From b1bbd85dbba15b400c170c146690a7e96513d60b Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Claude Date: Tue, 5 May 2026 11:46:43 +0000 Subject: [PATCH 01/11] Add EEAT credentials document compiled from authentic site content Reference document of verifiable trust signals (Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness) for use in marketing copy. Sourced from non-AI portions of the existing site: FAQs, testimonials, sidebar copy, footer, privacy notice, equipment listings, package specs, and older location pages. AI-generated marketing paragraphs (those carrying ChatGPT export artifacts) were excluded. https://claude.ai/code/session_01WhGXZskvCs5L8GjSveZKFw --- EEAT-CREDENTIALS.md | 198 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ 1 file changed, 198 insertions(+) create mode 100644 EEAT-CREDENTIALS.md diff --git a/EEAT-CREDENTIALS.md b/EEAT-CREDENTIALS.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..4f82717 --- /dev/null +++ b/EEAT-CREDENTIALS.md @@ -0,0 +1,198 @@ +# Complete Marquees — EEAT Credentials + +A working reference of every verifiable trust signal for Complete Marquees, drawn from the existing site. Compiled to demonstrate why customers should choose Complete Marquees over an unestablished or back-garden marquee hirer. + +Sources are kept to authentic, long-standing site copy (FAQs, testimonials, sidebar copy, footer, privacy notice, equipment listings, package specs, older location pages). AI-generated marketing paragraphs (those carrying ChatGPT export artifacts such as `data-start`/`data-section-id`, "elevate", "unforgettable", checkmark emojis and em-dashes) have been ignored. + +--- + +## Why This Matters + +Marquee hire is a high-trust purchase. Customers are handing over deposits months in advance for a structure they cannot inspect, that has to arrive on a fixed day, withstand weather, and be safe around their guests. The market is full of one-van operators who fold between seasons — losing deposits, missing dates, or putting up unsafe structures. Every credential below answers the unspoken question: *"How do I know you'll actually turn up, do it properly, and still be here next year?"* + +--- + +## E — Experience + +### Years in the trade +- **Trading since 2002.** That is 24 years of continuous operation as of 2026. The "since 2002" date is repeated consistently across the about page, party-marquees page, equipment-marquee-hire page, and every individual location page (Aldershot, Salisbury, Southampton, Hampshire, etc.). +- Most "back garden" marquee hirers do not survive a single bad summer; Complete Marquees has traded through the 2008 recession, COVID-era event cancellations, and the post-2020 wedding backlog. + +### Volume of events delivered +- **"Hundreds of events"** delivered across Hampshire, Surrey and West Sussex (party-marquees page, equipment-marquee-hire page, every location page). This is a self-stated figure that has been on the site since the original 2016 build — it is not a recent marketing flourish. +- Multi-marquee linked installations have been delivered repeatedly — the gallery shows 2× and 3× linked configurations of the 28ft × 38ft Capri. + +### Range of event types actually handled +Real events the site references (not generic copy): +- **A royal wedding** — the sidebar CTA on every page reads: *"From small gatherings to a royal wedding, we have the right marquee whatever the event."* This is by far the strongest single experience signal on the site and should be foregrounded. +- **Children's themed parties** — Lucy's testimonial mentions a "pirates ahoy" themed party that Complete Marquees delivered. +- Weddings, birthdays, christenings, anniversaries, garden parties, family reunions, fun days, corporate events, fetes, charity fundraisers, festivals. +- Capacity range demonstrably handled: **25 guests up to 400 guests** (own copy, marquee-cards include). + +### Geographic experience +A back-garden hirer typically only serves their immediate village. Complete Marquees has dedicated, individually-written pages for **27 separate towns and counties** they have delivered into: + +Aldershot, Andover, Basingstoke, Bournemouth, Camberley, Chessington, Chichester, Cobham, Crawley, Dorking, Epsom, Esher, Fareham, Godalming, Guildford, Hampshire, Leatherhead, Oxshott, Portsmouth, Reading, Salisbury, Southampton, Surrey, Sutton, Winchester, Woking, Wokingham. + +That is real route knowledge across Hampshire, Surrey, West Sussex, Berkshire and Wiltshire — built up over two decades of jobs. + +--- + +## E — Expertise + +### Specialist product, not a generic tent +Complete Marquees is a **Capri marquee specialist** — the distinctive multi-peaked, archway-style tent. The FAQ page describes it precisely: + +> "A far cry from the traditional rectangles and squares with 4 walls and an apex ceiling, a Capri marquee is what you need when you want to make a real statement. Most easily recognised by their distinctive multi-peaked ceiling, equipped with matting and archway lighting and work perfectly as an open space or enclosed by PVC sidings." + +This is product expertise, not stock language. They also stock **Pagoda (Chinese-hat-style) marquees**, which can be used standalone or as an entrance to a Capri. + +### Hard technical numbers they own +Detail a back-garden hirer cannot quote off the top of their head: +- Capri arches: **7–8 ft head height under the arches** +- Capri centre pole: **approximately 16 ft high** +- Four standard Capri sizes: **20'×20', 20'×30', 28'×38', 28'×58'** +- Pagoda: **6m × 6m** +- Capacity per Capri size (seated/standing): 20×20 → 20/25; 20×30 → 48/60; 28×38 → 80/100; 28×58 → 120/150 +- Standard package dance floor: **12ft × 12ft** (with larger sizes available on request) +- Side walls supplied as standard: **half clear, half solid PVC** — fitted on, off, or any mix on the day at the customer's choice + +### Modular linking capability +Capri marquees can be **linked together using a linking kit** to cover larger or irregular outdoor areas — a 100-guest setup uses 2× 28×38 linked into a 28×80 footprint; a 150-guest setup uses 3× 28×38 linked. This is a specialist capability most small operators don't own the kit for. + +### Equipment depth (full price-listed inventory) +Every item is publicly priced on the equipment page — a transparency signal in itself: +- **Tables:** plastic patio (4–6 seats £4), 5ft round (8–10 seats £7.50), 4ft round (6–8 seats £6), 6ft trestles (6–8 seats £7.50) +- **Chairs:** white bistro chairs £2.50 +- **Flooring:** Capri matting in four bespoke sizes — 20×20 £100, 20×30 £155, 28×38 £185, 28×58 £355 +- **Dance floor:** £225 (12×12, larger on request) +- **Lighting:** uplighters £95/marquee (white or coloured), archway pea-lights £250/marquee, ivy garlands £250/marquee, combined ivy + lighting archway £450/marquee +- Stage hire available for live bands + +The fact every item has its own line in stock and a published price proves it's all owned in-house, not subcontracted. + +### Site-knowledge expertise (the things only experienced installers know) +The FAQ and contact pages publish honest constraints upfront — these are operational lessons learned the hard way: +- **Marquees must go on flat grass** with no trees, bushes or hedges running through the marquee site; the customer must check this before booking. (Stated in CAPS — "MUST" — on the FAQ.) +- **Capri marquees cannot be connected to buildings** due to their shape. A novice would over-promise; Complete Marquees says no upfront. +- **Side walls** are an on-the-day choice — full, off, or mixed — to suit the weather and event. +- **Flooring is optional in summer** depending on grass condition. They will tell you when you don't need it. But flooring is required if a wooden dance floor is going down (because it protects the dance floor). +- **Customer decoration rules:** "string no sticky tape and staples", and **no crepe paper** because *"this does stain the marquee."* That is real, lived experience — the kind of detail nobody on a first season would think to mention. +- **Waterproof, but not in stormy weather** — honest stated weather limits, not a blanket "weatherproof!" claim. + +### Sister-business expertise +Complete Marquees runs **Monster Event Hire** as a sister site, offering hundreds of additional event activities (inflatables, photo booths, etc.). They aren't just a tent — they're an event-hire business that has expanded scope. + +--- + +## A — Authoritativeness + +### Legal entity, properly registered +- **Registered UK company, number 1090110**, registered in England (privacy notice). +- **Registered office: Southleigh Farm, Havant, Hampshire, PO9 2NX** (privacy notice). +- **Trading address: 27 The Oakwood Centre, Downley Road, Havant, Hampshire, PO9 2NP** (meta.json / site schema). + +These two distinct, verifiable UK postal addresses are something a back-garden hirer simply cannot match — most don't have a registered company at all. + +### Real, geographic phone number +- **02392 717 925** — a Portsmouth/Havant geographic landline (not a mobile, not a 0800/0345 redirect). It rings at the actual business. +- Listed in JSON-LD organization schema, on the contact page, in the footer of every page, and in the prominent mobile "Give Us A Call" CTA. + +### Long-running brand presence +- **Facebook:** facebook.com/completemarquees — long-established business page. +- **Twitter/X:** @completemarquee — established account. +- **Domain:** completemarquees.co.uk — original site dates published from 2016 in the schema (and the trading history goes back to 2002). + +### Identifiable owner +- The owner is named in real customer correspondence: **"Dear Joanne"** opens Jane's testimonial. A back-garden operator hides behind a brand; Complete Marquees has a named, accountable principal that customers write personal letters to. + +### Genuine local geographic authority +- Operating from a fixed base at **The Oakwood Centre in Havant**, with a registered farm address at **Southleigh Farm**, gives them a logistics depot a 30-mile-radius operator could never run from a residential garden. +- The 27 location pages are not generic spun copy — the older ones (Salisbury, Southampton) are written in the original, slightly informal house voice and predate any AI rewrite, demonstrating they were genuinely producing town-by-town content years before the recent refresh. + +### Independent third-party trust footprints +- Indexed/verified on **Google, Bing and Yandex** — site has verification meta tags from all three (`google-site-verification`, `msvalidate.01`, `yandex-verification`). +- Schema.org Organization, Service, Product, Review and Offer markup throughout — search engines treat the site as a trusted business entity, not just a brochure. + +--- + +## T — Trustworthiness + +### Genuine, attributable customer testimonials +Four named testimonials with content that could only come from real customers: +- **Judith** — *"…your team were polite on set up and take down…"* +- **Jane** — addresses the owner directly: *"Dear Joanne… the wonderful teams that you sent with the marquee for my party last weekend… Please pass on my thanks — the marquee looked incredible."* +- **Lucy** — references a specific themed event: *"The guys you sent to set-up were really friendly and efficient. The pirates ahoy was a complete success!"* +- **Johan** — *"thank you very much for letting us hire the Capri Marquee! It was so much fun and everyone had a good time!"* + +These are verbatim quotes with names — not paraphrased star ratings. Each is wrapped in schema.org/Review markup so they're machine-verifiable. + +### Transparent, published pricing +- **Every marquee size** has a "from" price on the public sizes & prices page (£295 to £650). +- **Every package** has its full inclusion list and a fixed "from" price (£390 to £3,100). +- **Every individual hire item** (tables, chairs, lighting, ivy garlands, dance floor, matting) has its own price card. +- **VAT is explicitly disclosed** as exclusive on every price quoted, footer-wide. +- **Hire term is stated:** prices based on **Friday delivery, Sunday collection**. + +A hirer with nothing to hide publishes their prices. A hirer whose price changes depending on the postcode they hear on the phone, doesn't. + +### Honest constraints stated up front +The FAQ section reads more like an operations manual than a sales pitch. The site openly tells customers: +- The marquee must go on flat grass with no obstructions. +- Capris cannot connect to buildings. +- They are waterproof but not stormproof. +- You must check your site fits before booking. +- Decorations: string only, no tape, no staples, no crepe paper. + +A dishonest competitor promises everything and disappoints; Complete Marquees publishes the rules so the booking is right first time. + +### Predictable contactability +- **Published opening hours:** Mon–Fri 8am–9pm, weekends 8am–8pm. That's an ~85-hour-week service window. Try getting a back-garden operator to answer their phone on a Sunday morning in August. +- **Email:** completemarquee@gmail.com (consistent across the site). +- **Phone:** 02392 717 925 (consistent across the site). + +### Proper data handling +- A full, **GDPR-compliant privacy notice** is published, dated 2018-05-22 — drafted before the May 2018 GDPR deadline, demonstrating timely compliance, not a retrofit. +- It explicitly cites the company number, the registered office address, the six lawful bases for processing, the customer's data rights, and a working contact route to withdraw consent. +- **Payment data is never taken or stored by Complete Marquees** — stated explicitly in the privacy notice. + +This level of legal hygiene is virtually unheard of among one-person marquee operations. + +### Operational accountability +- Setup, delivery, installation, breakdown and collection are all done by Complete Marquees' own team — repeatedly emphasised in customer testimonials ("your team were polite on set up and take down", "the wonderful teams that you sent", "the guys you sent to set-up were really friendly and efficient"). The testimonials themselves verify the in-house team claim. +- Stated values across the site (in original, non-AI copy): **"service, reliability and time keeping"** and *"we can ensure your marquee arrives at the appointed time and is ready in plenty of time for the event."* + +--- + +## Summary: The "Back Garden Hirer" Comparison + +| Trust signal | Back-garden hirer | Complete Marquees | +|---|---|---| +| Years trading | 1–3 typically | **24 (since 2002)** | +| Companies House registered | Rarely | **Yes — company 1090110** | +| Registered office address | No | **Southleigh Farm, Havant, PO9 2NX** | +| Trading premises | Domestic garage/garden | **The Oakwood Centre, Havant** | +| Geographic landline | Mobile only | **02392 717 925** | +| Published opening hours | None | **Mon–Fri 8am–9pm, weekends 8am–8pm** | +| Published per-item prices | Quote-only | **Every item, publicly listed** | +| VAT status disclosed | Vague | **Explicit: prices ex-VAT** | +| GDPR-compliant privacy notice | No | **Yes, dated May 2018** | +| Schema.org markup for SEO trust | No | **Organization, Service, Review, Product, Offer** | +| Search-engine verifications | None | **Google, Bing, Yandex** | +| Linkable Capri capability | One tent | **4 sizes + linking kits + Pagoda** | +| Equipment depth | Borrowed/hired in | **Full owned inventory with prices** | +| Real named testimonials | Stock | **Four, with schema.org markup** | +| Royal wedding handled | No | **Yes — referenced in own copy** | +| Capacity range demonstrated | 20–60 typical | **25 to 400 guests** | +| Geographic coverage proven | One village | **27 named towns/counties** | +| Sister business | No | **Monster Event Hire** | + +--- + +## Notes for Use + +- These are the trust signals to **lean on in marketing copy, sales calls, and proposal documents**. Most are already on the site but buried under AI marketing paragraphs that dilute them. +- The strongest single line for the homepage hero is some variation of: *"Family-run since 2002 — from small garden parties to a royal wedding, we've covered hundreds of events across Hampshire, Surrey and West Sussex."* +- The **company number, registered office, and 24-year trading history** are the three facts most worth surfacing prominently — they instantly disqualify a comparison with a back-garden operator. +- The **"Dear Joanne"** testimonial is more persuasive than any 5-star aggregate; consider featuring it in full. +- The honest FAQ constraints (flat grass, no crepe paper, weatherproof-but-not-stormproof) are an *asset* — they read as expertise, not weakness, and should not be sanitised away. From 287087c0298728390d1d01aa596b0d3ddd0058e1 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Claude Date: Tue, 5 May 2026 11:48:10 +0000 Subject: [PATCH 02/11] Exclude EEAT credentials doc from site build Add Eleventy frontmatter (permalink: false, eleventyExcludeFromCollections: true) so the working reference document doesn't generate a public page or appear in collections when the site is built. https://claude.ai/code/session_01WhGXZskvCs5L8GjSveZKFw --- EEAT-CREDENTIALS.md | 5 +++++ 1 file changed, 5 insertions(+) diff --git a/EEAT-CREDENTIALS.md b/EEAT-CREDENTIALS.md index 4f82717..5e39912 100644 --- a/EEAT-CREDENTIALS.md +++ b/EEAT-CREDENTIALS.md @@ -1,3 +1,8 @@ +--- +permalink: false +eleventyExcludeFromCollections: true +--- + # Complete Marquees — EEAT Credentials A working reference of every verifiable trust signal for Complete Marquees, drawn from the existing site. Compiled to demonstrate why customers should choose Complete Marquees over an unestablished or back-garden marquee hirer. From baa90e748f7a449d4d28a779b184643755dc9732 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Claude Date: Tue, 5 May 2026 13:53:39 +0000 Subject: [PATCH 03/11] Rewrite EEAT doc with industry context and honest gap analysis MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit Restructure the credentials doc around what is actually verifiable, what sits in line with industry baselines (MUTA membership, BS EN 13782, £5m+ public liability, fire-retardancy certs), and what is missing. Key corrections: - Royal wedding line clarified: Complete Marquees supplied a marquee for a private party connected to a royal wedding, not the royal wedding itself. Sidebar copy reworded recommendations added. - "Hundreds of events" reframed as the company's own self-stated figure, not externally verified. - "24 years of continuous operation" softened to "24 years on the trading record" with continuity self-stated. - "GDPR-compliant" softened to "publishes a GDPR-style privacy notice". - "Company number 1090110" hedged as site-stated, with a Companies House cross-check recommended. - Capri ownership reframed as commodity, not differentiating. - Family-run + 20 years repositioned as mid-pack for serious operators, not exceptional. - Pricing comparison added: at £995 for an 80-guest package vs the £2,000-£3,600 wedding-tier benchmark, Complete Marquees sits in the mid-market value tier. - Added explicit gap list: no advertised MUTA membership, no published PL insurance figure, no BS EN 13782 / fire-retardancy / SafeContractor documentation, no published terms of business, no site-visit policy. - Added a three-tier market comparison table. - Added eleven concrete recommendations to harden credentials. https://claude.ai/code/session_01WhGXZskvCs5L8GjSveZKFw --- EEAT-CREDENTIALS.md | 314 ++++++++++++++++++++++---------------------- 1 file changed, 156 insertions(+), 158 deletions(-) diff --git a/EEAT-CREDENTIALS.md b/EEAT-CREDENTIALS.md index 5e39912..9d39483 100644 --- a/EEAT-CREDENTIALS.md +++ b/EEAT-CREDENTIALS.md @@ -3,201 +3,199 @@ permalink: false eleventyExcludeFromCollections: true --- -# Complete Marquees — EEAT Credentials +# Complete Marquees — EEAT Credentials (sober draft) -A working reference of every verifiable trust signal for Complete Marquees, drawn from the existing site. Compiled to demonstrate why customers should choose Complete Marquees over an unestablished or back-garden marquee hirer. +A working reference of what Complete Marquees can verifiably claim, what it cannot, and where it sits in the UK marquee-hire market. Compiled from authentic site copy (FAQs, testimonials, sidebar copy, footer, privacy notice, equipment listings, package specs, older un-rewritten location pages) and from independent industry research. AI-generated marketing paragraphs on the site (those carrying ChatGPT export artifacts such as `data-start`/`data-section-id`/`data-message-model-slug="gpt-5-3"`, checkmark emojis, and the typical "elevate / unforgettable / seamless" register) have been ignored. -Sources are kept to authentic, long-standing site copy (FAQs, testimonials, sidebar copy, footer, privacy notice, equipment listings, package specs, older location pages). AI-generated marketing paragraphs (those carrying ChatGPT export artifacts such as `data-start`/`data-section-id`, "elevate", "unforgettable", checkmark emojis and em-dashes) have been ignored. +This is a sober document, not a sales pitch. It exists to ground future marketing in facts that survive scrutiny and to flag the gaps that need closing before pitching against MUTA-member competition. --- -## Why This Matters +## 1. The market Complete Marquees actually operates in -Marquee hire is a high-trust purchase. Customers are handing over deposits months in advance for a structure they cannot inspect, that has to arrive on a fixed day, withstand weather, and be safe around their guests. The market is full of one-van operators who fold between seasons — losing deposits, missing dates, or putting up unsafe structures. Every credential below answers the unspoken question: *"How do I know you'll actually turn up, do it properly, and still be here next year?"* +Useful context for honestly placing the business: ---- - -## E — Experience - -### Years in the trade -- **Trading since 2002.** That is 24 years of continuous operation as of 2026. The "since 2002" date is repeated consistently across the about page, party-marquees page, equipment-marquee-hire page, and every individual location page (Aldershot, Salisbury, Southampton, Hampshire, etc.). -- Most "back garden" marquee hirers do not survive a single bad summer; Complete Marquees has traded through the 2008 recession, COVID-era event cancellations, and the post-2020 wedding backlog. - -### Volume of events delivered -- **"Hundreds of events"** delivered across Hampshire, Surrey and West Sussex (party-marquees page, equipment-marquee-hire page, every location page). This is a self-stated figure that has been on the site since the original 2016 build — it is not a recent marketing flourish. -- Multi-marquee linked installations have been delivered repeatedly — the gallery shows 2× and 3× linked configurations of the 28ft × 38ft Capri. - -### Range of event types actually handled -Real events the site references (not generic copy): -- **A royal wedding** — the sidebar CTA on every page reads: *"From small gatherings to a royal wedding, we have the right marquee whatever the event."* This is by far the strongest single experience signal on the site and should be foregrounded. -- **Children's themed parties** — Lucy's testimonial mentions a "pirates ahoy" themed party that Complete Marquees delivered. -- Weddings, birthdays, christenings, anniversaries, garden parties, family reunions, fun days, corporate events, fetes, charity fundraisers, festivals. -- Capacity range demonstrably handled: **25 guests up to 400 guests** (own copy, marquee-cards include). - -### Geographic experience -A back-garden hirer typically only serves their immediate village. Complete Marquees has dedicated, individually-written pages for **27 separate towns and counties** they have delivered into: - -Aldershot, Andover, Basingstoke, Bournemouth, Camberley, Chessington, Chichester, Cobham, Crawley, Dorking, Epsom, Esher, Fareham, Godalming, Guildford, Hampshire, Leatherhead, Oxshott, Portsmouth, Reading, Salisbury, Southampton, Surrey, Sutton, Winchester, Woking, Wokingham. - -That is real route knowledge across Hampshire, Surrey, West Sussex, Berkshire and Wiltshire — built up over two decades of jobs. +- The recognised UK trade body is **MUTA (Made-Up Textiles Association)** — ~190 members, code of practice, audited insurance, audited working practices. MUTA membership is the single most important external trust signal in the sector. +- The relevant technical standard is **BS EN 13782:2015** "Temporary structure — Tents — Safety", which kicks in at **>50 m² ground area**. By that threshold, three of Complete Marquees' four Capri sizes (20'×30' ≈ 56 m², 28'×38' ≈ 99 m², 28'×58' ≈ 151 m²) are within scope, as are all linked configurations. +- **Public liability insurance** baseline expected by venues, councils and most wedding planners: **£5 m minimum**, £10 m for corporate / festival / council work. +- Fire-retardancy of marquee fabric is normally evidenced by **BS 7837** or **DIN 4102 B1** certification. +- "Family-run, 20+ years" is **common, not exceptional**, among regional MUTA-tier operators. Lewis Marquees claims 180 years; Monaco Marquees, Alresford Marquees and several others cite 20-30+. Twenty-four years of trading is mid-pack for serious operators. +- Owning **Capri marquees is now commodity** — Eureka, Curlew, Custom Covers and others supply the UK trade, and most regional hirers stock them. It is not a differentiator. +- **Fair price benchmark, southern England, 80 guests, 2024-2026:** £25-£45 per dinner guest, i.e. roughly **£2,000-£3,600** for a complete package. Complete Marquees' 80-guest package is **£995 + VAT (£1,194)** — they sit at the **budget / family-celebration end** of the market, well below the MUTA-tier wedding hirers. That positioning is the honest one and worth owning rather than trying to fight the wedding-luxury operators on their turf. --- -## E — Expertise - -### Specialist product, not a generic tent -Complete Marquees is a **Capri marquee specialist** — the distinctive multi-peaked, archway-style tent. The FAQ page describes it precisely: +## 2. What is verifiable today + +Sourced from non-AI, long-standing site copy unless noted. + +### Trading record +- Site states **trading since 2002**, repeated consistently across the about page, party-marquees, equipment-marquee-hire and every individual location page. As of 2026 that is 24 years on the trading record. Continuity over that period is self-stated — there is no external annual-accounts trail in this audit. +- The site self-states **"hundreds of events"** delivered. This is the company's own number, not externally verified. +- The gallery shows **multi-marquee linked installations** (2× and 3× linked 28'×38' Capris), evidencing capability beyond a single-tent operation. + +### Legal entity (claimed; verify on Companies House) +- Privacy notice states **"company number 1090110 registered in England, United Kingdom"**. Anyone using this document for a pitch should cross-check the live Companies House entry — number, status, accounts filing history, persons with significant control. +- Privacy notice states **registered office: Southleigh Farm, Havant, Hampshire, PO9 2NX**. +- Site schema / meta states **trading address: 27 The Oakwood Centre, Downley Road, Havant, Hampshire, PO9 2NP** — a separate, distinct address. + +### Contact and presence +- Geographic Portsmouth/Havant landline **02392 717 925**, listed in JSON-LD organization schema and on every page. Not a mobile, not a redirect number. +- Email **completemarquee@gmail.com** — a free Gmail address, not a domain-aligned mailbox. Worth flagging: a `@completemarquees.co.uk` mailbox would be a stronger signal at very little cost. +- Owner is named in customer correspondence — **Jane's testimonial opens "Dear Joanne"**, identifying an accountable principal by first name. +- **Facebook** page facebook.com/completemarquees and **Twitter/X** @completemarquee both established (vintage of accounts not independently verified here). +- Google, Bing and Yandex webmaster verification meta tags present — confirms the site has been registered in those search consoles, no more than that. + +### Geographic coverage +27 individually-named locations have dedicated pages: Aldershot, Andover, Basingstoke, Bournemouth, Camberley, Chessington, Chichester, Cobham, Crawley, Dorking, Epsom, Esher, Fareham, Godalming, Guildford, Hampshire, Leatherhead, Oxshott, Portsmouth, Reading, Salisbury, Southampton, Surrey, Sutton, Winchester, Woking, Wokingham. The older pages (e.g. Salisbury, Southampton) are written in the original house voice rather than recent AI copy — evidence the location strategy predates the rewrite. + +### Product specifics (real domain knowledge) +The FAQ and equipment pages contain operational detail no first-season hirer would know: +- Capri arches **7-8 ft head height**, centre pole **~16 ft**. +- Four standard Capri sizes: **20'×20', 20'×30', 28'×38', 28'×58'** + Pagoda **6 m × 6 m**. +- **Linking kit** to combine multiple Capris. +- Side walls supplied as standard, **half clear / half solid PVC**, fitted on / off / mixed at the customer's choice on the day. +- Honest weather statement: **"waterproof, but not in stormy weather"** — not a blanket "weatherproof". +- Site rules: **must be flat grass, no trees / bushes / hedges through the footprint** — published in CAPS. +- Build limitation: **Capris cannot connect to buildings** due to their shape — stated upfront. +- Decoration rules: **string only, no sticky tape, no staples, and no crepe paper because it stains the fabric**. This last detail in particular is hard-won experience. +- Flooring is optional in summer depending on grass condition; required if a wooden dance floor goes down. + +### Inventory with public unit pricing +Every item on the equipment page has a published price. This is meaningfully more transparent than most competitors: +- Tables: plastic patio £4, 5 ft round £7.50, 4 ft round £6, 6 ft trestle £7.50. +- Chairs: white bistro £2.50. +- Capri matting: £100 / £155 / £185 / £355 by marquee size. +- Dance floor 12'×12' £225 (larger on request). +- Lighting: uplighters £95/marquee, archway pea-lights £250/marquee, ivy garlands £250/marquee, ivy + lighting combined £450/marquee. +- Stage hire available. + +### Pricing and terms +- Marquee from-prices: £295 (20×20) to £650 (28×58). +- Five published packages: £390 (25 standing), £785 (40 seated), £995 (80 seated), £2,100 (100 seated, dance floor), £3,100 (150 seated, dance floor). +- **VAT explicitly disclosed as exclusive** in the footer of every page. +- **Hire term explicitly stated:** Friday delivery, Sunday collection. + +### Customer testimonials +Four named, schema.org/Review-marked testimonials with content that would be hard to fabricate: +- Judith — *"…your team were polite on set up and take down…"* +- Jane — addresses owner directly: *"Dear Joanne… the wonderful teams that you sent with the marquee for my party last weekend… the marquee looked incredible."* +- Lucy — references a specific themed event by name: *"The pirates ahoy was a complete success!"* +- Johan — *"thank you very much for letting us hire the Capri Marquee! It was so much fun…"* + +### Privacy and data handling +- A **GDPR-style privacy notice** is published, dated **22 May 2018** (i.e. drafted for the GDPR coming-into-force date, not retrofitted). Cites the company number, registered office, the six lawful bases, customer rights, and a withdrawal-of-consent route. Whether the underlying processing fully complies with GDPR is not something this audit can verify; the published notice is a reasonable-quality document. +- Notice explicitly states **payment data is never taken or stored** by Complete Marquees. + +### Sister business +- **Monster Event Hire** (monstereventhire.co.uk) is run by the same operation, broadening the offer with inflatables, photo booths and similar. Adds operational scale and supplier diversity. -> "A far cry from the traditional rectangles and squares with 4 walls and an apex ceiling, a Capri marquee is what you need when you want to make a real statement. Most easily recognised by their distinctive multi-peaked ceiling, equipped with matting and archway lighting and work perfectly as an open space or enclosed by PVC sidings." - -This is product expertise, not stock language. They also stock **Pagoda (Chinese-hat-style) marquees**, which can be used standalone or as an entrance to a Capri. +--- -### Hard technical numbers they own -Detail a back-garden hirer cannot quote off the top of their head: -- Capri arches: **7–8 ft head height under the arches** -- Capri centre pole: **approximately 16 ft high** -- Four standard Capri sizes: **20'×20', 20'×30', 28'×38', 28'×58'** -- Pagoda: **6m × 6m** -- Capacity per Capri size (seated/standing): 20×20 → 20/25; 20×30 → 48/60; 28×38 → 80/100; 28×58 → 120/150 -- Standard package dance floor: **12ft × 12ft** (with larger sizes available on request) -- Side walls supplied as standard: **half clear, half solid PVC** — fitted on, off, or any mix on the day at the customer's choice +## 3. What "royal wedding" actually means (correction) -### Modular linking capability -Capri marquees can be **linked together using a linking kit** to cover larger or irregular outdoor areas — a 100-guest setup uses 2× 28×38 linked into a 28×80 footprint; a 150-guest setup uses 3× 28×38 linked. This is a specialist capability most small operators don't own the kit for. +The sidebar CTA on every page reads: +> "From small gatherings to a royal wedding, we have the right marquee whatever the event." -### Equipment depth (full price-listed inventory) -Every item is publicly priced on the equipment page — a transparency signal in itself: -- **Tables:** plastic patio (4–6 seats £4), 5ft round (8–10 seats £7.50), 4ft round (6–8 seats £6), 6ft trestles (6–8 seats £7.50) -- **Chairs:** white bistro chairs £2.50 -- **Flooring:** Capri matting in four bespoke sizes — 20×20 £100, 20×30 £155, 28×38 £185, 28×58 £355 -- **Dance floor:** £225 (12×12, larger on request) -- **Lighting:** uplighters £95/marquee (white or coloured), archway pea-lights £250/marquee, ivy garlands £250/marquee, combined ivy + lighting archway £450/marquee -- Stage hire available for live bands +**Per the owner, this means Complete Marquees supplied a marquee for a private party connected to a royal wedding (e.g. a guest's adjacent celebration), not that they were a supplier to the royal wedding ceremony itself.** That is still a meaningful trust signal — a customer in that orbit had to trust them with a logistically and reputationally sensitive job — but it must not be advertised as "we did the royal wedding". -The fact every item has its own line in stock and a published price proves it's all owned in-house, not subcontracted. +Honest phrasings the company can use: +- *"We've covered everything from small garden parties to a private celebration around a royal wedding."* +- *"Our customers have ranged from small family parties to a private function tied to a royal wedding."* -### Site-knowledge expertise (the things only experienced installers know) -The FAQ and contact pages publish honest constraints upfront — these are operational lessons learned the hard way: -- **Marquees must go on flat grass** with no trees, bushes or hedges running through the marquee site; the customer must check this before booking. (Stated in CAPS — "MUST" — on the FAQ.) -- **Capri marquees cannot be connected to buildings** due to their shape. A novice would over-promise; Complete Marquees says no upfront. -- **Side walls** are an on-the-day choice — full, off, or mixed — to suit the weather and event. -- **Flooring is optional in summer** depending on grass condition. They will tell you when you don't need it. But flooring is required if a wooden dance floor is going down (because it protects the dance floor). -- **Customer decoration rules:** "string no sticky tape and staples", and **no crepe paper** because *"this does stain the marquee."* That is real, lived experience — the kind of detail nobody on a first season would think to mention. -- **Waterproof, but not in stormy weather** — honest stated weather limits, not a blanket "weatherproof!" claim. +What it must not be allowed to imply: +- That Complete Marquees was a supplier to a royal wedding ceremony or reception. +- That the company holds a royal warrant or any similar appointment. -### Sister-business expertise -Complete Marquees runs **Monster Event Hire** as a sister site, offering hundreds of additional event activities (inflatables, photo booths, etc.). They aren't just a tent — they're an event-hire business that has expanded scope. +The current sidebar phrasing is borderline — defensible if the underlying private-party fact is true, but easy for a casual reader to misread. Recommend reworking the line for clarity rather than leaning on it harder. --- -## A — Authoritativeness - -### Legal entity, properly registered -- **Registered UK company, number 1090110**, registered in England (privacy notice). -- **Registered office: Southleigh Farm, Havant, Hampshire, PO9 2NX** (privacy notice). -- **Trading address: 27 The Oakwood Centre, Downley Road, Havant, Hampshire, PO9 2NP** (meta.json / site schema). +## 4. What Complete Marquees can credibly claim above a hobbyist / one-van operator -These two distinct, verifiable UK postal addresses are something a back-garden hirer simply cannot match — most don't have a registered company at all. +Real, defensible differentiators against the bottom of the market: -### Real, geographic phone number -- **02392 717 925** — a Portsmouth/Havant geographic landline (not a mobile, not a 0800/0345 redirect). It rings at the actual business. -- Listed in JSON-LD organization schema, on the contact page, in the footer of every page, and in the prominent mobile "Give Us A Call" CTA. +- 24 years on the public trading record vs the typical 1-3 years before a hobbyist folds. +- A **registered limited company** with a published company number and a registered office (verify in Companies House before pitching). +- Two distinct physical addresses (registered office + trading premises) rather than a residential garden. +- A **geographic landline** answering on published 8 am-9 pm hours, weekends 8 am-8 pm. +- **Per-item public pricing** for every marquee, package, and accessory, with VAT status and hire term stated. The bottom of the market quotes only on the phone. +- A **GDPR-style privacy notice** dated to the GDPR commencement, citing company number and lawful bases. Hobbyists rarely have any. +- **Schema.org markup** (Organization, Service, Product, Offer, Review) — SEO hygiene that cheaper sites skip. +- **Four named, structured-data-marked testimonials** rather than unattributed star scores. +- **Honest operating constraints** published upfront — flat grass, no trees, no crepe paper, weather limits — rather than over-promising on the phone and under-delivering on the day. +- **Twenty-seven location-specific pages** evidencing route knowledge across Hampshire / Surrey / West Sussex / Berkshire / Wiltshire / Greater London edge. +- **In-house team** for delivery and install, evidenced by repeated mentions in the customer testimonials. +- **A linkable Capri fleet plus Pagoda** — a hobbyist usually has one tent. -### Long-running brand presence -- **Facebook:** facebook.com/completemarquees — long-established business page. -- **Twitter/X:** @completemarquee — established account. -- **Domain:** completemarquees.co.uk — original site dates published from 2016 in the schema (and the trading history goes back to 2002). - -### Identifiable owner -- The owner is named in real customer correspondence: **"Dear Joanne"** opens Jane's testimonial. A back-garden operator hides behind a brand; Complete Marquees has a named, accountable principal that customers write personal letters to. - -### Genuine local geographic authority -- Operating from a fixed base at **The Oakwood Centre in Havant**, with a registered farm address at **Southleigh Farm**, gives them a logistics depot a 30-mile-radius operator could never run from a residential garden. -- The 27 location pages are not generic spun copy — the older ones (Salisbury, Southampton) are written in the original, slightly informal house voice and predate any AI rewrite, demonstrating they were genuinely producing town-by-town content years before the recent refresh. - -### Independent third-party trust footprints -- Indexed/verified on **Google, Bing and Yandex** — site has verification meta tags from all three (`google-site-verification`, `msvalidate.01`, `yandex-verification`). -- Schema.org Organization, Service, Product, Review and Offer markup throughout — search engines treat the site as a trusted business entity, not just a brochure. +This is a real list, but it's a list aimed *downwards* in the market. Most of these credentials are baseline-expected of any serious regional operator. --- -## T — Trustworthiness - -### Genuine, attributable customer testimonials -Four named testimonials with content that could only come from real customers: -- **Judith** — *"…your team were polite on set up and take down…"* -- **Jane** — addresses the owner directly: *"Dear Joanne… the wonderful teams that you sent with the marquee for my party last weekend… Please pass on my thanks — the marquee looked incredible."* -- **Lucy** — references a specific themed event: *"The guys you sent to set-up were really friendly and efficient. The pirates ahoy was a complete success!"* -- **Johan** — *"thank you very much for letting us hire the Capri Marquee! It was so much fun and everyone had a good time!"* - -These are verbatim quotes with names — not paraphrased star ratings. Each is wrapped in schema.org/Review markup so they're machine-verifiable. - -### Transparent, published pricing -- **Every marquee size** has a "from" price on the public sizes & prices page (£295 to £650). -- **Every package** has its full inclusion list and a fixed "from" price (£390 to £3,100). -- **Every individual hire item** (tables, chairs, lighting, ivy garlands, dance floor, matting) has its own price card. -- **VAT is explicitly disclosed** as exclusive on every price quoted, footer-wide. -- **Hire term is stated:** prices based on **Friday delivery, Sunday collection**. +## 5. What Complete Marquees cannot credibly claim above MUTA-tier competition -A hirer with nothing to hide publishes their prices. A hirer whose price changes depending on the postcode they hear on the phone, doesn't. +The honest part. These are the gaps a buyer comparing Complete Marquees against Lewis Marquees, Monaco Marquees or any other MUTA-member regional competitor will probe: -### Honest constraints stated up front -The FAQ section reads more like an operations manual than a sales pitch. The site openly tells customers: -- The marquee must go on flat grass with no obstructions. -- Capris cannot connect to buildings. -- They are waterproof but not stormproof. -- You must check your site fits before booking. -- Decorations: string only, no tape, no staples, no crepe paper. - -A dishonest competitor promises everything and disappoints; Complete Marquees publishes the rules so the booking is right first time. +| Industry-standard credential | On the site? | Notes | +|---|---|---| +| **MUTA membership** | Not advertised | No mention found anywhere on the site. Either uphold or pursue. | +| **Public liability insurance — £5 m / £10 m** | Not advertised | No insurance cover figure stated. Most competitors quote it on the homepage. | +| **BS EN 13782:2015 compliance documentation** | Not advertised | Applies to ≥50 m² tents. Three of four Capri sizes qualify. | +| **Fire-retardancy certification (BS 7837 / DIN 4102 B1)** | Not advertised | Wedding venues frequently ask for the certificate. | +| **Wind-loading certificates / structural calcs** | Not advertised | Standard ask for any pitch on a council-licensed site. | +| **SafeContractor / CHAS / SSIP** | Not advertised | Required for many corporate / council jobs. | +| **Published terms of business / contract template** | Not on site | Customers cannot read the agreement before enquiring. | +| **Site-visit policy** | Not stated | Bridebook lists "skipping a site visit" as a top red flag; the site says nothing. | +| **References from recent customers** | Not offered | Four old testimonials, no named, recent, contactable references. | +| **Owner / staff bios** | Not on site | Named testimonial reveals "Joanne", but there is no team page. | +| **Verifiable third-party reviews (Google, Trustpilot, Hitched, Bridebook listings)** | Not visible from site | No review aggregator embed and no inbound links found. | +| **Environmental / sustainability claims** | None | Increasingly asked-for in corporate work. | + +Several "claims" in earlier drafts of this document also need hedging: +- *"Hundreds of events"* — Complete Marquees' own number, not externally verified. +- *"24 years of continuous operation"* — site states "since 2002"; continuity over that period has not been independently verified here. +- *"GDPR-compliant"* — what's verifiable is that a GDPR-style privacy notice is published; underlying processing compliance is outside this audit. +- *"Specialist in Capri marquees"* — true, but Capri stock is commodity in southern England. +- *"Two decades of trading is exceptional"* — it isn't; it is mid-pack for serious operators. -### Predictable contactability -- **Published opening hours:** Mon–Fri 8am–9pm, weekends 8am–8pm. That's an ~85-hour-week service window. Try getting a back-garden operator to answer their phone on a Sunday morning in August. -- **Email:** completemarquee@gmail.com (consistent across the site). -- **Phone:** 02392 717 925 (consistent across the site). +--- -### Proper data handling -- A full, **GDPR-compliant privacy notice** is published, dated 2018-05-22 — drafted before the May 2018 GDPR deadline, demonstrating timely compliance, not a retrofit. -- It explicitly cites the company number, the registered office address, the six lawful bases for processing, the customer's data rights, and a working contact route to withdraw consent. -- **Payment data is never taken or stored by Complete Marquees** — stated explicitly in the privacy notice. +## 6. Honest comparison: the three rungs of the market -This level of legal hygiene is virtually unheard of among one-person marquee operations. +| Tier | Examples | Typical credentials | 80-guest price band | +|---|---|---|---| +| **Wedding-luxury / MUTA-tier** | Lewis Marquees, Monaco Marquees, Alresford Marquees, County Marquees | MUTA member, £5-10 m PL, BS EN 13782 docs, fire certs, branded styling, traditional canvas-pole and clearspan stock, dedicated wedding planner | £2,000-£3,600+ | +| **Regional mid-market / value** | **Complete Marquees**, many comparable Capri specialists | Limited company, geographic phone, public prices, in-house install, family-run, 15-25 yrs trading, Capri / Pagoda fleet, no MUTA / insurance disclosure visible | £900-£1,400 | +| **Hobbyist / back-garden / one-van** | Bark.com listings, Facebook-Marketplace operators, seasonal | Sole trader, mobile only, no fixed address, on-the-phone pricing, often no insurance, often no contract | £400-£900 | -### Operational accountability -- Setup, delivery, installation, breakdown and collection are all done by Complete Marquees' own team — repeatedly emphasised in customer testimonials ("your team were polite on set up and take down", "the wonderful teams that you sent", "the guys you sent to set-up were really friendly and efficient"). The testimonials themselves verify the in-house team claim. -- Stated values across the site (in original, non-AI copy): **"service, reliability and time keeping"** and *"we can ensure your marquee arrives at the appointed time and is ready in plenty of time for the event."* +Complete Marquees clearly belongs in the middle tier and should pitch from there. The honest sell is **"professional, transparently-priced, family-run regional operator with 24 years on the books"** — not "wedding-luxury" and not "the cheapest tent in your back garden". Trying to compete with the top tier without addressing the gaps in section 5 will get caught out by any moderately diligent customer; trying to compete with the bottom tier on price will erode the very trading record that's the company's main asset. --- -## Summary: The "Back Garden Hirer" Comparison +## 7. Recommended actions to harden the credentials -| Trust signal | Back-garden hirer | Complete Marquees | -|---|---|---| -| Years trading | 1–3 typically | **24 (since 2002)** | -| Companies House registered | Rarely | **Yes — company 1090110** | -| Registered office address | No | **Southleigh Farm, Havant, PO9 2NX** | -| Trading premises | Domestic garage/garden | **The Oakwood Centre, Havant** | -| Geographic landline | Mobile only | **02392 717 925** | -| Published opening hours | None | **Mon–Fri 8am–9pm, weekends 8am–8pm** | -| Published per-item prices | Quote-only | **Every item, publicly listed** | -| VAT status disclosed | Vague | **Explicit: prices ex-VAT** | -| GDPR-compliant privacy notice | No | **Yes, dated May 2018** | -| Schema.org markup for SEO trust | No | **Organization, Service, Review, Product, Offer** | -| Search-engine verifications | None | **Google, Bing, Yandex** | -| Linkable Capri capability | One tent | **4 sizes + linking kits + Pagoda** | -| Equipment depth | Borrowed/hired in | **Full owned inventory with prices** | -| Real named testimonials | Stock | **Four, with schema.org markup** | -| Royal wedding handled | No | **Yes — referenced in own copy** | -| Capacity range demonstrated | 20–60 typical | **25 to 400 guests** | -| Geographic coverage proven | One village | **27 named towns/counties** | -| Sister business | No | **Monster Event Hire** | +Roughly in order of effort:value. + +1. **Verify and publish the Companies House entry** with a direct link from the site footer. Confirm the number 1090110 resolves correctly and the company status is active. +2. **Publish the public liability cover figure** (with the certificate available on request). If the cover is below £5 m, increase it. +3. **Get fire-retardancy certificates from the fabric supplier** scanned and available on request; mention them on the FAQ. +4. **Pursue MUTA membership** if not already held. The eligibility threshold (>2 years trading, code of practice) is comfortably met. Membership immediately closes the largest gap against the wedding-tier competition. +5. **Move email from `@gmail.com` to `@completemarquees.co.uk`** — a one-day job that materially raises perceived professionalism. +6. **Publish a one-page terms-of-business / standard contract** (deposit, cancellation, weather, ground damage, customer obligations) so customers can read the agreement before enquiring. +7. **Add a site-visit offer** to the booking flow. It removes the biggest red flag consumer guides warn about. +8. **Replace the AI-generated paragraphs** on the home, about, weddings, parties, corporate, sizes, packages, gallery and Hampshire pages. The smoking gun is on the gallery page (`capri-marquee-hire.html`) where raw ChatGPT conversation HTML — including `data-message-model-slug="gpt-5-3"` — has been pasted into the source. A diligent customer Googling phrases from the site can find this, and it directly undermines every other trust signal. +9. **Solicit five fresh, recent (2024-2026), named, photographed customer reviews** and embed them with structured data. The existing four are warm but undated. +10. **Reword the "royal wedding" sidebar line** for clarity, per section 3 above. +11. **Add an owner / team page** with Joanne's name, a photo, and a one-paragraph bio. The named-owner signal in the testimonial is strong; making it explicit is stronger. --- -## Notes for Use +## 8. Notes for marketing copy -- These are the trust signals to **lean on in marketing copy, sales calls, and proposal documents**. Most are already on the site but buried under AI marketing paragraphs that dilute them. -- The strongest single line for the homepage hero is some variation of: *"Family-run since 2002 — from small garden parties to a royal wedding, we've covered hundreds of events across Hampshire, Surrey and West Sussex."* -- The **company number, registered office, and 24-year trading history** are the three facts most worth surfacing prominently — they instantly disqualify a comparison with a back-garden operator. -- The **"Dear Joanne"** testimonial is more persuasive than any 5-star aggregate; consider featuring it in full. -- The honest FAQ constraints (flat grass, no crepe paper, weatherproof-but-not-stormproof) are an *asset* — they read as expertise, not weakness, and should not be sanitised away. +- The strongest verifiable line for the homepage hero is something like: + *"Family-run from Havant since 2002, with 27 towns covered across Hampshire, Surrey and West Sussex — a Capri and Pagoda specialist for weddings, parties, corporate days and community events."* +- The "Dear Joanne" testimonial is the single most persuasive piece of content on the site and should be quoted in full somewhere prominent. +- The honest FAQ constraints (no crepe paper, weatherproof-but-not-stormproof, must be flat grass) are an asset and should not be rewritten by anything that smooths them out. +- Drop the literal phrase "royal wedding" from headline copy; rework as section 3. +- Lead with **transparent pricing** as the differentiator vs the bottom of the market. Lead with **24 years of operating record + named owner + published company number** as the differentiator vs anyone less established. +- Do **not** try to lead with "experience" alone — the MUTA-tier competition can match or beat the years-trading number and back it with insurance and accreditation paperwork that Complete Marquees currently can't display. From 73ac94da20dae0b98529d920609979b85c9dee2b Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Claude Date: Fri, 8 May 2026 02:00:54 +0000 Subject: [PATCH 04/11] Add VOICE.md and reflect David & Joanne as the two-person ownership VOICE.md is a tone-of-voice guide adapted for the wedding-and-corporate clientele: dry, plain-spoken Hampshire, calm rather than matey, with explicit guards against wedding-magazine vocabulary ("magical", "stunning", "bespoke") and the country-house / Boden-catalogue voice. Frontmatter keeps it out of the public site build. Also corrects the EEAT credentials doc to reflect that Complete Marquees is run as a husband-and-wife operation by David and Joanne (the testimonial names Joanne; David is not yet on any public-facing page). The owner / team page recommendation is updated accordingly. https://claude.ai/code/session_01WhGXZskvCs5L8GjSveZKFw --- EEAT-CREDENTIALS.md | 4 +- VOICE.md | 202 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ 2 files changed, 204 insertions(+), 2 deletions(-) create mode 100644 VOICE.md diff --git a/EEAT-CREDENTIALS.md b/EEAT-CREDENTIALS.md index 9d39483..cb33bd7 100644 --- a/EEAT-CREDENTIALS.md +++ b/EEAT-CREDENTIALS.md @@ -42,7 +42,7 @@ Sourced from non-AI, long-standing site copy unless noted. ### Contact and presence - Geographic Portsmouth/Havant landline **02392 717 925**, listed in JSON-LD organization schema and on every page. Not a mobile, not a redirect number. - Email **completemarquee@gmail.com** — a free Gmail address, not a domain-aligned mailbox. Worth flagging: a `@completemarquees.co.uk` mailbox would be a stronger signal at very little cost. -- Owner is named in customer correspondence — **Jane's testimonial opens "Dear Joanne"**, identifying an accountable principal by first name. +- The business is run as a **husband-and-wife operation by David and Joanne**. Joanne is named explicitly in a customer testimonial that opens *"Dear Joanne"*, evidencing an accountable, named principal answering correspondence personally. David's name is not currently on any public-facing page. - **Facebook** page facebook.com/completemarquees and **Twitter/X** @completemarquee both established (vintage of accounts not independently verified here). - Google, Bing and Yandex webmaster verification meta tags present — confirms the site has been registered in those search consoles, no more than that. @@ -186,7 +186,7 @@ Roughly in order of effort:value. 8. **Replace the AI-generated paragraphs** on the home, about, weddings, parties, corporate, sizes, packages, gallery and Hampshire pages. The smoking gun is on the gallery page (`capri-marquee-hire.html`) where raw ChatGPT conversation HTML — including `data-message-model-slug="gpt-5-3"` — has been pasted into the source. A diligent customer Googling phrases from the site can find this, and it directly undermines every other trust signal. 9. **Solicit five fresh, recent (2024-2026), named, photographed customer reviews** and embed them with structured data. The existing four are warm but undated. 10. **Reword the "royal wedding" sidebar line** for clarity, per section 3 above. -11. **Add an owner / team page** with Joanne's name, a photo, and a one-paragraph bio. The named-owner signal in the testimonial is strong; making it explicit is stronger. +11. **Add an owner / team page** introducing David and Joanne by name with a photograph and a one-paragraph bio for each (years in the trade, role split — bookings vs workshop / install). The named-owner signal in the testimonial is strong; making the husband-and-wife ownership explicit on the site is stronger, and it directly neutralises the "anonymous van and a website" objection. --- diff --git a/VOICE.md b/VOICE.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..3ab378f --- /dev/null +++ b/VOICE.md @@ -0,0 +1,202 @@ +--- +permalink: false +eleventyExcludeFromCollections: true +--- + +# Voice & Tone + +This site has a distinct voice: dry, plain-spoken, sceptical of marketing-speak, recognisably south-coast Hampshire without dialect cosplay. It's how David or Joanne might write about their own work, not how a copywriter would write it for them. + +It's also a wedding-and-corporate-tier voice, not a market-stall voice. The clientele are planning their daughter's wedding, the firm's summer party, the family's seventieth, the village fête's hundredth year. They're handing over real money months in advance for something that has to arrive on the right morning and not blow over. The voice has to read as calm, competent and unhurried, not as matey or jokey. Plain-spoken doesn't mean casual. + +This is a guide, not a template. Slavish application is what makes copy sound generated. + +## The trap to avoid + +The source corpus below is people **talking** or **writing plainly**, working from their own context. Their patterns work because they aren't trying to sell you anything. Lift those patterns straight into website copy and you've turned plain observation into ad copy. You can hear the agency. + +The Hampshire-ness in this site should come from **content** (real places, real routes, real specifics) and **word choice** (the kit, set up properly, in good order, round our way), not from sentence structure or affected accent. + +### The WhatsApp test + +Read the line out loud. Could David or Joanne type it on their phone between two delivery stops? If it has a copywriter's structure (a punchy fragment, a parallel-list closer, a one-line summary that "lands"), no, they wouldn't. Take the polish off. + +## Source corpus + +Don't lean on any single voice; that becomes a tribute act. The shared DNA across these is what we're after: + +- **John Arlott** - Basingstoke-born; the BBC cricket commentaries. Plain, weathered, descriptive. The native Hampshire voice for craft and observation. The way he describes a slow afternoon at a county ground is the way we should describe a slow afternoon setting up at a village fête. +- **Paul Weller** - Woking, on Hampshire's doorstep; The Jam and Style Council interviews. Plain southern English, sceptical of polish. "A Town Called Malice" and "That's Entertainment" are prose-poems about ordinary southern English life. +- **Ray Davies** - north London / Muswell Hill; The Kinks. Plain-spoken observer of suburban England. "Waterloo Sunset", "Sunny Afternoon", "Days". Describes ordinary lives without sentimentality and without ever dropping into pop-cliché. +- **Ian Dury** - Essex / Romford; the Blockheads interviews and lyrics. Urban southern English, plain, deflating, never overwritten. +- **Tony Hancock** - Birmingham-born but his voice was suburban-southern English; the *Hancock's Half Hour* radio plays. The trapped-in-the-suburbs voice that punctures its own pomposity. +- **Dad's Army** - fictional Walmington-on-Sea (the south coast). The plain everyday voices: Wilson, Pike, Jones, Frazer. Note: Mainwaring is the *anti-pattern*, the small-businessman trying to sound impressive. We don't write like Mainwaring. +- **George Orwell** - the essays, especially "Politics and the English Language" and "England Your England". Southern English plain prose at its best. +- **John Betjeman** - Hertfordshire / Camden; suburban-southern poet. Plain, observational, slightly dry. "Slough" and "Metroland" capture the voice. +- **Jonathan Meades** - English nonfiction prose; dry, plain, unimpressed. Watch any of his BBC documentaries on the southern coast. + +When stuck, don't generate. Read or watch one of these. But remember they're people talking or writing in their own voice; don't import their punchlines. + +### Anti-corpus (the voices we are avoiding) + +- **Alan Partridge** - Norwich small-businessman trying to sound polished. The voice we are satirising every time we resist its temptations. +- **David Brent (The Office UK)** - Slough small-businessman trying to sound inspirational. Same trap, less rural. +- **Del Boy Trotter** - Peckham salesman. Same trap, more cockney. +- **Captain Mainwaring** (Dad's Army) - small-town pomposity dressed up in modest words. +- **The Boden / White Company catalogue voice** - cosy, knowing, faux-rustic, "kitchen suppers" and "favourite jumpers". Wedding-tier suppliers fall into this when they try to sound aspirational. +- **The country-house / wedding-magazine voice** - "your special day", "magical", "fairy-tale". The clientele have read it a hundred times and skim past it. + +If a sentence sounds like Partridge, Brent, Del Boy, Mainwaring, Boden, or a bridal magazine, it's wrong. + +## Principles + +### 1. "We" throughout + +We're a husband-and-wife operation. "We've run Complete Marquees from Havant since 2002" is more honest than "Complete Marquees has been established since 2002", and more honest than "I", because there are two of us, plus the install team out on the road. + +Switching to a specific name is fine when it earns its place ("David is on the workshop floor most days" / "Joanne handles the bookings"). Don't do it just to dress up a sentence. + +### 2. Specifics over abstractions + +PO9 not "South of England". The A3(M) not "main road". The M27 not "the motorway". Havant not "our base". Cobham, Oxshott, Esher, Guildford, Petersfield, Chichester not "Surrey and Hampshire". East Hampshire District Council not "council clients". Anemometer not "wind-monitoring device". A 28' × 38' Capri linked to a 28' × 58' Capri not "a large marquee". The voice gets its credibility from being specific. + +> "Madison Avenue guy who's just lost his job. Ivy League suit a bit scuzzed up, an outgrown layer cut and five o'clock shadow." - John Cooper Clarke (used here as an example of how strong specificity reads) + +### 3. Plain word choice + +"The kit" not "our equipment range". "Set up properly" not "professionally installed". "We've been doing this a while" not "with extensive industry experience". "What's actually involved" not "comprehensive solution". Trade vocabulary where it fits. If we wouldn't say it standing in the workshop, we don't write it. + +The voice is plain, not casual. Avoid the very-matey end of British speech in customer-facing copy: "a few quid", "lads' work", "no problemo", "easy peasy". A wedding customer reading "a few quid extra for the dance floor" alongside a £2,100 package quote will hear glibness, not honesty. Save the most casual register for internal contexts only. + +### 4. Looseness over polish + +Long sentences with sub-clauses. Hedges ("around twenty miles", "give or take"). Asides in the middle of a thought. Sometimes a paragraph just stops because there's nothing else to say. The voice gets its texture from looseness, not from rhythm. + +The opposite (short polished sentences with parallel structure) is what marketing copy sounds like. + +### 5. Complete sentences, no punchline closers + +The voice never uses sentence fragments. Every sentence has a subject and a verb. Fragments masquerading as sentences ("The lot." / "Same-day quotes." / "No fuss.") don't belong in the house voice, even when they sound emphatic or efficient. They're a copywriter's tic. + +This applies anywhere in the copy, not just at paragraph ends. Rewrite fragments by absorbing them into the surrounding sentence, or by giving them their own subject and verb: + +- Bad: "We only quote on jobs we can actually do. No upsells, no extras." +- Good: "We only quote on jobs we can actually do, and we don't push upsells or tack on extras you don't need." + +Even grammatically-complete sentences shouldn't be used as cinematic punchline closers ("Complete Marquees was born." / "And the rest is history."). A complete sentence is necessary but not sufficient; the structure also has to read like prose, not like a tagline. + +Specific patterns to avoid: + +- Single-word or fragment closers: "The lot." / "No fuss." / "Sorted." +- Multi-fragment summaries: "£995 plus VAT. Same-day quotes. Insurance certificate on request." +- Cinematic one-line summaries: "Complete Marquees was born." / "That's how we've worked ever since." +- Lists of three where the third item is comic or undercutting (we don't do this earnestly). +- The X / X / X - Y structure: "Not a call centre, not a ticketing system, not a chatbot - Joanne." +- The "and yes, it works on a south-facing site" handle-the-objection move. + +Bullets and headings are exempt; they aren't sentences. + +### 6. Trust the reader + +Don't explain the joke. Don't justify the claim. Don't repeat yourself. The voice is economical because it assumes intelligence on the other end. Wedding clients, corporate planners and family hosts have all been sold to before, and the voice that doesn't try to sell to them is the voice they remember. + +### 7. Calm, not matey + +Plain-spoken doesn't mean we're sitting next to the customer at the bar. The voice is reserved by default - more like a tradesman at a kitchen table working through what's needed than a salesman warming the room. No exclamation marks, no winks, no "we love what we do!", no first-name terms with people we've never met. The customer can be friendly first; we follow. + +## Phrase pool (sparingly) + +Words and turns of phrase that fit the voice when they appear naturally, never as 1:1 substitution: + +- "the kit" +- "round our way" / "round here" +- "in good order" +- "give or take" +- "set up properly" +- "we've been doing this a while" +- "we know our way around" +- "first time of asking" +- "no bother" +- "we'll come and have a look" +- "well before the day" +- "in plenty of time" +- "by close of play Friday" + +Build this up over time as more copy gets written. One or two per page is plenty. + +## No-go list + +Burnt out by ad campaigns and class tourism. Avoid: + +- "Cor blimey" / "guv'nor", Cockney parody +- "Lovely jubbly" / "cushty", Del Boy parody +- "Bovvered", Catherine Tate parody +- "Innit", mockney appropriation +- Cockney rhyming slang of any kind +- "Treacle" / "love" / "darling" as terms of address, patronising +- "Marvellous" / "splendid" / "frightfully" / "awfully" / "rather", RP parody +- "Cheerio" / "ta-ta", RP parody +- "Posh" / "common", class signalling +- "Pompey" outside a customer's quote +- "Our kid" / "champion" / "ay up" / "owt" / "nowt", imported northern markers +- Phonetic accent spelling ("'appy", "summat", "fella") +- "Salt of the earth" / "honest as the day is long" / "no nonsense" / "down-to-earth", clichés about ordinary English character that signal the writer isn't ordinary +- "Made in Britain" / "British family business" used as a value-claim if not literal and relevant +- Sailor or yachtie clichés ("ahoy", "shipshape", "smooth sailing") +- Yacht-club / golf-club voice ("dear chap", "old boy") +- Wedding-magazine vocabulary ("your special day", "magical", "fairy-tale", "bespoke", "luxe", "elevated", "curated", "stunning") +- "Unforgettable", "memorable", "once-in-a-lifetime" as a default adjective for anything we hire out +- "Stress-free", "seamless", "hassle-free" - these are what cheap copy claims; a calm sentence demonstrates them without naming them + +These can appear inside quotation marks if a customer or guest says them. They don't belong in house voice. + +## Em-dashes + +Em-dashes have been normalised out of this codebase. Use spaced hyphens (the kit, all of it, lives in our workshop) or commas and full stops where an em-dash was doing rhetorical work. + +The reason: em-dashes are one of the strongest tells of generated copy. Real plain-spoken writing uses commas, full stops and the occasional spaced hyphen, not the em-dash's characteristic dramatic pause. + +## Process + +1. Write the page in plain English first. Don't reach for the voice yet. +2. Read it aloud. Mark every sentence that sounds like it could be on a brochure. +3. Apply the WhatsApp test to each marked sentence: could David or Joanne type this on their phone between two delivery stops? If not, take the polish off, usually by lengthening the sentence, adding a hedge, or breaking up a too-neat structure. +4. Read aloud again. If you smirk, pull back further. +5. Run a final pass for the wedding-magazine words ("magical", "stunning", "bespoke", "your day"). They sneak in by reflex; cut them. + +## Where to use it + +- About page +- Homepage section intros (not the SEO-heavy hero) +- Headlines where SEO allows +- Transitions and link text +- Area-page intros +- Wedding, party, corporate and special-events page intros +- FAQ answers (the existing FAQ already has this voice; protect it) +- Site-visit and enquiry-response copy + +## Where NOT to use it + +- Legal text and policies (Terms & Conditions, Privacy, Cookies) +- Technical specs and accreditation pages (public liability cover, fire-retardancy certificates, BS EN 13782 statements, risk assessments, method statements, anchoring schedules) +- Contact details and form labels +- Insurance certificates, contracts, deposit and cancellation terms +- Quote breakdowns and invoice copy +- Anywhere ambiguity costs the customer money or clarity + +Inconsistency between pages is fine. Different pages have different jobs. A planner reading the contract clauses wants flat, unambiguous prose, not voice. + +## Anti-patterns + +The specific failure modes of trying-too-hard: + +- **Fragment "sentences"** - "The kit." / "No fuss." / "Same-day quotes." Anywhere in copy, not just at paragraph end. See principle 5. +- **Cinematic one-liners** - "Complete Marquees was born." / "That's how we've worked ever since." +- **The deflating undercut** - used once, it's a flourish; used as a pattern, it's marketing. +- **The rule-of-three list** - "Bigger, better, faster, stronger" is parody. Don't do it earnestly. +- **The handle-the-objection move** - "and yes, it works at a wedding" / "and yes, even on a sloping lawn". Pure copywriter device. +- **Punchline-delivery dashes** - "Not a sub-hire, not an agency middleman, not an outsourced team - us." A spaced hyphen used as an ordinary explanatory aside ("we use the same kit at every job, all of it serviced annually") is fine. Use spaced hyphens, never em-dashes. +- **Tag questions on every paragraph** - even one per page is often too many. Use only when it genuinely lets the reader in. +- **Trying to be funny** - the voice is dry, not jokey. If a line gets a laugh, fine. If it's *for* the laugh, cut it. +- **Wedding-magazine adjectives as filler** - "stunning", "magical", "luxurious", "bespoke", "elevated". They signal the writer is reaching, not the marquee. +- **Generic "south coast" or "Hampshire" markers as a substitute for voice** - sprinkling in "the Solent" doesn't fix marketing-speak underneath. The voice has to live in *content* and *structure*, not just word choice. From e7f37321ced8e7a1a23ab92fe6ccfd1cfcd31588 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Claude Date: Fri, 8 May 2026 02:03:20 +0000 Subject: [PATCH 05/11] Exclude internal docs (VOICE.md, EEAT-CREDENTIALS.md) from site build These are working-reference documents at the repo root, alongside README.md. Without this exclusion they get merged into combined/src/ and Eleventy attempts to process them, which broke the Build and Deploy CI step. The Eleventy frontmatter on each file (permalink: false, eleventyExcludeFromCollections: true) is kept as a belt-and-braces fallback in case the merge config changes. https://claude.ai/code/session_01WhGXZskvCs5L8GjSveZKFw --- scripts/consts.js | 2 ++ 1 file changed, 2 insertions(+) diff --git a/scripts/consts.js b/scripts/consts.js index 3b3c4b5..21ddce1 100644 --- a/scripts/consts.js +++ b/scripts/consts.js @@ -18,6 +18,8 @@ export const sourceExcludes = [ ".*", "*.nix", "README.md", + "VOICE.md", + "EEAT-CREDENTIALS.md", "scripts", "node_modules", "package*.json", From 0a6ee44118c85a602f0540adac45c89f1dc54081 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Claude Date: Fri, 8 May 2026 02:07:52 +0000 Subject: [PATCH 06/11] Fix Build and Deploy: name-required validation + exclude CLAUDE.md Two fixes to unblock the Build and Deploy workflow. 1. The chobble-template's eleventyComputed validation requires every tagged content item to either provide a "name" frontmatter field or set "eleventyExcludeFromCollections: true". pages/thank-you.md and pages/not-found.md provided neither, breaking the build with: Error: Item is missing required "name" field in ./src/pages/thank-you.md at blocks (./src/_data/eleventyComputed.js:226) Both are utility pages (form thank-you and 404), not collection members, so eleventyExcludeFromCollections: true is the right marker. 2. While here, add CLAUDE.md to sourceExcludes alongside README.md / VOICE.md / EEAT-CREDENTIALS.md. CLAUDE.md is internal AI guidance and was being merged into the build, rendered, and published as /CLAUDE/index.html on the live site (Pagefind even indexed it). It should not be public. Verified locally with `bun scripts/build.js` - build completes cleanly, _site/CLAUDE/ no longer exists, _site/EEAT* and _site/VOICE* never did. https://claude.ai/code/session_01WhGXZskvCs5L8GjSveZKFw --- pages/not-found.md | 1 + pages/thank-you.md | 1 + scripts/consts.js | 1 + 3 files changed, 3 insertions(+) diff --git a/pages/not-found.md b/pages/not-found.md index 97975fa..e2b6e53 100644 --- a/pages/not-found.md +++ b/pages/not-found.md @@ -4,6 +4,7 @@ layout: complete-marquees meta_description: meta_title: Not Found no_index: true +eleventyExcludeFromCollections: true permalink: /bunnycdn_errors/404.html --- diff --git a/pages/thank-you.md b/pages/thank-you.md index 613c3dd..8853011 100644 --- a/pages/thank-you.md +++ b/pages/thank-you.md @@ -5,6 +5,7 @@ meta_description: meta_title: Thank You navigationParent: Contact no_index: true +eleventyExcludeFromCollections: true --- ## Thank You diff --git a/scripts/consts.js b/scripts/consts.js index 21ddce1..3986204 100644 --- a/scripts/consts.js +++ b/scripts/consts.js @@ -18,6 +18,7 @@ export const sourceExcludes = [ ".*", "*.nix", "README.md", + "CLAUDE.md", "VOICE.md", "EEAT-CREDENTIALS.md", "scripts", From a630943d40341244f7e2e0b5d1de4f89d9b8a14e Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Claude Date: Sun, 10 May 2026 12:38:55 +0000 Subject: [PATCH 07/11] Add permalink: false frontmatter to CLAUDE.md and README.md Belt-and-braces fallback to match VOICE.md and EEAT-CREDENTIALS.md. The sourceExcludes entry in scripts/consts.js already prevents these files reaching the build, but if that exclude is ever forgotten or overridden the frontmatter ensures Eleventy doesn't generate a public page. https://claude.ai/code/session_01WhGXZskvCs5L8GjSveZKFw --- CLAUDE.md | 5 +++++ README.md | 5 +++++ 2 files changed, 10 insertions(+) diff --git a/CLAUDE.md b/CLAUDE.md index 308d75a..c640768 100644 --- a/CLAUDE.md +++ b/CLAUDE.md @@ -1,3 +1,8 @@ +--- +permalink: false +eleventyExcludeFromCollections: true +--- + # CLAUDE.md - AI Assistant Guide for Chobble Client ## Project Overview diff --git a/README.md b/README.md index 38a730e..171b92e 100644 --- a/README.md +++ b/README.md @@ -1,3 +1,8 @@ +--- +permalink: false +eleventyExcludeFromCollections: true +--- + # Chobble Client Site Builder Quick static site generator that combines the [Chobble Template](https://git.chobble.com/chobble/chobble-template/) with your content. From 538730532258a30a945a24aa284f05343b766e44 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Claude Date: Sun, 10 May 2026 12:43:39 +0000 Subject: [PATCH 08/11] Add LOCATION-PAGES-PLAN.md: systematic plan for the 27 location pages Working draft of a five-phase plan to bring the location pages up to the same standard as the EEAT and VOICE docs. Includes: - Triage of all 27 pages (only 3 are AI-rewritten; aldershot and andover heavily, hampshire lightly; the rest are original-voice but generic). - A target per-page shape with shared includes for the standard EEAT block, site rules and packages CTA. - A phase-1 quick-wins pass (strip ChatGPT export attributes, emoji headings, em-dashes; reword the royal-wedding sidebar line per EEAT-CREDENTIALS.md section 3) that visibly improves the site without rewriting copy. - A phase-2 boilerplate consolidation step, a phase-3 pilot page, a phase-4 batched roll-out and a phase-5 SEO consolidation review. - Open questions for the owner that need answering before phase 3: which towns we've genuinely delivered in, named venues per town, MUTA / PL insurance status, and whether to keep all 27 pages. - A definition-of-done checklist for each page. Excluded from the site build alongside the other internal docs. https://claude.ai/code/session_01WhGXZskvCs5L8GjSveZKFw --- LOCATION-PAGES-PLAN.md | 235 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ scripts/consts.js | 1 + 2 files changed, 236 insertions(+) create mode 100644 LOCATION-PAGES-PLAN.md diff --git a/LOCATION-PAGES-PLAN.md b/LOCATION-PAGES-PLAN.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..db9a44b --- /dev/null +++ b/LOCATION-PAGES-PLAN.md @@ -0,0 +1,235 @@ +--- +permalink: false +eleventyExcludeFromCollections: true +--- + +# Location pages — improvement plan + +A plan for working through the 27 pages under `Complete-Marquees/`. Aimed at the same standard as the EEAT and VOICE docs: verifiable, plain-spoken, not over-claimed, useful to a planner doing real research rather than a search engine reading boilerplate. + +This is a working draft. There are decisions in section 8 that the owner needs to weigh in on before phase 3 starts. + +--- + +## 1. The current state + +Triage of the 27 pages by content health: + +### Type A — heavily AI-rewritten (full rewrite) +- `aldershot.html` (60 ChatGPT artifacts, emoji headings, fragments) +- `andover.html` (58 ChatGPT artifacts, same pattern) + +These are the worst of the set. The headings carry circus-tent and fireworks emojis (🎪 🎉 💍 📞 📍), the paragraphs carry `data-start` / `data-end` / `data-section-id` attributes lifted straight from a ChatGPT export, and the prose is wedding-magazine vocabulary throughout. + +### Type B — lightly AI-touched (targeted clean-up) +- `hampshire.html` (7 ChatGPT artifacts, mixed) + +The county overview page got an AI rewrite but only a partial one. It needs the AI fragments cleaned out and a fresh opening paragraph written. + +### Type C — original voice, generic (light edit + standardisation) +- The remaining 24 pages. + +These are still in the pre-AI house voice (e.g. salisbury, southampton: *"Complete Marquees has been delivering their renowned marquee hire service in Southampton since 2002. As a family run business..."*). They aren't broken, but they are: +- Near-duplicates of one another with only the town name swapped +- Dated phrasing ("renowned marquee hire", "wonderfully modern outdoor shelter") +- Generic — no genuine local knowledge per page +- Inconsistent in their use of the existing shared includes (some use `location-page-body.html`, some don't) + +This is the bigger job in volume but a smaller job per page than Type A. + +--- + +## 2. The shared-include architecture as it stands + +Three includes already exist for location pages: + +- `_includes/location-header.html` — opens body / main / grid / sidebar scaffolding. +- `_includes/location-page-body.html` — the "by linking together our Capri marquees" boilerplate paragraph, plus the trailing "many years of experience" paragraph. +- `_includes/location-event-types.html` — the bulleted list of event types (Wedding / Party / Corporate / Fun Day / Garden Parties of any size). + +Use is uneven: +- 14 pages include only the header (1 include each). +- 13 pages include header plus body or event-types (2 includes each). + +The architecture is right; it's just not consistently applied. Refactor to one shared boilerplate block per page, plus a small location-specific block. + +--- + +## 3. The new per-page shape + +A target template for every location page after this work, in order: + +1. **One H1**, location-specific. Example: *"Marquee hire in Guildford"*. Not *"Complete Marquees in Guildford"*. No emojis. + +2. **Lead paragraph** (location-specific, the only genuinely unique block on most pages). Real content, not template-spun. Three good options for what to put here, in order of quality: + - A factual route + distance line: *"Guildford is about an hour up the A3 from our workshop in Havant. We deliver into the surrounding villages too — Compton, Shalford, Shere — and we know the routes."* + - A real local reference point: a venue we've delivered to, an area characteristic, a specific kind of garden common to that town. + - A real customer / event reference if one exists for that area. + +3. **Standard credentials block** (shared include). One or two short paragraphs: + - Family-run by David and Joanne from Havant since 2002. + - Registered limited company, two physical addresses (workshop and registered office), insurance and fire-retardancy certificates available on request *(once those are confirmed and published — see EEAT-CREDENTIALS.md section 7)*. + - In-house team, no sub-contracting. + +4. **What we hire** (shared include). Capri sizes, linking kit, Pagoda, side walls plain and clear, matting, lighting. Two to three sentences, no lists. + +5. **Honest site rules** (shared include or short paragraph). Flat grass, no trees or hedges through the footprint, can't tie into a building. Same plain language as the FAQ. + +6. **Packages link with one real "from" price** to anchor the reader against the back-garden hirers and the wedding-luxury operators. *"An 80-guest seated package starts from £995 plus VAT including delivery, set-up, flooring and uplighting."* + +7. **One named, schema-marked testimonial** (shared include, can be the same one across many pages). Use the existing four — Judith, Jane, Lucy, Johan — rotating where it makes sense. + +8. **Site-visit and contact line**. Plain: *"We'll come and have a look at your garden before you commit. Call 02392 717 925 or send the form below."* + +9. **Existing footer / sidebar / map iframe** (already shared). + +Aim for under 350 words of body copy per page. The current pages run around 250-500 words; the model gets us closer to 300, with the location-specific block taking around 60-80 of those. + +--- + +## 4. Phase plan + +### Phase 1 — quick wins, all pages (one PR) +Surgical, no rewriting yet. Lower-risk, high-readability. + +- Strip every `data-start`, `data-end`, `data-section-id`, `data-is-last-node`, `data-is-only-node`, `data-message-model-slug`, `data-message-id`, `data-turn-id`, `data-testid` attribute from every page. Regex-able across the corpus. +- Strip the embedded ChatGPT export HTML on `capri-marquee-hire.html` (the `
Date: Sun, 10 May 2026 15:16:04 +0000 Subject: [PATCH 09/11] Update sidebar CTA, EEAT and plan docs with owner-confirmed facts MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit Owner confirmations folded in: - £10m public liability cover (held, not previously displayed) - All 27 location pages have genuinely been delivered into - No MUTA membership - No specific named-venue references available for location pages - Royal-wedding line is to be dropped from public copy Sidebar CTA (_includes/sidebar-cta.html, every page) updated from "From small gatherings to a royal wedding..." to "Family-run from Havant since 2002, with £10m public liability cover and our own install team." EEAT-CREDENTIALS.md: - Owner-confirmed-facts section replaces the royal-wedding correction - Gap analysis: PL flips from "not stated" to "£10m, above £5m baseline" - MUTA stays as a gap (now confirmed not held) - Tier comparison: Complete Marquees row now notes £10m PL specifically - Recommended actions: "publish the £10m figure" replaces "publish PL" - Marketing-copy notes lead with £10m PL as the highest-leverage line LOCATION-PAGES-PLAN.md: - Section 8 now captures the owner answers - Phase 5 (consolidation) is dropped - New section 11: thin-page risk analysis sorts the 27 pages into three tiers (writable now / writable but thin / at risk) and lists per-town asks for the Tier B and Tier C pages so the owner can supply one specific per town to thicken the lead paragraphs. - Flags an unrelated credibility leak: "Packages from only £330" in the second sidebar CTA, vs the cheapest published package at £390+VAT. https://claude.ai/code/session_01WhGXZskvCs5L8GjSveZKFw --- EEAT-CREDENTIALS.md | 43 +++++++-------- LOCATION-PAGES-PLAN.md | 108 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++------- _includes/sidebar-cta.html | 2 +- 3 files changed, 107 insertions(+), 46 deletions(-) diff --git a/EEAT-CREDENTIALS.md b/EEAT-CREDENTIALS.md index cb33bd7..68cc047 100644 --- a/EEAT-CREDENTIALS.md +++ b/EEAT-CREDENTIALS.md @@ -92,22 +92,15 @@ Four named, schema.org/Review-marked testimonials with content that would be har --- -## 3. What "royal wedding" actually means (correction) +## 3. Owner-confirmed facts (added after first audit) -The sidebar CTA on every page reads: -> "From small gatherings to a royal wedding, we have the right marquee whatever the event." +After the first draft, the owner confirmed the following directly. These are now treated as verified rather than self-stated: -**Per the owner, this means Complete Marquees supplied a marquee for a private party connected to a royal wedding (e.g. a guest's adjacent celebration), not that they were a supplier to the royal wedding ceremony itself.** That is still a meaningful trust signal — a customer in that orbit had to trust them with a logistically and reputationally sensitive job — but it must not be advertised as "we did the royal wedding". - -Honest phrasings the company can use: -- *"We've covered everything from small garden parties to a private celebration around a royal wedding."* -- *"Our customers have ranged from small family parties to a private function tied to a royal wedding."* - -What it must not be allowed to imply: -- That Complete Marquees was a supplier to a royal wedding ceremony or reception. -- That the company holds a royal warrant or any similar appointment. - -The current sidebar phrasing is borderline — defensible if the underlying private-party fact is true, but easy for a casual reader to misread. Recommend reworking the line for clarity rather than leaning on it harder. +- **£10 million public liability cover.** This is the corporate / festival / council baseline, double the £5m most wedding-luxury operators quote, and a serious credential to surface on every page. It moves Complete Marquees from "PL not stated" (a phase-1 gap) to "over-insured for its market tier". +- **Genuinely delivered into all 27 named locations.** The location pages are not aspirational. The trading record across Hampshire, Surrey, West Sussex, Berkshire, Wiltshire and the Greater London edge is real. +- **No MUTA membership.** This stays a gap — the only one missing the strongest external trade-body signal — but it is now confirmed rather than assumed. Honest copy should not imply MUTA membership. +- **No specific named-venue references** to publish at this point. Location pages will need to differentiate on route, drive time, area characteristic and trading-record, not on named venues. +- **The royal-wedding line is dropped** from public copy. The sidebar CTA has been replaced with the £10m / family-run / in-house-team line. --- @@ -138,8 +131,8 @@ The honest part. These are the gaps a buyer comparing Complete Marquees against | Industry-standard credential | On the site? | Notes | |---|---|---| -| **MUTA membership** | Not advertised | No mention found anywhere on the site. Either uphold or pursue. | -| **Public liability insurance — £5 m / £10 m** | Not advertised | No insurance cover figure stated. Most competitors quote it on the homepage. | +| **MUTA membership** | Not held (owner-confirmed) | The single biggest external trade-body gap. Pursue if commercially viable; do not imply it in copy. | +| **Public liability insurance — £5 m / £10 m** | Held: £10m (owner-confirmed). Not yet displayed on the site. | Above the £5m wedding-tier baseline. Surface on every page; certificate available on request. | | **BS EN 13782:2015 compliance documentation** | Not advertised | Applies to ≥50 m² tents. Three of four Capri sizes qualify. | | **Fire-retardancy certification (BS 7837 / DIN 4102 B1)** | Not advertised | Wedding venues frequently ask for the certificate. | | **Wind-loading certificates / structural calcs** | Not advertised | Standard ask for any pitch on a council-licensed site. | @@ -165,10 +158,10 @@ Several "claims" in earlier drafts of this document also need hedging: | Tier | Examples | Typical credentials | 80-guest price band | |---|---|---|---| | **Wedding-luxury / MUTA-tier** | Lewis Marquees, Monaco Marquees, Alresford Marquees, County Marquees | MUTA member, £5-10 m PL, BS EN 13782 docs, fire certs, branded styling, traditional canvas-pole and clearspan stock, dedicated wedding planner | £2,000-£3,600+ | -| **Regional mid-market / value** | **Complete Marquees**, many comparable Capri specialists | Limited company, geographic phone, public prices, in-house install, family-run, 15-25 yrs trading, Capri / Pagoda fleet, no MUTA / insurance disclosure visible | £900-£1,400 | +| **Regional mid-market / value** | **Complete Marquees**, many comparable Capri specialists | Limited company, geographic phone, public prices, in-house install, family-run, 15-25 yrs trading, Capri / Pagoda fleet. **Complete Marquees specifically: £10m PL cover, no MUTA membership.** | £900-£1,400 | | **Hobbyist / back-garden / one-van** | Bark.com listings, Facebook-Marketplace operators, seasonal | Sole trader, mobile only, no fixed address, on-the-phone pricing, often no insurance, often no contract | £400-£900 | -Complete Marquees clearly belongs in the middle tier and should pitch from there. The honest sell is **"professional, transparently-priced, family-run regional operator with 24 years on the books"** — not "wedding-luxury" and not "the cheapest tent in your back garden". Trying to compete with the top tier without addressing the gaps in section 5 will get caught out by any moderately diligent customer; trying to compete with the bottom tier on price will erode the very trading record that's the company's main asset. +Complete Marquees clearly belongs in the middle tier and should pitch from there. The honest sell is **"professional, transparently-priced, family-run regional operator with 24 years on the books and £10m public liability cover"** — not "wedding-luxury" and not "the cheapest tent in your back garden". The £10m PL is the single strongest line item separating Complete Marquees from the rest of the mid-market — it matches or exceeds the wedding-tier operators and dwarfs anything the back-garden hirers can show. Trying to compete with the top tier on MUTA / fabric-cert paperwork without holding those credentials will get caught out by any moderately diligent customer; trying to compete with the bottom tier on price will erode the very trading record and insurance position that are the company's main assets. --- @@ -177,15 +170,15 @@ Complete Marquees clearly belongs in the middle tier and should pitch from there Roughly in order of effort:value. 1. **Verify and publish the Companies House entry** with a direct link from the site footer. Confirm the number 1090110 resolves correctly and the company status is active. -2. **Publish the public liability cover figure** (with the certificate available on request). If the cover is below £5 m, increase it. +2. **Publish the £10m public liability cover figure on every page** (with the certificate available on request). The figure is held; it just isn't yet on the site. This is the highest-leverage single content change available. 3. **Get fire-retardancy certificates from the fabric supplier** scanned and available on request; mention them on the FAQ. -4. **Pursue MUTA membership** if not already held. The eligibility threshold (>2 years trading, code of practice) is comfortably met. Membership immediately closes the largest gap against the wedding-tier competition. +4. **Consider MUTA membership.** Confirmed not held. The eligibility threshold (>2 years trading, code of practice) is comfortably met. Membership would close the largest remaining gap against the wedding-tier competition. A commercial decision; cost-benefit depends on how much wedding-tier work the business actively chases. 5. **Move email from `@gmail.com` to `@completemarquees.co.uk`** — a one-day job that materially raises perceived professionalism. 6. **Publish a one-page terms-of-business / standard contract** (deposit, cancellation, weather, ground damage, customer obligations) so customers can read the agreement before enquiring. 7. **Add a site-visit offer** to the booking flow. It removes the biggest red flag consumer guides warn about. 8. **Replace the AI-generated paragraphs** on the home, about, weddings, parties, corporate, sizes, packages, gallery and Hampshire pages. The smoking gun is on the gallery page (`capri-marquee-hire.html`) where raw ChatGPT conversation HTML — including `data-message-model-slug="gpt-5-3"` — has been pasted into the source. A diligent customer Googling phrases from the site can find this, and it directly undermines every other trust signal. 9. **Solicit five fresh, recent (2024-2026), named, photographed customer reviews** and embed them with structured data. The existing four are warm but undated. -10. **Reword the "royal wedding" sidebar line** for clarity, per section 3 above. +10. ~~**Reword the "royal wedding" sidebar line**~~ — done. The sidebar copy on every page now reads *"Family-run from Havant since 2002, with £10m public liability cover and our own install team."* 11. **Add an owner / team page** introducing David and Joanne by name with a photograph and a one-paragraph bio for each (years in the trade, role split — bookings vs workshop / install). The named-owner signal in the testimonial is strong; making the husband-and-wife ownership explicit on the site is stronger, and it directly neutralises the "anonymous van and a website" objection. --- @@ -193,9 +186,9 @@ Roughly in order of effort:value. ## 8. Notes for marketing copy - The strongest verifiable line for the homepage hero is something like: - *"Family-run from Havant since 2002, with 27 towns covered across Hampshire, Surrey and West Sussex — a Capri and Pagoda specialist for weddings, parties, corporate days and community events."* + *"Family-run from Havant since 2002. Twenty-seven towns covered across Hampshire, Surrey and West Sussex. £10 million public liability cover. Capri and Pagoda specialist for weddings, parties, corporate days and community events."* - The "Dear Joanne" testimonial is the single most persuasive piece of content on the site and should be quoted in full somewhere prominent. - The honest FAQ constraints (no crepe paper, weatherproof-but-not-stormproof, must be flat grass) are an asset and should not be rewritten by anything that smooths them out. -- Drop the literal phrase "royal wedding" from headline copy; rework as section 3. -- Lead with **transparent pricing** as the differentiator vs the bottom of the market. Lead with **24 years of operating record + named owner + published company number** as the differentiator vs anyone less established. -- Do **not** try to lead with "experience" alone — the MUTA-tier competition can match or beat the years-trading number and back it with insurance and accreditation paperwork that Complete Marquees currently can't display. +- The royal-wedding line is dropped from public copy. Do not reintroduce. +- Lead with **transparent pricing** and **£10 million public liability cover** as the differentiators vs the bottom of the market. Lead with **24 years on the books, named husband-and-wife owners, and the £10m PL** as the differentiators vs anyone less established. +- The £10m PL line is the single most useful sentence to add to every page. It is verifiable on demand, materially uncommon at this price tier, and immediately answers the unspoken question planners have ("what happens if it blows over?"). diff --git a/LOCATION-PAGES-PLAN.md b/LOCATION-PAGES-PLAN.md index db9a44b..b119ed6 100644 --- a/LOCATION-PAGES-PLAN.md +++ b/LOCATION-PAGES-PLAN.md @@ -121,12 +121,8 @@ After phase 1: the corpus is no longer self-evidently AI-generated to a casual r Five-or-so pages per PR keeps each one reviewable. Rough effort: 30 minutes of writing per page once the boilerplate is shared, so a batch of five is half a day. -### Phase 5 — SEO consolidation review -After phases 1-4 are done, sit down with the owner and look at what's actually unique on each page. Pages that ended up with a generic two-line lead because we genuinely have no real specifics for them should be considered for consolidation. Two options for the consolidation candidates: -- Merge into a parent "Surrey marquee hire" or "Hampshire marquee hire" page with a town-by-town section. -- Keep as a thin redirect to the parent, preserving the URL. - -This decision is best taken with the owner, and only after the genuine-content pass in phase 4 has shown which pages we can credibly fill out and which we can't. +### Phase 5 — dropped +Owner has confirmed all 27 pages stay. Plan ends at phase 4. --- @@ -189,17 +185,17 @@ A practical checklist for each page during phase 1 and phase 4: --- -## 8. Open questions for the owner +## 8. Owner answers (captured) -These need answering before phase 3 (writing the model page) starts. They are the difference between credible local pages and generic doorway pages. +The gating questions from the first draft, with owner answers folded in: -1. **Which towns have you actually delivered in?** All 27, or are some aspirational? An honest list of where we have and haven't worked is the first input. -2. **Per town we have worked in: any specific venues, parks, halls, estates, fêtes or recurring events you can name?** Even one per town transforms a generic page into a useful one. -3. **Drive time / route from Havant to each main town** — happy to derive these mechanically (A3 / A31 / M27 / A27 / A3(M)) if that's easier than asking. -4. **Do we want all 27 pages or are you open to consolidating the smaller ones?** This is the phase-5 question and worth flagging early so we don't over-invest in pages that get merged. -5. **MUTA membership status** — do we have it? If yes, surface it on every page. If we're pursuing it, hold the work until it lands. -6. **Public liability cover figure** — what is it, and can we put it on every page? -7. **The royal wedding context** — do you want to keep referencing it at all? The honest phrasing is fine but uses a sentence's worth of attention; if you'd rather lean on the 2002-onwards trading record and the named testimonials, that's a defensible choice too. +1. **All 27 towns have genuinely been delivered in.** None are aspirational. The trading record is real. ✓ +2. **No specific named venues to publish at this point.** Each location page will have to differentiate on route, drive time, area characteristic and trading-record rather than on named venues. The follow-up ask is in section 11 below. ⚠ +3. **Drive times and routes** will be derived mechanically from Havant (A3 / A3(M) / A27 / M27 / A31 / A24 / M3) since no per-town venue data is available. ✓ +4. **Keep all 27 pages.** Phase 5 (consolidation) is dropped. The plan now ends at phase 4. ✓ +5. **No MUTA membership.** Honest copy must not imply otherwise. The gap stays in EEAT-CREDENTIALS.md section 5; commercial decision on whether to pursue. ✗ +6. **£10 million public liability cover.** This is a strong line — double the £5m wedding-tier baseline. Surface on every page from phase 1 onwards. ✓ +7. **The royal wedding line is dropped** from public copy. The sidebar CTA has been replaced with the £10m / family-run / in-house-team line in `_includes/sidebar-cta.html`. ✓ --- @@ -226,10 +222,82 @@ Every page after phase 4 should pass all of these checks: | Phase | Scope | Effort estimate | Deliverable | |---|---|---|---| -| 1 | Strip ChatGPT artefacts, em-dashes, emojis, royal-wedding wording | Half a day | One PR, mechanical | -| 2 | Refactor boilerplate into 3 new shared includes | Half a day | One PR, structural | -| 3 | Pilot model page (Havant or Portsmouth or Guildford) | One day with owner input | One PR, sets the bar | +| 1 | Strip ChatGPT artefacts, em-dashes, emojis. Surface £10m PL on every page. (Royal-wedding sidebar already done.) | Half a day | One PR, mechanical | +| 2 | Refactor boilerplate into shared includes (credentials, rules, packages CTA) | Half a day | One PR, structural | +| 3 | Pilot model page (Havant or Portsmouth or Guildford) | Half a day | One PR, sets the bar | | 4 | Roll out to remaining 26 pages in 3 batches | Two to three days | Three PRs | -| 5 | SEO consolidation review with owner | One sitting | Decision doc + redirects PR | -Total: roughly a week of focused work, broken into reviewable PRs. Phase 1 alone visibly improves the site in an afternoon and is worth doing first regardless of what's decided about the rest. +Phase 5 (consolidation) is dropped per owner direction. Total: roughly four days of focused work across six PRs. + +Phase 1 alone visibly improves the site in an afternoon and is worth doing first regardless of how phases 2-4 are sequenced. + +--- + +## 11. Thin-page risk and per-town asks + +Without named venue references (per owner answer 2 above), every location page is differentiated only by route, drive time, area type, and the standard EEAT block. For the bigger commercial centres this is enough — the area itself supplies content. For smaller commuter villages the lead paragraph risks being little more than "we drive to X from Havant". + +The list below sorts the 27 pages into three risk tiers and notes what's writable today versus what could transform each page if even one detail per town is supplied. + +### Tier A — area itself supplies content (writable now, no owner input needed) +Fourteen pages. The area, distance, road or characteristic gives the lead naturally: + +| Page | Lead anchors | +|---|---| +| `hampshire.html` | County overview, our home county. | +| `surrey.html` | County overview, the routes north of Havant up the A3. | +| `portsmouth.html` | Adjacent to Havant; where the geographic phone rings. The Solent, the naval city. | +| `southampton.html` | Port city, M27 west, the university. | +| `winchester.html` | Cathedral city, county town, M3 corridor. | +| `salisbury.html` | Cathedral city, A36 / A30 over the Wiltshire border. | +| `chichester.html` | Roman walled city, A27 east, the festival theatre, the Goodwood country. | +| `bournemouth.html` | Coast, A31 west into Dorset, Sandbanks side. | +| `aldershot.html` | Army garrison town, A331. | +| `reading.html` | Thames Valley, M4 / A33, Berkshire edge of the area. | +| `guildford.html` | Surrey county town, North Downs, A3 north. | +| `woking.html` | Surrey commuter belt, A3 / A320. | +| `basingstoke.html` | Big commercial centre, M3 north, business parks. | +| `andover.html` | North Hampshire market town, A303 / A343. | + +### Tier B — writable but thinner without specifics +Seven pages. Real content is available on route and area type; one specific from the owner per town would meaningfully thicken each. + +| Page | Lead anchors today | One owner specific that would transform it | +|---|---|---| +| `fareham.html` | Between Portsmouth and Southampton, M27 corridor. | A garden / estate / hall we've delivered to, or a recurring local event. | +| `camberley.html` | Surrey / Hampshire border, near Sandhurst, M3. | Any military / officers' mess / private regimental event we can credibly reference (without breaching client confidence). | +| `dorking.html` | North Downs, Box Hill country, A24. | A named house, garden, or village fête we've covered. | +| `epsom.html` | Surrey, the Downs, racecourse country. | A garden party, a private event around Derby week, anything outside the racecourse itself. | +| `godalming.html` | River Wey, Charterhouse country. | A village name, a recurring summer event, or a school / charity job. | +| `wokingham.html` | Berkshire commuter, M4 corridor. | Any named event or area we've worked. | +| `crawley.html` | West Sussex, Gatwick edge. | A corporate / business-park job, or a private garden in the surrounding villages. | + +### Tier C — at genuine risk of being thin +Six pages. The lead is sustainable on route and Surrey-belt characterisation, but each is small enough that without one detail the page reads as a near-duplicate of the next one. + +| Page | Lead anchors today | One owner specific that would transform it | +|---|---|---| +| `cobham.html` | Small Surrey village, A3 corridor, large gardens, big-house country. | A named estate, garden, or recurring event we've delivered to. | +| `oxshott.html` | Very small Surrey village near Cobham, big-garden territory. | Any named estate, garden, charity day, or recurring event. | +| `esher.html` | Surrey, near the racecourse, A3 corridor. | Same — anything off the racecourse itself. | +| `chessington.html` | Surrey, A3 / A243. | A garden party, school event, village fête, anything outside the theme park. | +| `leatherhead.html` | M25 / A24 junction, Surrey. | A street, a school, an estate, a recurring event. | +| `sutton.html` | London edge of our coverage area, A24 / A3 link. | Any named estate, garden, recurring event, or the most distant job we've actually delivered into. | + +### What we'd ideally get from the owner + +Even one of any of these per Tier B/C town transforms the page from generic to credible: + +- A first-name memory of a job ("the Hardisty wedding in Cobham, the church fête in Oxshott"). +- A named house, estate, garden centre or hall we've set up at. +- A recurring event we cover (an annual fête, a regimental do, a charity fundraiser). +- A single street, area or village name within the town that customers come from. +- A funny or memorable job ("the one in Esher where the dog ate the matting") — even an anonymised anecdote. +- A landmark we use as a delivery reference ("a garden behind the church", "off the Portsmouth Road past the petrol station"). + +Send these in any form — text message, voice note, scribble. We take what comes in, paraphrase it into the house voice, and slot it into the relevant lead paragraph during phase 4. + +If nothing comes in, every page is still writable. They just won't be the version of the page they could be. + +### A separate observation: the £330 sidebar price +While editing the sidebar in this work, the second CTA card still reads *"Packages from only £330"*. The cheapest currently-published package on `packages.html` is **£390 + VAT** (25-guest standing-only). The £330 figure is either out of date or a different basis (single-marquee minimum, perhaps). Worth checking with the owner and aligning before phase 1 is published — the wrong figure on every page is a small but real credibility leak. diff --git a/_includes/sidebar-cta.html b/_includes/sidebar-cta.html index 060acbc..859ac3d 100644 --- a/_includes/sidebar-cta.html +++ b/_includes/sidebar-cta.html @@ -1,7 +1,7 @@
- From small gatherings to a royal wedding, we have the right marquee whatever the event. + Family-run from Havant since 2002, with £10m public liability cover and our own install team.
Packages from only From 1b7e8d106c7dac228fb4631999ee588ec60dcb35 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Claude Date: Mon, 11 May 2026 10:09:53 +0000 Subject: [PATCH 10/11] Add OWNER-QUESTIONS.md: shortlist for David and Joanne MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit A plain-language list of 33 questions to pass to the owners, ordered roughly by impact and written in the house voice (per VOICE.md) so it reads as a normal note rather than a survey form. Grouped into eight sections: 1. Insurance and paperwork (PL certificate, fire-retardancy, other accreditations) - the biggest single trust unlock 2. The two of them - photos and short bios for an owner / team page 3. How they actually work - site visits, lead times, deposit / cancellation / weather terms, payment methods 4. The £330 sidebar mystery (sidebar shows from £330, packages page shows from £390 plus VAT) 5. Towns we'd love a specific for - the 13 Tier B/C towns from LOCATION-PAGES-PLAN.md section 11, presented as a fill-in table 6. Recent jobs and recent customers - new photos and fresh testimonials to replace the four undated ones currently on the site 7. Towns to add or drop - in particular flagging that Havant itself doesn't have a page 8. Voice and last bits - things we shouldn't say, things they do say worth picking up, and the Gmail vs domain-email decision Essentials are marked so they can prioritise. Excluded from the site build alongside the other internal docs. https://claude.ai/code/session_01WhGXZskvCs5L8GjSveZKFw --- OWNER-QUESTIONS.md | 83 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ scripts/consts.js | 1 + 2 files changed, 84 insertions(+) create mode 100644 OWNER-QUESTIONS.md diff --git a/OWNER-QUESTIONS.md b/OWNER-QUESTIONS.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6ece2fe --- /dev/null +++ b/OWNER-QUESTIONS.md @@ -0,0 +1,83 @@ +--- +permalink: false +eleventyExcludeFromCollections: true +--- + +# Questions for David and Joanne + +Hi both, + +A list of things that would help us tighten up the website. Reply in any form you like, text message, voice note, scribble on the back of a delivery slip, whatever's easiest. We'll take what you give us and write it up. + +Some of these are quick, some take a bit of digging. They're roughly ordered from most useful first. The ones marked **(essential)** are the ones we really need before the next round of work. + +--- + +## 1. Insurance and paperwork + +1. **(essential)** Who's the £10 million public liability with, and have you got a copy of the certificate we can show customers on request? A scan or photo of the certificate is fine. We'd put "insured to £10 million, certificate available on request" on every page. +2. Renewal date on the PL policy, roughly. Helps us make sure copy doesn't go stale. +3. Does the marquee fabric carry a fire-retardancy certificate from the supplier? BS 7837 or DIN 4102 B1 are the usual ones. If you've got a paper or PDF from whoever sold you the marquees, that's what we're after. +4. Anything else you've signed up to that we could mention. SafeContractor? CHAS? Construction Line? Any council approved-supplier lists? + +## 2. The two of you + +5. **(essential)** A photo of each of you. Phone snaps are fine. Standing next to a marquee, holding a mug of tea, doesn't matter, just something honest. +6. Three or four sentences each on how you got into this and what you do day to day. David, are you mainly workshop and install? Joanne, mainly bookings and customers? Or does it overlap? We're trying to put a face to the business rather than another anonymous "team page". +7. Anyone else permanent on the install team you'd want named on the site? + +## 3. How you actually work + +8. Do you offer to come and look at the garden before someone books? Is that free, by appointment, weekends, weekdays? A planner reading the site wants to know. +9. Typical lead time on a booking, roughly. Weeks? Months? Different for weddings vs other events? +10. Deposit, cancellation, weather. Do you have a one-page set of standard terms we could publish? If not, a couple of bullet points on each from you and we'll draft something for you to approve. +11. Payment methods you take. Bank transfer? Card? Cheque? + +## 4. The £330 sidebar + +12. **(essential)** The right-hand sidebar on every page currently says *"Packages from only £330"*. The cheapest package on the prices page is £390 plus VAT. Is the £330 out of date, or is it a different basis (marquee-only, smallest possible hire, etc.)? Quick word and we'll line them up. + +## 5. Towns we'd love a specific or two for + +These are the smaller commuter-belt towns where the location page risks reading the same as the next one. Even one specific per town transforms it. Things that count as a specific: a first-name memory of a job ("the Reynolds wedding in Cobham"), a named hall, garden, church or estate we set up at, a recurring event we cover (an annual fête, a regimental do, a charity fundraiser), a street or area name within the town, a delivery landmark we use ("the garden behind the church", "off the Portsmouth Road past the petrol station"), or an anecdote you remember. + +Anonymise where you want to. Don't worry about polish, we'll do that bit. + +| Town | Any specific? | +|---|---| +| 13. Fareham | | +| 14. Camberley | | +| 15. Dorking | | +| 16. Epsom | | +| 17. Godalming | | +| 18. Wokingham | | +| 19. Crawley | | +| 20. Cobham | | +| 21. Oxshott | | +| 22. Esher | | +| 23. Chessington | | +| 24. Leatherhead | | +| 25. Sutton | | + +## 6. Recent jobs and recent customers + +26. Any recent (last year or two) photos of marquees in place that you'd be happy on the site? Setup shots, evening shots, full-marquee shots, anything you've taken on the phone after pegging out the last guy line. +27. Five customers from 2024 to 2026 who'd be willing to send us a couple of sentences for the testimonials page, ideally with a first name and a town. The four testimonials currently on the site are warm but undated and starting to look old. +28. Anything notable you've done lately worth a quick mention. We don't need names, "a marquee for a fiftieth in Salisbury, sixty guests, a Saturday in June" is enough. + +## 7. Towns to add or drop + +29. Anywhere we go regularly that doesn't have a page on the site yet? Havant itself doesn't have one and probably should. Petersfield, Liphook, Liss, Alton, Petworth, Midhurst, anywhere else? +30. Anywhere on the current list of 27 towns you'd rather drop, either because you don't actually go there or because the travel doesn't suit anymore? + +## 8. Voice and last bits + +31. Anything we should not say on the site. Words you don't use, claims you don't want to make. We've already pulled "royal wedding" off after our chat. +32. Anything you do say to customers on the phone that's worth us picking up. Catchphrases, the way you describe the kit, the bits about flooring or weather you find yourself explaining every other call. +33. Email address. Do you want to keep `completemarquee@gmail.com` or switch to something at `@completemarquees.co.uk`? The Gmail address is fine but a domain-aligned one reads as more professional to corporate planners. Half a day to set up. + +--- + +That's the list. Whichever bits you can do, in whatever order, will move the site on. The towns table in section 5 is the biggest content unlock for the location pages, and the insurance certificate in section 1 is the biggest single trust unlock site-wide. + +No rush. We'll write up whatever comes back. diff --git a/scripts/consts.js b/scripts/consts.js index 0a54955..0a15fe5 100644 --- a/scripts/consts.js +++ b/scripts/consts.js @@ -22,6 +22,7 @@ export const sourceExcludes = [ "VOICE.md", "EEAT-CREDENTIALS.md", "LOCATION-PAGES-PLAN.md", + "OWNER-QUESTIONS.md", "scripts", "node_modules", "package*.json", From c27aa63f1e63253997e9bddf9f6552e9ba5009cd Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Claude Date: Mon, 11 May 2026 10:26:32 +0000 Subject: [PATCH 11/11] Remove OWNER-QUESTIONS.md (sent to customer) The owner questionnaire has been sent. Removing the working copy from the repo and dropping its sourceExcludes entry. https://claude.ai/code/session_01WhGXZskvCs5L8GjSveZKFw --- OWNER-QUESTIONS.md | 83 ---------------------------------------------- scripts/consts.js | 1 - 2 files changed, 84 deletions(-) delete mode 100644 OWNER-QUESTIONS.md diff --git a/OWNER-QUESTIONS.md b/OWNER-QUESTIONS.md deleted file mode 100644 index 6ece2fe..0000000 --- a/OWNER-QUESTIONS.md +++ /dev/null @@ -1,83 +0,0 @@ ---- -permalink: false -eleventyExcludeFromCollections: true ---- - -# Questions for David and Joanne - -Hi both, - -A list of things that would help us tighten up the website. Reply in any form you like, text message, voice note, scribble on the back of a delivery slip, whatever's easiest. We'll take what you give us and write it up. - -Some of these are quick, some take a bit of digging. They're roughly ordered from most useful first. The ones marked **(essential)** are the ones we really need before the next round of work. - ---- - -## 1. Insurance and paperwork - -1. **(essential)** Who's the £10 million public liability with, and have you got a copy of the certificate we can show customers on request? A scan or photo of the certificate is fine. We'd put "insured to £10 million, certificate available on request" on every page. -2. Renewal date on the PL policy, roughly. Helps us make sure copy doesn't go stale. -3. Does the marquee fabric carry a fire-retardancy certificate from the supplier? BS 7837 or DIN 4102 B1 are the usual ones. If you've got a paper or PDF from whoever sold you the marquees, that's what we're after. -4. Anything else you've signed up to that we could mention. SafeContractor? CHAS? Construction Line? Any council approved-supplier lists? - -## 2. The two of you - -5. **(essential)** A photo of each of you. Phone snaps are fine. Standing next to a marquee, holding a mug of tea, doesn't matter, just something honest. -6. Three or four sentences each on how you got into this and what you do day to day. David, are you mainly workshop and install? Joanne, mainly bookings and customers? Or does it overlap? We're trying to put a face to the business rather than another anonymous "team page". -7. Anyone else permanent on the install team you'd want named on the site? - -## 3. How you actually work - -8. Do you offer to come and look at the garden before someone books? Is that free, by appointment, weekends, weekdays? A planner reading the site wants to know. -9. Typical lead time on a booking, roughly. Weeks? Months? Different for weddings vs other events? -10. Deposit, cancellation, weather. Do you have a one-page set of standard terms we could publish? If not, a couple of bullet points on each from you and we'll draft something for you to approve. -11. Payment methods you take. Bank transfer? Card? Cheque? - -## 4. The £330 sidebar - -12. **(essential)** The right-hand sidebar on every page currently says *"Packages from only £330"*. The cheapest package on the prices page is £390 plus VAT. Is the £330 out of date, or is it a different basis (marquee-only, smallest possible hire, etc.)? Quick word and we'll line them up. - -## 5. Towns we'd love a specific or two for - -These are the smaller commuter-belt towns where the location page risks reading the same as the next one. Even one specific per town transforms it. Things that count as a specific: a first-name memory of a job ("the Reynolds wedding in Cobham"), a named hall, garden, church or estate we set up at, a recurring event we cover (an annual fête, a regimental do, a charity fundraiser), a street or area name within the town, a delivery landmark we use ("the garden behind the church", "off the Portsmouth Road past the petrol station"), or an anecdote you remember. - -Anonymise where you want to. Don't worry about polish, we'll do that bit. - -| Town | Any specific? | -|---|---| -| 13. Fareham | | -| 14. Camberley | | -| 15. Dorking | | -| 16. Epsom | | -| 17. Godalming | | -| 18. Wokingham | | -| 19. Crawley | | -| 20. Cobham | | -| 21. Oxshott | | -| 22. Esher | | -| 23. Chessington | | -| 24. Leatherhead | | -| 25. Sutton | | - -## 6. Recent jobs and recent customers - -26. Any recent (last year or two) photos of marquees in place that you'd be happy on the site? Setup shots, evening shots, full-marquee shots, anything you've taken on the phone after pegging out the last guy line. -27. Five customers from 2024 to 2026 who'd be willing to send us a couple of sentences for the testimonials page, ideally with a first name and a town. The four testimonials currently on the site are warm but undated and starting to look old. -28. Anything notable you've done lately worth a quick mention. We don't need names, "a marquee for a fiftieth in Salisbury, sixty guests, a Saturday in June" is enough. - -## 7. Towns to add or drop - -29. Anywhere we go regularly that doesn't have a page on the site yet? Havant itself doesn't have one and probably should. Petersfield, Liphook, Liss, Alton, Petworth, Midhurst, anywhere else? -30. Anywhere on the current list of 27 towns you'd rather drop, either because you don't actually go there or because the travel doesn't suit anymore? - -## 8. Voice and last bits - -31. Anything we should not say on the site. Words you don't use, claims you don't want to make. We've already pulled "royal wedding" off after our chat. -32. Anything you do say to customers on the phone that's worth us picking up. Catchphrases, the way you describe the kit, the bits about flooring or weather you find yourself explaining every other call. -33. Email address. Do you want to keep `completemarquee@gmail.com` or switch to something at `@completemarquees.co.uk`? The Gmail address is fine but a domain-aligned one reads as more professional to corporate planners. Half a day to set up. - ---- - -That's the list. Whichever bits you can do, in whatever order, will move the site on. The towns table in section 5 is the biggest content unlock for the location pages, and the insurance certificate in section 1 is the biggest single trust unlock site-wide. - -No rush. We'll write up whatever comes back. diff --git a/scripts/consts.js b/scripts/consts.js index 0a15fe5..0a54955 100644 --- a/scripts/consts.js +++ b/scripts/consts.js @@ -22,7 +22,6 @@ export const sourceExcludes = [ "VOICE.md", "EEAT-CREDENTIALS.md", "LOCATION-PAGES-PLAN.md", - "OWNER-QUESTIONS.md", "scripts", "node_modules", "package*.json",