🎙️ Unscripted SEO Podcast
The State of Local SEO with Mike Blumenthal
Co-founder of Near Media and one of the most respected local search researchers on the signals that actually determine who shows up in the local pack — and what’s changed.
Mike Blumenthal is the co-founder of Near Media and one of the most authoritative researchers in local search. He’s spent decades studying how Google Local works — documenting experiments, analyzing algorithm behavior, and publishing findings that the broader SEO industry relies on to understand local ranking signals.
“Nina Payne on Content Strategy & the Art of the Brief” — the content director on how to brief writers who actually produce something rankable, the briefs that get ignored, and what separates content strategy from content production.
— Nina Payne | Listen: Nina Payne on Content Strategy →
Key Takeaways
- Local pack rankings have become a three-signal system. Relevance, distance, and prominence have always been the pillars — but how Google weights each has shifted dramatically, and the signals that proxy for prominence have become far more sophisticated than star ratings and review counts.
- Google Business Profile is still dramatically under-optimized by most businesses. The basics — complete categories, accurate hours, photos, Q&A, posts — are genuinely impactful and genuinely neglected. Most of the local advantage available to small businesses is sitting in plain sight.
- Review velocity matters more than review total. A business with 50 reviews acquired in the last 90 days will often outperform one with 500 reviews acquired over five years. Recency is a signal that most local SEO strategies don’t account for systematically.
- Near Media’s research reveals what Google’s documentation doesn’t. The gap between what Google says local ranking factors are and what controlled testing shows they actually are is significant — and getting wider as the system becomes more AI-driven.
Connect with Mike Blumenthal
- Website: near.media
- LinkedIn: Mike Blumenthal
- Twitter/X: @mblumenthal
The Unscripted SEO Podcast features candid, unscripted conversations with SEOs and digital marketers. Hosted by Jeremy Rivera.
