Crazy Pastors Preach to Empty Auditoriums

Can you imagine a Pastor preaching in an empty room? Hours of preparation, unlocking the doors, turning the lights on, standing behind the pulpit, and for a full 40 minutes they deliver the best sermon. They believe the Lord has told them to preach it.

Who would do that? Perhaps it’s you.

There are so many churches who have websites that people look at (maybe once) then dismiss the information. Ultimately, no one clicks on the URL to get any information. The Pastor (or web team) puts countless hours into something that no one reads. It’s like preaching to an empty room.

3 ways to assure that NEVER happens to you:

1. The rule of 50. Most people have stopped reading. Instead they scan. Webpages need to be a product of talented editing. On average, a person spends 10 seconds or less per page. The average person reads 300 words/min; so if you have more than 50 words (10 seconds worth); you’re saying, don’t read, but skip over the page. (A blog, can get a person to read for a whole 60 seconds/page. So for blogs, you can have 300 words max).
2. The rule of Current. If you gave out the same bulletin (same content) every week, how many people would read it? If your content doesn’t change regularly, people will stop coming to your website. Aim for changing the majority of your content at least once a week (let everyone know when they can be assured of correct content; i.e. Fridays)
3. The rule of 3. People only click (on average) 3 times in a website. Make sure all the important content can be found within 3 clicks. And realize that the average person never looks at the right hand side of the page.

You’ve invested hundred or thousands of dollars into your website (hopefully); plus countless hours. Follow these rules if you want repeat (or any) traffic. Stop being crazy!