Robert_Charlton - 9:13 am on Jun 26, 2012 (gmt 0)

David Mihm's Local (Google) Search Ranking Factors for 2012 has recently been published, and once again I'm linking to it as a standard industry resource....

Local Search Ranking Factors 2012
Published June 11, 2012
http://www.davidmihm.com/local-search-ranking-factors.shtml [davidmihm.com]

The survey polls leading local SEOs for relative importance of local search ranking factors in the following main areas...

Place Page Criteria
Off-Place Page/Off-Site Criteria
Website Criteria
Review Criteria
Social/Mobile Criteria

Results were then tabulated via inverse scoring, where the #1 ranked factor received the most "points" for that question, and the lowest-ranked factor received the fewest points. Thus, the more factors deemed irrelevant by a particular respondent, the heavier the weight given to the factors that they did rank.

An impressive survey that's basic reading for anyone seriously interested in local search.