New Church Website

[scottmaciver]

We're about to begin the process of designing a new church website for our congregation. It will be a responsive design so that it will hopefully display well on various devices.

Does anyone have any advice in relation to content? What would make for an excellent church website? All contributions much appreciated!

 

[2ndViolinist]

Things I've found helpful when searching for a church in the past, in no particular order:
- Service and Sunday School time(s)
- Confessional Stance
- What to Expect - maybe? Could be taken care of by including your confessional stance
- Old sermons
- Your church's address and possibly driving directions if it's in a tricky spot

For current members, a calendar of events might be helpful.

 

[hammondjones]

I love when I can see the upcoming Order of Worship, or if that is not a feasible consideration, then at least a recent one. That speaks volumes by itself.

 

[Ask Mr. Religion]

In addition to the above, include
- pastoral and staff introductions, contact information
- weekly events, e.g., men, women group meetings, bible studies, catechism classes, communicant classes, etc.
- Resource links (things members may find useful)
- denominational affiliations, if any
- avoid fancy animated gifs and other irritating eye candy
- a members only section, password protected, for relevant matters

 

[Jack K]

I'm not sure how it works in Scotland, but here in the States, church websites tend to be heavily viewed by people looking for a church to attend. So a good rule is to think as if you were a person trying to learn about the church. What would such a person want/need to find on the website? Think like an outsider rather than like a church insider.

 

[Backwoods Presbyterian]

When I open a church website I want to see three things immediately.

1) Who you are (denomination, name, etc...)
2) Where you are (address)
3) When worship services are (day, time, etc...)

 

[arapahoepark]

When I open a church website I want to see three things immediately.

1) Who you are (denomination, name, etc...)
2) Where you are (address)
3) When worship services are (day, time, etc...)

Might go along with 1) but,
4) what you believe.

Seeing a number of church websites in my area, the liberal or just really shallow evangelicals either have it hidden, put obscurely or don't have that.

For instance the Liberal ECLA church near mine fully states they ECLA but, there is absolutely no statement of faith, not even a liberal one. Though I suppose the denomination and rainbow banner on it might give away a fair amount of that info anyway...

 

[johnny]

If you are Exclusive Psalmondy then I would connect to the EP web community.
When my wife and I were looking for a Reformed Church we searched through those links.
In Australia, EP churches are rare, at the time we were looking, the closet one to us was 80km away.

 

[scottmaciver]

Many thanks for your suggestions. Much appreciated!

 

[jwithnell]

Today, analytics on our site show (from largest percentage to smaller, but still unique content interactions): Landing page, special events, info about our pastor, the main page for digital resources, Find, What to Expect, Our Worship, then specific digital resources. I'll see a bump in the stats for Find on Friday and Saturday.

Changes I need to make and would suggest for other church sites: 1. A clear call to action. I'm recommending a button "Visit Us" that connects the reader to a concise summary of the gospel, directions, schedule etc. 2. Flatten navigation for the visitor info (the current structure for our site, redesigned two years ago, leans toward brief info on multiple pages while today's user interface preferences lean toward scrolling down (within reason).

We currently get visitors to the church who already have a strong church background. I'm considering ways to make the website better for those without a church background. There's a strong correlation between a visit to the website before visiting our congregation. As Jack mentions, this means no insider language. Even within content I'm considering spelling out all references to scripture. I'm also recommending a short article about how to read your Bible and other info that would help an unchurched individual connect with us. We've always had a presentation of the gospel with a small, but steady number of page reads.

Sorry if this reads roughly -- I'm hurrying.

 

[bookslover]

Basically, don't make visitors to the site have to work to find out basic information. It should be complete, and all in one place (preferably the home page). If the website is too difficult to navigate, people might come away with the idea that the church might be disorganized, too.

Also, having a clean, clear, non-cluttered site is important.

 

[BG]

What Time Zone you at in can be helpful for visitors.