WebProNews did a bunch of great interviews at SMX West. I wanted to highlight three in particular (granted I'm a bit biased!)...

First is this interview of me is on how to optimize the flow of PageRank through your site and the tactic of "PageRank sculpting":

Second is this one of my brilliant Netconcepts' colleague Chris Smith, on the topic of optimizing your presence in Google's local search in order to boost your presence in Google's main web results via "Universal Search" (Google's blended results):

Third, this one is of my 16-year-old daughter Chloe Spencer (yeah, here I go again, proud papa bragging about my wunderkind! ), who spoke on the Generation Google panel, goes into how a kid can start a blog on a hot topic (in her case, a blog on Neopets), do a bit of SEO on it, and turn it into a cash machine with the help of Google AdSense:

One of the areas that I'm starting to see a rapid growth in, is local search. It's important that business owners start taking advantage of this growth in popularity, so that they claim a stake in this soon-to-be competitive market. Believe it or not, there are a number of free tools where you can list your business locally through the major search engines. I talk about those tools and the importance of taking advantage of them in my article on CNET: Searchlight my SEO blog. One example of the tools I discuss is Google's local.google.com. By following a few, easy instructions, you are well on your way into the local listings.

Yesterday's keynote at Web 2.0 Expo featured an interview of Eric Schmidt, CEO of Google Inc. by John Battelle. John asks such great questions. I really enjoyed the session, but I kept finding myself distracted by Eric's horrific outfit; it was reminiscent of Mr. Rogers (remember "Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood?"). He needs a fashion consultant. Heaven knows he could afford one. ;-) I doubt even Bill Gates would be caught dead wearing that sweater and tie combo.

And what's up with Eric not knowing what "Punch the Monkey" was? Guess he's never surfed the Web?

All right. Enough of the useless banter. I'll cut to the chase...

What's the key takeaway from Eric's keynote? For me, it was what Eric sees as the two key growth areas: Mobile and Local. Whether or not you want to be on Google's radar and get acquired by them, this was an important statement. Sure, web search is where the action is currently. But if you aren't ALREADY delving into mobile search and local search, you're already behind. Mobile and local will be HUGE. Mark my words... er, mark Eric's words.

Watch the WebProNews recording:

Enquiro commented recently that Local Search is growing and improving in features and functionality. Despite the cool features such as satellite imagery, movable maps and mobile phone gateways, I find Local Search severely lacking because the results aren't consistently good. For example, try searching Google Local for web design company near Madison, WI (under the Find businesses link). The top result is "Cookies by Design", a company that sells cookie gifts. That's followed by "Covance", a drug research lab. There are even 2 "Best Buy" locations listed in the top 10. Not exactly relevant results! Where is Netconcepts? Where is Netphoria? Where are the other big web agencies in Madison? Not one of them is listed in the top 10.

In their article, Enquiro offers the hypothetical scenario of needing to get to the hospital in a hurry and using Local Search to do it. Heh, I don't know about you but I certainly wouldn't bet my life on Google Local to point me to the nearest hospital! (e.g. search Google Local for hospital near Madison, WI and the #1 result is "Cancer Connect Resource")

It'll be fun to see Local Search enhancements like traffic reports via cell phone, but it doesn't really matter a great deal until the relevancy and ranking algorithms get overhauled.

Since the launch of Google Search History, most of the search results we get are personalized. Personalized search, combined with local search, means no-one gets the same view of Google's search results anymore.

As a search engine optimization company, this makes our jobs interesting, to say the least. How do we track improvement in search position when everyone is going to see something different?

Personally, I would be loathe to opt out of Google History as it makes my own search results better and more tailored to my interests.

But the onus is on marketers and SEOs to become more sophisticated; to make each page relevant to the subject, so that personalized search knows the topics to hone in on. Hmm... interesting times ahead!