Location is becoming a more and more important factor in how we find and use content online, and it’s increasingly vital for publishers to present their content in a way that will allow location-based apps and search engines to find it. At the Street Fight Summit last month, Fwix CEO Darian Shirazi (whom we interviewed in June) introduced the concept of “Location Search Optimization” or LSO, noting that 40% of content on the web is about a location and 40% of mobile searches are about location.

LSO is about making your content location-aware, said Shirazi. Adding just a few meta-tags and other bits of data to your site can ensure that your content is found by location-based search engines. He said that in the next 10 to 15 years, the entire focus of the Web would shift to mobile device, and that mobile traffic will be what is most valuable for advertisers.

“It’s something that every publisher can do because it’s easy,” said Shirazi. And the benefits are clear. Beyond simply bringing a site to the top of searches to increase traffic, optimizing for location allows publications to create map features, layering their stories onto a grid and sorting them by tag and other content. Currently, though, only about 5% of content sites do anything to optimize for location searches.

Below is a full-length video of Shirazi’s keynote speech about Location Search Optimization, and a Fwix infographic about the history of search optimization is attached at the bottom of the page:

Video software provided by FrameSocket.

Click here for more coverage of Street Fight Summit 2011.