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Let’s talk about your church’s website. Maybe you haven’t updated it in a while. Maybe you try to update it weekly but just aren’t sure if you’re putting the right “stuff” on it. Maybe you’re overwhelmed because you have too many pages and too many things you have to keep up to date. Maybe you want to give up on the whole thing. Maybe you don’t even have a website yet but are thinking it *might* be time to start one. Whatever brought you here, you’re probably wondering if your website has what it takes to be effective.
Your church’s website likely serves a couple of different purposes. Above all, it’s one of the first places new visitors are going to go to learn about your church – where it is, what its mission is, how to get connected, etc. This means it’s incredibly important that you have a good “face” to your page – it needs to make a good first impression if you hope to draw those virtual visitors to become visitors in person.
Secondary to being your “front door” for potential visitors, your church website can also serve as a helpful connection point for your current church members, too, where they can get information about things currently happening, ways to get more involved, give online, and more.
In order to make sure your church’s online presence, specifically the website (because social media should be playing a role in your online presence, too, but that’s a whole other blog post!), is an effective tool that is worthwhile in maintaining, keep reading for some important elements every church website should have.
Traits Of An Effective Church Website
Just like every church is unique, every church website is unique, too. There will be pages and content that are critical for one church to have while is completely unimportant for another (if your church doesn’t have a food pantry, you won’t need information on your site about when your pantry is open or how often people can get help. If you do have a church pantry, you better make sure you’ve got a page just for it!).
Even though not every church website will have all the same information, there are certain things that are important traits for every church website that strives to be effective. Some of that we’ll get into in the section below labeled “8 Elements Every Church Website Should Have,” but before I get to the “stuff,” we need to get to what that “stuff” is put on – your website’s theme.
If you’re building or rebuilding your website, almost every website builder has pre-made themes to pick from. Unless you’re a graphic designer or are working with a graphic designer, these premade themes are a great way to ensure that your site looks cohesive. It’s important to make sure that as you examine your current theme or pick a new one for your website, it lends itself to user-friendliness, feels welcoming, and is up-to-date. It may be hard to grasp as it’s more of an abstract thought, but an important trait of an effective website is that it “feels” like your church and reflects your church’s mission and values.
So for example, if your church is predominantly older folks that have a “traditional” church atmosphere, you probably don’t want a “sleek, minimalist” design. If your church is based in a metropolitan area in the Midwest, you probably want to skip the theme that gives off “beach vibes.”
Your church website should not look like it hasn’t been updated since the early 2000’s. While it doesn’t need to be “cutting-edge,” it does need to be inviting, clear, and functional (and it needs to be readable on a mobile device! More on that later). The home page needs to be clean and clear with the most relevant information readily available. Usually, this means your service times, church address, and other contact information should be easily found within seconds of landing on your home page.
Before you make any major changes to your site, however, let’s keep going to make sure you’re moving in the right direction to ensure your website is effective.
Assessing Your Church Website Pages
If you already have a church website, you’re going to want to assess what you already have before deciding to throw the baby out with the bathwater and start from scratch. However, before you even open up your site in the web browser, it is going to be helpful to decide what is valuable and important. You need to decide what you want a visitor to your site to know by the time they leave your site.
Before taking the mouse to the screen, take pen to paper. Complete this thought: “When a visitor comes to my website, I would want them to leave the site knowing _____.” What’s in that blank? Maybe it’s …
- Service Times
- How to get involved
- Who we are/what we believe
- Where we’re located
- How to get in touch with the church
- Something else?
Let the “most important things” fuel the inventory of your website as you assess what’s there and how the information presented matches what you want visitors to know. Take time to review every single page of your website to see if it contains the information new and potential visitors need. Put yourself in the mindset of a new visitor who is scrolling your website for the first time—does each page guide you and inform you of the next step or those values you identified as most important? By starting with an assessment of what you already have, you can pinpoint gaps and prioritize changes for a more effective website.
Ready to dive in to the elements every effective church website should have? Here we go.
8 Elements Every Church Website Should Have
1. Service Times
Your service times should be one of the first things on your home page. Why? Because even though you want people to connect beyond Sunday morning and they may start their connection to your church in a different way, this is your main gathering. Even though you likely have some great groups or events, your services are the main thing that is open and relevant to everyone.
If you have more than one service, whether because you have a contemporary and traditional service or because you have a weekend and mid-week service or something else, it is a good idea to include at least a brief description of the service so that potential visitors know a little bit more of what to expect depending on which service they want to attend. When the details about your service times and styles are easily accessible, it makes it significantly easier for visitors who may be looking for a new church to make a connection to your church.
2. Contact Information
One of the other main things that is important to prominently display on your home page is contact information. For the home page, the main contact information that should be easily found is the church’s phone number and the address of your church’s physical location. You can also prominently display your church’s email address, but some churches choose to not have an email address displayed on the website (and instead have a contact form for people to fill out) in order to reduce the number of spam emails the church receives.
Contact information should also be clearly displayed in the footer of every page. That way, if someone is on a specific page of your site and has a question or makes the decision to visit your church, they don’t need to spend too much extra time figuring out how to get to you or contact you.
Whether you’ve decided to put your church email address(es) on the site or not, it’s fairly simple and a good idea to make a webpage that has a simple contact form for visitors who want more information. This contact form would include their name, phone number, email, and a space for a brief message about why they’re contacting the church. Again, having a contact form directly embedded into a web page on your website makes for one fewer step that someone has to take, and removing even the smallest of barriers is one of the best ways to help keep people engaged long enough to become fully connected.
3. New Visitor Information
It is wise to have a dedicated web page or section for new visitors. At the very least, this page should include directions to the church, information about where to park, what they can expect during a Sunday morning service, and details about children’s programs.
If you want to take that New Visitor page a step further for parents, you can have a form or a link to a form for parents to fill out that allows them to “preregister” their child. This not only helps them feel like there’s one less step to complete on Sunday morning when they’re overwhelmed, but it also lets you know that you can expect some extra kids and plan accordingly! Not everyone will take you up on this form, but those that do will appreciate it.
We all feel a little more secure when we know what to expect. A New Visitor Page is a great way to make newcomers feel welcome and prepared for their first visit.
4. “About Us” Page
People want to know who you are before they decide to join you in what you’re doing. Even for churches that are part of a larger denomination, having an “About Us” section that shares your beliefs, missions, and values is incredibly important – don’t assume that someone knows everything about your denomination just because you’ve been around for several hundred years.
It’s also a good idea, if you are part of a denomination, to link to your denomination’s website so visitors can get a better idea of what your whole church movement is about.
The “About Us” page is also a great place to introduce your staff members (with a photo and short bio). Especially for a small church that doesn’t have a lot of staff, it’s not out of the question to share the name, photo, and short bio of some of your church leaders, as well. Having this information allows guests to get to know a little bit about who leads the church.
Lastly, you can also feel free to share a little bit about your church’s history on the “About Us” page. Even better if you have some old photos that can add to the history of the church. I would encourage you, however, if you’re going to share your history, to also share where you’re going as a church. While our past is important for understanding where we are, it’s also vital to show that you’re not trying to go back to it, but rather that you recognize the place the past has in shaping your steps forward.
5. Online Sermons And Resources
Especially if you live stream or record your sermons, having a page on your website for sermons is vital. Past sermons are beneficial for both potential visitors and current members.
For potential visitors, past sermons provide a preview of your church’s teaching. It helps them get an idea of how your pastor preaches, what types of topics tend to be covered, and how you apply scripture.
For current members and attendees, having past sermons readily available is helpful for those who either were unable to attend church that Sunday or for those who want to go back and rewatch a sermon.
While you don’t need to have all of your sermons saved to your website, if you have a link to a “resource library,” whether that takes them to your YouTube channel or some other place, where they are able to watch sermons from beyond last Sunday, that is very helpful.
If there are other resources that your church uses regularly, it’s also a great idea to have those displayed on your site, as well. Again, this gives visitors an even fuller idea of your beliefs and values and it gives current members an easy way to access those resources because they’re all in one place.
Not all of your resources need to be publicly available, however, if they aren’t something that a visitor would need to see (or you don’t have permission to spread it broadly). For example, our website has a page available for our Sunday school teachers to access the current curriculum since we use a digital curriculum. This page is password protected because our license doesn’t allow for just anyone to be given access to it.
6. Calendar Of Events
One of the most important things that can also be one of the biggest challenges to have is an up-to-date calendar of events. (Notice I said up-to-date!). Like several other parts of your website, your events calendar has a few different purposes: It not only provides those who are currently part of your church with resources that keep them informed about upcoming events and activities, it also helps potential church visitors get an idea of what kind of programming is available and what types of programs in which they could participate.
Your church calendar should display both events that are church wide and for smaller sections of your church (small groups, women’s ministry, etc.). You should also emphasize those outreach/community events so that those who are not part of your church know they can be a part of something without being a member.
The tricky part about a calendar of events is that you have to update it. (Can I be honest? As I’m writing this blog post, I’m realizing there are 2 events that even I forgot to put on our calendar and needed to pause and go update my own church’s website!). I’m speaking to myself as much as to you at this moment: If you’re going to have a calendar displaying what’s going on at your church, you need to make it part of your routine to keep it updated.
If keeping a calendar updated is just not in the works for you; if it’s too much to add to your plate to try to remember to maintain yet another thing, then here’s another solution: At least have a ministries page that highlights what small groups, Bible studies, or other ministries are part of your church and simply share when they meet. (For example, you can share that Joe’s Bible Study meets every Wednesday at 2 pm in the church basement, and if you’d like to join, contact the church office). This allows for at least a general calendar of events without being too taxing to have to keep updated as frequently.
7. A Simple, Welcoming Home Page
Your home page is the home of first impressions. Because of that, it is incredibly important to make sure that it is simple and welcoming. Make sure that it is inviting and informative without being overwhelming. The most important information goes on the home page (if you put EVERYTHING on your home page because you believe EVERYTHING is important, you’ve just made nothing important). If you have a well-organized home page, you ensure that website visitors will be able to find the information they need quickly and easily.
Start with a warm, welcoming message, assuming that the majority of people who are coming to your home page are coming there for the first time. Post the essential information of service times and contact information. You should include either brief new visitor information or a clearly-displayed link to where visitors should go if they want more information as first-time guests.
Links in your header (which will also be on every page of your site) should be in broad categories with a dropdown menu for each category. Consider what type of categories allow for a clear description of what’s contained within them but that also allows you to have only a few categories or header items displayed. Try to limit the number of links prominently displayed in your headers to no more than 5. For reference, even though we have over 20 web pages of information since I’ve created a web page for each ministry and/or program, our headers are New Here?, Watch, Get Connected, and Give.
8. Mobile-Friendly Design
If you already have a website, pull out your phone (if you aren’t already reading this article on it!) and visit your website. How’s it look?
- Are there weird gaps in space?
- Is the font readable?
- Are the pictures big enough to see what’s in them?
- Are the pictures too big?
- Are links overlapping?
- Is it easy to access the menu?
- Is your important information visible?
Whew. That’s a lot of questions, but they’re all incredibly important to consider.
While designing a website on a phone is an impossible nightmare, almost all of your visitors are going to be visiting your site on mobile devices. Your website needs to be optimized for being viewed on a phone and/or tablet because more often than not, that’s how your site is going to be accessed.
When you edit your website, it’s okay to start with what that site will look like on a computer web browser since a computer is how you’re going to be building the pages. However, once you’re satisfied with how the page looks on a computer, toggle the viewing mode to see how it looks on a mobile device (some may also give you the option of editing how it looks on a tablet, too).
To make your website mobile-friendly, and provide a positive user experience for cell phone/tablet visitors, ensure that content is easy to read, links are accessible, and navigation is actually navigable. A website that looks like a a jumbled mess will leave the wrong first impression about your church, so make sure your site is mobile-friendly! If it’s not and you’re at a loss of how to make it better, don’t be afraid to ask for help or do some internet searching – it’s worth taking the time and effort to make your site accessible from mobile devices.
The Work IS Worth It
A great website is a powerful tool in your arsenal of ways you will be able to reach and connect with visitors. When your church website is effective and visitor-friendly, you make it that much easier for those virtual visitors to become in-person visitors.
Make sure your important information (service times, contact information, etc.) is readily accessible on your nice, clean home page. Make sure that the home page is clean and orderly on a mobile device, too. Include pages for information for first-time guests, things to know about your church, and keep either an up-to-date calendar or have a page dedicated to ministries/programs and when they meet.
It may feel overwhelming, especially if you feel your website needs an overhaul after reading all this, but know that the work is worth it, both for visitors and current church attendees. As you implement these changes, remember that a welcoming, informative website is one of the best ways to reach people, start the connection process, and grow your church community online. You’ve got this!
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