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Covid-19 Update – October 26th 2021

Due to the large increases in Covid-19 cases in the Southwest, and Swindon in particular, we’ve made the difficult decision to limit meetings to our Swindon, Pembroke Centre, office to essential meetings only for the time being – with a review in 6 weeks. Deliveries requiring entrance to the office will still be permitted, as will visits by maintenance staff who we will ask to use hand...
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We’re here to help you & your business through lockdown

With the first day of this new national lockdown (5th November 2020) upon us, I wanted to let you know that, as during the previous lockdown, we will be here to help you and your business, club, or other organisation through these difficult times. If you haven’t already updated your website to provide information to your customers, members, or visitors then we can help you do this – either as...
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Coronavirus: It’s up to all of us to keep each other safe

It’s up to all of us to know what we must do to keep ourselves and others safe in the weeks and months ahead. The medical advice is clear: you must self-isolate if you have coronavirus symptoms or live in the same household as somebody who does. The main symptoms of coronavirus are: High temperature – this means you feel hot to touch on your chest or back (you do not need to measure your...
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Swindon & Wiltshire LEP Covid-19 Recovery Grants Scheme

Every small business has had new challenges to deal with this year. All of us are busy trying to come to terms with this new reality, and it's easy to miss opportunities while you're tending to your business. We recently became aware of a programme run by the Swindon & Wiltshire Local Enterprise Economic Partnership and their Economic Plan. Catchy, I know. The Swindon & Wiltshire LEP is...
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Ideas to help keep your business running during the coronavirus crisis

If you run a salon, shop or any business that requires feet through the door and staff on hand, it can be difficult to know what to do for the best - the government is telling people to avoid people, pubs and the office, but can you afford to shut up shop? The situation is ever-changing, but to some degree the current social distancing and self-isolation measures look set to be in place for the...
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In times of uncertainty, SEO is one thing you shouldn’t cut back on

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...
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COVID-19 (Coronavirus) General Advice for Small Businesses

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...
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Our top 10 actionable SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) tips

SEO and digital trading optimisation is now more important than ever

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...
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Coronavirus: What we’re doing (updated daily)

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...
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Coronavirus Action Plan

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...
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