Years ago, when people wanted to find a new church, they would talk to friends, or look in the yellow pages. Now, people search Google and other search engines, and look at numerous church websites until they find one that impresses them. Your church website is like a billboard for your church. If someone is impressed by your website, they will likely visit your church.

Over the last several years, search engines like Google have made tremendous strides in the way they handle what are considered “local searches”. Now, when you search “churches”, and include a city name, it brings up a map that helps you locate churches in your area. These maps have links that can be clicked, which brings up each church’s website.

A survey done back in 2008 revealed that over 60% of people used the internet when doing research on churches and other businesses. Only 30% still used a physical phone book….and that was 3 years ago!

Why is all this important? People who are searching for a new church likely won’t type your church’s name into a search engine. They will just do a broad search for churches in the area. If you have a church website, your church will likely come up on the search engine map. Make sure that all your contact information for your church is up to date and accurate.

If you have any other questions regarding church websites, or church search engine optimization, feel free to contact us at CheapChurchWebsites.com.

1. Communication- Social media must help the church clearly and efficiently communicate it’s message. Sure, it wont be the only method your church has to do this, but it could very well be the most important. Social Media has unique benefits that can be used to communicate.

- it’s easy.
- people can’t ignore it.
-can use text, video, and audio.
- it’s viral.

2. Connecting – Social media should create conversation within your church community. Instead of one-way conversation such as a church newsletter, social media should enable the community to ask questions back to the minister/ministry team leader. When everyone contributes ideas and thoughts to the conversation, more things get done.

3. Call to Action – Social Media must prompt people to do something. Serve. Spread the message. Invite friends to join. Really anything.

So is social media worth it? Well….of course it is. It isn’t just the future, it’s now.

1-Create website promo cards – Print thousands of business cards for your church website.  Put your church web address on them and give  a few of them out to each member or your church.  Hopefully they pass them out to family, friends, or even strangers.

2-Don’t be shy about posting the web address – Post your church web address everywhere.  Newsletters, church signs….anywhere and everywhere!

3-Submit your site to the search engines – Go to the search engine and find the link that can be used to submit a website to their database.  Once your church website is in there, it can be found by millions of people.

4-Send out a weekly email newsletter - Send out an information card to collect email address’s for all of your church members.  Additionally, have a form on your church website where people can sign up for the newsletter.  Send this out every week.

5-Start a community forum – Use a free bulletin board software on your site.  Create categories for prayer requests, church questions, surveys and more.  If you choose to try this, make sure to have moderators to prevent spam and other things that you do not want posted.

With these easy tips you can maximize the amount of views that your church website gets.

Your mobile church website should be basic and functional. Information should be easy to find, and links should be easy to click. If your mobile church website is too complex, people won’t bother to try to figure it out.

Ever try to load a website on your phone and it takes forever? Yeah, annoying. An important thing to consider when making a mobile church website is having fast-loading pages. Mobile devices typically operate at slower bandwidth than most computer connections, so this is a must. Easy ways to ensure fast load times include using simple text-only links and avoiding using many images.

If you want to learn more about mobile church websites, please feel free to contact us here at CheapChurchWebsites.com.

1. Twitter gives its users the option of linking their cell phone to their Twitter account. This means any member with a cell phone would have access at any time.

2. Twitter can be used as a means of instant notification. Sending an e-mail, posting to church websites or calling each member of a church group to inform him or her of a last minute important message, such as running late, would not be as simple as tweeting a message to your account. Twitter is also useful for posting last minute details or reminders.

3. Visitors to your Twitter page who are not church members can get an idea of your church, ministry and the people involved. This is a good way to market your church or church website.

4. Links can be included in tweets, which will lead visitors to wherever you want them to go. A link to your church web site, forms for signing up for upcoming events or simply links that provide more information related to your current tweet.

5. Church websites can make use of Twitter by putting up an RSS feed. This will help your members to stay up to date with the latest events because your pages will be kept up to date.

6. Establishing a relationship between the church staff and church members as well as relationships among members themselves is another way Twitter can be used. Making personal connections and developing relationships among each other is important because relationships seem to be what keeps members together. Twitter can provide more personal insight into each other’s lives and another way of connecting with each other. For very large churches this is a good way to give more personal attention to each other.

7. Reminders can be tweeted during the week regarding the upcoming sermon, Bible studies, Sunday School verses to be memorized and Youth Group meetings. Links to the church web site can be provided for more details.

8. Twitter allows you to have more than one account. This allows you to set up an account for each ministry in your church and target your audience according to what they are interested in.

9. Twitter is available anywhere in the world as long as cell phone or Internet access is available. Tweets can be read and sent from virtually anywhere.

10. Twitter is completely free and very easy to use.

Put your church on Facebook!

If you have already begun blogging for your church website, it is likely that you have at least a few church members signing in on a regular basis to receive the latest blogging news. Some may even make use of an RSS feed, which delivers new blog content to an RSS reader automatically, keeping them up-to-date. For those of you who are wondering, RSS means Really Simple Syndication. An RSS reader allows a blog reader to receive and read all new blog posts without signing into the church website. If you would like more information on what RSS is, you can read the article “RSS? What is That?” or “Wasting Your Time Without RSS”.

Using the Facebook application to establish syndication between your blog and your Facebook profile or page will not affect users of RSS much, but it will allow you to reach more readers who are unaware of your blog or who do not use RSS readers.

Why should you syndicate in Facebook?

By taking advantage of Facebook’s syndication application, more of your church members will be aware of your blog articles. Each member who is a friend of the church’s Facebook page will see an update regarding your blog in their news feed on their own profiles. This is a good way to remind members to check out the blog and see what is new. The syndication also provides a link in the news feed, making it very simple to click and visit the latest blog post. This goes even further, however. Your church member’s Facebook friends, who may not be church members themselves, can see the items posted in their friends’ news feeds. In this way, you are given the opportunity to reach out to new people and gain new members.

How can you syndicate in Facebook?

Syndication of your blog through Facebook is fairly simple as you can see from the steps shown below:

1. Visit this facebook page.
2. Look at the right-hand side in the top corner, and you will see a link to add this RSS Connect application. You can add this to the Facebook page belonging to your church, your personal Facebook page, or both. Adding it to both pages is a good idea.
3. Instructions for the application will be provided to you; follow them.
4. After the application has been installed, all you need to do is paste the URL of your RSS feed into the application, add a title, and choose how often blog updates should be checked for by the application. After this, the application will handle everything else.
5. If you installed the RSS application into your personal profile, the feed can be added to tabs on your profile by clicking the plus icon, found in the same area as “Info” and “Wall”. Select the “My Blog/RSS” application to be added to your tabs.

Once RSS Connect has been installed, articles from the blog can be viewed in a small box on your church’s Facebook page, or by clicking “My Blog/RSS” on the tab you added in step five. Anytime a new blog is posted on the church web site, these areas will be automatically updated to reflect the changes.

Facebook syndication can be powerful

Now that you have set up syndication of your church website’s blog, you should take things a step further in order to get the most benefit out of your newly established blog syndication. View your blog articles on Facebook, via your personal profile. Look for an option which will allow you to share the article. Click “Share” on each of these, and make a comment along with it. By doing this, you will be placing your articles into the news feed of every one of your Facebook friends! In turn, any of your Facebook friends can also share the article, meaning it will appear in the news feed of all of their Facebook friends, and so on. This is an excellent way to market church websites as the potential for reaching new members is nearly limitless.

Why not go ahead and try it out? Syndication of your blogs can be used to communicate many different happenings within the church. Blogs of the sermon can be posted weekly. Information about upcoming special events in the church can be given in your RSS feed. Church websites can use this tool as a powerful way to reach out to people that they may not have otherwise been able to reach.

A good point to remember is that while this is a great way to get church websites recognized by way of syndicating your church blog, you can also syndicate your own personal blog, or any RSS feed. Perhaps a church member does a daily devotional blog that the other church members might like to read. Perhaps there are already-established Christian-related publications or blogs that you would like to share with the members of the church. You are not limited to using the church blog only, but instead have the option to share much information with your congregation from various sources.

First, make your pastor seen. Personalize your church website by featuring your pastor on your homepage.  Take a picture of your pastor, have a small message or quote written by them, and have a link that visitor’s can click to see more information.  By putting their image on the homepage, you can create a personalized feel to your church website.  The picture doesn’t have to be anything special.  Whatever they wear on Sunday’s is what should be worn in the picture.

Second, make your pastor heard.  It’s not possible for everyone to attend church every Sunday.  Do you really want these people to miss out on your pastor’s weekly message? Of course not.  Recent technology has made it very simple to put sermons online.  It doesn’t take any special equipment to record sermons or upload sermons to your church website. It can be done very easily, with equipment your probably already have.

To find out more information on any of these two simple ways to improve your church website, feel free to contact us here at CheapChurchWebsite.com.

Is it a Blog? Is it a Facebook? No, it’s a Twitter!

At this time, Twitter is one of the top three social networking sites worldwide. It is similar to Facebook and blogging, but rather than posting complete blogs or messages, short messages of 140 characters or less, known as “tweets” are posted instead. Your tweets are shared with friends, known as followers. There is no customization available on a Twitter account. The main idea is that the tweets are focused on and nothing else. This service can be a valuable tool for church websites.

Anywhere and Anytime

An appealing feature of Twitter is that you do not need much technical expertise. Tweeting is very simple. Just log into your Twitter account, write a short message or tweet and post it. You can even link your account to your cell phone and post your tweets by way of a text message. Using this method, you can tweet from anywhere you have cell service such as on a mission trip or while in church. If you do not have the time or the ability to make changes to the church websites, but need to get information out to your members, Twitter is one solution. If you are relying on someone else to update your website, then this is an alternative for getting information to your members online.

What is the point of this?

You may be wondering what you can do with or how a message of only 140 characters can be useful. The point here is not to post a transcript of a sermon or to write a lengthy article, but instead to give little details about these or other events going on in your everyday life. Think of Twitter as an enhancement that adds detail or draws attention to the current events in your church and can also give the church members a look into your everyday life.

Each of us has things in our lives that others are not aware of, such as the type of books we read, shows we are interested in watching or concerns we have regarding various issues in our lives. When you tweet, you can share these life details and in turn you could reap the benefits of a more closely knit community within the church because you have connected with your members on a more personal level.

Twitter can be used to tweet reminders for upcoming events on your church website, draw attention to new content on your church web site or just to give public attention to your church and site in general. You can also list your Twitter information on your church web site so that your members know they have another option for information updates.

Flashy is great. Easy on the eye, and attracts visitors to your church website. But when a professionally created website becomes lifeless, it really isn’t benefiting the church or it’s members. Think of what is talked about every Sunday at your church. Make notes on Sundays, and have the webmaster update your church website at least once per week. Often times people who attend your church go to your website when they get home on Sunday afternoon to clarify on something they heard during the service. Maybe they need a specific time for an event, or need to know what scripture was read . Make sure your church website has all the information, and make sure it is easy to find.

Keep it fresh and simple, but never be afraid to add a little shine.

1. Find good, high-quality images for your website. Images can help emphasize your church’s message.

• Stock.xchng is a site containing images that can be freely used on your site. You may have to search a bit to find what you want, but this is a good starting point.
• StockExpert charges per image download. The prices are based on image size, and are very fair.
• iStockPhoto is similar to StockExpert, and also charges for each image download. I have used images from this site in my work.
• VectorStock is a great resource used in much of my work. Some experience or familiarity in working with vector files will make this website easier for you to use.

2. Make use of social networking. This is an essential part of building relationships online with your church members. Get together with teenagers in the church for more social networking ideas.

• Facebook, at http://www.facebook.com is a great way to start networking – preferable to MySpace, in my opinion. Here, you can search for and add friends, and find people in your area to connect with and share information about your church website.
• Twitter, at http://www.twitter.com is a way to keep friends updated on what the current events are. You can also connect to other new friends in this way.

3. Eliminate outdated pages on your church websites. For example, having information posted regarding when last year’s Christmas events will take place does not benefit your site. You should always have the most current information available, so if you know you will not be able to maintain a page and keep it up-to-date, do not put it on your site to begin with.

4. Register with a search engine such as Google. If you do not register your site with a search engine, how can you expect the search engine to provide your site as a result to a search query? If you have not registered or are not sure if you have registered your site, go here and check.

5. Have an email address related to your church website’s domain. Your email address is another form of marketing. If you are using pastor@gmail.com, you are not marketing your website. Contact the hosting company of your church website and arrange to have an email address set up.

Many of the suggestions listed above are simple ways to increase the popularity of your church websites. They are also very commonly ignored or left out, and this is a mistake when you want to improve your church web sites. I hope that by using these suggestions, your church will have a great year in 2011!