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Published 27 Dec 2023, 08:51 GMT

Official UK procurement notice

Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) Services

Official notice

Authority: Transport for Wales (Public body)

ServicesOpen procedureSME suitable
Sectors: IT Services & Software (72) Delivery: Wales (UKL)
Published estimate£360,000exc. VAT
Submissions closed 26 Jan 2024awarded 12 Sept 2024
Awarded to N21 GROUP LIMITED

What is being bought

Published requirement description

2.1 This contract will help us develop and build our SEO strategy and deliver key SEO activities over a long-term relationship to cement our position as the go to organisation for travel in Wales and the borders.

2.2 Our key objectives are to Increase revenue, Enhance customer experience and Drive modal shift.

As our SEO partner this may take the form of:

  • Building a solid Technical SEO platform. To ensure that the tfw.wales website is functioning as fast and as smooth as possible to be able to support demand of traffic levels and use of different devices.
  • Assessing on site SEO. To ensure we are found by users, important content is visible and the information is available and clear.
  • Identifying off site SEO opportunities and helping us leverage them.

2.3 As an organization we have a portfolio of 30+ websites/apps that are under our control. We’re currently in the middle of our ‘1 domain’ project which involves us closing down our subsites and absorbing them into our main website (tfw.wales) to create a ‘one stop shop’ website and app for users in Wales and the borders. Throughout this strategy we’ll need support to boost our main site’s SEO performance as well as optimizing the integration process as subsites are absorbed.

2.4 We’re responsible for ensuring all of our digital estate is available completely in Welsh, accessible, on brand and user friendly. The appointed SEO agency would be expected to take these criteria into account for any strategy, tactics or actions recommended or undertaken.

2.5 Main sites:

  • Tfw.wales | trc.cymru – This is our main website that we wish to maintain and build authority for.
  • tickets.trc.cymru/ | tocynnau.trc.cymru/

Our booking engine site that will also need to be maintained, however we wish to funnel users in via tfw.wales.

2.6 Subsites: Here is a selection of our smaller sites that will be absorbed, there may be others as our strategy progresses.

2.7 We’re looking to appoint a partner to help us build our SEO strategy and deliver the requirements of this contract with the following key areas of focus:

 1. Strategic SEO direction and specialist expertise

 2. Technical SEO activities

 3. Onsite SEO activities

 4. Offsite SEO activities

 5. General activities

  • Recurrence: The earliest of date procurement will be in three years following contract award.

CPV: IT services: consulting, software development, Internet and support · Information systems or technology strategic review and planning services

The lotProcurement structure

single lot · no lot value published
Lot #12.7 We’re looking to appoint a partner to help us build our SEO strategy and deliver…AwardedRenewal

2.7 We’re looking to appoint a partner to help us build our SEO strategy and deliver the requirements of this contract with the following key areas of focus:

 1. Strategic SEO direction and specialist expertise

 2. Technical SEO activities

 3. Onsite SEO activities

 4. Offsite SEO activities

 5. General activities

  1. Strategic SEO direction and specialist expertise

 Collaborating with us to define the long-term vision of TfW’s online SEO presence.

 Collaborating with us to develop the long-term direction of our SEO strategy to help us achieve that vision.

 Develop a robust set of Key Performance Indicators for SEO performance and report on this performance regularly.

 Developing impactful SEO activity that helps to achieve our 3 key objectives outlined above and build our distinctive brand to help us own our digital space.

 Define our current keyword position and future positioning for different topics that we wish to be an authority on. Including but not limited to rail, bus, walking/wheeling and cycling in Wales.

 Providing expert advice and guidance on strategic SEO development. Including industry developments i.e. algorithm changes and how we should adapt our strategy/tactics.

 Collaborating with stakeholders and our network of experts / specialists across other brand and marketing activities to ensure campaign work is maximized for SEO impact. For example collaborating with our campaigns agency Golley Slater to ensure marketing campaigns are optimized for SEO.

 Drawing on best-in-class knowledge and expertise by working with specialist advisers, agencies, consultants, and suppliers when needed. For example coordinating with third party UI/UX experts to help us undertake audits of areas on our website.

  1. Technical SEO activities | Including but limited to

 Audit and technical assessment of our websites and provide steps to improve performance. For example, image resizing. Providing a list of images on the website that would benefit from being optimized and providing instructions for a developer or content publisher to achieve this.

 Collaborate with our development teams, both in house and third party, to fix technical SEO issues.

 Manage search consoles, submitting optimised site maps and other associated activities.

  1. Onsite SEO activities | Including but limited to

 Audit on-site content from an SEO point of view and make recommendations to improve performance and measure impact.

 Make User Experience (UX) / User Interface (UI) recommendations that will improve performance and measuring impact.

 Assessing a user journey or webpage for Conversion Rate Optimisation (CRO) making recommendations for improving performance and measuring the impact.

 Making recommendations/implementing internal linking that increases performance and measuring the impact.

 Making recommendations/implementing changes to metadata that increases performance and measuring the impact.

 Making recommendations/implementing on-brand tone of voice changes to written content to increase performance and measure the impact.

  1. Offsite SEO | Including but limited to

 Ability to effectively audit our offsite SEO performance and make recommendations to improve.

 Demonstrable experience of building backlinks with relevant and high-ranking domains.

 Demonstrable experience of digital PR with relevant and high-ranking domains increasing an aspect of authority for a given subject.

  1. General activity | Included but limited to
  • Agreement of a preferred way of working. We often work in agile sprints for website releases.
  • Agreement to a standard set of Management Information and reporting. We have Google Analytics 4 and a comprehensive dashboard set up that can provide information on the relevant KPI’s. We would ask that any supplier also uses this source of information. Additional information: Procurement documentation available via the eTender Wales platform with project code project_55250
  • Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) Services and ITT reference itt_107880
Delivery: Wales
Extensions: Option to extend for up to two periods of 12 months each.Variant bids: not allowed
72000000 IT services: consulting, software development, Internet and support72222000 Information systems or technology strategic review and planning services

What it takes to win
i

How this buyer will score bids.

The evaluation criteria and weights exactly as published on the notice, grouped by family (price, quality, social value and so on).

Evaluation split and conditions of participation as published; the tender pack may add more
How bids were scored
Quality: 70%Price: 30%
Published award criteria (2)
  • Quality: 70
  • Price: 30
Conditions of participation1
  • Suitability

    As per the tender documentation.

What this means for your bid
  • Price carries 30 of 100 points: a 10% discount moves about 3 points. The method statement decides this lot, not the discount.

Price arithmetic assumes straight proportional scoring; the tender pack may use another formula.

Procedure terms & legal framework

From the official record · publisher note attached
Procedure method
Open procedure
Legal basis
CELEX · 32014L0024 Public Contracts Regulations 2015 (Directive 2014/24/EU)
Procurement category
Services
Notice status
Awarded
Procurement threshold
Unspecified in notice
Regulatory regime
Standard
Commercial structure
Stand-alone contract (no framework)
Competition type
Competitive procedure
GPA / WTO covered
Yes (GPA)
Recurring procurement
Yes · The earliest of date procurement will be in three years following contract award.
First published
27 Dec 2023, 08:51 GMT
Last source update
7 May 2025, 12:03 BST
Award evaluation window
29 Jan 2024 – …
Authority reference
C000845.00
FTS notice number
2025/S 000-019330
Classification (CPV)
IT services: consulting, software development, Internet and supportInformation systems or technology strategic review and planning services
Delivery area
Wales (UKL)
Official registry OCID
ocds-h6vhtk-0429c3 Find a Tender
Contract terms
Electronic trading
e-invoicing allowed · electronic ordering · electronic payment
Performance terms

As per the tender documentation.

Publisher note: (WA Ref:150629)

How it was run

Official notice
Run through: Jaggaer · Who buys & how to bid on Sell2Wales
Supplier login requiredLanguage: EN, CY
Access & registration note: Free; latest Chrome/Edge/Firefox only — corporate browsers fail

Tender documents are also served through a separate tool: https://etenderwales.bravosolution.co.uk ↗

Submission deadline
26 Jan 2024, 12:00 GMT
Submission channel
{"electronicSubmission"}
Accepted languages
en, cy
Bid validity
90 days from the deadline
Bids opened
29 Jan 2024, 12:00 GMT
Detailed submission instructions & authority contactsFrom official release

etenderwales.bravosolution.co.uk ↗

Timeline

26 Jan 2024 → 7 May 2025 · 3 dates
  1. Submission deadline
    26 Jan 2024, 12:00 GMT
  2. Bids opened
    29 Jan 2024, 12:00 GMT
  3. Notice published
    7 May 2025, 12:03 BST

Notice history

1 event · 2 releases on Find a Tender
  1. Status changed to complete
    7 May 2025, 12:03 BST

Commercial outcome & contract awards

Published awards, contracts and bid statistics, not a forecast
Awards 1
Awarded value £600,0001 contract exc. VAT
Bids received 2216 from SMEs
Contracts signed 1latest 12 Sept 2024
Awarded toValueDateStatus
N21 GROUP LIMITEDSME£600,000 †—Awarded

Contracts

  • Contract 019330-2025-C000845.00-1 · N21 GROUP LIMITEDSME

    Signed
    12 Sept 2024
    Value
    £600,000
    Status
    active

Bid statistics published by the authority

BidsSMEVCSEValid bid range
22bids · 22 electronic · 1 from abroad16——

Contracting authority & participating public bodies

Transport for Wales

Contracting authorityPublic bodyBody governed by public lawTransportation 3 Llys Cadwyn, Taff Street, Pontypridd, Wales, CF37 4THContact email, phone Published organisation website ↗

Dispute resolution & review bodies

  • High CourtReview body LondonContact phone

Bidders & participating suppliers

1 commercial party on the notice
  • N21 GROUP LIMITEDAwarded supplier 166 Brinkburn Street, Newcastle upon Tyne, North East, NE62ARContact phone

Official documents & specifications (2)

Official links; attachments are not copied

Tender pack and attachments

  • Economic and financial selection criteriatenderEconomic and financial selection criteria
  • Technical selection criteriatenderTechnical selection criteria