Website design for churches isn’t what you may be thinking it is. For years across the Internet we have seen the standard websites that basically convey what a church’s beliefs are and delivering their denominations philosophy. Furthermore, website designs for churches have always been inward focussed. What I’m referring to is the need to feel as though their website is merely a tool for their current members. Hold up, because this is where the vast amount of churches who have an online presence are missing the boat.
While it may sound like a fairly straight forward question, my agency works with hundreds of churches across the United States and I usually see the same errors from the word “Go.” There is always the traditional sections such as “what we believe,” “we believe in Jesus,” and the standard sections and contextual content that is seen across the board.
While this is okay, let me ask you this. How many people do you think are coming to visit your website don’t already know that you believe in Jesus or that you preach from the Bible? I know it sounds pretty silly, but let’s dig a bit deeper and see why this isn’t working to attract more people to both your website and even more importantly into your physical location to make a visit with you.
If someone new coming into your church doesn’t tell you that they found you on the Internet and what attracted them to decide to make a visit, then you are missing a golden opportunity of reaching those within your surrounding communities.
What are we supposed to be selling something from our church website design? You better be or you might as well stop with what you are doing because it isn’t serving the purpose for which you intended it. I don’t think I need to tell any of you that we unfortunately live in a selfish society where everyone seems to be focussed on “what’s in it for me?” kind of mentality.
However, from the moment someone lands on your website, they better know immediately what is in it for them as well as their family. Think about this for a second and you will see why my proven theory works. When you visit a website, you obviously went there in search for something. Whether that be a service, product, or information to assist you with what it is you are trying to complete.
How long do you stay if you can’t find what you’re looking for from moments that you land upon any given website. Usually that’s about three to five seconds. If the particular website you were visiting doesn’t deliver what you are looking for, then you “Bounce.”
Guess what visitors are doing on your website if they can’t find or see immediately what they are looking for? You guessed it, they “Bounce.”
Since the focus of this article deals with website design for churches, let’s take a minute to talk about exactly what it is that your website should be delivering to the visitors of your online presence.
Okay, now you have a few of the “who” and “whys” let’s take a look at reaching your intended targeted audience.
It should come as no surprise that nearly 90% of all searches are conducted from our mobile connected devices. Whether that be a cell phone, tablet or other device that we have available to us. If there is one sure fire way of ensuring that a person leaves your site immediately, it is by having a website that is burdened down with huge image files or takes forever to load through whatever Internet connection they have available.
While most of us are fortunate enough to have access to high-speed WiFi, if people are out and about and find your website via their mobile device and not all mobile carriers are equally created in regards to how quickly they serve up your website. So having a website that is mobile friendly and loads quickly is essential. Certainly something that you should be discussing with your web developer or person who is in charge within your team of creating and handling your online presence.
I’m going to address this right now and up front, I realize that many churches don’t have the budget it requires to hire a true website developer, so many are using someone within their congregation that thinks they have the skill sets necessary to put together an awesome website. Yes, it is possible, however, time is often times something that you don’t want to be the constraining factor. Furthermore, it your site user friendly?
The number 1 factor in causing people to immediately leave a website when they land on it, is the mere fact that they are not able to locate what it is they came looking for information for. It’s called the “Bounce Factor” as we know it in the web development world.
People usually have a preset idea or thought of what it is they are looking for when they visit your website. The bigger question to ask is “can they easily find it?”
If your church website is hard to navigate or to find specific information, you can rest assured that most people will immediately leave and usually end up landing upon another competing church who is making it much easier for them to locate various pieces of information they are looking for. What are some of the “top items” people want to see the quickest?
Down the road I will be providing you with more content that is geared to website design for churches and the many things that play into a well thought out design that will assist you taking your ministry and online presence well into the next generation.
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