Thanks to Drew and some of the research he’s been doing, he’s been able to identify some of the top things that visitors want to do on your church and/or ministry website.
Take special note of these as they should impact how you develop out the future of your church website.
I know many church websites that have made it extremely difficult to identify the first three…!
Top 10 Needs or Desires:
1. Find service information (times, directions, etc).
2. Listen to/download Sermons (audio recordings).
3. Learn about the church’s Beliefs/Mission/Values
4. Connect with other members.
5. Read/download Sermons (text transcripts).
6. Join and/or interact with a home/bible study group.
7. View weekly information/calendar/news/events.
8. Find serving opportunities at the church.
9. Post prayer requests or needs.
10. Read articles or other content.
So…?
What improvements from this list do you need to work on?
adam_herod says
I'll be passing this on to our team. Our church website would be great…if this were the early 90s. It's so bad, I've considered blogging on my reluctance to pass it along to anyone due to embarrassment.
human3rror says
i'd want to laugh (due to your honesty) but yes. you're the man. rock it dude.
Graham Brenna says
That's interesting this gets posted now. We're actually in the beginning stages of re-vamping our church website. It'll likely roll out early 2010. Right now we're pretty good at the first three… although 2 is my responsibility and we've been having technical issues until just recently. Our calendar is pretty much non-existent… which is a big deal! Posting prayer requests is pretty easy right now though.
Kristin (@kt_writes) says
I could pretty much just say "ditto" to what adam_herod said. Luckily, our pastoral staff sees that a new website is a priority, but not-so-lucky me gets to write all the copy. 🙂 We've started pulling an outline and plan together, though, and I'm willing to share my talents with my church in this way. A website is such a critical thing for a church to do well. Thanks for the helpful list!
kevincooper says
I think #4 will quickly move up the list…dare to say that it could even be number 1!
Jim says
another list of stuff…good ones, too!
Jacob Vanhorn says
Regarding #4, connecting with other members, do you think they mean a church based social network? or a link to a facebook group for the church? I understand some value in a church social network, but am hesitant to create a new lane for them to have to connect through.
adam_herod says
Newsong church out in Cali has done some toying with tying social networking into their site. Here's the link if you want to check it out. (I'm sure most of the readers here probably already know this) 🙂
http://community.newsong.net/
human3rror says
Another Ning Production..
😉
Shawn K says
The biggest thing our Church needs to do right now, is make a website. I know, I know, but I'm really busy. It's on my list.
human3rror says
PUAHA.
Tell us when “it” is up…!
Matt Harrell says
Drew's research is really good stuff. I think the interesting part is the 2 audience approach that churches have to deal with…existing members and people searching for a new church. Seems wise to really make that direction obvious on the home page. Makes sense. And as far as #4, this report has really forced us to realize that we'll need to do a better job helping churches integrate our tool into their website.
Kevin_Martineau says
Great things to think about John! For our church website we need to work on #3. We currently don't have anything about our values/beliefs right now. I would like to add #9 too.
Thanks for always pushing me toward having a better web presence! B)
TheBigRuski says
Thank you for that…very helpful!
Anthony says
Great, I will use this as a marketing points when talking to Churches about building a website, I have being talking to some which are yet to see good reasons for a Church site. Thank you very much, may God bless the work of your hands.
human3rror says
sure thing!