I heard a stat recently that made me stop in my tracks and really think about it, the stat was that 60% – 75% of new visitors to churches check out the church’s website prior to visiting. Now let’s think about that for a second, the majority of new visitors to a church are first introduced to the church via the website. That means that the website immediately becomes one of the most important parts of the ministry.
How many times have you seen a church’s website and just shook your head at the lack of quality that the website displayed. I understand that there are many churches that have limited budgets and are not able to invest thousands into a new website but there are low cost solutions to make sure the website delivers the same quality ministry that someone would receive if they stepped into the church building.
If churches understood how important a ministry tool that the website is and gave it the same attention they give ministry items such as church buildings, internal ministries and sanctuaries, then we would see more high quality websites that engage and connect with people prior to them coming to the actual church. Don’t pay attention to all the things you traditionally viewed as important within a church and negate the website because many people are looking at the website as an extension of the church.
Now let’s teach, if you would like to know some ways to enhance your website there here are some helpful tips.
When people come to your website they are usually looking for service times, directions and contact information. Also, if you are streaming weekend services then they are looking for that as well.
There are free services such as Google Sites (sites.google.com) and Wix (wix.com) that offer websites that churches can easily make and initially establish an online presence. But do not rely on free solutions for an extended period of time, start off on those sites and then graduate to your own website on your own server, something built by a web designer/developer and hosted on a service provider like GoDaddy (godaddy.com).
Make sure people can get anywhere on your website within 2 – 3 clicks.
Don’t try to cram everything about the ministry onto the homepage, it makes your ministry homepage look like an online hoarding location. Less is better on the homepage, stick to large banners, an online video, social media icons, and key links to things that people are looking for.
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