months of steady work. In very competitive categories, such as solicitors or estate agents in the city centre, it takes longer.

If you would like a grid check for your business, our local SEO service starts with exactly that. You can also read about the towns we cover around the city.

A worked approach to a ranking grid

To see your real footprint, check your ranking for one important search from a grid of points across your area. A simple version for a Derby business might use points in the city centre, Mickleover, Littleover, Allestree, Chaddesden, Alvaston, Chellaston and Spondon. A trade covering a wider area might add Belper, Duffield, Ilkeston, Long Eaton and Burton.

Record the results in a table like this and repeat the check every month:

Point	Search: "emergency plumber"	Search: "boiler repair"
City centre	Position	Position
Mickleover	Position	Position
Allestree	Position	Position
Chaddesden	Position	Position
Alvaston	Position	Position
Chellaston	Position	Position

Patterns soon appear. Most businesses are strong near their address and in one or two directions, and weak in others. The weak directions are where the work should go.

Reading the pattern

Strong everywhere close by, fading with distance. Normal. Work on prominence: reviews, links from local organisations, better service pages.
Strong in one direction only. Often caused by where your customers and reviews are. Ask for reviews from customers in the weaker areas and make sure your service area includes them.
Weak even near your address. Usually a relevance or trust issue. Check categories, business name, address consistency and whether your website clearly explains what you do.
Ranking for one search but not a close variant. Your profile and pages may not cover that service clearly. Add it to your services list and give it a proper page.

Why the centre is so competitive

Derby city centre, around the Cathedral Quarter and Derbion, has the highest density of businesses in many categories. A business there competes against more neighbours than one in a suburb. That can make a city-centre business look weaker on a grid than it is. Compare yourself with the businesses that rank around you rather than with an ideal.

Phone searches and live location

Most local searches now come from phones, which use the searcher's actual location. That is why someone driving along the A38 or standing in Friar Gate sees different results from someone at home in Oakwood. Desktop ranking tools that use a single fixed location can mislead. A grid check uses set coordinates and gives a more honest view.

What not to do

Do not create fake addresses or virtual offices to appear in more places. Google's guidelines prohibit it, competitors report it, and suspension can take weeks to resolve. Do not stuff the area name into your business name either. Both can bring short-term gains and long-term problems.

Checklist

Pick three to five searches that bring real enquiries.
Check them from at least eight points across your area every month.
Compare with the previous month, not the previous day.
Act on the weakest areas first.
Track calls and enquiries alongside rankings, so you know whether the change mattered.

Our local SEO programme includes this monitoring every month.