Church Web Site Design

Posted on August 15, 2010 by Jay F Guin

I have a question: What makes for an excellent church web site?

We’re looking at spiffing up our site, and I thought it would be helpful to hear from several voices just what a church needs to put on its site and how best to present it.

About Jay F Guin

My name is Jay Guin, and I’m a retired elder. I wrote The Holy Spirit and Revolutionary Grace about 18 years ago. I’ve spoken at the Pepperdine, Lipscomb, ACU, Harding, and Tulsa lectureships and at ElderLink. My wife’s name is Denise, and I have four sons, Chris, Jonathan, Tyler, and Philip. I have two grandchildren. And I practice law.
This entry was posted in Uncategorized. Bookmark the permalink.

21 Responses to Church Web Site Design

  1. David P Himes says:
    August 15, 2010 at 3:19 pm

    Mostly, you need a clear purpose and the recognition that you cannot be everything to everyone.

    Separate the web site for members from the web site for evangelism — if that is part of the goal.

  2. Adam Legler says:
    August 15, 2010 at 3:32 pm

    My research on what makes good websites is all about simplicity.
    A website of a non C of C church in our area that is good is http://www.connectchurch.com/#/home

  3. JamesBrett says:
    August 15, 2010 at 5:39 pm

    aesthetics and simplicity are at the top of the list.

  4. Dwayne Phillips says:
    August 15, 2010 at 11:41 pm

    Adam's suggestion above is excellent. Clean.

    Your web site, like our http://fxcc.org, is too cluttered and too dark.

  5. Dwayne Phillips says:
    August 15, 2010 at 11:42 pm

    And one more thing, don't put stock photos of actors and models on the web site – cheesy, phoney.

  6. Alan says:
    August 16, 2010 at 2:06 am

    To use Information Technology jargon, you need to gather requirements before you start writing code. What are you trying to accomplish? Who do you expect to use the site? What will they be looking for?

    If you want to have people return to your site regularly, you need to have fresh content that those people perceive as relevant. People won't come back simply because it looks nice. It has to give them new, fresh information that they need. And it needs to provide that information more efficiently or more effectively than alternative sources.

    Some items that have continuing value: Fresh articles, audio and/or video of messages, up-to-date and accurate schedules of events, useful reference material that can't be found somewhere else, forms to sign up for special events and service opportunities, etc…

    There are pro's and con's to putting the membership directory on the web site. If that can be sufficiently secured, and if your members don't object, that can be a very useful tool. You probably need a way for members to opt-out, or maybe make it opt-in.

    Cool presentation is nice. But useful functionality is what will make the site successful.

  7. JMF says:
    August 16, 2010 at 9:48 am

    1) Welcoming
    2) Answer pertinent questions
    3) Have articles, blogs, etc.
    4) Generate excitement

    Functionally, here are the important things:

    1) Aesthetically pleasing
    2) Needs to rank well
    3) #1 and #2 often work against one another. Google is constantly changing it's algorithms, but in the past, word count and keywords were a staple. We have a site that ranks very well in our industry, but each page is about 1000 words.

    We usually deal with two types of designers: one is a guy that can do killer design and appearance. But, his sites won't rank well. The other is a guy that can get great rank but his sites look about like Piney.

    Now, at the top of the food chain you'll find designers that can pull it all together. And they'll charge 10-20K for a modest-sized site.

    I'm biased, but as far as COC's go, I think our church's site is hard to beat:
    http://www.eastsunshine.org

    Nice colors, nice logo, decent layout, easy buttons. They also usually keep it up to date with upcoming sermon titles, etc. I think it would do well with more blog postings and some articles.

    Keep in mind, Jay, that a good Facebook page might be more important than a website right now.

  8. David P Himes says:
    August 16, 2010 at 10:01 am

    JMF
    Good comments, but they must be viewed in the context of what is the objective?

  9. Alan says:
    August 16, 2010 at 11:04 am

    I get the impression that some folks have their Google blinders on. In other words, they are thinking of the web site as something that outsiders will discover and therefore will be attracted to the congregation.

    Good luck with that. IMO your time and effort would be better spent getting out in public and inviting people to church, rather than spending that time polishing the web site.

    Now, I'm not discounting the value of attracting an occasional outsider to church through the web site. It happens, and it's a wonderful thing when it does. But don't expect to fill your auditorium that way.

    To me, the web site is more valuable as a tool for communicating with your congregation, meeting their need for current information, keeping them fully engaged in the work of the church, and making them more effective in that work. It's primarily to empower the members, not primarily a slick advertisement.

    Of course that's just my opinion.

  10. Rich W says:
    August 16, 2010 at 12:16 pm

    Although I'm an old timey 53 year old, I search church websites if I am traveling and/or newly moving to an area. I equate a well thought out website with a well thought out church. It's my first impression.

    Many years ago (late nineties) I developed our congregation's website. We had several families moving in the area that visited us first because of our website. It was decent at the time, but very inadequate by today's standards.

  11. Rich W says:
    August 16, 2010 at 12:24 pm

    JMF,

    Your sight is nice looking.

    The absolute hardest thing to do is to keep a website up to date. For example, your Men's Ministry page talks about things to begin happening in April. I assume that was this year.

    Let me repeat, it is quite hard keeping everything up to date. Many are choosing content management systems to make it easier and more assessable to allow the html novices to keep the text and pictures updated.

  12. Jay Guin says:
    August 16, 2010 at 1:51 pm

    David,

    That makes sense. I think I agree with those who say a church website isn't an effective evangelistic tool. I mean, this isn't the place to post apologetics and baptismal theology, hoping someone will stumble across the site and discover the truth. It's more of a tool for visitors and members.

    Especially for a large church, it's hard for new members to find their place, to get connected with a ministry or small group, even to find a class. That seems to me to be the key — it's for people checking us out or looking to learn more about their new church.

  13. Jay Guin says:
    August 16, 2010 at 1:52 pm

    Adam,

    Thanks. Simple is better. People aren't going to take the time to poke around looking for an obscure link.

  14. Jay Guin says:
    August 16, 2010 at 1:54 pm

    James,

    Makes sense. I think we often overlook the importance of the aesthetics — but the look and feel of a site can say more about a church than the "Who We Are" tab.

  15. Jay Guin says:
    August 16, 2010 at 1:55 pm

    Dwayne,

    I like yours better than ours. But your comments are well taken. Thanks.

  16. Jay Guin says:
    August 16, 2010 at 1:56 pm

    Dwayne,

    How did you know those aren't real people?? (Just kidding.)

  17. Jay Guin says:
    August 16, 2010 at 1:59 pm

    Alan,

    We've put the membership directory on the site, but it's password protected. You have to email the church office to get a password. We have parents who are scared to death of having their children's pictures on the site (and parents who post 10 photos a day on Facebook). It's a nuisance but seems a necessary precaution — also protects unlisted phone numbers.

  18. Jay Guin says:
    August 16, 2010 at 2:08 pm

    JMF,

    I like your site, too. Simple. Attractive. Agree that Facebook is becoming a bigger deal.

    In terms of goals, I'd want to avoid requiring the preacher to write a blog or post bulletin material. If that's his gift and he wants to post, sure, but the internet shouldn't drive his job description.

    I'm thinking priorities like —

    1. Info someone checking us out needs to know
    a. Location, map
    b. Service times
    c. Class schedule
    d. How to contact us
    e. Upcoming sermon topic (so I can invite people to hear a particular topic)

    2. Info a new member or someone considering membership needs to know
    a. How to get involved in ministry
    b. How to join a small group
    c. How to get connected, find friends, get questions answered
    d. Elders and ministers, contact info (email, Facebook, cell phone, extension) and names and pictures
    e. Classes for new members

    3. Info members need
    a. Vision, theme
    b. Announcement of churchwide events
    c. Sunday and Wednesday bulletins
    d. Membership directory
    e. Events — dates, times, locations
    d. Sermon downloads
    f. Details on programs, ministries
    g. Prayer request form
    h. Links to encourage personal study, inspirational reading, etc.

  19. Josh C says:
    August 16, 2010 at 3:44 pm

    I know many large churches podcast their sermons, but I wish more would podcast their classes. The only church I've found that does this is University City in Gainesville, FL. I enjoy listening to sermons, but classes can be more informative.

  20. abasnar says:
    August 16, 2010 at 7:31 pm

    I just received the Google-Analytics statistics of our web-site. If I refer to numbers, you should understand it in the context of Europe/Austria. It is a very secularized country, church attendence is 5% of the population or less, 75% of the Austrians being Catholics and there are only between 10.000 and 15.000 Christians in Evangelical Free Churches among 8 Million inhabitants. (If someones feels called to come over …)

    Our congregation numbers about 70 baptized members.

    During the last year we had 3239 individual visitors (which is quite a lot compared to the size of our congregation – and maybe 3-4 times the membership of all German speaking churches of Christ) who stayed (average) for 3:05 min on our site.

    About 38% find our page through search engines, 39% come from referring sites. 23% is direct traffic.

    Then there are keywords that people "google" that lead them to us – the list is quite impressive. A few examples I was very happy about:

    42 times people googled the phrase "the gospel in simple words".
    The quest for "Thoughts on easter" brought 26 persons to our web site. Very interesting also: 13 People searching for the Catholic sacrament of confession came to our site, too (because we have an article about this) ….

    So my conclusion is that if the web-site shall be a tool for reaching out to seekers we need to present topics that are relevenat to them, we have to emphasize keywords people would google (BTW: 5 people who googled "animal sex" also came to an evanglistic article about sexual immorality on our web site; page one of the google results). These keywords should be prominent in the text and in the URL of the single page (the URL is very important).

    I should add that in German it is a lot easier to come to the top of Google results with a Christian Web-Site because there are way less than English ones.

    Alexander

  21. Dwayne Phillips says:
    August 17, 2010 at 8:41 am

    Aaargh! The web site is dead. Build mobile apps for your congregation. See Wired Magazine's "The Web is Dead" proclamation.
    http://www.wired.com/magazine/2010/08/ff_webrip/a…

Comments are closed.