Your church website is more than a calling card; it’s a window for the world to see all the good things your congregation is doing for Christ. It’s a way for people to not only find out about your ministry, but engage with it, too.
If you want to have an effective church website, here are five key questions you can ask that can spur your developer to action.
#1: What are Visitors Looking for?
Visitors most often find websites as a result of a web search. In fact, 46% of online searches are local. When someone comes to your website, are they finding the answer to the question they had in mind when they started their search?
Whatever people are most interested in finding—your location, service times, statement of faith, or something else—is what you want to have displayed prominently on your Home Page. Leave no common question unanswered, otherwise you risk the visitor moving on to the next search result.
#2: How Do People Discover Your Events?
The events your church hosts, whether it’s Sunday services, downtown evangelism, or a Christmas production, are what connects you with your community. Helping people find your events quickly and easily should be top priority on your website. A modern Church Management Software (ChMS) solution such as Elexio can take selected portions of an internal calendar and display them on your website so they’re always available and up-to-date—automatically.
#3: How Well Does Your Website Work on Mobile?
Sixty-three percent of searches are made on a mobile device, so special consideration must be made to ensure your website works on phones and tablets.
Pages, videos, images, logos, and—perhaps most importantly—forms should work flawlessly and seamlessly no matter what device a person uses.
#4: How Well Does Your Ministry Experience Translate?
Your website provides good information, but with today’s technology it can be much more than that. With careful crafting, it can provide a full ministry experience. From free materials to online giving, virtual services and even worship planning, your website can be both an outreach to your community and a tool for your congregation.
#5: Is Your Website Easy to Find?
With 92.18% of searches made on Google, you want to be easy to find in their results. Investing in good Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is becoming a standard budget item for many of today’s ministries. Optimization means people are simply able to find you easier, hopefully as one of the top results in Google when they perform a search.
Discover the Best Practices for an Effective Church Website
If you’re ready to dig deeper into the answers to these five questions, view this on-demand webinar called “Attract New Attenders by Integrating Your Church Management System with Your Website”
Ensure your website is a ministry tool that can help you reach the world!
