1. Use your home page to tell people what’s going to happen at your church this weekend. Post your message title and one line that clearly defines it, or post your message titles for the month. If you’ve scheduled a guest speaker, concert, workshop or class, include that info on your home page.
2. If you have a picture of your building on the main page, make it small, as a help to first-time visitors looking for your church. A large, prominently featured photo of your building on your home page unfortunately says, “We’re a building.” Instead, communicate, “We’re a community.” Use a slide show featuring smiling faces, people connecting, people praying, people serving. Or feature a slide show with images and words that represent your mission and values (peace, community, joy, love, inspiration, spiritual growth, prayer, etc.).
3. Use colors and images that appeal to both genders. Don’t go ALL pink or ALL flowers or ALL hearts. Incorporate predominantly feminine or predominantly masculine images and colors judiciously.
4. Communicate the most important, basic info on your opening page. People searching the web for the right church are looking for basics: What do you teach? What’s happening now? Where are you located? What time is your Sunday service? After they get to your opening web page, they’ll spend a fraction of a second deciding whether to stay or go. You may love the idea of an opening that features a touchy-feely movie, but don’t do it. You’ll lose web traffic, search engine rankings, and potential visitors and new members.
Consider this insight from the elance blog:
“Just like hairstyles, websites date. What was all the rage a couple of years ago is now seen as passé… For instance, Flash intro pages were all the rage until web designers realized that users didn’t like them and wanted to get straight to the content. Flash introductions are the beehive hairdo of the web design world: dated, impractical and utterly pointless.”
5. Every image is worth 1,000 words. When you select any image for your home page (or any page on your website), make sure it communicates something important and significant about your ministry. Also consider the impression the image will make on a first-time visitor. If all of the photos on your home page are of people over 50, will a 30-something think she’s in the right place?
6. Use great images, appropriately sized. Professional stock photographs are now available online for as little as $1 per image. If you need images, try Fotolia.com. If you don’t have access to Photoshop or other good photo editing software, try the free photo editor at Picnik.com.
7. Include volunteer opportunities, but don’t over-do it. First-time visitors to your website aren’t likely to be looking for 20 ways to spend their spare time, so there’s no need to spend the time and money to develop 20 web pages, each devoted to a separate volunteer ministry. However, your site can and should serve as a resource for newer and established congregants who want to explore ways to serve, so it’s important to include a list of your volunteer teams and brief (2-4 sentence) explanations of each team’s function within the church.
8. Include a map link, service time(s), your address and phone number in a prominent place on your home page. Make the info everyone is looking for very easy to find.
9. If you use a picture of the minister on the home page, make it small. Your church isn’t really just about you, right?
10. Focus on the benefits. Why should anyone attend your service on Sunday? Will she find inspiration, joy, peace, new friends? Communicate that clearly on the home page, through both images and words, to attract new people who will love your church and help it grow.
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