Waikato Business News August/September 2020

More documents

Recommendations

Info

14 WAIKATO BUSINESS NEWS August/September 2020 Waste fund open A fund aimed at helping the community plan and deliver projects that reduce waste in Waipā is now open. Waipā District Council’s Waste Minimisation Community Fund offers $40,000 to individuals, groups and businesses that encourage, promote or organise waste minimisation activities. Waste minimisation officer Sally Fraser said the council is looking for projects with an emphasis on innovative solutions for eliminating or reducing waste in the Waipā district. Applications close on 14 September and can be downloaded from www. waipadc.govt.nz/wastefund. TGH to build police base A proposed new police base in Cambridge will mark the first project under the terms of a new partnership between Tainui Group Holdings (TGH) and New Zealand Police. At 416 sqm, the base, on the site of the old police house at the corner of Victoria/Fort St in Cambridge, will accommodate up to 18 police officers. The proposed design will incorporate many elements reflecting the local environment and community, including visual elements of significance to Waikato-Tainui and use of the region’s Hinuera stonework. The proposal is for TGH to construct and own the building and the whenua, while police will invest in specific tenant fitout. TGH will lease the building to police for an initial period of 20 years. Climate funding for Waikato Waikato Regional Council has secured $23.8 million from the Government for 10 flood protection and catchment projects, as part of $103.7 million in funding for climate resilience projects across New Zealand to help kickstart recovery from Covid-19. The projects are expected to create more than 200 short and long-term jobs over their lifetime. Council chair Russ Rimmington said flood protection was one of the top priorities for the council among its bids for shovel ready funding because its schemes safeguard 3000sq km of high value foodproducing land and protect services and infrastructure such as water supply, power, telecommunications, and road and rail networks. Te Wānanga o Aotearoa – Kākiri Māori business accelerator celebrate 2020 cohort with virtual showcase Kaupapa Māori business accelerator Kākiri has celebrated the second cohort of Māori-led teams leading innovative and technology-focused start-ups in Aotearoa. For 12 weeks until early August, Kōkiri accelerated nine Māori-led start-ups, ranging from R&D ventures developing solar 3D tracking and soil moisture monitoring technology to digital platforms making it easier for tradies to provide quotes and helping whānau to the right lawyer. When New Zealand went into lockdown due to Covid-19, Kōkiri adapted the programme delivery to be completely online. The newlook programme launched in May with wānanga (classes) hosted via video call. “The last couple of months have been a rollercoaster ride for our cohort, delivery partners and sponsors. Through all of the different challenges, we have come together to deliver a first-of-its-kind digital kaupapa Māori business accelerator programme,” says Aubrey Te Kanawa, Kōkiri programme director. Transitioning from a residential format to 100 percent digital delivery was a mammoth task, but the change has enhanced the programme experience for the founders, mentors and staff. “Our teams have used the latest collaboration tools such as virtual whiteboards and been exposed to wider networking opportunities,” says Te Kanawa. The cohort have connected with international guest speakers and investors that are still living under lockdown conditions due to the Covid-19 pandemic. “The opportunity to virtually connect with over 20 additional guest speakers, experts and investors has significantly benefited the founders and teams,” says Te Kanawa. Callaghan Innovation sees innovation as a crucial pathway to success for Māori. “Bold Māori innovators and ‘dreamers’ will transform New Zealand’s economy for the better,” says Aroha Armstrong, Callaghan Innovation’s Māori economy group manager. “As well as helping start-ups nail a balance between profit, people and place, Kōkiri’s focus on technology this year is exactly the high-value shift the Māori and wider economy needs right now.” Kōkiri hosted a virtual Showcase event to celebrate the cohort that completed the 2020 business acceleration programme. The Kōkiri 2020 teams are: • Barrett Dynamics is delivering affordable and efficient solar power to communities through solar energy 3D tracking technology. • KWOTIMATION makes quoting for construction and building work easy by streamlining the pricing process. • Little Mouse Co. are founders of the digital language app, Lingogo, that shares indigenous stories to help revitalise endangered languages. • Nau Mai Rā is New Zealand’s first Māori power company that reduces energy costs while sharing their profits with whānau to support their marae or other Māori initiatives. • RH Innovation are helping farmers apply the right amounts of nitrogen or water for optimal farm performance to reduce costs and environmental impact. • Stay Native is a social enterprise that helps indigenous whānau and hapori (communities) to build, promote and share authentic cultural experiences with travellers. • StreetLevelOne are a digital advertising agency transforming storefront windows into multitouch marketing platforms. • The Event Co. is the industry leader for event management innovation, simplifying event operations to save customers time and money. • Ture.co.nz are delivering better access to legal services for individuals and making it easier to find the right lawyer with their online marketplace. About Kōkiri 2020 Kōkiri is a Māori business acceleration programme, based on kaupapa Māori values, focused on accelerating early stage start-ups who have bold ambitions and are impact positive. Kōkiri supports Māori-led start-ups that have high-growth potential to develop their business capability and wellbeing, through tailored experiential based learning, supported by mentors, coaches, and experts in a safe and culturally responsive learning environment. Kōkiri 2020 is funded by Te Wānanga o Aotearoa and Callaghan Innovation and is sponsored by MYOB, Spark, FIN- DEX, AJ Park, Hillfarrance, Poutama Trust and ATEED - Auckland Tourism, Events and Economic Development. Sam Williams 027 446 3544 samw@lodge.co.nz Leasing and Sales Dean Abraham 027 333 3822 deana@lodge.co.nz Leasing and Sales Nigel Corkill 021938 605 nigelc@lodge.co.nz Leasing and Sales Vaughan Heslop 021 400 515 vaughanh@lodge.co.nz Leasing and Sales, Multi-unit Sales Rob Owens 021 843 087 robo@lodge.co.nz Body Corporate Management www.lodgecommercial.co.nz WBN Commercial Ad 95mm x 256mm.indd 1 23/07/2020 12:31:53 PM
WAIKATO BUSINESS NEWS August/September 2020 15 How to Rank No 1 on Google When people search online for your products or services, you want your website to be found easily. But what does it take to rank No 1 in Google? I’ve lost count of the number of times a business owner or general manager has asked for my advice regarding, “How do we get our website higher in Google?” Or sometimes even more directly, “We launched a new site. Why isn’t it ranked #1?” We all know that Google is where people turn to find answers to … well, everything! According to Statcounter.com, 94.7 percent of all search engine searches in NZ are done through Google. The nearest competitor is Bing with 3.21 percent! When people search for products or services related to your business, you want your website to be found easily. To get your website to rank well the most important thing to remember is that it won’t happen by accident. You want to rank No 1 … and so do all of your competitors! The organic rankings are a competition that you don’t win without considerable effort. Firstly, it’s important to clarify what “ranking” means. When you run a search on Google, the search results page usually starts with three to four ads. These look almost identical to the organic results but have the word “Ad” beside them. These results are not the rankings but are Google Ads (previous called “AdWords”). You need to be running paid Google Ads campaigns to get your ads to show there. Underneath the ads, if Google thinks you were searching for local results, Google is likely to show the “Google Snack Pack” – which shows a map and three results of local businesses near you. After that snack pack the first organic results are shown – this is what “rankings” refers to. The organic results are the webpages that Google determines are the most important for the phrase that was searched for. So, what does it take to get ranked No 1 in the organic results? The process of getting a website ranked higher is called “Search Engine Optimisation”, or “SEO” for short. At its most basic level SEO can be split into two sections: On-Page Optimisation and Off-Page Optimisation. On-Page Optimisation is based on the content and code on your website. It forms the foundation of your rankings and in my estimate accounts for 30-50 percent of your search engine ranking. However, without this foundation being done well, the other work that accounts for 50-70 percent of your ranking won’t count for much. The foundation needs to be built first. Sometimes when a new SEO client starts with us, we find that the words they want to rank for aren’t even mentioned on their site! A very simple check you can do when you want to rank for a phrase is to check the content and see how many times that phrase, or close variants, are mentioned on your page. Next, check if those keywords are included in your H1 (your main heading – which should be in an tag in the code). After that there are over 30 other checks that should be made for your On-Page Optimisation for each page. These include hidden code, such as schema, user-experience tests such as page-loading speed and mobile responsiveness, internal linking throughout your site and many more. Reviewing the basic content can be done DIY, but after that it make sense to engage an SEO specialist. The other 50-70 percent of your results comes from Off- Page Optimisation, which is mostly other websites linking to your site. An easy way to think of it is that each website that links to your site is a vote. The more votes your site gets, the more important it is and the more likely it is to rank well. If an important site (one with lots of “votes”) links to your site, then its votes count for more than a non-important site linking to you. And if a site has strong content that relates to your products or services and links to you, then that counts more than a non-related site linking to you. This complexity is just scraping the surface THE DIGITAL WORLD > BY JOSH MOORE Josh Moore runs Duoplus, a Hamilton-based digital marketing agency that helps businesses get better results through highly measurable online marketing. www.duoplus.nz of how Google works. Building this complex and powerful process of identifying which sites are most important for billions of different search phrases, is why Google is so powerful. Overall, getting ranked takes consistent effort over time. It can take many months to build up rankings to compete for highly competitive keywords, but it can be well worth it. We’ve seen the investment pay off strongly for our SEO clients with the phone ringing constantly and work coming in the door because they’re found in the top spots of the search results. It’s a great feeling having your website ranked well, but just remember, it doesn’t happen by accident. Your recruitment asset in Waikato. For more than 30 years, we’ve been providing recruitment services to organisations across the region and ‘positioning excellence’ throughout Waikato. We work closely with our clients to ensure we find the right candidate for their company and position. We’re also able to tailor our various recruitment services to suit your situation. So if you are looking to hire, or would like to discuss your recruitment needs, get in touch with our team. Recruit with excellence. Recruit with Asset. 07 839 3685 | www.assetrec.co.nz
Page 1 and 2: AUGUST/SEPTEMBER VOLUME 28: ISSUE 8
Page 3 and 4: From the editor I am delighted this
Page 5 and 6: WAIKATO BUSINESS NEWS August/Septem
Page 11 and 12: Artist’s impression of the new ce
Page 13: WAIKATO BUSINESS NEWS August/Septem
Page 17 and 18: Come in Cambridge: We spent time th
Page 19 and 20: CAMBRIDGE 19 WAIKATO BUSINESS NEWS
Page 21 and 22: CAMBRIDGE WAIKATO BUSINESS NEWS Aug
Page 27 and 28: LAKEWOOD CAMBRIDGE Lakewood makes i
Page 29 and 30: LAKEWOOD CAMBRIDGE WAIKATO BUSINESS
Page 37 and 38: CONFERENCE, EVENTS AND VENUES WAIKA

Waikato Business News August/September 2020

Create successful ePaper yourself

Delete template?

Save as template?