Google says don’t disable your site, even during temporary closure

Chris Grant March 27, 2020 0 Comments

Businesses are continuing to feel the fallout from the coronavirus pandemic, with some forced to temporarily shut down. To help business owners preserve their visibility in Google search, Google has published recommendations on how to properly limit your site’s functionality if you need to pause operations. Avoid disabling your whole site. Disabling your site, even for just a few days, can...

“Online retail is still open and encouraged” Gov Advice 23/03/2020

Chris Grant March 24, 2020 0 Comments

On 23rd March the British Government stepped up measures to prevent the spread of coronavirus and save lives, announcing that non-essential premises must now close. In the documents released by the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government following the Prime Ministers televised address to the nation, we would like to highlight the following, which will be of interest to some of our...

How to use Zoom for video conferencing & video meetings

Chris Grant March 21, 2020 0 Comments

Zoom has earned itself a reputation as a reliable, easy-to-use tool that can handle meetings involving up to 100 people. And that's just the free version. If you need to host particularly large online meetings, there are paid-for business packages available that dramatically increases this limit, and also adds new features Add a webcam to your desktop PC, or turn to your webcam-enabled laptop,...

Google My Business removes features due to Coronavirus

Chris Grant March 20, 2020 0 Comments

Google is temporarily removing some features from Google My Business as a result of limitations caused by the COVID-19 situation. “During the unprecedented COVID-19 situation, we are taking steps to protect the health of our team members and reduce the need for people to come into our offices. As a result, there may be some temporary limitations and delays in support as we prioritize critical...

In times of uncertainty, SEO is one thing you shouldn’t cut back on

Andy Smart March 20, 2020 0 Comments

Like many people I'm sure, we at O'Brien Media are tuning in to the daily Coronavirus update from the Prime Minister. Yesterday (29th March), there was a cautious sense of optimism in tone, suggesting confidence that the country can "turn the tide" in the next twelve weeks. Twelve weeks is a long time and brings with it a great deal of uncertainty. What is certain, though, is businesses must...

COVID-19 (Coronavirus) General Advice for Small Businesses

Chris Grant March 18, 2020 0 Comments

Welcome to our COVID-19 (Coronavirus) general information page. We have created this page as a sort of hub for information we've found on various websites that we found useful. So we thought we'd share it with you, just in case it comes in handy. We'll be updating this page at least twice a day for the moment so check back frequently and do feel free to contribute in the comments. UK Government...

Our top 10 actionable SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) tips

SEO and digital trading optimisation is now more important than ever

Chris Grant March 17, 2020 0 Comments

You may be surprised to find out that around 73% of online activity is related to searches for local businesses. If you follow Google guidelines to get a decent amount of traffic on your site, you know one thing for sure and that is SEO changes from time to time. Right? Since Google rolled out Pigeon update in July 2014, Penguin 4.0 during 2016 and more recent updates throughout 2019, local...

Coronavirus: What we’re doing (updated daily)

Chris Grant March 11, 2020 0 Comments

Our plan in brief With Coronavirus (COVID-19) now at the pandemic stage we're implementing additional measures to ensure we can continue to serve our customers during the coming weeks and months. We are taking steps to limit the risk of infection in our Swindon office and encouraging team members based outside of Swindon to do the same. Our distributed team means that team members already work...

Coronavirus Action Plan

Chris Grant March 10, 2020 0 Comments

The current coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak, which began in December 2019, presents a significant challenge for the entire world. O’Brien Media is working rigorously to the guidelines provided by the Department of Health & Social Care to minimise the risk of infection. Health & Safety The health and safety of staff and customers will always be our number one priority. We have put...

Coronavirus (COVID-19)