David Mihm’s Local Search Ranking Factors Survey has really made a splash in the world of SEO. In case you’re not familiar with it, David surveyed 20 Local Search experts, including me, to get their opinions on which factors most likely enter into the ranking algorithms for Google Maps and Yahoo!Local. He asked what we believed helped and or hurt the most in getting a local business listing to appear high in Local Search Engine Results Pages.

I know from my own responses that many of the answers are things we’re pretty darn confident about, some are simply well-considered opinions and some are nothing more than wild guesses. But when consolidated together, the results represent the collective opinions of 20 SEO’s who eat, sleep and breathe Local Search. Short of Google and Yahoo! handing us their Local algos on a platter, this is about the best we have to work with in the Summer of 2008.

The panel recommends these factors as the top 3 ways to rank well in Local Search:

• Claim your business listing.
• Have a Local Business Listing street address in the city for which you want to rank.
• Place your Local Business Listing in the appropriate categories.

I’m not going to give any more away because I’d like you to read the whole survey.  For other takes on David’s project, check out Sage Lewis’s video on The Definitive Local Search Ranking Document, and the comments on the survey at Sphinn .