9 Tips For Improving Your Church Website

Does it seem like your church website is a digital trampoline where visitors come and immediately bounce away? Maybe it’s just eerily quiet and no one’s finding your site. No matter what the problem, improving your church website means more visitors, long visits and even growth in the physical church. Despite some of these tips seeming simple, they’re powerful and highly effective at transforming your church’s website. 1. Add A New Visitors Page Where should new visitors go first? A lively church website is filled with information and resources and it can be a bit overwhelming to someone new. If …

The Best Plugins For Your Church Website

The Best Plugins For Your Church Website

One of the best things about using WordPress for your church’s site is all the plugins that help you customize your features and  performance. Choosing the best plugins for your church website isn’t always easy, especially with thousands of options. Luckily, some stand out from the rest. While the plugins you use vary based on your church’s needs, these will help boost any church’s site. Sermon Manager No church website is complete without having online sermons. With Sermon Manager, it’s easier to publish your sermons on your site. Attach audio files, embed videos from YouTube and Vimeo, attach images to …

Top 7 Goals For Your Church Website

Top 7 Goals For Your Church Website

You finally have a great church website, but now what? The next step is to decide what you want to accomplish with it. Setting goals for your church website helps you keep your content and marketing strategy focused. While getting more members may be a goal, you have to be more specific. By creating goals, you’ll quickly discover your church’s website is far more effective than you originally thought. While every church’s goals may vary, start with these seven if you need some inspiration. Goal Setting Tips Before you start setting goals for your church website, it’s important to learn …

8-Things-That-Should-Not-Go-On-Your-Church-Website

8 Things That Should Not Go On Your Church Website

Your church website should be a welcoming home for anyone wanting to learn more about your church and build their relationship with Jesus. However, certain things on your site could drive visitors away. No matter how great your content might be, all it takes is a single mistake to make visitors form the wrong first impression. Before you do anything else on your site, make sure it doesn’t include any of the following eight things that could ruin even the best church site. 1. Personal Opinions While it’s okay to put some personal opinions on your church website, it’s not …

7 Ways To Make Church Website Maintenance Easier

Church website maintenance is just a crucial as any other part of your site. Think of it as regular oil changes to keep your car running smoothly. Glitches and problems with your church’s site could turn visitors away. You could also ruin the reputation of your church if visitors get a virus or their private information is stolen. Luckily, regular maintenance isn’t difficult once you get the hang of it. The biggest challenge is just getting started. 1. Divide And Conquer The first step is to divide and conquer. It’s almost impossible for a single person to do it all. …

Everything Your Church Should Know About SEO

Everything Your Church Should Know About SEO

Your church has a website, but it’s not helping with growth. What’s wrong? It could be as simple as learning a little more about SEO for churches. Search engine optimization is crucial for helping people find your website in search results. For instance, we searched for “church in Madison, WI” and got over one million results. If you want to stand out, master SEO and you’ll start seeing more visitors to your church’s site and more new visitors to your church. Focus On Local SEO for churches is a little different than just marketing a website. You’re marketing a physical …

8 Ways To Incorporate Mobile Into Your Church

8 Ways To Incorporate Mobile Into Your Church

Your church is filled with smartphones. Whether your members are keeping them out of the way or getting distracted during services, it’s time to address how to incorporate mobile into your church. Instead of just banning phones or limiting them to a Bible app, encourage them to use their phones, but in a more productive way than just covertly checking out Facebook. Mobile doesn’t mean you’re going to the proverbial dark side. It’s just a modern way of engaging your members. You might be surprised at just how much more attention everyone pays. 1. Use Online Giving For safety reasons, …

Why Your Site Should Focus On The Visitor And Not The Church

Why Your Site Should Focus On The Visitor And Not The Church

Church websites often make one common mistake – focusing more on the church than the visitors. While it might seem like your site should be more about marketing, the opposite is actually true. Your site should be welcoming versus advertorial. When done right, putting the focus on the visitor makes your church’s site far more engaging. Not only will it appeal to members, but to the unchurched as well. Example Experience When a visitor finds your church’s website, they’re not just looking for basic information, such as an address and service times. They also want to get a feel for …

6 Tools To Ensure The Safety Of Your Church Website

The safety of your church website is paramount to building a good reputation with visitors and search engines. Safety and security are often overlooked parts of website maintenance, especially for smaller sites. The problem is, hackers don’t care about the size of your site. They love stealing resources, lifting user data and using sites to pass on malware to unsuspecting visitors. All it takes is a little regular maintenance to protect your church community and potential new members. Besides, no one wants to deal with the cleanup after a site’s been hacked. 1. Use Backup Software No matter what else …

the absolute worst church website advice

The Absolute Worst Church Website Advice We’ve Ever Heard

Your webmaster told you what?   Oh. No. He. Didn’t! There is no shortage of terribly bad church website advice out there. We hear it every day. Some person who used to work in some tech field says that your website needs to do this and not do that. Here’s the thing – What may have been good advice in 2008 might be a terrible idea today. In fact, some of those “great tips” might be hurting your website today. Let’s walk through the bad church website advice that we hear most often.  If you have to open a new …