David Mihm, a web designer and search marketing practitioner from Portland, writes for Searchenginland and has his own blog, Mihmorandum, that focuses on local search. David, for me,  epitimomizes the ideal of learning through cooperation and collaboration. He created the well received Local Search Ranking Factors project and was a key contributor on the research for the Cracking the Code – Local Search Ranking Factors study.

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Mike, how’s this, in no particular order:

 

Local vs Traditional SEO: Why Citation Is the New Link 
Not that the article itself is necessarily earth-shattering, but during the course of thinking about Local and researching 10-pack rankings, I came to two very important personal conclusions — 1) In Local SEO, not all links matter.  2) “Links” that matter for Local SEO aren’t necessarily links.  This mindset has guided my thinking about Local Search for client work for the remainder of the year.

 

It was very rewarding for me personally to get the perspectives of so many top minds in Local.  I probably had more fun putting this together than the average SEO or small business owner did in reading it!

 

The first of Eric Enge’s interviews with the men in charge of the two major players in Local Search.  An absolute must-read when you get the kind of (even if the interviewee was not entirely forthcoming / intentionally misleading).

 

The second must-read interview from Eric Enge on Local Search, this time with Yahoo Local’s main men.

The first major quantitative study of Local SEO ranking factors, led by Mike Blumenthal.  The search community gained a deeper understanding of how the main ranking factors interact with each other based on availability of data and competitiveness of market.

 

Mike takes things one step further here and dives into Google Maps’ patent on ranking.  Pay attention to the concept of Location Prominence in 2009!  It’s only going to become MORE important, IMHO.

 

The IRS should send out a notice that makes Miriam Ellis’ fantastic series required reading for small business owners.  The government could increase its tax revenue by 20% on the profits of SMB’s who read it!

 

A non-Local-Search-marketer, Dr. Pete Meyers, opens our eyes to the central importance of Local Search as the world goes more and more mobile.

 

I could have chosen any number of press releases from the Yellow Pages themselves to fill this slot, but this is one of the more egregious examples of self-promoting puffery coming from an industry dying almost as quickly as the Big Three (at least on the print side).  A terrific analytical look at YPA data by Chris “Silver” Smith.