If you’re a local business, or work with local businesses, you know how critical it is to rise above the noise of other businesses.

Local businesses aren’t just competing with each other, local search in general has become one of the most popular forms to find solutions for needs… dining, entertainment, and other services. People no longer have to ask humans for recommendations, when they have an all-knowing device in their pocket. If your business isn’t showing up on that “all-knowing device” you got to get cracking.

A recent study by comScore, Neustar Localeze and 15 Miles suggested that up to 78% of mobile searches lead to some form of offline purchase. So people are discovering your business online, then coming to your store to purchase, or eat.

In William Bay’s WordCamp San Diego panel, we’ll be looking at the factors Google uses to rank local your sites in the “7-Pack”, we’ll also discuss what you need to know in regards to the changes made with Google Local Pages, and finally how you should set up your websites for mobile to gain an additional advantage over the non-optimized crowd.

After covering these areas and along with some resources William will share, you should have a solid grasp on what you need to do with yours or your client’s sites to get them moving in the direction of better local rankings.