In this day and age no one looks to the yellow pages when looking for businesses or organizations. People use search engines like Google. People may use many different words to search for churches and will find many websites. A church’s website is how guests will judge a church. It is a church’s digital first impression, the front door, and the place where guests will look for information about your church.
I have found that a website has a very short time to make a first impression. I know from personal experience and from data I have seen from website performance statistics. The stats do not really tell you in most cases how long a person views a website but I have seen how fast people click links on the homepage. A study was done which concluded that it takes less than two-tenths of a second for a visitor to form a first opinion once they have perused a website and it takes another 2.6 seconds for that visitor’s eyes to concentrate in a way that reinforces that first impression. ~Entrepreneur.com
So now let’s get into the mistakes, shall we?…
No Website…
I figured I would start with the worst one. If you do not have a website of course no one will find you. The prices for websites now a days can get expensive mainly for the charges a web designer will charge. It is possible for anyone to have a website with all the web hosting options that are available, some make it very easy to have your very own website and all it takes is a little knowledge of the desktop publishing apps in the Microsoft Office Suite, like Microsoft Word. So make sure you have a website online to let the world know your church exists.
Images…
Microsoft Word I remember had its clip art everywhere. Still does actually and a lot of this clip art ends up on church websites and it does not look good. If you must use clip art don’t use bad clip art that turn out pixelated when place in the infamous image slider. Images you place on your website should not be pixelated or stretched, especially main images like images of your church staff members. Pixelation and stretching just looks bad and if you have a web designer that you pay he or she should not be placing images with these issues. It is very tacky and lazy. If you must use clip art make sure the images you use are copyright free and are high-quality. You can find some images at sites like Pexels and iStock. There are many others but these two have a good following.
I am familiar with the concept of working with what you are given image-wise from church staff so the staff should be informed of what is required if they so choose to design images to be placed on the website. Since Word is widely still used by many then a compromise could be to supply the web designer the Word document. This way he or she can design the image to be posted based on the file given. If your church happens to have people who use graphic design applications make sure they know the requirements. An idea could be to create a page on the website where the requirements are given making it globally accessible. This page though should not have much importance.
Slider Images
Slider images are the main attraction and the first thing a visitor will see and focus on. The images in the slider should definitely not be pixelated, skewed, or stretched. The text in any slider image should not be overwhelming. If an image is place at a smaller size than what most computer screens resolutions are set to the slider will enlarge the image to fit which can cause all of these imperfections. This applies to full width sliders which are becoming used more frequently. If the slider is not a full width slider and has a set size to it then the images should be created at that set size. To add, the text in the image will (In a full width slider) also be enlarged with these imperfections making the font look less crisp. The image should basically look like it belongs there instead of having been forced to be there. Good slider images can make a site looks beautiful or make it look like a design failure. Your web designer should be able to make the images look great. Again if he or she (you are paying) is posting anything you throw them or themselves are creating the images which look this way… Do I need to say more?
If any slider image refer to an event or something similar then a post describing that event should also be created. The image in the slider should then link to that post. A slider image should not link to a document like a Word document or a PDF that you then rely on to describe your event. The reason for this I will mention later. This also depends on the visitor being able to open the document on whatever device they are using to view your website. This is also just lazy and not a common practice with great web designers. Maybe a beginner like a web design student may do this or someone whose main focus is not on the design look of your website.
Sliders are now getting better with 3D effects and text that can be applied to your images as captions or headings even. Be mindful of the colors of the images you place. If an image has a lot of white in it and you place white (or a color close it) text over it in the slider your visitors will not be able to read your caption information very well or at all. I am sure a designer will get images to be placed in the slider with text in the image. I have mentioned already how resizing creates imperfections in an image. If your slider has the options to place text then use related images with no text and add the text in yourself over that using the slider’s add text features whether it a 3D slider or just a slider that allows you to add more caption looking text like in a dark bar under the image.
I have also seen some sliders position partially under the content. Keep this in mind when creating images for the slider. If your image does have text in it that covers the bottom of the image. Chances are that text on the bottom will get covered by the content section.
Leadership Focused Homepage
I am talking about the homepage where the main image is of the pastor of the church. I am guilty of this myself actually but have found this to be unappealing to most site visitors. Yeah people do come become members of a church due to a connection they feel with the pastor but visitors do not know anything about the church which goes back into that first impression which should be in line with the vision of the church, not so much in line with the personalities.
Homepage Focused on a Building
Similar to what was just mentioned only the imagery on the homepage is all tied to where your church meets each week. If you have an iconic or historical building that many will recognize you can possibly get away with it but you should be using images of people instead. I have seen some use that empty sanctuary photo and have been tempted to use at times but the photo is just not that engaging unless your sanctuary is like made of gold or looks totally breathtaking. Engaging images are those shots of the life of the church. The images of life happening in and around your church.
No images of Church Staff or Leadership
Yeah I know this sounds against what I mentioned latter but to reinforce the goal to attract new visitors. Images of staff should be on your website somewhere. Not as a main image though and not necessarily on the homepage. People want to know what to expect and who they are gonna see in any area. I have seen some sites use a staff directory with contact info and pictures which goes a long way in helping a visitor feel more comfortable. Some may not want their picture shown and that is fine but churches are in the business of helping people. You cannot do that while in hiding. So there should be a good number of staff members with pictures shown to further the comfort ability factor. This though is optional and with all the security concerns now a days some staff members should not be shown such as those that handle money bank drops.
Unrelated Photos
Sure use those high-quality stock photos but use photos that look like your church. The main misrepresentations are usually age, ethnicity, and beauty. If your church consists of people at graying ages posting young families may not be the best way to go. Churches are not full of models (If you know of some let me know.) so show the average people in your pictures. If you are not diverse in ethnicity your images should also reflect that.
The website images should reflect the style of your church like placing good images of your worship service or anniversary. Show images that depict what your members are doing in the community. Images like these can also help visitor decide on what to wear to your events.
Logos…
Logos should also adhere to what I have mentioned latter. Some site I have seen have no logos at all or some generic looking clip art image that happened to be related in some way. Remember, churches have similar names so you need a logo that differentiates your church from the rest. Take note:
Not all logo designs can be easily place on a website.
I say this due to a common practice in web design of using readily created themes or templates. Line drawing type logos can work out but crests with type (lettering) whether square or circular generally do not place well in the menu area. They can be resized but if you only have a text menu the logo is not easily seen. In most cases the menu area will get enlarged to the height of this logo leaving a lot of empty space on the top of your website. This also is not mobile friendly unless you are able to hide the logo when viewed by mobile devices. If you must use such a logo place it so it overlaps into the next area leaving the menu height unchanged or do not place it near the menu area at all. Basically there are better ways to place these type of logos.
Outdated Information
The most common mistake that most churches do is struggle to update their sites regularly. Your website should not be readily showing stuff like:
A 2008 Woman’s Day Breakfast slider image
An image with bunnies and eggs still rotating in August
Information regarding an independence day event while in the month of November.
Christmas Eve service details of a service that happened in 2005 while the current year we are in is 2017.
Visitors and members or returning members are going to wonder what has been going on. Smaller churches may not have much going on but whatever you are doing make sure visitors know. Anyone familiar to the website (and not) should have the expectation that your site will be updated with noteworthy content and do not let your most recent post be titled “Hello World”. This says something about your church. The assumption being an out of date website belongs to an out of date church. The Gospel has no expiration date, but some information on your website does.
Find a webmaster that will help you take off old events or set up a monthly commitment with your webmaster and your staff with the goal of performing weekly updates.
Contact Info / Service Times
When and where you worship is important right??? Sure it is. People can’t attend your events if they do not know where and when to show up. Also who to contact for more info. Yeah this stuff should probably be everywhere. websites usually allow for this in the header and footer but it might be a good idea to also have a page dedicated to service time and contact information. Maybe go further and have a church bulletin on your site.
Not Mobile Friendly
This is a big one here. Mobile web surfing and browsing is done more than on the desktop and nearly two-thirds of people in the U.S. now own a smartphone with those numbers climbing. Accessing the internet through only phones and tablets is a reality with many people. If your website is not mobile friendly that first impression is not too good with the majority of your visitors while many others will never see your website at all. I also know Google gives mobile friendly websites better rankings which translates into your site being seen more.
No Video / Audio
Many churches post weekly sermons on their websites. These videos or audio will show visitors what to expect like what music you play, style of worship, and content of sermons. Visitors will watch or listen to such content before deciding to show up. Live streaming is also an option many are doing which is great. Live streaming also works for current members who may not be able to attend for any reason. Make sure your online attendees are not bombarded with ads. It would be bad for an ad to kick in during the most powerful part of the pastor’s message. Also try to avoid using a link to another site. You want to keep visitors on your website. Opt to embed the stream into your site.
Optimizing Site Pages
A person that is using Google to search may use a generic term to find a church and may not find your church in their search if some search engine optimization (SEO) has not been used. I mean Google now is smart enough to show local results when generic terms are used. You may need help in this task or have your web designer do it for you. If you are doing the site yourself you may have to do some research.
I mentioned latter about linking a slider image to a document. One should create a post that way it can be shared on social media in a effort to advertise the content while also creating more traffic for your website. You can link to any documents in this post. This will in turn help your website SEO.
Other Suggestions to avoid…
Information on Children
Parents will want to have as much info as they can get about who their children will be exposed to and being cared for by. The more information the better trust you can acquire. A common practice in starting a new family is to find a church for that family to attend. Parents do searches with terms like or similar to “Children activities” , “kid safe”. You get the idea. It is not always known what churches do with kids until someone visits the church and attends events and activities. A church website should clearly explain where children of numerous ages are urged to go. Questions to answer:
Who is watching the kids?
Is it a safe environment?
Where do the parents go when they arrive? Will parents be far away? Is the location where children are easily accessible?
And any other questions you can think of to answer…
Online Donations… Hard
First you should have some sort of online giving option set up and it should not be hard to do. The easy process will lower obstacles to those interested in donating online.
Music on Autoplay
Ever visit a site and the music plays while the speakers were turned all the way up from maybe the following content you were viewing? There really is no real reason to have background music unless you are some famous singer. Most of those sites still do not play music automatically. Yeah does anyone remember MySpace or any of the old online sites? (Blackplanet, Migente, Geocities,…) Mmmmm yeah that was a thing back then in what, 2003? 2004?
It also may not be that courteous to browsers since a lot of time people are searching the web while at work. Throwing “Victory Is Mine!” across of their computer may be an unwanted event setting someone in trouble at work…
To shorten your read a little bit I will list the rest in a short bullet list.
- Showing too much information
- Long or confusing domain name
- Free website editors
~Sites like Wix, blogger and wordpress.com are all pretty much the same which leave your site looking pretty much like the site of another church using the same service or theme even. These site you also have to use their domain name in your church name which does not look professional. Self host your site and use WordPress if you like. WordPress.com is not self hosted and I believe they have an option to get your domain name through them. I would not do that. I suggest buying your domain name separately and just make sure you pay that to make sure you keep your domain name is something goes wrong with you and your hosting company. (It happens) - Use of small fonts
- Broken website links
- Not including information on special events
- Ignoring site maintenance
- Don’t get too deep like including by-laws or charter information
How many of these mistakes have you made? Feel free to comment.
The great news is you can tackle most of these mistakes without a new Website. You can use the information here as a guideline for your website(s) in order to identify problem areas or if you are the site owner and just wanna know if your designer is doing his/her job properly. You may not have the money to hire a web designer. Talk to your members. Someone just may know how to do it. It is an excellent way to get it done at little to no cost while increasing church activity participation. Why pay the extra money that an unfamiliar professional designer will charge when you have members that can do it for less? Whatever your situation the goal is to have a clear and attractive web presence.
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