Search Engine Land’s Community Corner: Local SEO survey results, a new book on influencer marketing & SEO Christmas jumpers

As we head into the slow holiday stretch, the news likewise takes a breather. Of course Google did surprise the search community this week by confirming some algo updates, starting a new webmaster video series, and moving Eric Schmidt into a non-Executive Chairman of the Board position. Elsewhere we had these announcements and events happening throughout the search marketing industry:

• UK SEO agency Reflectdigital optimized holiday celebrations by creating seo-themed Christmas jumpers (it’s ugly Christmas sweater time folks!), in conjunction with the Save the Children charity’s annual Christmas Jumper Day fundraising last week.
• Longtime SEO and digital marketer Joe Sinkwitz published a 264-page ebook “The Ultimate Guide to Influencer Marketing“
• Brightlocal released the results of their Local SEO Industry Survey

Our own Barry Schwartz continues his “Honor an SEO/SEM” series at his blog, and this (and last) weeks’ honored nominees included:

Cindy Krum Cindy has been doing SEO for mobile before the iPhone existed and I’ve had the pleasure of calling her friend and colleague for as long. If you’ve got mobile optimization questions – she has the answers. Learn more about Cindy.

Dave Davies One part of the two part duo from Beanstalk featured this week, read about why Jeremy Knauff nominated Dave here.

Mary Davies The other half of the dynamic duo from Beanstalk, Mary talks about the importance of connecting with people in the industry.

Jim Boykin Nominated by Donna Cavalier, read about the long and storied history of this industry veteran here.

Michelle Robbins Well this is awkward :) Thanks to Emily Grossman and Barry for their incredibly kind and generous words here.

Doc Sheldon A true scholar and gentleman in search marketing, Doc was also nominated by Donna Cavalier, who notes his ability to approach issues from unique angles, and is an incredibly talented writer to boot. Learn more about Doc here.

Alan George An indispensable member of the SEMpdx organization, Alan was nominated by James Svoboda who calls out his instrumental role in fostering the development of local search marketing organizations. More about Alan here.

Melissa Fach This years’ “Search Personality of the Year”, Melissa is a tireless advocate for the community and shares her time and talents selflessly. Nominated by Kate Morris and Jenny Halasz, learn more Melissa here.

Bill Slawski Almost single-handedly educating the search community on all things patents and papers, Bill stands apart from most industry veterans with his academic focus and ability to distill what can often be complex ideas into useful and digestible “here’s what this means and how it will impact the work search marketers do” summaries. Nominated by Gary Steele and an anonymous marketer, you can read more about Bill here.

Julie Joyce This longtime link lady has several nominations – and deservedly so! Julie has been building – and advocating for best practices of building – high quality links for as long as I can remember ever learning about the discipline. She shares openly with the community and is an asset in our ranks. Learn more about her here.

John Doherty Compared to some of the others featured these past two weeks, John is a relative newcomer. But in his time in search he’s developed the much deserved reputation of being not only incredibly bright, but also incredibly kind. Get to know John here.

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