Google is placing a great deal of emphasis on local in its search results these days. In fact in many cases, it would appear to significantly reduce the importance of ranking in the regular organic results. 

Google talked a little about how local search ranking works today in a blog post on its Lat Long Blog, which included the below video of Google Product Manager Jeremy Sussman discussing the basics. 

"Say you're in Union Square in New York City, and you want to find a nearby coffee shop, so you go to Google and type in 'coffee shops in Union Square, NYC'. You'll find a list of just what you typed in - local coffee shops near Union Square with all the basic information you would expect to find, such as name, address, and phone number, and if they exist, you'll also find reviews, ratings, and links to other relevant resources," he explains. "These organic listings are free to both the user and the business. We give you the best results we can find."

"Now, there are a variety of relevance factors Google uses to match or answer your search query, in this case, locating coffee shops near (Read more...)