"It’s true what they say, that if you know how to type in Word, you
can manage your own website."
-Pastor Ian McIntosh
Take a Church Website for a Spin Today with Our Free Demo Account!
-
I frequently hear “I don’t think our church website is being used.” The design of your website is probably not the problem, but instead the problem lies in how the church website is or is not made use of. It is common for church websites to have too much content and not enough focus, making navigation confusing and distracting. A website with a simple design is a more effective ministry tool.
One big issue I hear of quite often from pastors is that the website is not effective enough because of the small number of visitors the site is getting. Typically, the pastor will compare the number of visitors to the church website to the number of people attending the church and when the number of website visitors is much smaller than the number of attending visitors, the assumption is made that the website is not effective. This is not true. The reasons I have listed below will provide a more accurate idea of why your website is not getting many visitors.
Your website is used as an advertising board.
I have seen this many times and have been guilty of it also. A big selling point for a website can be its use as a tool to reach out to visitors and church members. Listing who you are, what your vision for the future of your church is and providing visitors with information on how to connect to your church are all good and effective tools, but don’t stop there. At this point, your church website is simply a billboard which advertises reasons a visitor should come to your church. Consider providing content or information that will change on a regular basis. This will encourage repeat visits to the website as visitors will look for updated information. I have listed a few suggestions for this type of content below.
- Online donations
- Online registration for events
- Event calendars, which are kept up to date
- Ministry pages such as Youth Group, Children’s Groups and Small Groups
- Information to make finding small groups easily
- Correct and complete contact information for the church and the staff
Your website is not well known.
One of the biggest reasons for not having visitors to your church websites is that they do not know it is there to visit. Many times I have visited churches and despite being handed a rather elaborate program with upcoming and future events, small groups and other happenings within the church, there will be no mention of the church web sites. The address for the church website should be included on paper handouts whenever possible. In the very least, have the address printed on each Sunday’s program. If the website is only mentioned rarely, you will not have many visitors.
If you genuinely want to bring more attention and interaction to your church web sites, make a point of mentioning it whenever you are speaking to your members. Discuss it while you are at the pulpit. Let the church members know what they can do on the site such as downloading and printing out permission slips for children or youth events or signing up for small groups online.
Getting Back to Basics
You are probably wondering where to start in order to get your website where it needs to be. If your website is overloaded with various types of media or you are trying many ideas that are not working out to the advantage of the site, here are four ways to take control and put your website where it needs to be.
- Podcasts, Blogging and Twitter
These are more advanced options within a website and are not very effective ways to attract and keep visitors to your website. We want to keep things simple, and these tools are more complicated, requiring a good deal of time and effort to be effective. A blog or Twitter account that has not been updated in months will not have regular followers. This is also content that most of the church website’s audience will not be viewing anyway. Start with simple ideas and clear information, establish good habits for building your church website and from there you can continue to more advanced phases of design.
- Ministry Pages
All church websites should have pages relating to each of its ministries. Seniors, Youth and Children’s ministries, small groups and events for reaching out to the community should each have their own up to date page with enough information to make the pages attractive and interesting. Include a calendar on each page for any events related to that ministry. Provide the opportunity to sign up for events through the church website. Provide phone numbers, contact names and e-mails for the staff of each group or ministry. Parents will appreciate this information and will visit the site for it. A good way to get this started is by gathering all of the staff in a meeting and having them write down the details of what their ministry is about. Have them list upcoming events and ways that members can get involved. Most of your staff is probably already doing this. It just needs to make its way online to your church’s website.
- Online Donations
In today’s world, it is more common than ever to use credit cards or debit cards as the main method of payment and many people take care of all of their financial transactions on the web. I understand that this can be a turnoff for some churches because there is a fee associated with a credit card transaction. However, it would be beneficial to the church to provide a method for online donations. For example, I will rarely donate in person at the church but I will frequently donate online, sometimes even during the service using my iPhone.
- Social Networking
Many churches have something known as “connection tables” set up in an attempt to connect with new members of the church, the community or potential members visiting for the first time. This method can be overwhelming and intimidating for some people. Providing a way for these people to connect with your church and your members through your church website is an excellent alternative and is much less intimidating.
-
I want to share some tips with you today which can help your church draw in new members via the church website. I have noticed a few things while reviewing other church websites that may help you out.
- The locations and times that services will be held should be stated clearly and in simple terms. A visitor to the church web site should be able to easily find the times and locations that a service will be held. An example of what not to do, would be putting the service times under a section titled “Who We Are” or something like that. Where, if you want to find the service times, you must first navigate to “Who We Are” and from there, click “Visiting Us”. This is a poor way to list service times, as neither “Who We Are” nor “Visiting Us” seems to be related to when events are held.
- The church address, written directions and a map should be made readily available. Make it as easy as possible for potential new visitors to find the church. One option to help accomplish this is by embedding a map from Google Maps into your webpage. To do this, visit google.com/maps. Type in your church’s address, and then click the “Link” button which can be found in the upper right hand corner of the map. This will give you an HTML link code, which you can paste into your directions page, providing visitors with a visual representation of your location.
- Make sure your “Contact Us” page can be easily found. The Contact Us page is one often not given proper attention on church websites and can result in being placed in some obscure part of the site. Visitors will not be able to contact you if you do not make your contact information easily available. Details that should be included in this page are a working e-mail address, the church’s office phone number and the name of one or more general contacts such as an office manager or secretary. Including photographs of church staff along with their names and e-mails is also a very nice, personal touch.
- Eliminate non-working pages. Many websites have an occasional page that is not functional and instead contains only a message such as “More Info Soon” or “Check Back for Updates”. These should be removed because it gives your site the appearance of being unfinished. This is not pleasing to many website visitors.
- The Events page should be continually kept up-to-date. This can be an easy one to forget. Make sure you check the event calendar regularly for accuracy. Your visitors will rely on this calendar for things such as service times, prayer meetings, youth events and concerts. Providing correct information will ensure that your visitor arrives at the correct date and time.
Do you have any tips to share? If so, please do in the comments section.
-
The Weekend is over, and today is Monday. Time to get back to the office and improve your church website. Today I will share with you 3 quick and easy tips that will help you improve your church website.
1- Don’t hide your service times with lingo no one can understand. One of the main reasons people visit your church website is to find out what time they can visit your church on Sunday. Make this section of your church website very easy to find. Even better, put this on the homepage. If visitors to your church website cannot easily locate the service times, they will give up, and move on.
2- Show your address, location, and a map. The visitors to your church website already know when to come to your church, they just need to know how to find it. Do not assume people already know where your church is located. The majority of people looking for a new church are not from the area. Google maps provide very easy maps to add to your church website. Use them!
3- Don’t hide your “contact us” page. Many visitors want to talk to someone before they visit. Provide email addresses and phone numbers of the important people of your church. Ideally, I would like to see your church website have photos, names, numbers, and emails of all the people on staff.
Use these 3 quick tips to improve the effectiveness of your church website. Not only will these easy tips improve the looks of your site, they should also help to increase the number of new visitors you get to your church.
Like always, if you have any questions, feel free to ask!
Http://cheapchurchwebsites.com
-
Word of mouth used to be the most likely way of finding a new church to attend. Talking to friends or family about different churches and visiting those churches until a suitable one is found is one way of finding a new church. In the past, newer technologies such as searching for a church website online, was not available yet.
Today, technology that allows searching for businesses, churches and organizations within a specific area has improved greatly. Simply including a city name or zip code in your search phrase can provide you with all of the information you need such as phone numbers, driving directions, reviews by other church members and even a map with graphical push pins to represent the organization’s location. We no longer need or make use of our paper Yellow Pages nearly as often as we used to in the past because searching online only takes a click or two and is much faster than thumbing through paper pages.
A person searching for a new church today is most likely to start that search online. Search engines such as Google, Bing, and Yahoo can be used to find church websites local to that person’s area. The next step would be visiting these church web sites. The content of each site visited will determine whether or not the visitor is interested in visiting the church. If one of the churches visited is what the person is looking for, he may become involved in that fellowship.
Beginning the Search
To better describe this process let’s take a look at Bill and his search for a new church. Bill’s first step will be to visit his favorite search engine or perhaps he has installed a search engine toolbar on his web browser and will use this. Google is the most popular and most used search engine. More than 60% of all searches are done by Google. Bing/Yahoo accounts for approximately 21% of searches, MSN accounts for about 8% and Ask.com around 4%. These are the only search engines that rank above the 1% mark for searches.
Why these numbers are important to your church website.
The ranking your church web site receives in Google is most important because Google is the most used search engine. When an assessment is made of your site in relation to search engines, Google should be the engine focused on. If you can, improve your search rankings here for the best benefits.
Bill’s next step is to type a search phrase into his search engine of choice. What phrase will he enter? Here you can see several examples of phrases that might be used if Bill lives in Nashville, Tennessee.
- “Church in Nashville”
- “Church in Nashville, TN”
- “Church in Nashville, Tennessee”
What if Bill wants a search more specific to the area of Nashville he lives in? The search phrases can be modified for this.
- “South Nashville church”
- “Oak Hill churches”
- “Brentwood churches”
If a particular denomination of a church is preferred, this can be added to the search as well. He can also include search terms that will help him find a church consisting mainly of members of a certain ethnicity or language.
- “Baptist churches in Nashville”
- “Southern Baptist churches in Nashville”
- “Black churches in Nashville”
- “Nashville Asian churches”
The Significance of Keyword Searches
While Bill is searching for a new church, he probably doesn’t know your church by name. Instead he will search using keywords and key phrases as described above. Many churches result in the top ranking spot of a Google search, but this is often because of the name of the church only. It is not uncommon to have several churches of the same name in your town. If your church is in the top Google search results due to its name, then this is not an accurate representation of your visibility within search engines. Slight differences in search terms can produce completely different results in these cases. For example, “church in Nashville”, “churches in Nashville, TN” and “churches in Nashville” could each return very different results.
To find the best and most common keyword phrase or phrases that would return results to your church website, try using your intuition. Keyword research software is something used by professional search marketers who can be hired to target and track the phrases that are most popular and most relevant to your site.
A good balance of search phrases is important for your church web site. If not enough phrases are tracked, you will not receive an accurate picture of how your site is doing in search engines. If too many phrases are tracked and you are doing the tracking manually, it is likely that you will waste good time and end up mentally overworked in the process. No more than 5-10 phrases should be tracked if you are doing this manually. If you can hire a professional, they can track hundreds of phrases automatically and provide you with reports of how your site is doing.
Results of the Keyword Search
Typically there are three types of results displayed when using a search engine. Local search results, Web search results and Sponsored links.
- Local search results are the results that Google has found related to the area Bill lives in. These results are typically displayed in a small map with graphical push-pins marking the spots where a church can be found.
- Web search results appear below the local search results. Usually you will find websites with church directories listed here. Occasionally church websites will be listed, but this is not typically the case.
- Sponsored links appear on the right hand side of the search results page. A fee is paid by any organization appearing here. Each time one of these links is clicked, another fee is paid.
The Significance of Search Results
Local search results, Web search results and Sponsored links are chosen by the search engine in different ways, meaning anyone has the opportunity to use these and appear on the first page of results. Different algorithms are used to produce the results for local and web search results. To have your church website do well in both of these areas, you must either learn and understand what causes the rankings and results or hire a professional search marketing company. If you do hire a professional company, make sure they are experienced in the areas you are interested in.
If your Google ranking shows you are number 11 in the ranks, your true number is 21. The top 10 web search results and the top 10 local search results are displayed on the first page of Google search results. Unless your church website is in one of these top 10 results, the highest ranking you can have is 21, which means that your site will be the 21st one seen by Bill. Factoring in the paid results or sponsored links could mean that you are even further down on the list. It is important for your church to appear in the top 10 results for the best search engine visibility. If you are having trouble moving your site into the top 10 web or local search results, paying for a sponsored link is an option to be considered. Keyword competition is low in this area so it is possible to get in the top paid search results for no more than a couple of pennies per click.
Continuing the Search: Visiting the Church Websites
The message that your church web site delivers to your audience is a very important one, especially when considering non-Christian visitors. People want to know they are welcome at your church. Communicating the Gospel to unbelievers can be done effectively if you use the right elements and factors on your church website.
Key Points to Remember
- Searching for a church using an Internet search engine is a very common way of finding a new church.
- Your website rankings within the search engine must be good if you want your church website to be highly visible in search results.
- Many phrases are used in searches and can produce very different results.
- Tracking the most popular phrases used to reach your church website is important. Track your phrases or hire a professional to do it.
- Three opportunities are available for being placed on the first page of search results: Local search, web search and sponsored links. Make use of these and you will bring more visitors to your church web site.
-
In my last blog entry I talked about how your church website should be thought of as a huge billboard which thousands of people can see. This is true, but your church website is also so much more than this. Sure, your website is a billboard on the great information superhighway, but it can also be an online church newsletter, a place to learn, a place to download resources, and most importantly, a place to connect with other members.
Most visitors to your church website are attracted to bright, member-centric designs. They are attracted to a vibrant website, with fresh content, and a modern feel. The want to feel like if they choose to attend your church, they will feel at home, not out of place, and will have fun. Show them you can provide them with this with lots of fun pictures of your congregation.
You don’t want your website to be a one person conversation. What is more boring than that? Create multiple logins for the important people of your church, and encourage them to contribute with pictures, articles, blogging, or really whatever they want.
It isn’t hard to have a good church website. Keep it simple. Keep it easy. Keep it fresh. That’s really all it takes!
-
Think of your church website as a huge billboard, seen by thousands of people in the area. Often times when people are looking for a new church, the internet is where they go to find one. Your website is seen as a direct reflection of your church. If the site is bad, they think your church is also bad.
We have all seen bad church websites. The backgrounds are usually some ugly floral ’70s wallpaper looking pattern, and the text is tiny and unorganized. The website is practically screaming “GO AWAY! THERE IS NOTHING TO SEE HERE!”.
Here are the 7 Fatal Flaws of church website that should be avoided at all costs.
1 – Clutter. People don’t want to have to search around your site for hours trying to find the information they are looking for. Keep it simple!
2 – Don’t make things difficult. No one wants to have to click 20 sub-links in order to see your service times. Direct links are a must.
3 – Keep it fresh. Don’t be afraid of change. If people think no one ever updates or changes your church website, they won’t be inclined to return.
4 – Give the people what they want. Service times. Location. About the church. Beliefs.
5 – Why do people come? Try and find out why most people are visiting your church site. Once you know what they are interested in, you can try to provide them with more content.
6 – Computer illiterate? Stop. Just stop. A bad church website is almost as bad as not even having a website. Ask for help, or pay someone to do it for you.
7 – Not having a website. Not acceptable in this day and age. If you don’t have a church website, get one. It is a must.
-
I am very excited to announce that we have finally officially launched version 2.0 of CheapChurchWebsites.com! We have a 100% new Content Management System (CMS) that powers the websites. This means that our church websites are even easier than before (and they were pretty easy before) to edit and maintain.
This also gives a lot more design flexibility on our end, and allows me to easily create original Cheap Church Websites designs for your use. This also means we can now offer custom church web design for an additional fee, if your church wants something even more unique.
The church websites have all the functionality and features as before, just with a new backend and a fresh new look.
Check out the brand new designs that are available right now in the Church Website Design Library
-
My last post was was an basic introduction to what SEO is, and why it is important for your new church website. I mentioned the importance of using keywords on your site as part of the optimization. First of all though, you need to figure out what those keywords are. Lucky enough for us, Google provides a free tool to help with this. Check out http://www.google.com/sktool/# .
With this tool, you can do a couple of things, you can type in the url of your new church website and it will give you a list of possible keywords to use. Or you can manually type in some keywords that you think people would search for to find your church, and it will give you variations that you may not have thought of.
The tool will show you how many people search for that keyword phrase each month, and and estimate of how much competition there is for it. It is ideal to pick keywords that have a decent amount of monthly searches and low competition. If you're optimizing your site locally, which should be the case if you're a church, then it shouldn't be very hard to find keywords. Start out by typing in the name of your church and the city you live in. Also use variations in the city, by including the state after it, or state abbreviations (ex. grace church toledo, oh; grace church toledo ohio; grace church toledo, etc). It's a good idea to have 5-8 good keyword phrases.
The keywords you select are very important and are the basis for everything else we'll be doing to optimize your site from now on.
-
I get this question all the time, so I'm going to address it briefly here. Getting your new church website to show up in Google search results can take a bit of work and definitely some time. While you can submit your new site url to Google for indexing, you don't have to either. Google will find your site regardless of whether you technically submit it to them or not, and there's actually some much faster ways to get listed on Google. However, just getting your site indexed by Google doesn't mean anyone is actually going to be able to find your site. You could be listed on the 51st page for example, and no one is ever going to look that deeply into the search results.
So how do you get your site to show up on the first spot in a search, or even the first page? Well that's the tricky part. The process of optimizing your site for search results is appropriately called, Search Engine Optimization or SEO. The process is going to be different depending on a lot of factors too. If you're a church in a small town with a unique name, it shouldn't be very hard to get listed for the keywords "[your church name] [your city name]". For example if you are Fallen Timbers Church in Waterville Ohio, you should be able to rank fairly high if someone searches for "fallen timbers church waterville." However, if your church has a common name like First Methodist Church, and you are in a big area like Chicago, IL, it's going to take some more time and effort to get ranked for these keywords. In fact, in that case you're probably going to hire a professional to have a chance at top rankings.
In addition to optimizing your church website, it's also going to take some patience to start seeing results. Google ranks sites based on their secret algorithm that decides which sites are more relevant depending on the keywords searched. Often times it can take several months after you make changes on your site to see any success.
I'm probably going to write a couple more blog posts on this subject, but I'm also putting together a Search Engine Optimization for Church Websites product that will guide you step-by-step to putting the right pieces in place to get some good organic search traffic to your website.
Connect With Us!
