Your Opinion Really Does Not Matter

I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but if you are a pastor in your late 40’s, your opinion of a website aimed at an early 20’s audience really does not matter. Well now that the awkward part of this article is over, I will move on to what really counts; and that is if your church website is meeting the established business goals. In this article I will explore different ways the decision makers can provide good feedback and shape a great experience for your target audience.
Continue reading “Your Opinion Really Does Not Matter”

Even If You Are Wrong, Be Consistent

Utilize patterns to create a consistent experience on your church website. Inconsistent designs are more disruptive than a bad design. It forces your users to constantly learn new mechanisms to use the site. Patterns, color palettes, icons and page templates all provide a familiar comfortable experience that keeps your users on your sites and hopefully walking into your church.
Continue reading “Even If You Are Wrong, Be Consistent”

Inspire Confidence on your Website

What if your pastor’s sermon had no major points, no reference to scripture, and no relevance to your daily lives?  What if they wore a distracting outfit, talked too quietly, and stuttered?  I doubt that pastor’s preaching career would last very long.  So why would it be OK for your website to do the same thing?  Create good looking, recently updated, relevant websites and you will inspire confidence in your visitors.

Continue reading “Inspire Confidence on your Website”

Don’t Be Afraid To Take Something Away

If you visited the original website, you may remember when I changed the color scheme of my header image / logo . I took away the colors for the sky and ground. Why? I was doing too much and was not providing enough focus. This blog is about growing church websites. So I drew attention to just that, a growing plant. Much like fasting and isolating yourself for prayer helps you focus; taking something away from your church’s web pages can help users focus.
Continue reading “Don’t Be Afraid To Take Something Away”

Church Brochures Vs. Church Websites

If you are a church that was founded before the late 90’s, you probably have some printed material that you wanted to move to a website. However, your church website is not just an electronic brochure you can hand people. As many studies have suggested, the majority of website content is skimmed, not read. Because of this, the content you may have developed for a printed brochure is not suitable to copy and paste to your website. Plus there are many limitations brochures have that websites do not. In this article, I will compare and contrast content strategies for both mediums.

Continue reading “Church Brochures Vs. Church Websites”

Creating a Great Contact Us Page

Your church has an awesome looking website and published great content… so where is the tidal wave of new members? Perhaps people are finding your site and are very interested, but they cannot connect with you. The primary conversion point on most service oriented websites is the “Contact Us” page. By optimizing that page with multiple options, you remove the barriers that hold some people back from reaching out to you.
Continue reading “Creating a Great Contact Us Page”

Not Everyone Can Design

When you ask people in the church who can fix a car, crochet, shingle a roof, or bake a gold medal pound cake… people will most likely not lie about their talents. If they cannot do it, they admit it without shame. However when it comes to the web, everyone has an opinion. That opinion often spills over into them deciding how the site should look.  Do not relegate your designers to the task of simply pushing pixels.  Let them do their job and they will continue to surprise you!

Continue reading “Not Everyone Can Design”

Effective Site Imagery

The photos on your site do not need to say a thousand words.  They do need to speak to your users and align with your business goals. Try to put your written content into the proper context by displaying images that lend and enhance your message and connect with people’s emotions. Use the science of psychology and art of storytelling to show people why your church is so amazing.
Continue reading “Effective Site Imagery”