I’ve seen a lot of church websites – some good, some great and some hopelessly bad!
It doesn’t take too much to turn your church website into one that rocks so I have compiled a list of 12 essential steps that you need to follow in order to run a successful church website.
Here you go:
1. Choose a good domain name
We’re at the start of the list, so I’m starting with the absolute basics. A good start to a successful website is a good domain name. Make sure it’s easy to remember and don’t make it too long.
2. A clean, professional design
This one is a given, but it’s amazing how many websites in general look, to be totally honest, plain ugly.
In the past I have closed a website within seconds because the design was boring. I’m busy and I don’t want to waste my time with a unprofessionally designed website.
We all know the saying “don’t judge a book by its cover”, but how many people are instantly attracted to a boring book cover compared to a bright and fun cover? Same goes with your website. Make it a pleasant visual experience for your visitors. You may even want to consider professional website templates.
3. Test your church website in different browsers and devices
After owning a web design company for over 7 years, I have learned very quickly that checking your website in different browsers and devices was critical.
If you design your website using FireFox, make sure you test it in Internet Explorer, Google Chrome and Safari.
Also test it on devices such as your iPhone, iPad, Android or other mobile devices. Unless I’m at work, I only search on my iPhone these days.
I don’t feel that a mobile version of your church website is totally necessary, however it would help. A lot of popular Content Management Systems these days give you the ability to add a mobile version of your website without having to create one yourself.
4. Easy to navigate
This is one of the main keys to a successful website. It needs to be easy to navigate. Don’t make visitors dig their way through pages and pages to find the information they need.
Break your website up into sections (E.g: Home, Ministries, Courses, etc) and then add sub pages to those sections.
Drop down menus are a great way to make it easy to navigate your website. You can have your main sections listed in your menu, and when your visitors move their mouse over those links, a drop down menu will appear with more.
5. Easy to read
People are in a hurry. They don’t need to read paragraphs and paragraphs of text. Break your text up with big, bold and informative headings. Use images, icons and lines to break up a lot of text. It will do your website wonders.
Look through your website with the mindframe of “I am new to this website. Am I going to read all this text, or am I just going to skip it?” This did wonders for me and has since helped me develop websites that are easy to read.
6. Easy to update
You want your church website to be easy to update. You may update the website, or you may have a team that does it for you. All I know is that a website that’s hard to update wont get updated. Make it easy for you and your team to do.
There are plenty of free Content Management Systems out there that you can use that won’t require any programming knowledge in order to update your website. All you have to do is install it, add your design and set-up your pages.
Popular Content Management Systems include:
- Wordress (http://wordpress.org)
- Drupal (http://www.drupal.com)
- Joomla (http://www.joomla.com)
7. Keep your content up-to-date
Nothing worse than a new person at your church visiting your website and there’s information about events that were on a month ago. What does that say about your church?
New visitors want to see what’s new and what’s coming up. Making your church website easy to update, so that it is updated (like we mentioned in step 4) is critical.
8. Show your service times and address
More and more people use the Internet to find things including a local church. Make it easy for those people to find your service times and address.
Make sure service times are kept up-to-date as well. If you are changing your service time from 9:30am to 9:00am next Sunday, make sure it’s updated on the Monday before so that all new visitors are aware of the time change.
9. Show your online giving details
Another thing people are doing these days is giving online. Make sure, just like your service times, these details are easy to find.
10. Add an events calendar to your website
If I want to know what’s going on at my church, I check out their website events calendar. There are free calendar programs out there these days, or you could even use Google Calendar. Google allows you to add it within your website.
I recently subscribed to my churches Google Calendar on my iPhone, so now I can view updated events straight from my phone’s calendar. I don’t even have to visit the website to see what’s happening!
11. Provide online forms for event registrations
A lot of churches have their own conferences and events. Make it easy for people to register online. You can even accept payments online using software. My church has been using a website called TryBooking (http://trybooking.com/).
12. Encourage interaction
Add a link to your Church’s Facebook and Twitter profiles.
Add a blog to your website so you can share the latest news and encouraging comments from your congregation.
Upload a video.
There are plenty of ways to make your website more interactive and social.
That’s a wrap. As you can see, some simple improvements can turn a boring and average church website into a church website that rocks!
If you have any additional suggestions, I’d love to hear them! Post your comments below.
Chris Huff says
Great advice. Two more things I think every church website should have: a phone number and the gospel.
Jenn says
All awesome points!
I’ve personally been browsing through a heck of a lot of church websites for the past month and it’s very frustrating when you have to search through pages to find their contact details and addresses!
David Spencer says
I have created a list of 15 Content Management Systems (CMS) that churches may wish to consider for developing their web site. Each company offers a unique service. Depending on your needs and budget, you will find a CMS that will help your ministry.
http://media.davidspencer.ca/wiki/CMS_for_Churches
Ryan Tanis says
I am the editor for my church’s facebook page and I recently made a google site for the church. Can you look at the google site to see if this is an effective site, please give suggestions.
http://sites.google.com/site/oakdalechristianchurch/
Eric Dye says
I would make the navigation easier to find 🙂
Vince Polston says
It’s amazing. This article is already four years old and they still hold true today. Especially #3 about mobile friendly. Good stuff.