Rockin Church Website Tips

I visited a few church websites lately (who shall remain nameless) that made my experience a somewhat frustrating visit and that will be likely to turn other visitors away. Some of these tips are probably in the vault here but if they aren’t, let me share some with you.

1. Flash Intros: Please don’t make your viewers set through a lengthy Flash Intro - especially without a SKIP THIS button. If you do an intro, keep it to about 10 seconds or less and always provide a way beyond it.

2. Splash Page: A splash or intro page can be effective if you are trying to present an idea, service, or ministry but it is not effective to throw your logo on it and say “click here to enter site”. If people are typing in your domain they want to enter. Don’t add another barrier.

3. Graphics: There are many people who want to highlight everything their church does on the homepage and design a graphic for it. Don’t do this. Keep graphics to a minimum and make sure that they work together and not against in their branded image or style.

4. Updated Content: Keep your content fresh and updated. Promoting the Christmas 2004 program in 2007 says a lot! Visitors want relevant and easy to find information for the here and now.

5. Links and Navigation: Make sure that all your links and navigation are easy to find and working. Sometimes they get broken or lost in the mix so try and check them regularly.

6. Brand with excellence: I’ll beat this bush into the ground (sorry to the environmentalists) in that we need to shoot for excellence in design and a unified church brand. If your website reflects the days of flannel graphs or “A Flock of Seagulls“…consider getting a website makeover. It is also extremely beneficial to have your all your media tools communicate a unified image for you church and not appear as twenty different ministry brands rolled into one.

    It’s tough to get visitors these days and our cultural is becoming more critical and less accommodating towards ineffective and bad websites. Food for thought.

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    James Dalman is the owner/chief brand genius at the Branding Shed and a contributing editor to Church Communications Pro.

    April 10, 2007 · Filed Under Church Websites

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