T he truth is this. Church websites require a lot of information to be effective. I mean, you have a multipurpose meeting place for EVERYONE you want to stay connected to. For people who want to know every detail about the churches events and ministries, to the nominal attender, to people who have never been before. Wow, that’s a tall task.
Let’s assume that you have thought a bit about what kind of strategy you want for communicating to all those different people. Do you want to reach all those people in one place? Do you want multiple places? Oh no, time to go run and hide! NO. Don’t do that. Here are a few must haves that make sure that you are communicating everything you need to. It doesn’t matter whether it’s your only access point or you have multiple access points for your people.
- A clean and easy to read front page. included in this front page should be easy to find services times, service location/s, and easy to find contact information.
- In this day and age it’s very easy for anyone to find a church online and just show up. Often times people have different theological leanings or understandings than we hold too. So, we need to make sure that we clearly outline those theological beliefs on our website. I mean, don’t break down EVERY belief your church holds, but you should be able to break down the major closed handed doctrine that you believe. that way they can know whether you are even starting in the same place.
- Staff pictures! One of our most visited pages (last time I checked) was our staff and leadership page. People want to have. glimpse of the people that will be running things when they show up to your building. Having pictures for those staff and leaders will help make you accessible and familiar to those who might visit.
- Next on this list must of course be media. In 2021 it doesn’t make sense not to have at the very least, audio. Having video is even better. There are free options for hosting both so slowing down your website is no longer and excuse for not having that audio and video. People will decide whether they want to come check you out based on whether they like your messages and content.
- Lastly, an easy way for people to make contact with you. Have a nice bright and big button if it matches your site style to get people to communicate with you. that communication may be the hurdle between them walking away from your church or actually coming to visit you.
Bonus!
It’s definitely NOT all about the money, but those resources allow us to keep our doors open. And in this day and age, especially with us being in the middle of a pandemic, maybe your congregation is mostly watching online. You definitely need a quick and easy way to let them give from home!
