When was the last time you made a decision to buy something significant without doing some investigation first? When did you last buy a ‘big thing’ without looking at the options or comparing the price? Before the internet this ‘research’ was done on the high street or maybe over the phone with a copy of the Yellow Pages to guide you. While I bet few people are calling bookshops asking for Fly Fishing by J R Hartley, it is searched for more than 200 times a month online. Just like people looking for fictional fishing books the first place you probably do your ‘research’ now is Google. You go there to type in either the name of the business/product you’re looking for, or if you haven’t yet chosen, the type of thing that you want. You are not alone. These two methods of search are the most common; they are sometimes referred to as known search or generic search. For example, if you want shoes you might search for ‘Big Dave’s Shoe Shop’ or ‘Shoe shops near me’. You either know Big Dave and want his shoes or you don’t know Big Dave but still want shoes. Both of these searches are crucial to Big Dave because he just wants to sell shoes. This kind of activity means a business needs a website and that website needs to be optimised to show up on a search engine… Search Engine Optimisation. If you already spend money on newspaper ads, radio ads, outdoor advertising and aren’t seeing that convert into customers then the first thing to look at is what happens when someone hears your ad on the radio… I bet they Google you. If they do, what do they see? SEO isn’t optional anymore – especially if most of your marketing is done offline. If you want people who see your offline advertising to reach your business you need SEO. If this has piqued your interest, and you want to know more, go and have a read of how we get SEO to drive results for small business on our website.
Enquiries about ‘seagulls’, which usually relate to the large Herring Gull are certainly on the increase. You just need to read the press and every week you will find a story about these birds causing havoc somewhere on the coast or inland.
The main issues that come from business owners relate to mess, attacks on people and property damage. Typical problems will include bird droppings (guano). Guano is generally known to be a source of bacteria which can be transmitted to humans and ultimately lead to disease. Property issues include blocked gulley’s and drainage problems, however, we also have incidents of gulls pecking through skylights on roofs and attacks on people.
With bird control, you need to put in place a detailed disruption and dispersal programme. Its not a quick fix, it’s a method that over time will reduce the amount of birds or even make the location a bird free zone. The key to success is timing, education and physical deterrents.
In March, Herring Gulls start their nesting season, so it is important to get the plan in place before this time.
During the summer season, Herring Gulls are feeding and protecting their young and under the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981, you cannot disturb nests, eggs or the young which include trying to disperse the adults leaving the young behind. The gulls will seek out food by any means possible. If you feed the birds, leave unsecured rubbish bags out for collection and drop litter in the street, people will make it easy for the gulls and this will be the main reasons the area is experiencing problems, particularly in the spring and summer seasons. People need to take responsibility over educating others on litter and food.
At the end of every nesting season (usually September until February) all nests and nesting material should be removed from buildings as they will return to breed. Gulls will typically return to site year after year as they are fairly territorial. If chicks also return to ‘their site’, any problems experienced now are only likely to increase in line with an increased volume of birds present, year on year.
This is the key time to implement bird control measures.
Bird exclusion netting
Professionally installed bird netting protects buildings without harming birds. The netting will act as a barrier preventing the birds from landing on the building roof. Our team design and install bespoke bird netting systems based on a site survey and when completed they typically don’t need much maintenance.
Bird repellent gel
Bird deterrent gels are non-toxic, they do not harm the birds and are much more discreet than netting. Birds are deterred from landing on a surface by the UV light reflected from the gel. We apply the gel to small dishes at close intervals and will remain effective for at least two years even in harsh climates.
Laser control
Enter the world of technology. Laser control is a very effective way of managing bird issues. An approaching laser beam appeals to the survival instinct of birds, causing them to fly away immediately. One laser system installed on a roof can cover up to 3,000 acres and reach 2,500 meters in the right conditions. The lasers are programmed to operate on various roofs and at set intervals during dawn and dusk. We have had major successes with this method at Sizewell Power Station. One laser has significantly reduced the number of gulls present at this facility.
Dispersal of Gulls using Distress Calls
Another method of dispersing birds is using a device which transmits digitally stored distress calls. The system we use has 9 different bird distress calls, including different gull species, starlings and pigeons. When sounded the birds will lift, circle around where the distress call is coming from, look for a predator below and start to feel that the area is unsafe as they cannot locate anything. These systems are available as a portable megaphone or can be hardwired on a timer. This is the same system as used at airports to keep birds away from runways reducing the risks of bird-strikes.
What is the law?
All wild birds, their nests, eggs and chicks are protected by law (Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981). Even an empty unoccupied nest may not be removed within the breeding season.
However, in very particular circumstances property owners can have Herring Gull nests and eggs removed by a specialist contractor, under the terms of a Natural England General Licence. This may include:
It must be for reasons only of public health or public safety. (Nuisance, noise or mess are not legal reasons for removal).
Other legal methods of resolving the public safety issue have been tried and were unsuccessful or impractical.
Our advice is to start looking to plan a programme which will commence in September. We are happy to provide a free survey and quotation. Please get in touch by calling us on 0800 980 9767 or via our website.
We are delighted to be working with new brand Ohmies, a company dedicated to helping individuals smoke less through cheaper alternatives. It is estimated that smoking in the UK costs the NHS around £2.5 billion per year and it is a very costly habit for individuals, costing the average person around £3,700 per year to maintain the addiction.
With the rate of smokers not slowing down, we are pleased to working with Ohmies, a new website offering a number of smoking alternatives at affordable prices, helping people get off smoking altogether and helping them save money effectively.
Launching a new eCommerce site
The owners of the site needed a simple eCommerce platform to list all their products, images and payment checkout facilities. Using Shopify, it creates a professional platform for shop owners to design the site, list products and monitor any orders and payments. The site is well adapted to desktop, mobile and tablet and offers a simple navigation so customers can scroll through smoking alternatives effectively.
Using SEO for an eCommerce site
As SEO is our speciality, we took a very methodical approach to help Ohmies optimise their website and boost their rankings on Google for a number of keywords such as ‘smoking alternatives’ and ‘ways to stop smoking.’
To target these keywords, we put together a specialist landing page and added relevant content relating to that key term. This creates relevancy in Google’s eyes and creates a page that they can index effectively.
We ensured that of the hundreds of products featured, every image had specific alt-text so Google could read the image and meta-titles and meta descriptions so each page can be categorised and found by Google.
Acquiring links from other websites is not easy in this highly competitive industry. As a result, we are putting together a number of useful guides about smoking, filled with statistics so that other companies and resources may find it interesting and want to link to it. We then intend to use outreach to ask other websites, resources and guides to link back to the site – helping the site build up its domain and this will strengthen the site’s SEO and its rankings.
The whole team at Tudor Lodge Consultants is proud and excited to announce that we are now working with MoneyBoat, a well-established instalment and direct payday loans provider in the UK. MoneyBoat have been established for a number of years and have steadily been increasing and growing their customer base via various on and offline channels which have included pay-per-click (PPC) and affiliate marketing.
However, our marketing, design, user experience and conversion teams are now working very closely with them, expanding into search engine optimisation (SEO) on Google and online via search engines.
What We Are Doing for MoneyBoat
MoeyBoat’s website was functional but in desperate need of a redesign and a refresh for both the brand as well as for their online marketing and overall digital strategy. With Google having just rolled out one of their most significant updates to their ranking algorithm, it has been particularly important to ensure the website is up to speed and performance.
We have therefore been working with MoneyBoat on their newly launched website which has removed many of the functionality issues of the past and which is much more fit for purpose with regards to SEO and online marketing. As part of the ongoing process with MoneyBoat we have carried out the following work thus far to good effect:
Crawling and Indexing Updates – Important as ever is the ability of Google and other search engines to crawl [rank] websites. This is key as the content and features on a site would be worthless if they weren’t able to be crawled. We have therefore tidied up all broken response codes across the MoneyBoat site and have ensured there are no empty or dead 404 response pages. We have also updated all of their meta data and the necessary URL structures across the site to allow for easy crawling and positive rankings.
Mobile and Speed Updates – One of the most recent Google algorithm updates has pertained to website speed and mobile device performance. We have therefore worked very closely with MoneyBoat to optimise their website’s speed and to ensure that performance on mobile is not hindered by any desktop features or otherwise. We have also worked to ensure that all content and all features on the site can be properly ranked in respect of mobile as well as desktop Google rankings by updating the source code where necessary.
Website Content – As with many websites, MoneyBoat have need a big update and improvement in their on-site content that is presented to users. We have therefore built a comprehensive content strategy for the website and have already started working on this to good effect. We have formulated and written a number of fully optimised pages of content to be crawled and ranked by Google online.
What We Have Achieved
Although still in the very early stages of this project, we have already seen some increases in organic, SEO rankings for the MoneyBoat site as a direct result of the works we have been and continue to carry out. Furthermore, the site now performs much faster than before, a huge positive for users and also performs well on mobile and tablet devices, which is increasingly important in today’s time-shy online loans market. We are looking forward to the coming months and working with the MoneyBoat team.
The objective of agricultural occupancy conditions (AOC), from a national and local planning perspective, is to protect property in agricultural settings from development and to ensure that agricultural workers are able to secure low-priced accommodation in the locality in which they work. An AOC usually requires that: “the occupation of the property is limited to a person solely or mainly employed, or last employed, in the locality in agriculture…or in forestry (including any dependents of such a person residing with him) or a widow or widower of such a person” In effect this means that the property is subject to a planning condition which requires the occupant of the property to be locally employed in agriculture. Section 336(1) of the Town and County Planning Act 1990 defines ‘agriculture’ broadly to include: 1. Horticulture, fruit growing, seed growing, dairy farming; 2. The breeding and keeping of livestock (including any creature kept for the production of food, wool, skins or fur, or for the purpose of its use in the farming of land); 3. The use of land as grazing land, meadow land, osier land, market gardens and nursery gardens; and 4. The use of land for the woodlands where that use is ancillary to the farming of land for other agricultural purposes. Effect of an Agricultural Occupancy Condition The key effect that an AOC has is upon the value of the property, which is why our teams are so often involved in ensuring they are removed. Although the value of a property subject to an AOC is case specific, in general it will be valued at 10%-40% below the market value of the property unencumbered by the AOC. This is particularly important in transactions which are being funded by mortgage finance, as disclosure of an AOC could result in the lender withdrawing a mortgage offer or the lender’s valuation of the property being adversely affected. It is vital when considering re-financing an agriculturally tied property to ensure that the reduction in value of the property is considered when assessing whether it provides sufficient security for the loan. It is, therefore, crucial in rural property transactions to commission a Local Search and review all planning permissions connected with the property at an early stage to ascertain whether an AOC applies. Complying with an Agricultural Occupancy Condition As with all planning conditions, owners and occupiers of the property are required to comply with them. If an occupier fails to comply with an AOC, the Local Authority may serve an enforcement notice detailing the steps required to comply with the planning condition within a set timeframe. Once this has been served it will apply indefinitely to the property, this means if the notice is initially complied with but there is a subsequent breach, the enforcement notice will be reactivated. Failure to comply is a criminal offence and upon conviction the offender is liable to an unlimited fine. The time limit for enforcement action for a breach of a planning condition is 10 years from the date of the breach. The difficulty in cases of AOCs is that the breach of the condition must be continuous over the period of 10 years. This means that if at any point within, or after, the 10 year period the AOC is complied with, i.e. an agricultural worker occupies the property, then the 10 year time limit on enforcement action will be restarted. Solutions for an Agricultural Occupancy Condition An individual wishing to negate the adverse effects of an AOC in relation to a property has two options; apply to remove the condition under an application pursuant to s 73 of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990 or apply for a Certificate of Lawful Established Use (CLEUD). 1. Application to remove a Planning Condition In order for an application to remove an AOC to succeed, the applicant will need to demonstrate that there is no longer a need for the property to be reserved for an agricultural purpose. Demonstrating this point can usually be achieved by marketing the property unsuccessfully at a price which adequately reflects the decreased value of the property due to the AOC. The period of time that the property will need to be marketed to provide sufficient evidence can vary so relevant enquiries should be made to the local planning authority, but in general a six month period is usually sufficient. However, there is a risk that a genuine offer is received which makes it more difficult to argue that there is no longer a need for such a dwelling in the locality. 2. Certificate of Lawful Established Use A CLEUD establishes that an existing use is lawful and therefore prevents enforcement action from the local planning authority. If an AOC has been breached continuously for at least 10 years then the occupier may apply for a CLEUD. The application must contain sufficient evidence to demonstrate that the breach has been continuous over a period of 10 years working back from the date of the application. This evidence can take the form of statutory declarations of previous occupiers, letters of employers of confirming previous occupier’s employment or employment contracts. It is important to note that if the AOC is complied with after the CLEUD is obtained, it can no longer be relied upon, and the AOC would come back into force again. For this reason, it is preferable to apply to remove the AOC to prevent any risk that the AOC will be revived upon future compliance. Furthermore, even if a CLEUD is successfully obtained, it does not remove the AOC from the property so a planning application to vary or remove the condition will need to be made. If your property is subject to an agricultural occupancy condition and you need assistance or if you have any questions on anything covered in this article, please do not hesitate to contact our Property Disputes, Planning or Agriculture teams on 01603 610911. Please note, the content of this article is for general information only and does not constitute legal advice. Specific legal advice should be taken in any particular circumstance.
Most businesses want repeat custom. OK, for some like funeral services it probably doesn’t really happen, however, generally a business will want to deal with the same customer several times. For this to happen a business needs to have delivered what the customer expected to even stand a chance of a second sale. Let’s assume that has happened – what then? Keeping your brand front of mind with great display campaigns, making sure you are visible in search and being generally active in a market will all help, but sometimes you need to take direct action to keep a customer loyal – especially if the competition is keen. By asking for permission from customers to keep in touch (keep the GDPR rules in mind here, folks) any business can build lists of interested, active and relevant people to re-market themselves to. How many customers do you deal with on a weekly basis? If you can engage just one-third of them and send them super-interesting, exciting and useful content that makes them love your brand, you stand a better chance of getting them to buy again. Repeat customers are valuable – social media, email and direct marketing are just a few ways you can keep in touch. What is crucial here is the content. Don’t just send waffle or sales bumph: people have seen it too often and it doesn’t work. Invest time and effort (and if need be money) in generating really useful, engaging content for your customers. Send useful how-to videos, send stories giving advice and inspiration, send humour and insight, send something quirky and different but don’t just send offers… 10% off the thing I just bought isn’t going to make me like you, let alone buy from you again! We know how to use this kind of customer re-marketing, and we have some very smart people who can create this kind of loyalty-driving content and even help deliver it to your market. If you are interested in finding out how, have a look on our website: the email marketing to turn contacts into customers page is a good place to start.
Our client, Auerbach & Steele are a leading luxury optical and eyewear store based in London. It was very important that every aspect of their website design and their search engine rankings reflected their luxury brand.
In order to achieve what we wanted for Auerbach & Steele, we had to make sure we fixed all website errors and provided optimised meta-data and images. In more detail, here is how we helped Auerbach & Steele with their SEO and website.
Meta-data
One of the main focuses when aiming to boost the performance of a website on Google or Bing is to make sure that the meta-date is optimised and written well. We analysed the current meta-data and identified where it was missing. Then, we updated it to make it more SEO friendly with the current Google algorithm in mind.
Meta-data consists of meta-titles and meta-descriptions which should all feature target keywords such as bespoke glasses and boutique glasses, and also alt-text should be present on each image used on the website so that Google can read them. Carefully constructed and well written meta data can quite literally be the difference from ranking on the first couple of pages on google and on the last few or just lost somewhere in the middle. Google will prioritise pages dependant on optimisation, relevance to the search and how well written it is.
Website clean up
Like with all of our clients, we conducted a full clean-up of their website to make sure it was optimised and all errors were removed. A site clean-up involves identifying the errors and broken links and simply redirecting them to a page that works.
Having broken links and crawl errors present can seriously affect the speed and the user experience of the website, since the user may not be able to find where they want to go and give up. Furthermore, Google favours a website which is considered clean and ideally not showing errors to their users.
Adjusting to the new algorithm update
Google will regularly introduce new algorithm updates to continue to clean out the web search results and ensure that the most authoritative and useful sites are ranking. The most recent update was introduced in early August 2018 and the key points including making sure the mobile version of the site is readable and easy to use and ensuring good site speed to aim the user experience.
We have rigorously tested the Auerbach site to ensure that every page works on mobile effectively and have used a range of techniques to ensure that the site speed is effective. Using Google’s Pagespeed Insights Tool, they provide suggestions so you can stay on top of speed including image compression, browser caching, js compression and more.
We are delighted to see Auerbach and Steele ranking in position 1 and 2 for all their main keywords in the Chelsea and Kensington area. We continue to work on more competitive terms such as bespoke glasses, luxury glasses and boutique glasses and expect these to rank on page 1 within 3 to 6 months.
Here at Green Farm Coffee, we get a lot of people through our doors just starting up a coffee business, be it a cafe, mobile coffee shop or catering. More and more people are lacking the important barista skills that are essential to success in the market. You can offer all the trendy new fads, and the latest fair trade, green, eco-friendly and all around good to the planet coffee but if your barista skills are not up to scratch then you’ll be shooting yourself in the foot every time you hand over a barely there latte or overpowering mocha.
We run a full barista program here at Green Farm Coffee, to ensure that everyone understands not only the importance of good barista skills but also where coffee comes from and the roasting process. Through our time of being a base for barista training in Norwich, we have discovered also that even well-established businesses need a refresh and hone in on their skills.
Fully trained and confident baristas ensure the smooth running of the establishment and can transform customers visit from an everyday one to something special. Every cup of coffee is important, it’s what we stand by. Having your staff take this feeling on board too and really put their soul into coffee. If you have a friendly good barista experience you are more likely to return there for your daily coffee.
You may be completely underutilizing your staffs’ skills, and improving the quality of your drinks will ensure your ingredients work a lot harder too towards success.
Long queues with well-trained baristas will not phase them, as they will have the confidence behind them to whizz through each drink and still produce the best quality.
Training on the traditional espresso machine staff use daily can easily be done, or we invite you into our HQ where you can also see the roasting process. Adding another level of knowledge to your skills.
Our training includes everything from coffee production, espresso styles, milk texturing, latte art and troubleshooting.
You may have seen our work with The Feed in Norwich, an amazing charity who help vulnerable people gain skills and training in the food industry and help them get back into work, houses and better lifestyles.
We have been working with them to offer trainees days at our head office to learn about coffee, how to be a barista and tonnes of skills they can take away with them for future employment. Our training is always well received, and we have a fantastic time delivering and giving them the resources they need to succeed in their next steps in training.
Skills and training is so important, this could help yourself and your business stand out from the crowd of coffee shops.
Offering perfect and skilled barista coffee each and every time.
The 10th of October 2017 is World Mental Health Day, a time to promote good mental health for all and reduce the stigma associated with mental health conditions. The focus this year is on managing mental health in the workplace.
Mental Health conditions affects 1 in 6 adults in the workplace
Mental health is everyone’s business. 1 in 4 adults will be currently experiencing a common mental health condition. 1 in 6 of us will be experiencing this in the workplace. Whether we feel comfortable talking about it or not, stress, anxiety and depression is something that none of us are immune to, so let’s start to talk about it.
The cost of poor mental health to individuals and businesses is substantial. Mental illness affects people’s lives. It can interfere with our ability to maintain good relationships, carry out normal day to day tasks and affects our performance at work and our overall enjoyment in life.
Mental Health in the UK and the cost to business
The OECD estimates the cost of mental health to the UK economy to be £70 billion per year, equating to 4.5% of GDP. Mental ill health, alongside muscular skeletal problems are the leading causes of sickness absence in the UK and mental illness is on the increase. 15.2 million days of sickness absence in 2013 were caused by everyday conditions such as stress anxiety or depression – a dramatic increase from 11.8 million days in 2010. Mental ill health costs on average £1035 per employee, costing UK employers £26 billion each year (OECD, 2014). Presenteeism (the practice of being at work despite illness, injury, anxiety often resulting in reduced productivity) from mental ill health alone costs the UK economy £15.1 billion per year, almost twice the business cost of actual absence from work (Centre for Mental Health). One-quarter of employees have considered resigning due to stress and a further one in ten has done so (Mind, 2015).
The statistics are pretty compelling, but the majority of businesses do not focus on managing mental health in the workplace or see it as a business priority. Why is this? There will be many reasons for this, such as perceived time and cost pressures, although perhaps this could be challenged in view of the cost of absenteeism and presenteeism. A significant factor in reality is likely to be fear and stigma associated with mental health issues. In a survey carried out by MIND (2014) 69% of individuals feel there is a stigma around mental health and 54% fear colleagues would judge them for having mental ill health.
Looking after your business assets – your employees
We have a long way to go to break down the stigma associated with mental health and employers can play a vital role in this. Employees are often seen as the most vital asset within a business, therefore it makes sense to look after employees and by talking about and creating a working environment that supports good mental health employers can play a vital role in reducing discrimination and stigma associated with mental illness.
A useful starting point for businesses is to access good information. Business in the Community (BITC) is a useful resource as well as Mind and the Mental Health Foundation. The BITC 2015 report, Mental Health: We’re Ready to Talk – One year on, shows the quick pace at which business Champion companies had started to promote mental wellbeing within their organisations. The Mental Health Foundations guide on Managing Mental Health in the Workplace is also a good read in my opinion and looks at strategies to safeguard good mental health, how to address problems before they become severe and how to support employees when issues do emerge. The guide recommends that companies seek the help of outside agencies who offer specialist support to employees who are struggling in or out of work due to poor mental health.
Accessing specialist Mental Health services in Norfolk
At Feel Well Therapy we recognise that employers need to access specialist services that provide the right type of help for their employees. We specialise in providing Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) which is recommended by NICE (National institute for Clinical Effectiveness) as an effective therapy for treating stress, anxiety disorders (including GAD, panic disorder, OCD and PTSD) and depression and Eye Movement Desensitisation Therapy (EMDR) for the treatment of PTSD.
Helping individuals to achieve good mental health is our business. Based in south Norfolk, we provide services to individuals, business, and insurers and feedback from our clients shows that 100% of those surveyed would recommend us to friends and family.
Whether you are an individual seeking private therapy, or a company looking to access specialist therapy services to improve the mental health of your employees then please contact us via our website at www.feelwelltherapy.co.uk or contact Michelle Webster Clinical Lead and Founder of Feel Well therapy at [email protected] or call 07957 350396
Until quite recently, starting a business of almost any nature meant having to account for and arrange high-cost expenses and overheads which without, the business would simply not be able to take off in the first place. This was likely to include business premises, stationary, computers and office equipment and much more. More recently, the business owner may have had to remortgage a property or consider a second mortgage to fund these costs.
However, nowadays, it is entirely possible and feasible to start up a business purely online; massively reducing the overheads and start-up costs incurred from the outset. It is important though that the most important aspects of the business are accounted for and taken care of first as there are various considerations to be made when starting a business up purely online.
The Nature of the Business
The first thing you should consider is whether or not your business will be able to survive being totally based online. Some businesses, for example many retailers, need business premises in order to store their stock before purchase and delivery. Hence, whilst a business that sells goods online without retail premises will not need a ‘shop,’ it will need storage facilities to store the goods.
Therefore, the business owner will need to account for the renting or leasing of those premises that are needed. There will however, be savings made compared to a ‘traditional’ retail business as the running costs of a warehouse or other storage facility are likely to be considerably less than those required for retail premises.
Your Website
Being based online, by its very nature requires a website to enter the online world of business. When planning and creating a website there are a number of things to consider to make sure that your website reflects the values of the business and offers something appealing and useful to prospective customers. Therefore, consider the following:
Type of Website – You should consider whether the website going to be used as an e-commerce website, where customers can make purchases online and whether the website will securely accept payments. If this is the case, you will need to invest in a secure card payment provider such as PayPal or otherwise. Alternatively, the site may be used as brochure site that showcases your work and promotes contact by customers. In such cases, you may be able to design and build the website yourself.
Build of the Website – There are many different platforms upon which you may build the website. This includes the likes of Drupal, SquareSpace and WordPress, three of the most popular content management systems (CMS). When picking which CMS to use for your site, you should consider which is better for each type of website. WordPress very often works out as the most cost effective as well as the most customisable and functional.
Marketing your Website Online – You will need to market your website to the online world in order to be discovered and for the website to generate leads, interest and business. There are various different online marketing channels that incur different costs, but all of which are likely to drive traffic and customers to your website. These include:
Pay-per-Click
Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)
Social Media Marketing
Email Marketing
It is important to note that some businesses, for example those targeting much older demographics, are likely to see only limited success via social media marketing, with older audiences possessing a lesser presence on social media channels than younger audiences.
Website speed and responsiveness are factors which are increasingly important for all websites across the world. There are many reasons why it is important to have a site that functions and responds properly and according to users’ needs and requirements. Whether your website sells clothes, payroll software or simply a service such as consultancy, engaging users and search engine ‘spiders,’ which crawl [read and analyse] all websites is fundamental to your online and sometimes even offline success.
There are various factors to consider with regards to the speed of your website and understanding this could be the difference between your business ‘breaking even’ and potentially thriving and becoming an unrivalled success.
Speeding Things Up
How you address site speed issues will very much depend on which content management system (CMS) your website uses, who, how and where your website is hosted and whether or not you have the knowledge and knowhow to implement the various actions needed to speed things up.
Content Management System (CMS) – Different CMS’ allow for different permissions for everyday users when it comes to sitespeed. For example, WordPress allows you to do more than Wix or SquareSpace, but with the right development input, Drupal can thrive too. Consider speaking to a website developer before choosing your CMS
Hosting – Your website needs to ‘live’ somewhere and where it lives will be a strong factor for how it performs. Many websites find themselves hosted on huge and commercial platforms which work well for very small sites such as personal blogs but which are not suitable for businesses’ needs and websites. Consider researching dedicated server space which could help propel your website’s speed to new heights. Not having to share server space with other websites will mean that your site can make use of all of the server space it needs for things like images, videos and content.
Page Loading and Rendering – As well as where the site loads from (in the case of hosting), how and the precise nature of how individual pages on your site load is an equally important factor. Many websites retain render blocking on their sites which often slow things down. Render blocking is only really needed for sites that do not have much server space. this blocking of page rendering means that pages will loan slower and in layers to allow for the server to respond in cases of slower hosting. However, removing this script [code] makes for a much faster page loading experience
Error Pages – All websites will, at one time or another play host to 404 response pages. These are pages which are effectively dead ends; links point to their URL, but there is no page existing with the URL label in question. Easily fixed using 301 redirects and implemented via your website’s htacess file, consider redirecting the broken links [URLs] to their closest equivalent page. By pages not being flagged as ‘broken,’ users will enjoy a much better experience on your site and will be able to naturally follow a user journey, rather than reaching unfortunate ‘dead ends’
Pensions are the main way most people will pay for themselves once they’ve retired from the working world. You save for decades to build up a nice pot of money to keep you going.
Now, imagine the money you accumulated during all those years of saving disappears. How will you support yourself as a retiree?
Pension scams are on the rise in the UK. Fraudsters are scamming victims out of tens of thousands of pounds of their hard-earned savings.
How to know if you are being scammed
Scammers are now creating convincing websites and an online presence which means it might not be immediately obvious that they are up to no good. There are, however, a number of signs that you can look out for to keep you safe from the scammers.
Here are 5 questions to ask yourself if you are suspicious:
1 – Is the company regulated by the FCA?
The easiest way to tell if you are in contact with a genuine financial company or a scammer is to check whether the caller is registered with the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). These companies are regulated so are able to offer sound, professional financial advice. You can find a list of all registered companies on the FCA website. This should always be the first place you check.
Most pensions companies will not directly contact you about your pension without your permission. The best thing to do if you get a cold call about your pension is hang up. If you get emailed or texted, ignore the messages.
The government is currently working on a scheme that will ban pension cold calls. So soon it should be easier to spot when someone is attempting to scam you.
2 – Are you under the age of 55?
Be wary of people encouraging you to release cash from your pension before the age of 55. This can be called ‘pension liberation’ or a ‘pension loan’.
Should you take money from your pension pot before the age of 55 you could face a large tax bill of 55%, plus other charges, on what you withdraw. This is definitely not in your best interests!
3 – Do you feel pressured or is it a limited time only offer?
A reputable pension adviser will never pressure you into making a big decision there and then. So, if you are feeling under pressure to commit to an offer you should just walk away.
4 – Does it sound too good to be true?
If the answer is yes, then it usually is! Be suspicious of anyone who is offering high/guaranteed investment returns or ways of avoiding paying tax.
Once you have transferred your money across to the scammer it is unlikely that you will get it back. If you use a firm who is not FCA registered you will not have access to the Financial Ombudsman Service or Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FCSC).
If you think you have a scammer on your hands, check the FCA’s Scamsmart website where you’ll find information on any known scams and firms on their warning list. Always report a scam if you come across one. Help others avoid becoming a victim.
It is always recommended to get independent advice when you are considering doing anything with your pension. Get that advice from a reputable, FCA authorised company and you will be in safe hands.