2014 Called: Wanting your Church Website Back

I enjoy looking at Throwback Thursday postings on Facebook. Seeing the way people looked “back when”. Sometimes it’s concerning though that we once wore the things we did.

Clothing styles certainly change from season to season and year to year!

When it comes to digital church communications and your church website, there’s many changes that we have to keep up with. The web world is constantly changing! And the church is notoriously hanging out in the previous decade. Web paradigm has changed and even if you updated your church’s online presence last year, you probably should do these 3 things to feel like 2015.

1. Change your copyright. Talk about a warning label that says “we haven’t updated our church website”! It should be easy. Take the time right now to update your copyright in the web footer to 2015. This subtly tells people that you’re actively updating your website content. It says that you care that the information that they’re seeking is correct.
2. Go mobile friendly. More than 40% of people discovered your website on a mobile device in 2014. The experts are anticipating more than half of people will soon go to a church website on a small mobile screen. What does that mean? It means you need a responsive website: one that reconfigures or resizes content depending on the screen size or device they’re viewing it on. It’ll look great on a desktop monitor; but a smart phone still offers a wonderful experience as people discover your content.
3. Edit. Because of small screens and our reduced attention span, page content needs to be edited to about 50 words/page since, on average, people spend less than 10 seconds on a page. An exception: blog postings (that share personal stories) can capture someone’s attention for 300 words. The majority of your online videos should last less than 2 minutes. Perhaps 2015 is the year to have a video editor create a short summary of each sermon or service. Think of it as a promotional ad, so it’s shareable on social media. Then offer the link to the entire message so they can pursue more content.  People will listen longer sitting in your pews than someone will when watching online. Editing is essential.

Some of you need to do more than this to your church website. You haven’t updated your website for 3 or 4 years (or more!). Well, it’s time. 2015 is the year to do it. More and more people go to your church website as the center of your digital communications hub; so get it right. It’ll never get easier and it ultimately will save money and attract more people if it’s done correctly. Need help? An expert who’ll assure you do it right? We’d love to help! Contact us today to get started.

Or contact us – we have a simple way you can have an EFFECTIVE church website by Fall Program Kickoff.

This post originally appeared for the digital Worship Facilities Magazine. Mark MacDonald is a regular writer for this and other national publications.