Website & Copy for Nā Mea Kūpono Learning Center

Nā Mea Kūpono Learning Center is a 501c3 non-profit on the North Shore of O’ahu doing amazing work in land stewardship including eco-tourism and Hawaiian cultural education. I was so lucky to connect with Felicita Garrido through Feed the Robot, a digital marketing company Beach Bum Creative partnered with from 2020 through 2021.

When Felicita and I hopped on the phone, she was wondering about updating Nā Mea Kūpono’s existing website. It was a WordPress designed site with limited functionality, no SEO, and very little content. Together, we came up with a plan for a complete website re-design using a different platform, one that would maintain itself regularly without the challenges of plug-ins or coding. Website copy was incredibly important to Felicita and we spent several sessions discussing the mission, values, and goals of Nā Mea Kūpono Learning Center via Zoom. Once I had a strong foundational sense of the organization, I got to work on content!

Content for a Cause

Content Creation is one of the many reasons I started Beach Bum Creative. I feel so honored to work with incredible organizations like Nā Mea Kūpono. This non-profit is doing wonderful work to support our local communities, increase awareness around key issues in Hawai’i, and create a better future for our keiki (children). Plus, they educate Hawai’i visitors with guided tours and experience days!

Felicita, Stephen, and Babes Malina have been stewards of this land since 2008, and it means the world to me that they trusted me to design and write their new website. So, developing content and a design for their website was no small task.

Website and Copy Objectives Achieved:

1. Create copy that educates Hawai’i residents and visitors about their mission, values, and goals.
2. Create copy that emphasizes key Hawaiian terms with clear definitions to give website visitors a deeper understanding of this important place.
3. Choose visual collateral to compliment copy and entice website readers to visit the site.
4. Place relevant, customized CTA (call-to-action) buttons throughout the site to encourage visitor navigation.
5. Provide a visually stunning website that makes a lasting impression of the Learning Center.
6. Develop a Connect page so people can purchase a virtual video tour of the site.
7. Create a professional digital presence to support grant applications and Hawai’i funding submissions.
8. Design an easy-to-navigate website that is visually interesting, breaking down long stretches of body text with informative H2, H3, and H4 headings.
9. Utilize on-page SEO strategies to improve organic website ranking over time.
10. Format for mobile friendliness, as most website visitors would be searching from their phones.

Website and Copy Challenges

We overcame crucial challenges throughout this process, including:

Streamlining Workflow

Felicita isn’t just an amazing Educator and Steward, she’s also a skilled and dedicated farmer. One of our main challenges was finding time for to get together and review the copy and website. We overcame this challenge with a thorough onboarding, site visits (masks and temp checks required), and Zoom meetings to cut down on driving time.

I knew Felicita, like many other busy individuals pursuing their passions, didn’t have time to sit down and review multiple drafts.

I visited the site directly via appointment so I could get a full experience of this very special place. I read articles and watched videos to strengthen my understanding and put myself in the shoes of a visitor. This helped with streamlining our copy process and minimizing back-and-forth, allowing Felicita more time to do what she loves.

Articulating Hawaiian Culture and Values

Felicita Garrido, Steven Bolosan, and Babes Malina know that indigenous cultures around the world have valuable knowledge we all can learn from; however, they offer education through the lens of Hawaiian culture and values. I worked with Felicita to develop and list of definitions and their English translations so I could seamlessly integrate key Hawaiian concepts throughout the copy.

Expanding Professional Biographies

Customized biographies showcase staff, build connections, and put a story to each face. I expanded on each of the brief biographies they provided me to highlight their unique skills, valuable knowledge, and personal achievements.

I love writing biographies, because so many people are incredibly humble! With additional research and questions, I provided these talented individuals with biographies that made them feel more confident, professional, and well represented without taking up much of their time with multiple drafts.

Project Outcomes

An important part of ranking a website with a brick-and-mortar location is optimizing the GMB (Google My Business). Once we designed a new website, I utilized the copy we created to completely optimize the GMB for Nā Mea Kūpono. That means, although the website is still getting indexed by Google for organic ranking, Nā Mea Kūpono is showing up #1 in Google Geo Search for “kalo farm oahu”, “taro patch oahu”, and “taro farm oahu”.

Project Summary

I created a readable, navigable, and mobile-friendly website for Nā Mea Kūpono that showcased their unique offering and mission. I achieved this with a robust content strategy focused on Hawaiian values and themes. A highly professional website with beautiful visuals provides a digital presence for tourists and community members to visit and learn more.

My GMB optimizations put Nā Mea Kūpono’s listing in the #1 spot for primary long-tail keyword phrases. My streamlined content creation and website design process reduced needless back and forth so Steven, Felicita, and Babes could stay focused on their important work.

Visit nameakupono.org to learn more about all the amazing work this organization is doing, and share your favorite thing about it in the comments below!