{"id":2008,"date":"2009-01-02T06:12:07","date_gmt":"2009-01-02T10:12:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blumenthals.com\/blog\/?p=2008"},"modified":"2008-12-31T10:21:54","modified_gmt":"2008-12-31T14:21:54","slug":"loci-2008-will-scotts-best-of-2008-in-local","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blumenthals.com\/blog\/2009\/01\/02\/loci-2008-will-scotts-best-of-2008-in-local\/","title":{"rendered":"Loci 2008 – Will Scott’s Best Articles of 2008 in Local"},"content":{"rendered":"

Will Scott of Search Influence<\/a>, is a search marketer that focuses on helping SME’s in all aspects of traditional and local search. He has an extensive background<\/a> in online local directories. He writes at his own blog, Website Promotion is Not Vodoo<\/a>, and does guest appearances elsewhere. In the New Orleans tradition he is both a gentleman and (at least after I called him out) a scholar and is a great sounding board. \u00a0I can’t think of a better way to start off the new year than with Will’s great summary!<\/p>\n

****<\/p>\n

Best of 2008 – Continuing Education in Local (or How I Learned to Stop Worrying And Love the Blog)<\/strong><\/p>\n

I’m old and a little scatter-brained, so blogging doesn’t come easy for me. We can’t all be as young at heart as Mike :).<\/p>\n

So just one quick caveat, obviously this list isn’t comprehensive. It represents who and what I read — who inform my understanding — and, to a great extent the work of my friends.<\/p>\n

Search Influence<\/a> has been in business since 2006 but 2008 is the year I realized there is a community of like-minded folks and engaged with that community.<\/p>\n

I made an offhanded comment on Tim’s blog<\/a> for which Mike<\/a> called me out and the rest is history.<\/p>\n

I had the good fortune to meet David<\/a> and Alex<\/a> at SES ’07 in San Jose and David has been kind enough to prod me from time to time.<\/p>\n

No review of Local in ’08 would be complete without David’s seminal work “The Local Search Ranking Factors<\/a>“.<\/p>\n

So, David asks, I contribute — surely not as knowledgeably as some and it leads to one of the most valuable events I’ve attended: The SLOMO Local Search Sit Down<\/a> as chronicled in David’s conference recap. Talk about some heavy hitters — the biggest names in Local Search around one table for the evening.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a><\/p>\n

I’m still trying to figure out why those Utah<\/a> boys<\/a> were the tannest of the lot, but that’s another story altogether.<\/p>\n

But before that, way back in April we sponsored SBMU where I had the distinct pleasure of meeting the one and only Matt McGee<\/a> in person.<\/p>\n

His presentation there is one of the most thorough reviews of local search<\/a> I’ve ever seen. It could practically have been a survey course.<\/p>\n

OK, so to a slightly more structured list:<\/p>\n

Video<\/h3>\n

Unfortunately most of Steve’s stuff<\/a> is still offline so I can’t point to my favorite Video related posts of all time.<\/p>\n

Steve and Greg Markel are the two who’ve most informed my thinking about video this year.<\/p>\n

So instead, I’ll have to point to a recap of his SES presentation on the subject on Marty’s blog<\/a> and also at<\/a> ReelSEO.<\/p>\n

Maps \/ Local<\/h3>\n