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Google’s Search Quality Team explained how manual actions can be revoked by putting in a reconsideration request, but that repeat offenders will be punished:

Some sites violate the Webmaster Guidelines repeatedly after successfully going through the reconsideration process. For example, a webmaster who received a Manual Action notification based on an unnatural link to another site may nofollow the link, submit a reconsideration request, then, after successfully being reconsidered, delete the nofollow for the link. Such repeated violations may make a successful reconsideration process more difficult to achieve. Especially when the repeated violation is done with a clear intention to spam, further action may be taken on the site.

Facebook News Feed Update Gives Brands More Reach - http://goo.gl/gWGh4M

The Local Search Ranking Factors ranks the most important ranking factors as well as the most important competitor difference makers, the things that make your site stand out more versus your competitors. For the foundational ranking factors, meaning the things you can do for your local listings, if these were the top ten:

Proper Category Associations
Physical Address in City of Search
Consistency of Structured Citations
Quality/Authority of Structured Citations
HTML NAP Matching Place Page NAP
Quantity of Structured Citations (IYPs, Data Aggregators)
Domain Authority of Website
Individually Owner-verified Local Plus Page
City, State in Places Landing Page Title
Proximity of Address to Centroid