One way to kick up your local search optimization game is through beefing up the local signal through images. There are a few techniques for doing this — read on for details.

Incorporating images as part of your overall content mix is a good idea for search optimization in and of itself. Images can provide additional opportunities for keyword signals on a page, and they represent good opportunities for ranking in search results under Universal Search.

But, if they’re also associated with places properly, they can convey additional location signals, helping a business and/or its website to be considered even more relevant for local searches.

Optimizing your client's local search rankings is one of the most powerful strategies you can implement for getting a "quick win" and in many markets can bring the bulk of your leads. This guide on using images to enhance local rankings will put you light years ahead of what 99% of local marketers are doing.... and in the land of the blind the one-eyed man is king.

“Sleep,” said Shakespeare, “rock they brain.”

Study after study shows it, a good night’s sleep makes for a sharper, more productive mind. And yet, your average worker gets 6 hours and 55 minutes. With half of those saying they were doing work up until an hour before going to bed.

A badge of honor worth wearing?

Hardly. Those hard-working types, it turns out, are hardly working… or at least, hardly working at true capacity. Despite delusions to the contrary.

Scientists have yet to figure out how sleep restores your brain function. But they have no doubt that it does. So ye sleep-deprived, if we get a lot done now… imagine what we could accomplish well-rested.

One of the first bad habits we try to correct during our Tycoon Inner Circle coaching programs is people working too hard... burning the candle at both ends... constantly pushing yourself to cram more into the day, while sleep (and your life) suffer. It might feel like you're working hard, but science shows you're not as effective as you think. Couple of great tips here on being more productive and getting a better night's sleep.

In Australia only 50 % of small business are online

Wow. That means as the owner of a web development business, SEO business and Internet marketing coaching community things are on the way up. Business owners are more aware that online business is the way to grow faster (or get left behind). Google Australia have 550 staff .  Half of them are engineers, the other half are marketing based. In Australia we are going to receive  a faster internet speed soon. (It is quite slow compared to the USA).

I've been saying this for the past 3 years but it's becoming more and more clear recently, we are still in the beginning stages of the growth of Internet marketing. Only half of businesses in Australia have a website. 95% of the current websites are complete rubbish. And ALL of them need advice on strategy plus help with traffic and conversions. Some great tips on PPC in this post by James.

My recommendation is to optimize thank you pages even further with the following tips:

• Consider providing a discount for their next purchases. Many “offline” businesses (notably pizza joints) could give you discount coupons on your purchase that can be redeemed on next purchase. Your thank you page surely can perform a similar (or even better) job.
• If you are selling product, consider selling some services associated with it. Or, consider selling add-ons like faster delivery or better packaging as an option on Thank You page.
• At the very least, offer a newsletter subscription option on your Thank You pages so your customers can keep up with product updates and other announcements.

Because most small business websites don't get a ton of traffic it's important to maximize the traffic you do get. (Conversion is more important than traffic.) One of the conversion checklist items we use for every page of a website is "does this page have a call to action?" -- chance are if it doesn't, it probably should... either selling a product, giving away something for free, asking for a phone call etc. Check out this article for a few interesting ways to get started maximizing pages you might otherwise never have thought of.

My general goal is to have at least one, and preferably several A/B tests running at any given time across one or more of our marketing sites. There’s no “perfect” when it comes to marketing sites, and the only way you learn about what works and doesn’t work is to continuously test.

Quick read on how 37 Signals use split testing to increase signups for their Highrise continuity software product. Most important notice how they are tracking right through the CRM to see the effect of each test on lifetime client value. Small hinges swing big doors!