Exciting Changes to Quoakle.com!

Yes we can safely say that there has been a lot of tweaking going on on our directory! Tim C Davis has recently taken over the reins from Tim Coysh and is now going full steam ahead with the ongoing work. We are very thankful to Tim Coysh for his input but due to working schedules, it was deemed impossible for him to continue. Thankfully Tim C Davis has stepped into the breach. We know it has taken a long time to get to this stage, but elegance can take time to be revealed!

Sadly, Tim C Davis will be leaving for Oz in a couple of weeks time, and will be away for a few months (What will we do without him??) so, it looks like Sean and Nigel will have to contribute to the realisation of a dream... a NEW and IMPROVED quoakle.com directory!!

See a snapshot below of what is to come!

Summer Holidays

It is hard to believe that we are right in the middle of the summer holidays already and yet the weather has been somewhat of a disappointment so far!

It seems that we have also been on a summer holiday ourselves, considering it has been awhile since our last blog! Nigel and Tim have been busy while Sean had been on another of his epic Scandinavian adventures. Our clients, Greenfield Garden Services are currently in the middle of having a brand new website.

Our Great Days Out UK directory has also had a number of updates over the last month or two! All of our paying clients will have additional text on their advertising links. We are hoping this will make our Google listing more competitive as well as increasing the number of visitors to our website.

Here is how one of their links will look like when you click on their logo...

Recent Developments for the Summer

Once again, the UK will be soon drenched in wall-to-wall sunshine (Well we hope so anyways)! So, as the summer is just around the corner, we thought it would be good to keep busy by continuing to tweak our directory with adding more text.

This will give our existing, paying customers more exposure. So you will see that when you click on this page here : https://www.great-days-out.co.uk/south-west-england/gloucestershire/, and then click onto one of the advertising links, for example, 'Cattle Country', you will see a box appear in the middle of your screen with the same logo but with additional text.

Have a look at the snapshot below. This is how it will look when you carry out the procedure above.

We are hoping that this will also help with our Google listing and website ranking, as we have taken a bit of a 'hit' from the latest Google algorithm and have been doing all that we can to correct it!

Stavordale

We would like to introduce to you all one of our most recent clients... Stavordale!

Over the last few weeks, we have been busy completing their new website and have had hours of conversations with the man behind the project - Mike Moran. We can now say that his website is now finished, so we thought to show you what we have done, but first, let us use an excerpt in his owns words...

Stavordale was established by Mike Moran, and is set amongst the back drop of the Stavordale Estate and Alfred'sTower between Bruton and Wincanton in Somerset.

The business was started in early 2016, and we have been amazed at how it's taken off. Offering Field Trial Training Days for groups and individuals, using our Simulated Driven Days in Somerset and Wiltshire, further afield we have offered Gundog Training Holidays in Exmoor, Somerset  and Carmarthenshire. In 2017 further holiday venues have been made available in different locations and we have added to the Field Trial Training days some Gundog Workshops suitable for the puppy through to the older more experienced dog and handler.

Not forgetting the launch of Stavordale RAW, a dog food as nature intended it, providing a fresh meat diet for your dog. With all the ingredients sourced locally, supplemented by vegetables and special blends of herbs providing the vitamins and minerals to keep your dog in top form. 

There's clearly a market for what we do, and we're delighted by the reception we've had. So to all our customers and team, thank you.

Mike

We wish his new venture every success!

May Half Term in the UK

The Half term in May is only a week or two away now - dates that most schoolchildren have probably already memorised by now!

School holidays and term times can vary depending on which part of the country you live in. However the majority of kids will have the May half term break between May 29th and June 2nd.

So, where does one go? Well, depending on where you live of course, but for starters we think the East Midlands is brilliant. The South West has got some great scenic routes. Yorkshire and the Humber is a region which you can never grow tired of and there is always something to see in Essex and Kent! The valleys in Wales are breathtaking as are the mountainous views of Scotland. Let's not forget Northern Ireland either which is fantastic in the summer! With over 64 counties in the UK to choose from, just click on Great Days Out to find out more about what these islands can offer you!

If you are not sure what you would like to do in the UK either, then you have the option to browse by Category. This gives you 12 options to choose from - from Adventure Activities too Museums and Galleries!

We are easy to find on Google and Bing by typing in specific keyword phrases like, for example, "Great Days Out" and we have no banner ads or reviews on our directory which makes the whole process in finding exciting things to do less intrusive and distracting.

Enjoy the Great Days Out this half term!

Partnering with Greenfields Garden Services

As we have stated in a previous blog, for several years now we have been working closely with Chris Snell (The Managing Director) from Greenfields Garden Services and have been very proactive in providing them a bespoke service. Some of you who reside in Gloucestershire and beyond may have seen their vans and workmen out and about.

Over the last few years, we have created a number of quality websites for them. Our latest one which is hot off the press, is Playground Equipment Supplies! If you visit the Greenfields website and click the Links webpage, you will see a number of websites. We are very grateful that we can partner with a local business and we look forward to continuing working with them for many years to come!

Here are just some of the many products below that Greenfields have on offer...

Spring Update

You may recall back on the 28th of February that we had said that Timothy C Davis, of TCD Web Design was going to Australia for 6 months, well unfortunately it never worked out and was postponed until September 2017!

Even though there has been a couple of cancellations for Tim's YWAM (Youth With a Mission) placement, he hasn't given up and all being well, will be flying out to Sydney, Australia in September after all. As stated in a couple of previous blogs, the duration will be 6 months in total and as also previously stated, he will be sorely missed!

Nigel came back from a wonderful time in New Zealand last week after being away for a few weeks. He was able to spend some time with his youngest Daughter and Son-in-law, who were expecting a baby at any moment! It was a bit of a family reunion, as Helen (wife) and Hannah (eldest daughter) were able to be there to help out and support the new addition to their family!

Sean will be flying out to Lapland from the middle of June and will be on a missions trip for almost 6 weeks in total. We trust that Great Days Out UK will carry on regardless without him!

You can see that the Quoakle team do get around and are seasoned World travellers! LOL!

Easter Greetings

What better way to start the Easter Holidays with wishing all of our clients and the people who have worked with us over the years, a very happy, peaceful Easter!

Let's also remember why we celebrate this special time of the year...

Easter, the principal festival of the Christian church year, celebrates the Resurrection of Jesus Christ on the third day after his Crucifixion. The origins of Easter date to the beginnings of Christianity, and it is probably the oldest Christian observance after the Sabbath (observed on Saturday).

Character Counter

We at Quoakle.com, would like to introduce to you all this handy little website entitled, 'Character Counter'. It is an online letter count tool. It can help you find the perfect length for documents, tweets, SEO title tags, SEO title descriptions and much more.

It can be hard to find the perfect number of characters for documents, emails, etc… The Character Count tool can help you know exactly how many characters you are writing. Just start writing in the box below and keep an eye on the number of characters as it continues to count characters for you. Once finished you can simply click the copy button to copy all your text or if your unhappy with your text you can click reset.

The tool is brought to you by TCD Web Design and Quoakle.

Great Days Out - Great Innovations

As the title of our latest Blog title suggests - once again we have been looking at ways to improve the usability and appearance of the Great Days Out directory!

You will see that instead of the current 103 x 103 advertising logo's that we have been using up until now, we have increased the sizes of the individual logo's. We believe this gives our directory a more aesthetically pleasing appearance to our users. We will be slowly rolling these out across all of the UK counties, but it will take a bit of time as there are dozens of pages to update! To have a look at just one of the new webpages, go here : Great Days Out in Gloucestershire.

We have been also letting our paying clients know of the new look and so far we have had only positive responses!

You will see that we are not just updating our existing clients' advertising links, but also the Counties banners at the bottom of our webpages.

We hope you will be enjoying our updates and our constant quest to improve our website!

Tim is going Oz! It is official!

You may recall back in August of last year, Tim Davis of TCD Web Design, was planning to fly out to Sydney, Australia to attend a YWAM (Youth With A Mission) Sports DTS (Discipleship Training School). See http://quoakle.blogspot.co.uk/2016/08/australia-beckons-for-tim.html for more info.

Well, that was unfortunately postponed BUT it looks like he will now be going to Oz in April instead!

His blog is still operating and it will tell you more about the DTS. Here : Tim Down Under

He currently still needs to raise money to get him to Australia and to take part in the lecture phase of the DTS, so here are a few links to ways that you can support him:

https://crowdfunding.justgiving.com/td-dts

https://www.paypal.me/timothycdavis/10

To find out more about YWAM click here: www.ywam.org/about-us/

Tim plans to be away for 6 months still. He will be sorely missed in the Quoakle office!

Diamond Books for Children

We would like to introduce to you all one of our clients, Diamond Books for Children! We have been helping them with Social Media as Carole, the lady behind the project, is quite new to it all. Here is an excerpt from her website so you can find out more about her :

Diamond Books is the exciting Bible-based Reading Project that aims to develop in children a love for the Bible at the same time as helping them learn to read.

Pioneered by UK Christian teacher, Carole Leah, Diamond Books seek to nourish children with Biblical resources bringing positive ideas into their lives as well as good role models to follow. The stories will delight 3-9 year olds with the antics of several modern day characters with whom they can relate.

The vision of Diamond Books is to impart to children the knowledge of God's love and purpose for their lives - with every book being like a love letter from God to a child.

She has launched several books for children as well! One being the Creation Series, as well as the Jesus Series. Her goals or "aims" are summed up nicely here : Aims.

We look forward to working alongside her...

Feedback

We hope you have found the Great Days Out in the UK informative and helpful.

If you have any comments specifically about the website, we would be grateful to receive your immediate feedback in order to help improve the service provided for you online.

As Webmasters we endeavour to keep the Great Days Out website maintained to the highest standards but may miss seeing something which you may have noticed. Comments may refer to spelling or grammar mistakes, inaccurate or out-of-date information, broken links, or problems using a particular browser.

We are still striving to make our directory as up-to-date and easy to use as possible. Tim Davis from TCD Web Design has been instrumental in implementing and updating the website and has been a key part of the team! 

It is not always easy to keep in step with the latest Google changes. Even now we are making sure that all of our websites have SSL Certification and this can be a lengthy process. The work never seems to stop!

Below is a picture of Tim about to engage in coding warfare!

Great Days Out has a new Theme!

Following on from our previous blog, we have continued with revamping the Great Days Out directory by completely re-installing a new theme to our website! This was something Tim took upon himself with his own initiative and boy have we seen the difference!

There have been considerable improvements with the functions and layout of the website. You will see that the Home page has had a tweaks. The Great Days Out Blog has now been also relaunched as the previous version was simply not good enough and was never initiated. This will now give us the opportunity to further promote our clients, as well as hopefully helping us acquire a better Google ranking.

It has been an already productive January! We will continue to do what we can to increase traffic to the directory as well as developing our other existing projects.

A little Tweak here and there

Research on how people use the internet confirms that more and more of us are using our iPhones and tablets to go online. In order to make our Great Days Out directory more easier on the eye for the user, we were able to alter the size of the county logo's as well as the category logo's, thanks to Tim's tweaking! To give you an idea of the alterations, you will see 2 pictures below. One is before the change and the other after...

Before the changes...

After the changes

You will see that the main webpage is more filled out. It only took a few minutes to do strangely enough, but it does make a difference!

Of course there are always things we can do to improve our user's experience of the website and we will continue to do so.

A New Year beckons...

Well, didn't 2016 go fast? Where does the time go?

We are slowly picking up from where we left off. One of our goals this year is to see Great Days Out perform better on the Google rankings. It does seem that Google like to change the goal posts from time to time and it does leave us second guessing as to why certain key word phrases don't appear as high as they should on Google's listings. Be assured we are doing all that we can to rectify this ongoing battle!

We are also hoping that the Quoakle directory will have gone through it's complete transformation at some point during this year! Tim Coysh has been able to do a bit of work when he has been able to carve out some time. He keeps us up-to-date. We can't confirm when the new website will be live, but we are leaving it in Tim's capable hands and we will let you know when it is the finished article!

So, it is onwards and upwards! We wish you all a prosperous and inspiring 2017!