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Hey Matthew, You're so right that it can be hard to figure out who to hire, and when it comes to Local SEO, you definitely need a service provider that specializes in this field. In addition to the Moz recommend list Don has linked to, I recommend that you look at the list of people who participate in the annual Local Search Ranking Factors survey. Everyone on that list is a recognized expert in this field. See in the right column of this page: http://moz.com/local-search-ranking-factors With that list, you should have some really terrific providers to consider!