The biggest problem most church websites face is making a bad first impression. Some of the reasons are easy to identify. The most critical information is often hard to find or hidden within a website. The details and events are often outdated. The important information a new visitor might want may not even be included. These are an easy fix, and I will provide you with a quick checklist of critical must-have information for your site.
The second biggest problem is often the reason for the first. It is one that most people don’t realize, and even some of the biggest ministries struggle with. A website has two audiences, and for most churches only one of them matters, while the other one is the only one represented on the website!
To clarify, let me break that down. A church website will have one of two kinds of visitors. The first type of visitor, or audience, is the potential visitor to the church. They just moved to town, or decided it was time for a change, or perhaps they just made the decision to take the family back to church after a long absence or crisis of faith. This first type of visitor is trying to understand some basic things about your church. Where do you meet? When? What is the service like? The worship style? How do people dress? Will there be people my age? People I feel I can easily connect with to become part of my social circle? How long does the service last? Where will I park? What about ministry for my kids?
The new visitor questions are going to be very different than the questions an existing member of the church will have when they visit the site. They are looking for an upcoming event, a permission form for that missions’ trip, a way to give online, or a new ministry to get involved with.
The two different audiences have very different needs when they visit your website, but most websites are only built with one person in mind. The person who built it! This is very commonly the members or leadership of the church.
It can be hard to get outside of our own thoughts and desires when building a website. After all, we are not building a church website for us, we are building it for specific people for specific reasons.
Most church websites should not be focused on the members, but instead should revolve around the visitors!
Visitor focused websites are a best practice, while member focused features can be included once the visitor has been taken care of.
Really slick church website software has the ability to customize the content to match the website visitor, but this is cutting edge and most churches don't yet have this feature.
Checklist of Critical Website Content
This is not an exhaustive list by any stretch, but it is information you should consider including in your church website. The bare minimum needed for any church website is the information critical to the front page. This helps new visitors find and attend your services.
Critical for the front page:
- Service Times (The number one reason people visit)
- Location Address
- Embedded Google Map
- Childcare Info Link
- Contact Phone & Email
Critical to include in the site:
- What To Expect
- Pastors Bio
- What We Believe
- Audio or Video Sermon Examples
- Ministries
- Childcare Details
- Events
- Online Giving
Details to cover in What to Expect
- Description of the teaching style
- Length of services
- Worship Style
- Dress Style
- Who is the Pastor?
- Denomination of the Church
- Childcare Availability
- Accessibility for Disabled Persons
- Anything Unique (example: Coffee before services)
Other Considerations
You should consider including photos of your real church building and your real church members. Stock photos can look nice for setting the tone or theme of your site but the real church is what visitors are looking for. We recommend using a professional photographer for this. You will have much better results, and it is worth the expense.
Having a service in the form of a recorded video, or even a live stream would be a great addition to any church website. This lets people get over the scary nature of a new place and new people to some degree before they even step foot in the church.
Consider giving people a way to let you know they are going to visit. You will be surprised by how many people will be willing to do this, and the benefits are great if you have a good new visitor followup strategy.
A Note on Quality
You need to work hard to have a high quality representation of your church online. You would not want people to think your church is dirty, or unkempt, or unpleasant in person, you should also be striving to be a good witness and give a good first impression online.
An old, or outdated website can leave a bad first impression that might interrupt any opportunity for a first time, in person impression!
Things You Can Leave Out
Just like you should include certain features you might also consider just avoiding some popular internet trends that have proven to be ineffective, even if the masses love them.
One good example of this is trying to embed your church Facebook posts inside your website. Your Facebook presence doesn't need to live on your website. In fact most of your Facebook posts should link back to your website.
Scrolling banners in the main image banner area of the front page can also be left behind with other bad trends that don't work. Almost no one will wait to read the second slide, and the third slide will be invisible altogether.
Member directories, and personal information that is not appropriate for visitors should also be left out. New visitors don't need to be reminded to pray for someone's marriage, or to attend a funeral.
Bible study resources and guides are also misplaced on a church website in an age when everyone can find those kinds of things in a simple google search. The one exception might be on a "Pastors favorite books" style of page. There is, however, no need to reproduce the entire bible on a church website.
The Most Critical Rule
Try and think like your website visitor when you create the content. What questions are they coming to get answers to. Try and answer those as directly as possible, without wasting anyone's time.
The more helpful and direct the better. Try and write to a third grade reading level as most people scan websites instead of reading them.
Always ask "does this content help someone new find my church or is it just in the way?"
Our Solution
At TrueLife.org our solution to church websites was developed after years of experience seeing where churches struggle and what really works. If you would like to see how we approach church websites you can learn more here.
