Does your church website need a face-lift?
Maybe some subtle tweaks?
It doesn’t take long before any website looks outdated. So, before you jump for a new shiny site design or re-vamp your current church website, here are a few things you should keep in mind when designing your website that’s sure to make it awesome.
How-To Make Your Church Website Awesome
1. Don’t Be Afraid
Don’t be afraid to be bold!
If you’ve built your website on WordPress, there are so many good looking themes, and with only making a few adjustments, you can really make it your own.
With easy to use Google custom fonts, it’s easy to add a little extra something to your design that sets you apart from everyone else.
From minimal designs to huge font-face, being bold in your design is easy to do. I think the biggest thing that stops us from being bolder in designs, is we think too permanent. The design you’re working on today, won’t be the design tomorrow.
Take some risks!
2. Use HTML5 & CSS3
CSS3 and HTML5 are awesome. So, naturally, if you want your church website to be awesome, you’re going to need to bake some awesomeness into it.
But, don’t use too much.
Use HTML5 and CSS3 like frosting on a cake. It’s tasty, but too much makes it inedible.
Also, consider using something like Modernizr when implementing HTML5 and CSS and/or checking browser compatibility.
3. Lose the Junk
Don’t be that website.
You know the one.
The one that puts everything on the front page and lists every social network known-to-man on each and every page.
Making a website easy to use means less clutter. Trim the fat or people will leave your website.
4. Add Social Media the Right Way
As I just said, don’t splatter your website with social icons and widget boxes. Do it nicely and cleanly.
Think about it.
If you are always flagging users to Friend and Follow you, and they have, this page real estate becomes annoying and wasted.
Keep it classy.
Finally
Anything you would like to add?
Please, do!
The Church has made a lot of headway in the area of web presence, so let’s keep moving forward!
[via Mashable | Image via Paul Stevenson]
Mediastry says
Nice and succinct 🙂 One thing to add. Before you do any change, ask if it is “change for change’s sake”. If you answer “yes”…go no further.
Eric Dye says
Good rule!
Ryan says
Not sure in your context, but a big thing in Ontario, Canada right now is website accessibility. Make sure you are following the WCAG2 guidelines so that everybody can access your website. It’s already been made law here, although there’s time before it is in effect (this year for government and next year for other things I think).
Add to that what should be a church’s emphasis: showing love to everybody. If somebody visually disabled visits a site and their screen reader can’t give them anything useful, that person is going to think that the church (or maybe Christians in general) don’t care enough to include them.
Charles Specht says
Good article. I recently took on a part-time Interim Pastor position for a smaller church in California. They never had a church website so I threw one together. The people are getting excited about it and starting to tell others the URL. Now they’re actually giving me information to put on it (Yikes!). But my coding skills are…um…developing (insert slight cough here). It is a work in progress.
http://www.FaithBaptistStrathmore.com
PS: Time to train someone to take it over for me. 🙂
Eric Dye says
Great start! Lookin’ good!
Joanna says
Perhaps the most important thing, update your content! I know of a church round here whose website is pretty enough but is largely pointless because they haven’t properly updated in info in at least 6 months, possibly much more.
Eric Dye says
Very true.
Ricky Potts says
Thanks for sharing. Good read! I have worked on several church websites before, and it always seems they want more and more added, especially to the home page. I like what you said, “Don’t be afraid to be bold.” Take a risk. I just wrote a blog yesterday about that. Go out on a limb and see what happens. Don’t live on the limb, just test the waters.
No website is perfect. But I think people just getting started could learn a lot here. Thanks again!
Eric Dye says
Thanks for commenting!
Paul Clifford says
I’m finishing up a site now that had tons of ministries each vying for a place on the front page. I’m so glad they pared it down. The design was done in early December, but the content has taken up until today. I was hoping to be done by the end of December. Oh well.
Eric Dye says
Classic. 🙂
Chuck McKnight says
Wow. I would absolutely not recommend that first principle to anyone who doesn’t really know graphic design. That sort of thinking is why the Web is still plagued with blinking text and animated GIFs. Even if you don’t get quite that bad, ill-informed bold decisions can still be disastrous.
If you’ve actually studied graphic design to know what works, then by all means be bold. Otherwise, minimalism is the way to go. A clean-but-boring design is far better than a bold-but-jarring one. If the eyes can’t stand to stay on the same page, then they won’t.
Eric Dye says
A good portion of the ChurchMag community knows what they’re doing; moreover, going minimal can be a bold more, too. Bold doesn’t mean hot pink and Flash animation.
Chuck McKnight says
Also, the permanency idea is absurd. Users hate website design changes. They can’t stand it. You must try to make your design last as long as it can, because you will lose some users every time you switch.
Chuck McKnight says
By the way, I don’t mean to sound too negative. I do understand what you’re getting at, and the other principles are good. “Bold” is just really dangerous advice to give out to those who don’t know what they’re doing.
Eric Dye says
True. Your design should be solid enough to last long, but don’t be afraid to make improvements and changes that improve the website.
April says
OK, so opinion. We’ve had our site up for a year now. It’s a nice site, if I do say so myself, since I created it :), and I always keep it updated, but I’m wondering if it’s time for a change to the overall look, maybe a more streamlined look. OR, should we just keep it as it is because “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” Just wanted some opinion on it.
Eric Dye says
After a year, you might think more in the lines of removing unused features and adding new features that are needed. If everything is running smooth, you could always consider tweaking your design a little. Just comb through the site and see what you find, or even ask for some feedback.
As for a complete overhaul, I would hold off.
April says
Thanks! I’m going to be digging through it this week and see how it looks
April says
Oh and I would welcome advice… http://cornerstonekountze.com