Online marketing agency, BrightLocal.com recently published the results of their survey in which they polled over 2000 consumers in the UK and US in order to better understand the role that online consumer reviews play in the research and purchase of local business services.

A summary of the key findings below (US):

The video below outlines some of Google’s local ranking factors including insight into how new features like Tags, Boost and Hotpot may or may not impact the ranking of organic listings. 3 of the main factors that the video highlights are: Prominence, Distance and Relevance. Prominence: how well known the business is around the internet. Distance: How far away is the location (if location specified), otherwise your general location is used. Relevance: Businesses that match your query. A business claiming a places page does not equate to preferential treatment in regards to rankings.

Google Hotbot is a personalized recommendations engine based on what you like and what your friends like. Google uses HotBot as a factor in their ranking algorithm for local business listings. Google Boost is a location-based ad product for local businesses. When you add Google Boost to your listing, you can advertise your business on Google and Google Maps (including mobile devices).

The latest study by 8coupons.com shows that 85% of users regularly shop/spend money within a 5 mile radius of where they work/live. The data is based on 8coupons.com’s 1.3 million users and 180,000 local deals.

The example below, maps out one year’s data compiled by tracking all the users in ZIP code 10003 (East Village, Manhattan). The map is a visual interpretation of the average consumer deal search pattern in NYC. The 5-mile radius represents a similar data analysis extracted to obtain the average consumer deal search pattern within the US.

Local.com Corporation (NASDAQ: LOCM), today announced record search traffic for the third quarter of 2009, and for the month of September.

The company reached record traffic for the third quarter 2009 with 66 million monthly unique visitors (MUVs) on the Local.com site and network, up 5% from 63 million MUVs for the second quarter of 2009, and up 22% from 54 million MUVs for the third quarter of 2008.

Organic traffic exceeded 28 million MUVs on the Local.com site and network for the third quarter of 2009, up 4% from 27 million for the third quarter of 2008.

The company also reached record traffic of 23 million MUVs on the Local.com site and network during September 2009.

Local.com announced that their flagship search site, www.local.com, has been ranked as the 10th largest search engine in the U.S. by the Nielsen Company.

The Nielsen Company reported their MegaView Search data for the top U.S. search providers for August 2009. Nielsen MegaView search data includes total searches, unique searchers, and search share, among other search figures.

The report ranked Local.com as the 10th largest search engine in the U.S. and the company’s month-over-month growth was 2.9 percent.

Local.com reached record traffic of 63 million monthly unique visitors (MUVs) on the Local.com site and network during the second quarter of 2009, up 5% from 60 million MUVs during the first quarter of 2009, and up 31% from 48 million MUVs during the second quarter of 2008. Organic traffic also reached an all-time high, exceeding 29 million monthly unique visitors on the Local.com site and network during the second quarter of 2009, up 61% from 18 million during the second quarter of 2008.

Earlier this week, Jeff Ferguson, Sr. Director of Online Marketing at Local.com, dropped by to give us some insight on the new services at Local.com as well as some detail in regards to Local.com’s online performance over the past year. See our chat below:

[Manoj]: Please give us a brief description of the Local Connect Network and how your publishers will leverage it?

[Jeff Ferguson]: Local.com’s Local Connect™ is a private label platform that allows qualified regional media publishers to add a local search business directory to their websites within a few days and at no cost. Once the platform is deployed, because of its unique, SEO-friendly architecture, we can quickly help the publisher drive new traffic and new online advertising revenues through local search. Because of this, Local.com has the largest network of independent, private label local media properties in the U.S. based on the number of partner sites, according to The Kelsey Group.

For instance, we just partnered with The Dallas Morning News and A.H. Belos’ Press Enterprise to provide its Local Connect™ private label local search solution to http://www.dallasnews.com/ and http://www.pe.com/, respectively.

[Manoj]: Tell us more about Local Promote™.

[Jeff Ferguson]: Local Promote is Local.com’s subscription advertising product that rovides local businesses with premium placement at the top of targeted search results in specific categories and geographic regions. It allows these small businesses to reach new customers and get ahead of their competition. It offers businesses, which usually wouldn’t have the time or staff to put this kind of campaign together, the ability to get involved in online advertising with little effort and little cost. With Local Promote, we provide businesses the ability to build their own branded web pages where they can post company logos, photos, company taglines, and special offer links. Then, we automatically submit the businesses’ listings to the other major search engines and even offer advanced call tracking capabilities to measure the campaign’s success.

[Manoj]: What has the growth of Local.com been like for the past year?

[Jeff Ferguson]: Local.com has experienced consistent growth over the past year. You might have seen that the company had a great second quarter, reporting record traffic of 63 million monthly UVs, record organic traffic exceeding 29 million monthly UVs, and monetization yielded record revenue and a larger-than-anticipated adjusted net income. It’s been an exciting time to join the company and be a part of such fantastic growth!

Local.com also appointed a new Chief Technology Officer, Michael Plonski, who held executive positions at Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia and the Tribune Company.

[Manoj]: If I was a small business listed in your directory, what kind of reporting would I receive?

[Jeff Ferguson]: We provide data on clicks and impressions for each business location, plus call tracking is also available including how many calls received, the duration of the calls, calls answered, etc. Besides educating these businesses on the success of their campaigns, it’s in our own best interest to show the business the ROI of working with Local.com.

[Manoj]: How does Local.com plan on leveraging Social/Mobile strategies in the near future?

[Jeff Ferguson]: In 2007, we launched Local Mobile, which is an ad-supported local mobile site that provides users with easy access to directory services and search results for local businesses, products and services, complete with maps, driving directions, click-to-call, and much more. We’re also looking into a few new mobile avenues to take advantage of some of the recent advancements in mobile technology.

On the Social side, we’re testing a few strategies on a small-scale on Twitter and Facebook to determine where Local.com can fit into this emerging marketplace. We’re not timid about entering this arena, but we realize that these areas are more of a discussion than a lecture and we want to make sure we have the proper balance of humanity and technology before we open things up a bit more.

These new channels lend themselves to a lot of opportunities for providing hyper-local information to an audience that already is hyper-local; but we want to make sure that they are really asking for help from us before blurting out all the answers from our listings.