Your website is often a new visitors’ first impression of your church. Your online presence should match your church’s unique “personality,” while engaging your congregation and driving traffic to your site.
Check out our 5-point checklist to make sure your church follows best practices:
1. Mobile-Friendly Design
According to Statista, over 50% of website traffic comes from mobile phones. You don’t want those visitors to be frustrated by your website’s format.
“Mobile-friendly” doesn’t just mean your website can be accessed on a phone — it means your site is responsive to changes in dimension. Simply put, your website should react to a phone by altering it’s format. It should look similar to your website on a computer, but the phone version will zoom in on images (so your visitors don’t have to) and reformat anything difficult to read.
2. Contact Info “Above the Fold”
You never know when your website visitors will want to contact your church. They may have gone to your website specifically to find contact information like your phone number, email address, and/or where your church is located.
Include your contact information on the header of your website so visitors don’t have to scroll to find it. You can also include a link on your menu that directs to additional information with a contact form.
3. Utilize Videos
If “a picture is worth a thousand words,” then a video is worth a million!
Create an intro video for your homepage — show your church’s unique personality. Let visitors hear your pastor’s most impactful sermons and see your congregation praise God. The goal is to convey a warm, welcoming, environment.
Emphasize your members’ personalities by editing together videos of church events like mission trips and service activities. Take it a step further by interviewing members and leaders about their favorite aspects of your church.
4. Content
The key to writing content for a website is efficiency. You need enough key words and descriptions to rank well for SEO, but short enough paragraphs to keep visitors’ attention.
Make sure your content is skimmable by including headings, bullet points, numbered lists, page breaks, etc.
5. Keep Colors On-Brand
Every organization has a “brand,” not only companies! Base your church’s branding colors on your logo design and use them consistently on anything your church produces (online and in-person). If your logo only has one or two colors, you can look-up complimentary colors for your brand.
Once you have selected your branding colors, stay within the parameters! Don’t use bold colors like firetruck red or neon yellow for highlighting words/phrases — reorganize your content to emphasize the appropriate content instead.