At Work Evolution we’re all about Sustainability and we’re all about Breweries. Bells Brewery has just reached southern California and gives our members, Long Beach, and Southern California, the best of both worlds. Our very own Work Evolution member Sarah Bennett gives us all a look at Bells Brewery of Kalamazoo, Mi.
The things we learned in English class don't apply to writing web copy. You have to play by a new set of rules to improve your search rankings and capture your readers' attention.
Here are four tips for writing web copy to help you improve SEO, drive traffic, and maximize reader engagement.
What’s the Function of a Keyword?
This may be basic knowledge to some, and a foreign concept to others. For the sake of getting everyone on the same page, I’ll briefly explain why keywords are important and where you need to include them.
At its most basic, a keyword (either a single word or “long-tail,” meaning a phrase) signals to Google and other search engines what your piece of content is about. This is accomplished by web spiders, a program or automated script that browses the web to provide up to date data, crawling content on the web to tell search engines what’s out there.
Think of a baseball scout reporting back to MLB teams on what prospects they should consider. The baseball scout is like a web spider: s/he looks at all the prospects (content) out there and determines in which order they should be ranked; much like how Google ranks content on their results pages.
Now That I Have a Keyword, What Do I Do with It?
Once you’ve done some keyword research based on your industry and have decided upon a keyword or phrase, you need to use it correctly. Here are some keyword usage basics:
It’s also important to keep length in mind when writing your content. Case in point: there is a rough 300-word minimum for Google and other search engines to even index your piece of content. Meaning your blog post won’t rank well, or rank at all, if it’s less than 300 words long.
The reasoning behind this is that you probably can’t provide a great piece of content about your chosen keyword in less than 300 words, and Google knows it. There needs to be some meat to your post in order for it to be considered a valuable source of information.
An even better practice is to make sure your blog posts are at least 500 words long. After all, this doesn’t take a whole lot more effort than churning out 300 words, and it will inherently provide even more value to your readers.
Now, if you were the teacher’s pet back in English class and want to be Google’s teacher’s pet now, you’ll have to put in even more effort (but hey, anything worth doing is worth doing well, right?). According to an in-depth study by SEO master Neil Patel (if you don’t know who he is, follow him on Twitter ASAP), longer posts usually perform better. In fact, content that gets ranked on the first page of result pages typically exceeds 2,000 words.
The greater the word count, the more link-backs and social shares you’ll get too.
However, at the end of the day, if you’re choosing between a shorter, well-written, and informative post and a longer, adjective-and-fluff-filled post, always pick the former. No matter what, you should always prioritize quality over quantity.
Long gone are the days of four sentence paragraphs and double spaces after periods. You’re not writing for a teacher or professor anymore, you’re writing for your target audience. And above all else, the formatting of your posts should make your content incredibly easy to read.
First, start off by breaking up big chunks of text. Depending on the length of your individual sentences, these chunks (I call them that because they aren’t paragraphs in the formal sense) should be one to three sentences in length. If you skim through your article and your eyes find a big chunk of text, break it up at a natural point.
The reason you want to do this (see how I broke up this thought into two chunks?) is because people read content on the web differently than they would read a newspaper or novel. When reading content on-screen,people tend to skim. This is because if you look at a newspaper or a book, you can instantly gauge how long the piece is and therefore about how long it will take you to read. With web content, however, the only way to know the length of a piece is to scroll down to the bottom of the page.
Other formatting best practices include using:
Link building is one of the most important aspects of search engine optimization (SEO). To use Moz’s analogy, “for search engines that crawl the vast metropolis of the web, links are the streets between pages.” In other words, both internal and external links show how web pages are related to one another.
Backlinks, also called inbound links, act as votes for popularity and importance for any given piece of content. Through links, search engines “can not only analyze the popularity [of] websites and pages based on the number and popularity of pages linking to them, but also metrics like trust, spam, and authority.”
Because links are so important, it’s a good practice to incorporate both external links to others’ content as well as internal links to your own within every blog post. You should always try to incorporate at least one of each; but remember, always have links open in new tabs, not in new windows or the same tab. This way, people can open the link without it taking them away from your content.
Here are the four main takeaways from the four points of this article:
If you follow these four basic tips for writing web copy, you’ll be well on your way to gaining a following, increasing web prospects, and closing more sales.
About the Author
Introducing WE Labs Member, Amber Kandarian, a documentary filmmaker out of Fresno, California. Educated at UC Irvine in Southern California she received a B.A. in Studio Art prior to meeting Markus Manley founder of WE Labs. She has grown the DocuTheseis brand, DocuThesis and formed two other companies Docuinc and Sexy Knowledge.
Sexy Knowledge, in the founders words
Sexy Knowledge is home to the DocuThesis series videos, short documentaries that help the public digest complicated research, so you understand why it counts!
So watch the videos, read about the researchers, get involved and help research move forward to make our lives and the people around us better.
WE Lab Members Shaun Boyer and Skyler Boles are the Current champions and poster boys of SpikeBall.
Check out this write up done by RJ. Vogt (@rjvogt31) of Esquire Magazine (@Esquiremag)
The Story of Spikeball From a toy into a Sport - Esquire.
You can view it at, http://www.esquire.com/_
I talked a few friends into trying Spikeball with me at Brighton Beach. None of them had played before and only one had heard of it, but it took them 10 minutes to get the hang of it. The speed of the ball off the net and the lack of boundaries had us—grown-ass men and women—actually into it.
Slowly, the beachgoers around us started paying attention. A hairy man in a Speedo stopped searching for seashells to watch. A teenager in a Brooklyn Nets jersey asked us what we were doing. Two kids throwing a Frisbee paused to discuss if they had seen it before.
At one point, NYPD officers trundled over in their beach-tractor to check up on us. I explained the game to them, but the authorities didn’t seem to get it. Naturally, that just validated the whole afternoon.
I learned something on the sand that day—Spikeball might be the next great American backyard sport. At the very least, it beats the hell out of lawn darts.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7bubKNFVZvE
Here’s the setup: Four people, three hits, two teams, one net. Imagine if volleyball and foursquare (the kid’s game; not the app, you dweeb) had a love-child, and you’ve got the concept.
Usually played on a beach or lawn, the game consists of a palm-sized rubber ball and a hula-hoop sized, trampoline-like net placed a few inches off the ground. Players stand around the net, and each two-man team has up to three hits between the two of them to send the ball into the net, transferring possession to the opponents. The object of the game is to hit the ball into the net so that the opposing team cannot return it. First team to 21 points, wins.
According to Chris Ruder, the founder and CEO of Spikeball Inc., the curiosity we experienced at the beach has followed him and his friends ever since they first discovered the sport in the late 1980s. Back then, the set they played with was from Toys R Us, and Ruder said people would always ask the same three questions.
What’s that game? How do you play it? Where can I get one?
The first two questions were easy to answer, but the third was impossible—Toys R Us only sold it for a short period of time.
Twenty years went by, his set's duct tape fraying in its old age. While playing with his wife and friends at a couple’s retreat in Hawaii, Ruder realized the game might have a more universal appeal than his circle of friends. He envisioned a sturdier, more portable set-up, a reincarnation of the Spikeball he’d grown up playing.
“So we acquired the rights – my brother, my cousin and some childhood friends all chipped in – and we launched it, fully intending to lose our ass because none of us had ever done anything like this,” he remembered, laughing. “Lo and behold, it’s worked thus far.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tOvoklexswk
Spikeball Inc. sold its first set in 2008—no Toys R Us involved—and by October 2013, the company had grown large enough to allow Ruder to quit his day job selling online advertising. It’s now spreading through P.E. classes, youth ministries, ultimate Frisbee groups, and even non-lame places like college campuses. Clubs have cropped up at Ohio State University, Harvard University, and the University of Alabama. Even the SEC, an unbudging football stomping ground, is buying in.
Mike Schwind, a data analyst who recently graduated from the University of Tennessee, says he first played the game on spring break, shortly after the company launched. He and a few friends developed a passion for the sport, returning to UT to spread the Spikeball gospel.
“You can literally play it anywhere, as long as you have room for four people and a net,” Schwind says. “That’s what I like most about it.”
That versatility makes Spikeball both a sport and a game, competitive and casual, athletic event and prime shit-shooting, beer-drinking activity. Like all great games, Ruder points out, Spikeball lends itself to alcohol. Just play with a beer in hand, or for the more energetic boozers, play under the rule that each team can only pick up a beverage and drink when the other team is hitting.
“Is it a lawn game? That is where we began, and a lot of people do throw us in the bucket of, you know, lawn darts or cornhole,” Ruder says.
Although Spikeball is potentially the world's No. 1 sport for pissing off your dog at your next barbecue, the company is focusing on the opposite end of the spectrum – full on, officially-ranked, 100-percent sober sport. At USASpikeball.com, teams can register and enter tournaments. There are regional and national events held all across the country. Schwind says he played in the 2013 Nashville Spike-A-Palooza tournament, which attracted 62 teams from eight different states, including California.
Tournaments happen almost every weekend, and Ruder himself has been known to pop in and host raging after-parties, throwing down credit cards at local bars and inviting all the players to celebrate the sport.
“We did that in New York,” he says. “Basically measured it in kegs.”
This devotion to the player community can be traced to Spikeball Inc.’s early start, when Ruder would personally email customers to thank them and ask how they heard about the game. Now he’s taken on the herculean/impossible task of responding to every tweet and Facebook post that Spikeball is tagged in.
Devotion begets devotion, and Spikeball has achieved cult status. There are more than 125,000 players now, 578 registered teams. Just last week, the world’s first known Spikeball tattoo was inked on a P.E. teacher’s arm in Cornwall, NY.
The Santa Monica Spikeball tournament in June attracted players who made 22 hour treks just to get there. Chris said the nation’s top-ranked team—Chico Spikeball, a pair undefeated in the last 12 months—gets asked for autographs because they have an acute case of Youtube fame.
Join us tonight, Friday January 30th, for the WE Show Art Reception! WE Labs co-founder Robbie Brown and WE Show guest curator Liza Mitchell will lead a guided tour of artwork by local artists such as Rhett Johnson, Dave Van Patten, Walter Focht, Rene Tanner, and others. What’s special about this art event is that these artists will be present to introduce you to their art and answer any questions you may have.
Together, the incredibly diverse artists represented in our first quarterly WE Show are truly a cross section of the contemporary art community, highlighting the artistic renaissance we are lucky to be experiencing here in Long Beach. From painting to photography, sculpture, and beyond, our walls are teeming with some of the most striking artwork that WE’ve ever encountered. WE invite you to join us as we bring the community and these talented people together in this intimate setting for an evening of artistic enlightenment.
If you can't make it tonight, don't worry! WE Show Art Tours will be held on the last Friday evening of every month, with different artists present at each tour.
6:30 pm - Refreshments
7:00 pm - Tour begins
More About WE Show:
In recognition that exhibition space is at a premium for Long Beach artists, WE Labs and the Arts Council for Long Beach partnered to create a new exhibition series, WE Show, just for Long Beach artists. Submission was open to all artists who were signed up on the Arts Council for Long Beach, Arts and Cultural Registry. Alex Diffin, Barry Rothstein, Caryn Baumgartner, Christine Lee Smith, Christine Nguyen, Connie Lane, Daniel Brezenoff, David Van Patten, Eric Almanza, Gazelle Samizay, Greg Jacobs, Jason Weinlein, Jose Loza, Kay Erickson, Kenny McBride, Linda L. Carlson, Marla Lombard, Michele Rene, Renee Tanner, Rhett Johnson, Scott Burchard, Sherry Ray-Von, Susan MacLeod and Walter Focht III were chosen for this inaugural and current WE Show.
The Arts and Culture Registry is a free service designed to be a comprehensive and inclusive list of artists and arts organizations serving Long Beach, California. It improves visibility for Long Beach’s impressive talent pool and offers a vehicle for local exposure and networking. The Registry is open to any artist who lives, works, performs or exhibits in Long Beach, California. Shows will exhibit on a quarterly basis and will be featured through monthly WE Hour gallery tours as well as WE Labs’ After Art Walk event, all beginning January, 2015.
WE Labs is Long Beach’s co-working and creative space located downtown at 325 East Broadway. Our large, inviting space also serves as a gallery and event location, making this a unique opportunity for Long Beach artists to expand their audience. WE hope you'll join us for this special evening.
Trademarks and Patents...Oh, My!
So, you've come up with a unique idea and want to protect your rights in it. But how? Should you apply for a trademark, a patent, or maybe even both?! Truth is it all depends...there’s a lot of confusion on which is right for you and your idea. So what are the key differences between a copyright, trademark and design patent?
A trademark is a word, phrase, symbol or design, or a combination thereof, that identifies and distinguishes the source of the goods of one party from those of others. Trademark rights are obtained when the mark is used in U.S. commerce. The rights can be based in common-law, or due to registration with the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office, which provides for stronger enforcement of trademark rights.
Patents give inventors the exclusive right to duplicate their invention’s design. Patents cover devices, formulas, tools, and anything that has utility. For example, the recipe for a unique sausage can have a patent. To get a patent, you must apply to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and submit the invention’s design. You must show that the design is unique, and a patent examiner will determine if you are entitled to a patent. If so, a patent is granted that prohibits anyone else from making, using, offering for sale, selling, or importing the invention. A patent lasts 20 years.
Got an idea?? At WE labs, there’s always something new being discussed, whether it be a product, process, platform, even (these are the most fun!) occasionally wildly unrealistic ideas. When you do come upon your million dollar idea, you’ll want to be able to protect yourself and navigate the sometimes confusing and intimidating United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) system.
Join us February 11th @ 7pm for a free Patents & Trademark Flash Lab with attorneys from the US Patent and Trademark Office.
Bring your friends, your ideas, and your questions as we go deep into the jungle of Trademark & Patent Law with expert tour guides Jason Lott (Trademark) and Jeffrey Siew (Patent). We’re excited to have such well respected speakers - special shoutout to Mike Daniel at the downtown Long Beach Small Business Development Center for all his help in organizing and co-hosting! Here’s a little more on their backgrounds:
Jason Lott is an Attorney Advisor for Trademark Educational Outreach within the Office of the Commissioner for Trademarks at the USPTO headquarters in Alexandria, VA, where he helps create, refine, and expand educational activities in the area of trademark fundamentals. For four years prior, he spearheaded the Pro Se Video Work Project, tasked with creating multimedia-based trademark educational materials. Mr. Lott has been with the USPTO since 2000, previously serving as a Law Office Examining Attorney.
Jeffrey Siew is a quality assurance specialist and part of the outreach team under the USPTO’s Office of Innovation Development based in Silicon Valley, responsible for outreach for the West Coast. Mr. Siew graduated from Cornell University with a BS in Biology, and went on to earn Master’s degrees in both Biotechnology and Computer Science from Johns Hopkins University. In addition, Mr. Siew obtained his law degree from George Mason University in 2005 and has negotiated several treaties and international agreements in intellectual property while working in the international policy department. For nearly 20 years he has worked as an examiner and Patent Attorney for the USPTO, where his unique expertise has allowed him to oversee the examination of biotechnology, bioinformatics and immunology applications.
What is a “Flash Lab” you ask? It’s a crash course (just one evening of your time) designed to give you an understanding of the complex concepts involved so you can better refine your business ideas and strategies.
WORK EVOLUTION235 E. Broadway, 8th Floor Long Beach, CA 90802 Phone : (562) 270-2642 hoursMon-Fri: 9am-6pm Sat-Sun: |
