In this digital age, having a well-designed church website is more important than ever. It serves as a virtual front door to your congregation, welcoming both existing members and potential visitors. A thoughtfully crafted website can enhance communication, foster community engagement, and effectively share your church’s mission with the world.
When planning out your church’s website, there are several pages that need to be included.
Pages to include when designing your church’s website.
- Home page
- About Us
- Ministries
- Plan your visit
- Sermons
- Events
- Contact Us
Your Church Website is your new Front Door
Your homepage is the first page most visitors will see when they visit the website. Visitors will be looking for quick information about your church. They will need to know the times for service and other events. There should also be quick links to other pages of the website like ministries and events.
The homepage should be very visually appealing so that it will capture visitors’ attention and keep them interested. Photos of those in church and the staff are very important and can go a long way in grabbing attention.
Who you are
An about page is also very important. This is the page that visitors will go to learn some of the very important details about your church. Things to include should include the church’s history along with the beliefs of the church and maybe a statement of faith.
Including information on the leadership of the church is also a key item. People want to know who is in charge and what they look like so they will recognize them when they attend.
Ministries
The different ministries should also have a page dedicated to them, especially your children’s and youth ministries. Parents want to know what you have for their children. They probably want to know this more than what you have for them.
What to Expect
Do people know what to expect when they visit? They want to know so a plan your visit page is crucial. Where do I park? What can I wear? Do you have coffee? Where do I take my kids? All of these questions should be answered on one quick page. Where do I park? Make sure they know where they can park and what to expect when they get to the parking lot. Another thing to also consider adding is a form parents can fill out if they plan on visiting to help speed up the check-in process. You can ask for basic information like your names and the names of children. This information can be sent to your children’s minister and they can have it already in the system so when the visitors arrive, they can check in quicker.
Sermons
Do your sermons appeal to visitors? You need to have something on your website that contains at least audio recordings of your sermons. Podcasting is a good way of accomplishing this. You can upload your sermon audio every week to give visitors a chance to listen to your teaching style and it also gives regular members a way to listen to sermons they missed if they couldn’t make it one Sunday.
What do you do?
An events calendar of some kind also helps visitors know more about the church. If they can see what activities are upcoming, they can plan more visits to your church. This will give parents more information on what events you have for their kids. It will give women more information on events for women. What do the men do at your church? An events calendar will let visitors know. It doesn’t have to be a fancy calendar either. You can use a Google Calendar and use that with a plugin to list the events on your church website.
Your website won’t answer every question visitors have so make sure you have a way they can contact you to ask more questions. Just remember, less is more. Don’t ask for their life history when they fill out the form. Ask for a name and a way to contact them back and a spot to ask their questions. If you ask for too much information, they won’t fill it out.
So as you have personal greeters at your physical front door, make sure you have a good greeter at your digital front door as well.
If you have any questions about your church’s website feel free to contact us. Also, we offer a church website package so go here to find out more.
