I invited 27 leaders in the Local Search Marketing community to participate in the 2009 Local Search Ranking Factors survey. Participants rated the importance of 49 criteria with respect to their influence on rankings in the Google and Yahoo Local “Universal” search algorithms (those that drive the 3-pack, 10-pack, and authoritative onebox search results and NOT the standard organic algorithms). Selected responses and some commentary from yours truly are contained in this post, as well as a link to the full survey results.

Despite not having a panel of its own at SMX Advanced this year (maybe next year, Danny?), it seems to me that Local Search is coming of age right before our eyes. Local has now reached a level of prominence where it’s time for SEO companies (and large, location-sensitive companies who do their search marketing in-house) to truly start thinking about Local as its own search division, deserving of its own strategy, budget, and human resources.

***MIKE B. SAYS HE’S SEEN THAT FOR AWHILE***
I discovered this as I was making changes to my profile earlier today.  This is an amazing, amazing accomplishment by Google, and if it had to do with the downtime this weekend, it was well worth it.
It looks like a bunch of improvements have been made as a result [...]

I’m sure one of my Local Searcharati friends has already seen this but I found it fascinating.  I logged into the LBC today to reflect that I was updating my business from primarily focusing on Web Design to Local SEO (some of you may have noticed a little redesign about 10 days ago).  
Google asked me [...]

I’ve wanted to write this post for a long time. In it, I tackle the hot topic of where journalism and traditional media stand in the internet era. N.B. You’re probably not going to have time to read this post all in one sitting, so feel free to read it in chunks (which I’ve tried to create with headlines scattered throughout the post). It’ll still be here if you decide to come back later.