Often times SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is referred to in the context of business websites and blogs, even on ChurchMag. Although this is one of the more common references, SEO is something that every church should consider: You need good church website SEO!
A church website may be thought of as a tool or resource for church members, as it’s usually full of current events, announcements and Bible study schedules; but it’s actually one of the best ways for potential church attenders to “visit” your church. In fact,
“In the past 12-months, over 17 million American adults who don’t regularly attend worship services, visited the website of a local church or place of worship.”
This is all fine and good, but without decent SEO, how are seekers going to find you?
Take this story for example:
The Power of Church Website SEO
One of the best WordPress themes with solid SEO built-in is Standard Theme by 8BIT. There’s nothing difficult about it, as you don’t have to worry about filling-in any complicated boxes or configuring it just so. No, Standard Theme is ready to go as it’s built with good SEO in mind.
Here’s a fine example of what good SEO will do, from a Standard Theme user (from March 21, 2013):
“Thanks for emphasizing the search engine optimization of my blog. Monday ABC New called and wanted to interview me for their big evening news broadcast with Diane Sawyer that night. They tried to reach Rick Warren, but could not. They wanted to interview him about The Bible series on the History Channel. To find a backup interview, they simple googled “Los Angeles Pastor Bible Series TV” and I popped up because of a blog posting I had written about it. They only needed a sound bite or two. They got them and I was on for about 5 seconds, but old friends called me, my Facebook friends and Twitter followers increased. My current post on my blog has a link to the little clip.
You were right and did a great job on making my blog optimized for search engines. Thanks!
Shawn Thornton
Calvary Community Church
Westlake Village, CA
Wow! Pretty cool, right?
You never know who might be searching for you!
The Church is all about reaching lost, so let’s make sure we can be found.
James Brooks says
Brilliant post, Eric.
Eric Dye says
Thanks! 🙂
Daniel says
Thanks for the post and raising the issue of SEO for churches. I wrote a blog post about <a href="goodchurchwebsite.com/church-seo-101/" as a sort of basic introduction for churches on what SEO is and why churches need it.
Eric Dye says
Yeah, it’s kinda what we do … 😉