The three things that decide who ranks locally
Google has said it outright, and every serious local study agrees: local ranking comes down to three factors. Knowing them stops you wasting effort, because one you can't change at all, and the other two are where every hour should go.
Proximity
How close you are to the person searching. It's often the strongest factor for 'near me', and it's the one you can't move, your address is your address. What you can do is rank across a wider radius with strong pages, reviews and prominence, so you still show up a few towns over.
Relevance
How well your business matches what they typed. This is your category, your services, and the content on your profile and site. A generic 'plumber' loses 'emergency plumber' to the business whose profile actually says emergency plumbing. You control every bit of this.
Prominence
How known and trusted you are, reviews, mentions, links, consistent information. This is where most local rankings are actually decided, because most rivals are similar on proximity and relevance. Prominence is the tiebreaker, and it compounds over time.
Score yourself 1 to 5 on relevance (are your categories and services spot on?) and prominence (recent reviews, consistent info, anyone linking to you?). Your lower score is where this academy pays off fastest.