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Chelmsford Financial Management are a firm of indepenent financial advisers based in Chelmsford Essex. When we were first engaged with the client they had a static website, recently overhauled, but which was not optimised well for ranking in search engines such as Google. Over a three phase process their website is now Joomla based with a much more manageable back-end and an attractive front-end design which also includes live news feeds from the BBC, FT.com and other financial news sources.

Overall the website is now capable of delivering on the core business objective that it should be more than just a brochure site. The website needs to pay for itself in these troubled times by attracting new client business and enabling online transactions with the Fidelity Funds Network which will bring in its own revenue stream.

Through discussion with CFM, GoldFigure attacked the re-work of this website in three phases, each with it's own specfic objectives and measures for return on investment:

1. SEO optimisation of the original website
2. Transfer of the optimised content to a new Joomla based content managed site
3. Additions of links to the Fidelity Funds Network to introduce new potential revenue streams

SEO optimisation

The original website, put together by an independent designer, contained a number of issues which resulted in the inability of the website to rank anywhere on Google. GoldFigure was first engaged to assess the website and point out specific weaknesses and make recommendations on their redress. This report included observations such as:

• Use of a single frame 'redirection' from the website domain (www.cfm-advisers.co.uk) to a free hosting area on BT servers. This effectively meant that the search engine version of the entire website was limited to "This website uses frames, get a better browser". This practice has been commonly used to mask the use of free web hosting but fails at set 1 of the unwritten 'How to build a website that works!' manual.
• One page title used for all pages meant that a key SEO element was wasted.
• Keyword stuffing with keywords that actually diminished the value of the real content. Each page of the website used exactly the same list of over 2000 key words / phrases, most of which were nothing to do with independent financial advice. With so many keywords the true page content constituted less than 5% of the code.
• Use of complex tables for layout / navigation meant that the resulting content was fragmented and over complicated.

The points raised were subsequently addressed at a fixed cost and the site was re-submitted to Google where after just a few days it ranked #1 for the search term "Chelmsford Financial Advisers" but also ranked in the first few pages of results for less specific terms such as "independent financial advice essex".

Construction of a Joomla based website

After the success of re-working the original code into a more SEO friendly format we moved into phase 2 where we migrated the content into a new Joomla based site with a completely new design. The new template is now closely aligned to other company livery and literature. The move to Joomla meant that a completely non-technical member of staff at CFM is now able to manage all elements of the website content without having to be concerned about formatting or any other logistical issues.

Joomla extensions such as sh404SEF and the Gavick Photoslide help to ensure that good SEO practice is maintained automatically whilst the website looks effortlessly crisp and professional.

Joomla allows the syndication of financial news feeds from sources such as the BBC and FT.com. CFM's customers benefit from having a portal through which they have access to far more relevant information than the previous brochure-as-a-website content.