Looking after a website is not one big job. It is lots of small right things: a broken link put back, a page that answers the question people actually ask, a check that the site still works for someone using a screen reader. Each one makes the site a little better for the people who visit it.
They are easy to put off, because nobody notices them when they are done. Bernard does. Every time you do something good for your site, he gives you a shell.
He is a hermit crab, after all. Of course he pays in shells.
Doing the right things, together
Bernard reads your site, your search results, your courses and your shop, and looks for the work that is worth doing. He prepares it on a draft. You look, and you say yes. Nothing goes live without you.
That is the partnership. He does the heavy lifting; you make the calls. The shells are how he says thank you for your part.
Your goal points the way
You pick one goal for Bernard: better Google rankings, more enquiries or bookings, more course sales, more students finishing, more sales from the shop, or simply a healthy site. Every site starts on a healthy site until you choose something else.
The goal decides what he works on first. So the jobs he puts in front of you are the ones that move your site towards what you want, and doing them is how the jar fills.
What earns a shell
The good things are the ones that make a site better to visit and easier to find:
- Keeping it healthy. The SEO audit, the link check and the accessibility checks each earn shells, once a month for each site.
- Building it up. A session where you add pages earns one, and so do your firsts: your first page, site, course, shop product, campaign or custom domain.
- Putting the time in. A long afternoon's work earns shells, and so does coming back after a quiet spell.
- Connecting your own AI. Hand Bernard your own Claude, ChatGPT or Gemini, and the connection earns you shells.
- Telling us what is wrong. When you report a problem and it is real and put right, that note earns a shell too.
The full list is in How do I earn shells?.
What a shell is not
A shell is not money, credit, points or a discount, and nobody can buy one. Nothing Bernard does ever takes one away. The jar only fills up, and it fills because you kept doing good things for your website.
See what Bernard would do with your business. Already have a website? Paste its address and he measures it up, free, and shows you the new place before you decide anything. Starting from nothing? Tell him what you are building.
Questions people ask
- What is a shell?
- A thank-you from Bernard. It lands in your jar when you do something good for your site, such as running a health check, adding a page or coming back after a quiet spell. The jar only ever fills.
- Do I spend shells when Bernard does work for me?
- No. Nothing Bernard does takes a shell, whatever the job. He prepares the work on a draft, and nothing goes live until you approve it.
- Can I buy shells, or swap them for money?
- No. Shells are not money, credit, points or a discount. Nobody can buy them. They are a record of the good things you have done for your website.
- What does my goal have to do with it?
- You pick one goal for Bernard, such as better Google rankings, more bookings or simply a healthy site. The goal decides what he works on first, so the jobs he suggests point the same way you do.