Just wrapped up my panel at SMXWest on Local Search and Blended results. It’s bittersweet. I know I could’ve done better, and provided some more meat to general search marketers — but I was nervous to say the least. Hopefully that didn’t translate through though.

Tip of the hat to Barry Schwartz who, in typical SER fashion — is live blogging like no one else. He’s got a recap of my panel available already online.

To condense his notes:

…Eric Lander, Associate Editor, Search Engine Journal is next up.

He shows a Google OneBox example for Santa Clara Sushi. He then shows how local results are blended into a search result, the Google Local plus/minus box. Yahoo is a bit more traditional, Yahoo one ups Google by showing a rating by users there. Live Search is very traditional but was a bit more disappointed.

Verified Listings:
- Manually verified feed via Google Local, Yahoo Local and Windows Live.
- Feed Based Solution to submit for businesses with many locations, such as ReachLocal, Localez and infoUSA.com.

Who are Trusted Sources?
- Internet Yellow Pages: SuperPages, YellowPages, YellowBook
- FeedProviders: InfoUSA, Localeze
- Social, Review & Niche Sites: Yelp, CitySearch, Automotive.com, etc.

Tips:
- Cross link your contact pages to MapQuest or other mapping service
- Verify your unverified listings, multiple data sources can lead to troubles
- Free Tools: Localeze’s merchant profile manager lets you update your business profiles for free
- Search categories and users: Local search is very much social, user reviews, etc.

Being one of the few search industry bloggers unafraid to tell it like it is, I love reading up on Michael Gray’s blog. Sometimes, you’ll catch a rant or three about Google’s insane take on business and their “rules don’t apply to me” attitude.

Other times, you’ll get a great nugget of information like this post which includes a list of his installed Firefox extensions. If you’re into modding up FF, there’s some great ones here — and be sure to also give the comments a read through too.

Solid stuff there as well.

Yesterday, SponsoredReviews.com created coupon / offer code “SEJ100″ which is good for $100 in free reviews on their system. You don’t need to spend any real money, all you need is an active account with them!

So here’s the deal — I’m willing to review sites for my blog readers, right here on EricLander.com, for $50. But, that’s $50 from SponsoredReviews, so you’re actually not paying a dime for it! (more…)

In case some of you don’t already read Search Engine Journal, please check it out. Late last week I began contributing there, and I will continue to do so as time passes.

I’ve got an author page set up, and I’d just like to say thank you to Loren Baker for providing me with an opportunity on such a great site to share my thoughts and opinions on the search industry.

It’s not often that I find an existing team of marketers that I can both relate to and work well with. In the rare event though that I do come across such people, I find as many ways to work with them as possible.

Earlier today I was speaking with a colleague, discussing parallels between online and offline marketing. When I realized that he was helping to lead an exciting new company located in the East Bay, I had to learn more…

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