Church websites are changing for the better. Instead of creating landing pages that mainly served to provide information about upcoming events and how to donate and then packing each page with a plethora of inconsistent images, irrelevant content, and over usage of (collective gasp) comic sans or papyrus font, churches recognize their website’s potential for outreach. It’s becoming a primary way to make a first impression. But, even when the church can answer the key questions like why (outreach), who (staff, vendor, or volunteer team), and what (compelling content and eye-catching design), it doesn’t mean anything without a back end to support it all. Here are four considerations for churches building or updating their existing website.
Search Engine Optimization
In the United States, three out of every four searches begin on Google. Regardless of your feelings about the process or Google, optimizing your website to appear on the first page when someone searches for “church in my city” is crucial. Without getting too technical, Search Engine Optimization, or SEO, is a behind-the-scenes process of enhancing a website’s visibility on search engines like Google, Bing, DuckDuckGo, etc. Optimizing for search engines includes optimizing the technical aspects of a website as well as the content on the website. Unless your church has staff with the expertise to optimize the website, this is an area to hire a professional.
Mobile Responsive
Recent statistics show that globally, over half of all internet searches happen on a mobile device, not a desktop computer. If the church’s SEO efforts pay off and the church is on page one of a search on a mobile device, it becomes paramount that the experience on the mobile device is every bit as good as it is on a desktop. Mobile responsive sites can scale and reformat the page components and content based on the device’s screen size. The proliferation of mobile devices makes mobile responsive websites essential for churches to provide an excellent first impression.
Automation (where it makes sense)
Most leading ChMSs (Church Management Systems) provide a suite of APIs (Application Programming Interface) to allow integration between the ChMS and the website. It may sound complicated, but when used properly, it’s a huge time saver for churches. For example, most ChMS manage the church-wide or public calendar. Through the use of the ChMS API, the calendar/event information can automatically populate the website, eliminating the duplication of data entry and limiting the number of people with access to the website’s backend. Remember, automation should make tasks easier and keep the church website safe, be judicious when deploying APIs.
Hosting
In the simplest terms, web hosting enables publishing a website on the internet. A hosting service rents space where the website owner stores their files and data for the website to function. But that’s really just the tip of the iceberg. Hosting services are responsible for keeping the server (thus the website) available, providing security measures, and ensuring the accurate and smooth transfer of files from the server to the end user’s browsers. Many hosting options are available, ranging from hosting the website yourself, but in most cases, that is not recommended, to shared hosting, cloud hosting, and dedicated hosting. All have pros and cons depending on the website’s needs and the owner’s skill set. When looking for a hosting service, consider the following questions:
- Uptime: Poorly maintained and inconsistent service results in poor uptime, affecting your site’s availability. What is the host’s uptime record? (Hint: 99.9% is the industry standard – 99.999% is considered exceptional.)
- Technical Specs: Does the hosting service provide enough disk space? Can they handle the bandwidth for your site (and others if it’s a shared service)?
- Security: What assurance does the host provide against malware and distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks? What is the policy for performing security updates and backups?
- Support: What level of support does the host provide? If the church’s site goes down at 10:00 AM on Sunday, is someone there to support the church?
As church websites become more and more of an outreach tool, building sites that make a great first impression with thoughtful design and relevant content is essential. But, without a solid backend that maximizes SEO, provides a mobile responsive design, utilizes APIs to automate appropriate tasks, and resides on a quality hosting service platform, no one will ever find it. The Church (the people, not the building) is the light of the world. Let’s make sure the light shines before others, even through a website on the internet.
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