David Mihm’s 2012 Local Search Ranking Factors are out, and what a good time to get an expert view of all things local search.

As Mihm says in his article, it’s been a bit of a shakeup year, particularly with the recent roll-out of Google+ Local. Many things have changed, but the philosophy of local search marketing has remained markedly consistent, particularly as compared to other digital marketing channels.

What has changed, however, primarily comes from what’s called the Google Venice update. In short, Venice changed the local search engine results page (SERP) from a map and 7-pack oriented layout (with integrated listings) to one focused on local standard organic results. This had the (rightly intended) consequence of placing a greater importance on the domain authority of a website. The search ranking factors study also includes some interesting social factors, including a page’s Google +1 and Facebook Like count.

Take aways? Re-assess your local search marketing priority list, making traditional SEO a bigger part of your local effort.

A few days ago, Google announced the transition of its Places pages to +Local, a new section of Google Plus. While not totally unexpected, this is a bit of a shakeup for businesses who have been engaged in some sort of local search marketing.

In the few days since its official launch, the rumor and news centers of the Internet have been on overdrive, churning out both excellent summations of the changes, as well as rumor and speculation.

We’ve yet to see exactly how this change will affect local search behavior, or whether or not this will be a boon for engagement, so we can’t make any for-your-business predictions just yet. What we can tell you is this appears to be a primarily lateral move with regards to SEO and a likely positive move for engaging customers with your B2C business. If you’re a B2B business, it’s still wait-and-see.