conradwalks goes .com

The Nutty Duck

www.thenuttyduck.co.uk

The only correlation I can identify between long distance walking and setting up a business is a voyage of discovery.

Since returning from Arnside to Wherever, (aborted at Wetherby), I have been embroiled in spreadsheets, business plans and the surprising complexity of setting up a viable website with links to eBay, Facebook, Twitter, You Tube and others. Most of that has been done by daughter Jill with tenacious application, but I have watched four hours of video from an Australian SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) expert, David Murray and made my contributions.

SEO covers, multi-faceted, mysterious procedures involved in persuading Google (and other search engines) to favour your website producing it on the first page when keywords are used by web browsing shoppers. Our keywords are things like, children’s clothing Cumbria, kids clothes S. Lakes, etc.

SEO is not difficult using Wordpress which incorporates HTML language in the background through text boxes and plug-ins, but it is time consuming and not for the faint-hearted. Many people will fail to  hack their way through this jungle. Others with deep pockets pay web-designers £3000, but when the website is handed over they will have little understanding of the continual maintenance and updating required. Murray emphasises that YOU are the best person to optimise your website.

We have identified a retail shop but are not sure yet about obtaining the lease - if not we will concentrate wholly on the on-line store for the moment

Our website’s design and stock content is still in embryo, but the hard won framework is in place albeit not apparent to the casual viewer. If you enter The Nutty Duck into the Google search box it now appears on the first page, as well a link to this blog because I previously used the name. The blog page we are including in The Nutty Duck site also appears separately. We have also focused on first pageing with keyword searches, but even after optimising as much as possible it takes Google time to digest.

This exercise, although interesting and absorbing is not an acceptable substitute for my long walk this summer, but I am proud of being able to take on board and enjoy new ideas and modern technology at the age of 74. Maybe I will get back to the walk for a week or ten days before the summer is out?

This is our original artwork - it may yet be modified.
If you hover over the pic. you will get a title.
 There is also hidden text which Google picks up and uses in optimisation of the site

A bit of Photoshop fun from me