Are you a web team of one? Or at least a web team that seems very short on personnel? Take heart, this article will show you where the hidden talent lies within your church. Hopefully you will get the help and support you so desperately need to survive and thrive.
Tag: Content Creation
Invest in Content First
Before you launch an online ad campaign, have a SEO agency make you rank #1 in Google, or start yet another re-design of your website; consider investing in your content. If you cannot engage your audience with good information, articles, videos, audio, and social media interaction; they why waste money by driving users to an empty space?
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Taking the Sunday out of Sunday School
How does your church website engage the youngest members of your church? It does not. It engages the parents of those members. So how do you reach them? With regular contact and reminders about the lesson that was started during Sunday School and how it should continue the rest of the week. Below are a few ways your church can incorporate Sunday school into everyday life.
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Repurposing Your Content for Maximum Impact
One problem most church websites face is consistent content production. Regular updates tell users you are an active congregation, regardless of your size. It also gives search engines new pages to index, and active pages will rank higher in search results. But who has the time to create regular updates? You do, and I will show you where you can easily repurpose content for multiple channels of communication.
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Share Your Church Website’s Testimony
Unlike businesses where website ideas, processes and platforms are guarded secrets; it should be the opposite for churches. Sharing ideas and best practices will help further the Gospel. We are not in competition with one another, but should provide a united front against our true enemy. In this article I will discuss a few ways you can help churches around the world make better websites.
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Church Websites That Help The Community
Churches often help their local community, but their websites often just display evidence of that help. Why not help the community right on your website? Yes you should focus on recruiting new members, but we should also strive to love our neighbors. This is content that will not only let visitors know that your church cares about the community; but it should rank well in search engines.
Content Delivery Strategy: Say No to PDFs
How you deliver content dictates how your visitors can consume it, as well as what they can do with it. The easy route is often to simply a link to a file, but why restrict your audience. Give them content the way they want it, and with the ability to share it with their friends and family. The first part in this series will deal with the common approach to posting weekly bulletins; the PDF.
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Constrict Your Content, Not Your Audience
Christianity is unique in many ways, but one that was controversial for early believers was the inclusion of the Gentiles. Faith in Christ was not be restricted to any group, race, or nation. So how do you market your church website to a particular demographic if you want to welcome everyone? Instead of narrowing your market, focus your content to answer the most frequently asked questions of potential members.
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Words Matter on your Church’s Website
When words are the primary means of communication, they matter… a lot! Church websites need to be especially careful with how they word things because of the hot topic religion has become. Even among fellow Christians, theological differences can cause splits in groups. I trust that your pastor will proofread the copy for your tenants of faith; however, you as the web team leader need to take great care when crafting the rest of the words on your site.
Inspiration from a Conversation
I started this blog with an article about conversations, and I feel compelled to revisit the topic. Often everyday experiences can be leveraged for writing. In this case, a quick conversation and questions that arose from it made me think about what can be lost in translation. The weakest form of communication, writing, is what we primarily rely on for our websites. A renewed focus on your church website’s content may help improve your message, and further the Gospel.
Writing a Content Strategy Document for your Church
Everything on your website must have a purpose. Just like a Sunday sermon, if you go off on an unnecessary tangent, or leave a key piece of information out; you are doing your listeners an injustice and may lose their attention. I imagine most pastors research and prepare an outline for their sermons. The content on your website should be no different and not treated as something we should do at the last minute. A great tool to focus your efforts is a content strategy document.
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Writing for Your Church Web Site
Writing content for your church website is different than any other type of writing. That is because websites are not printed material. Despite what you think, most people will not read your website; they will scan it. Fortunately plenty of research has been conducted on how people read websites, and we can use this data along with industry best practices, to craft good content for your church’s website. Plus you can do all of this while creating content that search engines will rank high. This may be confusing at first, but a few easy steps will ensure all of your audiences can effectively find and comprehend your content.
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