Member Blog

Tudor Lodge have been approached by challenging bookmaker Dickie Bet, to help launch their website and SEO in time for the world cup in Russia. The young company sees the world cup as a great opportunity to kickstart their business, capitalising on the public’s interest for football and sports betting.

Our brief was to help drive as much traffic to the site as possible and ultimately help faciliate betting for world cup odds. The idea is that Dickie Bet can build up a customer base of players, which over time creates a ‘player book’ and leads to residual income as more and more users bet over time. Whilst sports betting has been the initial focus, the client plans to bring in other products too over time including slot games, online arcade games, bingo and more.

Website Design

During the design stages of the website, we emphasized the importance of making the site friendly for mobile, in fact treating the site as ‘mobile first’ as per Google’s pending SEO algorithm. Plus, we consider that a lot of users in this space may be watching a game live on TV and only have access to their mobile.

To make the site user friendly, we include features such as keeping the key content above the fold, reducing CSS to increase loading times and using accelerated mobile pages (AMP) to make the pages load faster (cutting out html when it loads).

Use of Content

Landing pages – we created dozens of landing pages specifically for the world cup, to targets hundreds of potential phrases. This includes a landing page for every team nation that is competing as well as outright winner odds and golden boot winners – whilst also promoting things like GambleAware.

Blog content – through the blog section, we wanted to write about very niche topics that would instantly rank well on Google and help get the site some traction. This meant looking at what things people might be searching for and also referring to some very specific moments in world cup history – where people could find information and a useful resource. Some of the most successful content topics to date have been whether or not a specific player will be selected for their home nation, with some ineresting upsets along the way.

Ongoing Search Engine Optimisation 

To maintain strong SEO going forward, we have continued to optimise meta-data, images and internal links across the website. We have ensured the site can be fully indexed with a strong sitemap and no broken pages or crawl errors. We continue our outreach programme to achieve high quality links, using a combination of sports-specific websites and also news sites to build up the trust and authority. 

We are delighted to be working with Tiger Bridging, a specialist financier of asset-backed lending against commercial and residential property. The Mayfair company approached Tudor Lodge to help their company website rank higher on Google for terms relating to bridging finance and development finance, following the success with Bridging Loan Hub.

The Approach

The Tiger Bridging site had already engaged with SEO practices in the past and our first job was to clear up any potential issues. We started by optimising the meta-titles and descriptions of over 100 pages on the website, creating target landing pages for specific keywords. Ideally, to rank well on Google, you need one page to target a specific keyword, and avoid having dozens of pages all talking about the same thing.

To achieve this, we focused our attention on the homepage which is commonly known as the CEO of your SEO. This is where we have focused all our link building efforts and internal links towards, targeting terms such as bridging finance and development finance.

We needed to remove any broken links, crawl errors and response codes from the site – to ensure that the website can be indexed effectively by Google. To access this information, we use brokenlinkchecker.com, Google’s Search Console and Screaming Frog (tool).

Keywords

We tried to find some quick wins for the client and this involved creating landing pages and optimising for very niche products, such as offices, petrol garages, student accommodation, bedsits and more. Whilst these key terms are less competitive, we saw an opportunity to grab them early on and show quick results and enquiries for the client.

Whilst we optimise for more competitive keywords like bridging finance, loans and development finance – we appreciate that this may take several months for Google to pick us up and we expect to see strong results by month 3 and 6. 

Building Up Authority

To further build up the site in the bridging industry, we have been working on various PR opportunities and trying to acquire links for the company’s website. Fortunately, the bridging and property industry has a lot of local publications who are always happy to conduct interviews and talk about recent deals – and we have leveraged this for our client. Elsewhere we are looking for links from specialist property and finance websites to build up the trust signals for Google.

Monday. Perhaps the most disdained day of the week. Following, as it does, the much admired weekend. Even worse when that weekend is combined with annual leave, which it would have been last week for many during half term holidays. Monday. A day held in such low esteem that there was even a song dedicated to its negative connotations in the eighties. At the heart of the problem, it would appear, is work.

So how do employers counter this negativity and deliver the much desired #mondaymotivation? At the heart of motivation is engagement. Engaged, satisfied people will be motivated to deliver – more, often. And there are some key elements to building engagement.

It is important to have a strong culture with clearly defined strategic aims and values which connect people together in shared goals and principles. Similarly, leaders who set the standards, who role model behaviours, and who personally engage – for example, through managing by walking around – will have a profound and positive impact on employees.

Managers are key too. Indeed, we are often told that employees leave a manager rather than the organisation. Managers need to empower and motivate in their behaviours and approach but to do this, they need  to have clarity about the expectations of them, clear procedures, and access to development and training to help them to manage effectively.  After all, management is a unique skill set in itself.

Employees need to feel that they matter, not least through a genuine commitment to wellbeing. Through a dynamic and targeted wellbeing programme, through access to practical solutions, through role modelling leaders and supportive managers, employees will feel empowered to protect and maintain their wellbeing.

At the heart of engagement is communication. And one size doesn’t fit all when it comes to keeping staff informed; employers need to take a targeted approach to communicating with their people, and make it easy for staff to access information. Crucially, communication must be accessible in both language and design.

Staff too need to be given choice and influence through opportunities to feedback. And these opportunities should be meaningful, with positive action – where possible – taken on the basis of employee ideas and suggestions. There should be a continuous feedback loop across the organisation.

And recognition is vital. Not just through reward schemes and access to benefits but through leadership and management behaviours. Recognition and celebration of success should be culturally ingrained, as well as a positive and supportive approach to continuous improvement.

The work itself should be meaningful. It should have purpose and scope. Care should be taken when it comes to job design to ensure that roles offer opportunity, clarity, and fulfilment. And by aligning each role with the overall organisational purpose and aims, every employee – whatever role they do – will see that they make a tangible difference.

Development is important. People need to feel that they are able to grow and so employers need to give access to learning in its many forms. There is opportunity too to give employees the ability to identify their own development needs and access the training to meet these needs. People with ownership in this way will feel more motivated.

Of course, this isn’t just about motivating people on Monday. And after all, Monday may not be the desired start of the week for everyone. With a changing workforce and increased desire for flexibility, employees are looking for different working patterns. For employers, this means thinking about what they can provide to make it easier for people to work for them – for example, agile working, condensed hours, part-time hours, or homeworking. Employers need to think about the desired work outcomes and how these can be practically and flexibly achieved; it certainly seems that 9-5, Monday – Friday is not work that works for everyone.

Because employers who empower engaged, inspired, productive and motivated people will see business success.

The latest results from the Ministry of Justice show that since the abolition of employment tribunal fees last summer, there has been a sharp rise in the number of employment tribunal claims, with the latest figures showing that single claims have almost doubled and multiple claims have increased by 467%. 

With the increased threat of claims by disgruntled employees, many employers use settlement agreements when employment relationships turn sour.  Settlement agreements are a useful means of resolving ongoing workplace disputes and/or facilitating an employee’s departure from the business – they certainly minimise the risk of legal action from the employee – but are settlement agreements being used effectively or excessively by employers?

A settlement agreement is a legally binding contract under which the employee waives the right to bring a claim against their employer in return for a financial payment.  Settlement agreements are voluntary and usually reached through the process of negotiation.  In most circumstances, the parties can speak freely in the negotiation without fear of anything said being used in evidence against them should the negotiations break down, but this is not always the case. 

Now more than ever, employers should ensure that they are following a proper process when conducting settlement agreement negotiations.  Understanding the circumstances in which settlement discussions can be admissible as evidence in employment tribunal cases can assist employers in avoiding the risk of this eventuality occurring.

The ultimate goal for both parties in settlement negotiations is to secure the best settlement package possible.  Money is often a key driver, with the parties often assuming that payments made pursuant to a settlement agreement fall within the £30,000 tax exemption and can be paid tax free.  This is not always correct. 

Changes to the taxation regime earlier this year mean that some payments and benefits made in connection with the termination of an employee’s employment will be chargeable to income tax and national insurance contributions and will not benefit from the £30,000 threshold.  It is therefore imperative that employers understand the correct tax treatment of each termination payment to avoid liability for tax further down the road and to manage employee’s expectations as to the amount of money they will actually receive when they leave.

Nicola Butterworth and James Mee, employment law and tax law experts from Howes Percival LLP will be discussing the legal and practical issues surrounding the use of settlement agreements including strategies for settlement negotiations and key changes to the tax treatment of termination payment in the forthcoming Norfolk Chamber of Commerce HR Forum which is taking place on Wednesday 20 June 2018 at Holiday Inn, Norwich. Click here to find out more and book your place.

We talk to hundreds of local business owners every day; we hear their concerns, understand their challenges and share in their successes.

One common conversation is that, in the digital age, advertising is complicated and it can be hard to see any return on investment.

Some concerning research shows that 46% of business owners don’t actually know if their marketing strategies work – and that is a worrying point.

The ad industry has tried to solve this challenge by creating lots of new products.

The small business owner can now buy an ad in the newspaper, on a website, a newsletter and even an app for almost every newspaper that exists… but how does the business owner understand if any of it works?

It’s as if the ad industry has become so inured to the idea of technology, tools and twiddly buttons that we have somewhat forgotten what ‘advertising’ and ‘marketing’ are for.

The fact that businesses want customers, and advertising that delivers measurable effect is a challenge that our industry is now coming to terms with.

Advertising is now at a sort of crossroads and the advertising industry is starting to take its head from the sand and choosing a direction.

Here at Archant we have launched Local Impact, created to deliver the small business owner insight into the digital and traditional advertising market, advice and support to build a marketing strategy and products and services designed to best enable a business to sell its product or service.

We aim to support the business owners with advice, practical help and products that deliver a measurable effect.

As Local Impact grows I will share what we are doing, how it is working and deliver as much practical advice and help as I can in 350 words.

If any of you have questions or topics that you would like discussed do get in touch. My email is always on and I almost always read it…

Contact Archant Local Impact on 03331 365390, [email protected] or at www.archantlocalimpact.co.uk

There are many learning and development sessions and countless books about teamwork, extolling the virtues of everyone working together. In business, we always want teams to work well but unfortunately this is not always the case.  

One of the best models I have seen for helping talented individuals work together in extraordinary teams is the Five Behaviors of a Cohesive Team ™ which is explained by the New York times best-selling author Patrick Lencioni in his book.  Coupled with the  power of  industry-leading Everything DiSC© workplace assessment tools and classroom delivery sessions, you have a breakthrough programme proven to deliver business results.

The Five Behaviors of a Cohesive Team™ programme helps teams understand how they score on the key components of the Five Behaviors model: Trust, Conflict, Commitment, Accountability, and Results.  Individual teams members will learn about their own personality style and the styles of their team members – based on the Everything DiSC© model – and how their style contributes to the team’s overall success.

A productive, high-functioning team:

• Makes better, faster decisions
• Taps into the skills and opinions of all members
• Avoids wasting time and energy on politics, confusion and destructive conflict
• Avoids wasting time talking about the wrong issues and revisiting the same topic over and over again becuase of a lack of buy-in
• Creates a competitive advantage
• Is more fun to be on!

Are you ready to get started building better teams?   Contact me for more information, quoting Norfolk Chamber to claim your 5% discount:

Mary Aslett

Corporate Growth Consultancy Ltd

[email protected]

01379 308690 or 07931 098 023

We were approached by a company specialising in bad credit to help build up their online presence and ultimately help them rank to the top of Google. The demand for bad credit financial products online is very high, as those looking for funds are keen to borrow and may have to go to several places before finding a lender that accepts them. The options for those with bad credit is offering products with higher interest rates, or security such as lending against an asset or adding a person to guarantee repayment. What our client Payday Bad Credit does is focus on financial products that last 30 to 60 days and aggregates a number of lenders in one place to help customers find the fastest source of finance.

Web Design

Layout: The design had to be responsive on all devices including desktop, mobile and tablet. Mobile was a huge priority for us as we understand this is overtaking desktop users, especially amongst a younger demographic. We opted for a scroll down method which is a very popular technique today, as it mirrors the style of Instagram and Facebook. We incorporate large images of people and subtle things like making the peoples’ eye-line direct towards an application button.

Calls-to-action: It is essential to offer customers the opportunity to make an application in several ways. This includes add numerous apply now buttons across the page, including header, middle and footer. This idea always fits in with Google’s updated algorithm for SEO and the idea of “user intent” which highlights the need to give people places where they can apply or buy things, rather than tonnes of information.

Trust signals: We had to emphasize trust on the website and why it is safe to give your details. We started by adding the site on a secure server to make it https (secure), and this also meets any GDPR requirements. In addition, we added a variety of logos including to the BCCA, FCA and CCTA.

SEO 

Competing in the loans industry comes with a very alternative approach to SEO, especially keeping in line with Google’s specific payday loans algorithm.

Content: We have been working on building up authority for the website, adding around three blog posts a week surrounding information and guides on credit cards, personal loans, credit ratings, debt and more. The idea is to regularly put out content to show that we are proactive and build up the site as a useful resource for adverse credit and consumer finance.

Links: Acquiring links in the loans industry is a careful science. Whilst getting featured on news and press is always ideal, for this specific algorithm, the approach we took involved looking at what links the companies had that ranked top and trying to emulate them, approaching companies for similar links.

The result has been a strong start. Within 2 months, we have reached page 3 and 4 for some key terms and have generated 12 applications. We appreciate that SEO is a long term proposition and may be around 6 months before we reach the dizzy heights of page 1, but this could potentially generating hundreds of applications per day for the client.

It’s been a long time coming, but mercurial Barcelona forward Lionel Messi has finally got what he always wanted. I’m sure when Lionel is looking back on his career, his five Ballons D’Or will pale in comparison to what he achieved last week. It took over seven years, but the European Court of Justice have decided that Lionel Messi should be allowed to register “MESSI” as a European Union Trade Mark. Congratulations Lionel. Well deserved. The basis of the legal challenge was as follows – Lionel Messi appealed after the EU Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO) ruled that MESSI was too similar, visually, orally and conceptually, to “MASSI”, a pre-existing trade mark owned by a Spanish cycling goods company. The Court held that, although MESSI and MASSI sound and look similar, conceptually they were very different. The Court thought that a significant amount of the ‘relevant public’ (consumers of sporting goods) would know who Lionel Messi was and make the link between MESSI and the famous footballer. Therefore, consumers would not confuse the use of MESSI with the continuing use of MASSI on sporting goods and the MESSI trademark could be registered. Is HP distinctive? In another decision, the Court held that Hewlett Packard (a well-known technology company) may trade mark the term “HP”, its initials. In doing so, the Court rejected an application for a declaration of invalidity from Poland-based IT Reseller Senetic. Senetic argued that the HP was descriptive (which is fatal to a trade mark registration). The Court held that a mark will not be descriptive simply because it “consists of one or two letters.” In these circumstances the relevant public could understand HP as a reference to Hewlett and Packard, the names of the company’s founders. Need a break? Distinctive character is a hot topic at the moment. In a recent opinion, the Advocate General to the Court of Justice of the EU (an advisor to the EU’s top Court, whose decisions often guide the Court’s deliberations) said that Nestle ought not to be able to protect the shape of a four fingered Kit-Kat on the basis that they had failed to show that it has (through use) acquired distinctive character. This opinion is not binding, so we await the final ruling of the Court in this matter. If you would like advice on registering a trade mark or managing your existing trade mark portfolio, please contact our intellectual property experts.  If you have already applied to register a trade mark and your application has been opposed, or you believe someone is infringing your intellectual property, please contact myself, Mike or Polly in our Litigation & Dispute Resolution Team. 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 specific circumstance.

Despite opinions from some quarters, the construction industry is necessarily an extremely highly skilled area, with specialists in almost every niche area you can think of. Those skills range from concept, design and planning at the outset of a project, myriad trades and professions during a built, through to maintenance and repair throughout the lifetime of a building. Fortunately, England has moved on from the medieval system of Guilds and Liveries to control the skills in the construction industry, and we now have excellent organisations such as the Construction Industry Training Board (CITB) to provide training. I know some have criticised the organisation in the past (particularly those organisations who have to pay the levy), but anyone who has been through an apprenticeship with their help, gained employment or managed to get a promotion from skills or qualifications obtained from CITB will be very grateful. It was therefore very sad to read about the plan to reduce the workforce of CITB by 900 staff. The Vision 2020: Business Plan 2018-21 shows a reduction in staff from 1,370 currently down to 484 in 2020/2021. With 575 based in Norfolk, in particular at the Bircham Newton (North West Norfolk, between Fakenham and Hunstanton) site, that is going to mean some very sad job losses locally. Its head office will remain there until 2019, but after that is likely to move, possibly to Peterborough.

Our client, My Doctor London, is a private medical clinic which is based in Euston, Central London. Our aim as SEO experts is to provide My Doctor London with the visibility that they deserved as a high-quality medical practitioner. We want to position their brand identity as a leading doctor’s surgery in the centre of London for main terms like ‘doctor London‘ and ‘doctors in Euston’, as well as other, more specific services they offer such as ‘blood testing London’, ‘marathon testing London’, ‘hay fever jabs London’.

The following is what we did to maximize optimisation and user experience on the website to ensure the best results possible.

Full site clean-up – For successful SEO, a website must be optimised from head-to-toe and our first port of call is to conduct a ‘health check’ of the website. This means that the meta-descriptions and meta-titles have to be relevant and include specific keywords for Google to pick up. The idea is to have one page focusing on one main product – for instance, having multiple pages on hayfever jabs would usually cause the site to be demoted on Google due to lack of prioritisation. 

To make sure the site is optimised, all images must feature an alt-text and all links which are broken or show a crawl error must be corrected. This information can be found on Google’s Search Console and it is a simple 301 redirect to the most relevant page which will ensure a smooth SEO transition.

We updated the website’s sitemap, which is a simple file that lists all the pages of the website. Google’s preference is that it is in an XML format so that it is constantly updated and refreshed. The URL of the sitemap can simply be added to Google’s Search Console so that it can be crawled.

Links – Links from reputable, external sources as a form of PR or resource are well received by search engines such as Google to build up trust and authority. In this case, we wanted links to be medical focused to build up their position in the industry. We reached out to different medical journals, news sites and resources and asked them to reference My Doctor London and include a link. Something very topical to write about was having marathon medicals with the recent marathon season in play and this summer will be a good opportunity to write about hayfever jabs and tips to reduce hayfever symptoms.

The results after the first two months have been very positive. We have secured the page one positions we aimed for ‘doctors in london’ and ‘doctors in euston’ – but remain on pages 2 to 5 of Google for all other target keywords. Our work is not done, we need to continue acquiring strong links and bulking up the site with regular guides and useful content to help the website rank effectively.

Our client, Alistage, are a leading indoor and outdoor staging manufacturer and hire company – and have provided stages for huge companies including Channel 4, BBC, MTV and Arsenal Football Club.

Alistage build and design stages for TV shows, music festivals and concerts, as well as sporting events in the UK. One of our aims was to reflect the 35 years of experience that Alistage has in what they do through their website and their search engine rankings. In order to do this, we have given the website a face-lift by redesigning it and building it with search engine optimisation (SEO) in mind. 

Website Clean Up – The clean up or ‘health check’ is commonly the first thing we do when optimising a site for a new client. We made it our mission to update all meta-titles and meta descriptions, making sure each image had an appropriate alt-text and fixing any broken links or crawl errors which may cause the website to fall down the Google rankings. After all, Google favours websites which are deemed clean.

With a lot of products offered by Alistage it was important to determine one key page for each main product and not have any overlap. Once we know which keywords are going to target each page, we can add the keywords into the meta-data, headings and focus any internal links and inbound links with those particular keywords (and anchor text) to help it rank.

Link Building – Succesful SEO requires strong backlinks to a website, as it builds up trust and authority. With our client Alistage, we started to seek out backlinks in the lifestyle and entertainment space and then it is a case of writing useful guides or asking them to feature Alistage products and simply linking back to their website. In addition, we looked at links which had been secured by their competitors (using Majestic SEO tool) and it is a matter of simply emulating this approach. If Google likes particular links, it is logical that you will be rewarded for the same of similar links – provided that they are quality and not on paid listings or directories

The SEO results for Alistage have been extremely positive, securing a page one positiong for ‘hire a stage’ and ‘hire a stage london’ within the first 4 weeks of implementing changes. The next step is to land page one positions for more particular products and keywords including music stages, catwalk stages, tiered platforms and bar systems too.

Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) is a form of digital marketing which is not only fundamental to almost every business’ overall strategy, but which can be applied to almost every business with a website. The art and science of SEO is ensuring there is a fine balance struck between making a website ‘too technical’ and ending up with a website that looks fantastic but which cannot be found by prospective customers.

Whilst no industry is the same, there are those that are a fair bit more specific and which require a greater degree of detail, particularly when it comes to writing the inevitably needed content for the website in question. At Tudor Lodge Consultants, we have a broad range of clients across many industries including loans and finance, property, building and construction and recruitment. One such client whose needs are that extra degree more specific is Interim Partners.

Working with some of the UK’s largest businesses and targeting high level individuals (such as CEOs and executives) for interim roles in companies and organisations, a major challenge has been building a content strategy for the client.

However, the content and digital marketing team at Tudor Lodge have been undertaking SEO best practices with regards to content and this has helped uncover a plethora of content opportunities for Interim Partners. There are several successful practices to help ensure even the most unique sites, offering the most niche services can thrive online.

Content Research – Keep Things Natural

Content is one of the key components of any successful SEO campaign. However, before the content can be written and optimised, the research must be undertaken and must always be thorough. This ensures that the topics written about on the site in question is not too generic. For example, it is easy for a recruitment site to simply write about topics such as ‘what is recruitment’ and ‘benefits of recruitment.’ However, these topics are generic and do not standout to both user and Google.

The research undertaken should uncover natural topics through the medium of questions. For example, in the case of the recruitment website, something akin to ‘how to find a job with a recruiter’ matches questions users would likely ask and therefore favour searches via Google and other search engines.

User Experience – Engage Your Customers

Getting users to the website is the easier part of the process. Once a user is however on the website, the key is engaging and maintaining them. Websites that present a large number of 404 [broken/ dead] pages see their users drop off at faster rates to those that do not. Additionally, the speed of the site is arguably one of the most important factors today, with users not willing to wait for longer than 1-2 seconds for a page to load and present itself to them and this is particularly important on mobile and tablet devices; which tend to be used ‘on the go.’

Another site speed factor that is given a lot of weight is how the site’s pages load. This refers to the nature of the loading. Websites with negative user experiences will often loan in ‘layers,’ known as ‘rendering.’ This is negative for SEO and user experience as it means the page does not necessarily load its most important content first as well as that which is above the fold, atop the page.

Technical Factors – Remaining Up to Date

The ‘technical’ SEO factors such as meta data, links, crawl errors and fundamental landing pages certainly retain their significance but they are strongly complemented and supplemented by the various factors. It is therefore important to not focus too much  on any single factor, rather to view SEO as a puzzle with each ‘ranking factors’ another piece to make up the fuller picture.