Depending on the website platform your church utilizes, you can easily capture what users are entering into a search box. This information is an absolute treasure trove of information about what your users want to find on your website. It shows exactly what topics people want to find, the language they are expecting to see, and on what page they were expecting to find it. By using search terms to guide future content updates, you are giving your users what they are already asking for.
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Category: Church Website
The church website is the bedrock of any digital ministry. It is the hub nearly all digital ministry actions flow through. They may start on social media or an email list, but quickly move to your website for further action. These articles deal with optimizing, tweaking, and fully revamping your website.
More Than A Website: Internet Ministry
Various technologies can be used to share the message of the Gospel. What is your church using? Many will argue it is not as authentic as face-to-face conversations. However, the ability to reach a global audience with inexpensive tools cannot be ignored.
Websites that Make Disciple Makers
The goal of brand loyalty is not to create someone who likes a product, but someone who will also tell others about it. Social media marketers hope that consumers will move to become advocates; not only liking posts on Facebook, but also sharing them with their friends. The same applies for the church as we hope to not just create disciples, but make advocates who share their faith and demonstrate Christ’s love.
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Preventing SEO Dips During Site Structure Updates
Imagine a scenario where you launch a new church website with great new content and better navigation menu labels. You reimagined your church and are excited to see how your audience reacts. Unfortunately your Google search ranking just dropped through the floor, and for the next few weeks you are struggling to regain your foothold in the top results for your city. If you are planning a website redesign, the strategies in this article are a must for you.
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Re-Think Content: Conversion Paths
When you talk to someone who has questions about Christianity; you do not spout off the entire Gospel, hoping to convert them right there on the spot. Unfortunately many websites do just this. They do not understand that just like an eCommerce site, you need to build interest, trust, and value before you can ask for any level of commitment from a website user.
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Re-Think Content: Content Gap Analysis
Where do you start when you want to update your website? This series kicks off some big tasks of re-thinking your content, why it exists, how it fits into a navigation structure, who will create the content, who will maintain it, and when those updates will be made. All of these should be done prior to firing up Adobe Photoshop or writing a single line of HTML. Stick with me on this, it will be worth it!
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When to Retire Content
Many of my articles deal with creating new websites or new content for them. Yet there comes a time for content to be suppressed, archived, or even deleted from your site. This is especially true of time-sensitive information and news, as once the relevant dates have passed, its usefulness greatly diminishes. Part of your web content strategy should include what content can be retired, and when.
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Making Websites Like a Child
If you ask a child if they can draw, they will tell you yes. If you ask an adult, they will often say no because they assume you are asking if they can draw well. The honesty and innocence of children is a trait praised by Jesus, and is something web teams can utilize as they approach their church websites.
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Website Maintenance Calendar
At the time of this writing, our annual celebration of Easter is still fresh in our rearview mirrors. Did the early occurrence of this holiday catch your website off guard? Instead of letting important holidays like Easter and Christmas creep up on you and your web team; create a website maintenance calendar for regular reviews and content creation pushes to capitalize on these large events.
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SEO Basics for your Church Website
In a previous article I talked about SEO for your church website. Well it is a year later and I think I need to re-visit the topic. Mostly because every church I have ever talked to wants to rank high in Google’s search results. Being in the first few results greatly increases your chances of getting a new visitor to your site. However, when you looked into hiring a search engine optimization (SEO) consultant, your church treasurer probably fainted. These sorcerers of search are not cheap. So I will try to help explain some basics that you can do yourself at the expense of only your time.
Further Integrating Youth Ministries on your Website
Many churches are integrating their sermons and teaching with their website. Others have gone so far as to integrate worship, and hold actual services online. With tools like live chat, they are calling people to participate and be part of the church; just online. Yet this is often geared toward your adult age demographic. In this article I will explore ways to both entertain and educate your church’s youth.
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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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