Churches with web sites are more likely to grow

A new study—the largest national survey of congregations ever conducted in the United States—by Faith Communities Today (FACT) Worship, Websites, Conflict Affect Growth in Congregations lists church web sites as a one of the primary indicators for church growth.

Somewhat surprisingly, most of the recruitment/outreach questions did not turn out to be statistically significant when controls were in effect. The clear exception was web site development. Congregations that have established or maintained a web site for the congregation are more likely to grow.

Web development process

I find churches that engage the process of developing and maintaining a web site are churches ready for growth.

It is critical to note that the report did explicitly state that the church web site itself is not the catalyst for growth. Rather it is the process,

Obviously, simply setting up a web site is not an automatic growth producing activity—even though it helps with congregational publicity and internal communication. But what may be more important is what the effort implies. Congregations that establish web sites are outward looking and are willing to change and adapt. They look to a variety of traditional and non-traditional means to reach out to their members and non-members.

Best practices for churches

Because I pastored for 8 years, I often enjoy the process of working with churches more than the actually coding and design. From this unique dual experience as a pastor and web designer, here are a few things best practices for church web sites,

Identify the measurable goals for your site

Start the process by agreeing on a limited number of goals for your site. For example:

• all church members should subscribe to our RSS feed
• X percentage of web site visitors per day view a Google Video of a pastoral welcome
• X percentage of visitors to a church service sign up for the email newsletter

When you identify your goals, then also figure out how you are going to measure them (i.e. Google Analytics, Feedburner, Constant Contact).

Create content from a user perspective

Too often church sites are structured from a point of view of the church leadership and often reflect an organization chart. Unfortunately, this breaks down. Here is why.

Churches have no marketing budget for their web sites thus most traffic is generated through organic search. This means a person types keywords into Google and your church’s pages are listed in a search engine results. Most of your traffic is not entering through the home page or is even going to use the site navigation.

I often suggest that churches create lists of keywords that they think users would type into Google, then group the keywords together to produce a site architecture that is optimized for their situation. For example,

• City, State, region and even landmarks (Tip: I often find that if churches include photographs in a gallery of nearby landmarks, they often see quite a bit of organic traffic).
• Women, teens, kids, etc.
• Events and activities especially sacred calendar events

Each of these groupings of keywords should have their own page found under a meaningful navigation heading.

Create assignments

Just like most churches could not run without people taking responsibility for snow shoveling, child care or hospital visits. A church web site needs people assigned to it. I suggest that every church define three positions,

• Web editor is responsible for accurate and timely information. Content management systems make it easy for many people to update the site, but a single person needs to take ownership of the content.
• Community manager is responsible for responding to or forwarding emails, contact forms and monitoring comments.
• Web manager is responsible for working with a designer (may be the designer) to add new features and fix bugs. This person is also responsible for monitoring the site’s performance and communicating how it is meeting its goals.

Launching a new web site is exciting. And with these positions in place, the site will remain exciting and valuable.

Summary

If web sites indicate a healthy environment for church growth, then church leaders ought to take the process and product more seriously. It is not absurd to say that most potential visitors and recent visitors evaluate your church based on its web site. The great news is that the road to improving your site is not costly or “mysterious”. You can do it. My suggestion is that you get started by ordering a Spectrum Report Card for $85. If you are not ready to order, fill out the form and ask for a sample report.

1 comments | Apr 30, 14:08 | by Tim Bednar tips church

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