Online reviews are valuable because they help people decide whether they can trust your church, ministry or business. They can also help prospective visitors discover you through Google and other platforms.

But that’s not all…

Here’s another benefit to online reviews

Recently, we were developing a new website for an organization that wanted to have testimonials in multiple places on their homepage as well as on several internal pages of their website.  The challenge was that they didn’t have enough testimonials to fill all these spots.

We looked to Google… 

They had many great reviews on their Google Business Profile, all of which could also serve as testimonials.  Once we realized this, we simply asked the client to select which review they wanted in each place on their website.

If you manage a church website, you may ask, “Where is the best place on my website to put these testimonials?”

To help you with your church website design, here are the…

Top 5 Church Web Pages for Testimonials

1. Homepage

Many websites themes include image sliders, content sliders, or testimonial sliders on their homepage.  It is great to have a few testimonials on the homepage for visitors to see when they first arrive to your website.  Include general testimonials about the church here.

2. Children’s ministry homepage

When parents go to the children’s section of the church website, they are interested in seeing information specifically about your children’s ministry.  Include testimonials specifically about children’s ministry here.

3. Youth ministry homepage

Just like the children’s ministry section, include testimonials specifically about youth ministry on this page.

4. Bible study (small/life groups)

Include testimonials from life group members that speak to the importance of these group and how they help people as they go through the ups and downs of  life.

5. Celebrate recovery, AA,  Grief ministry webpages

Each of these ministries have a specific audience, sometimes who may not even attend the church.  Including ministry-specific testimonials on these pages so visitors feel welcome and see the effectiveness of the ministry.

Because some of these ministries can involve sensitive personal information, get permission before publishing a testimonial and consider using only a first name and possibly last initial, such as “Mark S.”

Don’t tell people about your church.  Let others tell people about your church through their testimonials.  – Mark Steinbrueck

A quick note about testimonials: When using online reviews as testimonials on your website, make sure they accurately reflect the reviewer’s real experience. Don’t create, alter or purchase fake testimonials, and disclose any material relationship between the reviewer and your organization when appropriate.

Partner with our experienced church communications team

If you want to integrate reviews and testimonials in your website design, gain more positive reviews with our Online Review Service, or improve your search rankings with SEO, let’s talk more about that.

Fill out the form below (mobile) or to the right (desktop) to schedule a complimentary discovery call.

Comment and Discuss

• How are you already using or planning to use online reviews on your website?

For more info about online reviews read our free guide: The Ultimate Guide to Online Reviews

The post Your Secret Source of Website Testimonials appeared first on Christian Web Trends Blog: Church Websites, Design, SEO.

For many people (myself included), fall is their favorite time of the year.  The fall colors, the smells, the abundance of pumpkin and cinnamon treats…  They draw people out, and bring people together.

A church fall festival is a great outreach event idea! 

A church fall festival can be much more than a fun seasonal event. It can give families in your community a low-pressure opportunity to meet people from your church, build relationships with neighbors, and experience your church’s hospitality.

Over the years, I’ve seen that the best church outreach events aren’t necessarily the biggest or most elaborate—they’re the ones that make it easy for people to connect.

Whether you’re planning a large festival or a simple gathering, here are 12 church fall festival ideas to consider.

12 Church Fall Festival Ideas

1. Pumpkin Carving Contest

Give away prizes for different categories of pumpkin carvings and jack-o-lanterns: funniest, scariest, most creative. No solo carvers! Build community by encouraging teams of 2-3 to work together.

2. Trunk or Treat

Organize a safe and fun trunk-or-treat event in the church parking lot, where volunteers decorate their car trunks and hand out candy. Put up a big sign so that people who drive by know what’s going on and visitors feel welcome to stop in.

Consider including a few simple games or interactive trunks rather than making the event only about collecting candy, and provide non-food options for children with allergies or dietary restrictions.

3. Harvest Dinner

Host a community potluck dinner featuring fall-themed dishes and desserts.  Consider partnering with a local food bank to invite the people they serve (with no obligation to bring a dish), and encourage the members of your church to make a little extra so everyone has enough to eat

4. Fall Craft Fair

Arrange a craft fair where local artisans can showcase their handmade fall and Halloween-themed crafts. Be intentional about building relationships with the vendors, and encourage your church members to do some of their holiday shopping at the craft fair.

5. Fall Bake Sale

Have a bake sale featuring autumnal treats like apple pies, pumpkin bread, and caramel apples. If your bake sale is run by a specific ministry or to raise money for a specific cause or project, that reveals your heart for people and will resonate with visitors.

6. Fall Food Drive

Coordinate a food drive to collect non-perishable items for a local food bank to help those in need during the season.  If your church doesn’t have its own food bank or a partnership with local food bank, this would also be a great time to start serving at a local food bank.

7. Costume Contest

We get it – some churches don’t want to celebrate Halloween. If yours is one of them, that’s cool. But dressing up in appropriate, non-scary costumes can be fun for kids of all ages! Give out prizes for as many categories as you can think of.

Take lots of photos! Show them during your next service! Share them on your social media accounts! (Before you do, be sure to review our Ultimate Guide to Church Photo Release Forms and take appropriate steps.)

8. Fall Movie Night

Screen family-friendly fall movies in the church hall or outdoors, complete with popcorn, candy apples and cider.  This is a great church outreach idea for Fall, because it’s such easy invite for kids and parents to invite their friends and neighbors to see a free movie with them.

Be sure your church has the appropriate licensing or permission to publicly show the movie you select.

9. Fall Photo Booth

No church fall festival would be complete without a photo booth with fall-themed props for families and friends to capture memories (and share on social media).

10. Fall-Themed Workshops

Offer workshops on fall-themed activities like wreath making, fall centerpiece making, apple cider pressing, etc.  Most communities have a newsletter, website or community calendar where events like this can be listed and promoted.

11. Community Service Day

Organize a day of service where church members can help with fall yard clean-up for elderly or disabled neighbors.  Often the best church outreach events are those where the church goes out into the community rather than waiting for the community to come to them.

12. Fall Weekend Retreat

Fall is a great time to get a group together to go away to a cabin or retreat center to spend time together and spend time with God. While some people may think a retreat is something only church members go on, you’d be surprised how many pre-Christians are open to a weekend away, making new friends, and letting God into their life a little more.

Bonus Church Fall Festival Tips

Whatever activities you choose, keep your guests in mind. Provide clear parking and signage, plan for bad weather, consider food allergies and accessibility needs, and make sure volunteers know how to welcome first-time guests.

Most importantly, think beyond the event itself: give visitors an easy, no-pressure way to learn more about your church or attend another upcoming event.

Sweater weather is better together. -Unknown

Promote your church outreach event online

No matter which church Fall festival ideas your church uses for its outreach events, you’ll also want to promote those events online. Rather than share the same strategies at the bottom of every church outreach ideas article we write for every season and holiday, we’ll just point you to…

7 Ways to Promote Your Church Outreach Event Online

Partner with our church outreach team

And if you’d like some help with a church website builder, church web design or church SEO so you can have your best Church Fall Festival ever, we’d love to talk with you.

Fill out the consultation request form below (mobile) or to the right (desktop) to schedule a call!

Comment and Discuss

• What Fall outreach events is your church planning?

Want more church outreach ideas?  Church Outreach Ideas & Events for Every Holiday and Season

The post 12 Church Fall Festival Ideas appeared first on Christian Web Trends Blog: Church Websites, Design, SEO.

Local Search Ranking Factors

In 2026, Whitespark researched 187 factors that could impact local search rankings. According to the 2026 Local Search Ranking Factors report, 4 of the top 14 factors are related to online reviews:

• #6 High Numerical Google Ratings (e.g. 4-5)
• #9 Quantity of Native Google Reviews (w/text)
• #11 Recency of Reviews
• #14 Sustained Influx of Reviews Over Time (rather than bursts)

Note that when we talk about “local search rankings” we’re talking about results Google shows in the “local 3 pack” as shown below.  (Often there are ads and organic (aka general) results shown above and below the local 3 pack, but we’re just going to focus on the local results here.)

A lot of local organizations, especially churches and nonprofits, balk at the idea of getting online reviews…

Is someone really going to visit my church or check out my nonprofit just because a bunch of people they’ve never met gave it high ratings and said nice things about us in a review?

Yes, actually they will.  90% of people say online reviews factor into their decision making.

But people won’t even have a chance to make a decision about your organization, if they can’t find it. And if you’ve got few or no online reviews, your search rankings will be lower, making it less likely people will find you when doing an online search.

Don’t Take My Word For It. Try This…

If you are a part of a local organization – a church, school, local nonprofit, or local business – go to Google and search for “[your type of organization] in [your city] [your state].”   For example, “church in Clearwater, Florida” or “accountant in Ames, Iowa” or “preschool in Hoboken, New Jersey.”

Calculate the average number of reviews the 3 organizations in the “local 3 pack” have.

Then click the “More Places” link at the bottom of the local 3 pack.  That will take you to Google Maps showing you the top 20 local results.  Scroll down to the bottom, and calculate the average number of listings of the bottom 3 (these are the organizations that rank 18-20).

Do you see a dramatic difference?

Every Organization Can Get More Online Reviews

If your organization is in the local 3 pack, that’s awesome! Congratulations! If not, you’re probably thinking, “It’s not fair, the organizations that have all those reviews are way bigger than we are!”

That may be true, but look again at the organization that made the local 3 pack with the lowest number of reviews.  I guarantee your church, school, ministry or business serves more people than that.  You can get more online reviews than they have.

You just have to ask. And know how to ask.

We’ll talk more about how to do that in a future post.

For now, I’ll leave you with a quote from Whitespark’s Local Search Ranking Factors report.

For 2026, the biggest changes we’re seeing are an increased importance of review signals and behavioral signals. -Darren Shaw, founder of Whitespark

Engage Our Proven Online Reviews System and Team

OurChurch.com provides an Online Reviews Service, specifically to help you gain a steady stream of online reviews and address any negative or disappearing reviews.

If you’d like some help online reviews or more broadly with your organic or local SEO, one of our experts at OCC would love to talk with you.

Complete the form below (mobile) or to the right (desktop) to schedule a call.

Discussion

• When you did the little experiment, what did you search, what were the average number of reviews in the local 3 package, and the average number of reviews for 18-20?
• What other questions do you have online reviews and local SEO?

Read more about online reviews

The post The Impact Online Reviews Have on Search Rankings appeared first on Christian Web Trends Blog: Church Websites, Design, SEO.

Whether you’re aware of it or not, people are talking about your organization.  And according to BrightLocal’s 2026 Local Consumer Review Survey, “97% of consumers use online reviews to help guide their purchasing decisions.”

If you lead a business, you probably already understand this.

But online reviews impact every type of organization including schools, nonprofits, ministries, and even churches!

Yes, my fellow church leaders, this applies to us too.

We may not think of someone’s decision to visit a church as a “buying decision” but it is a decision that is influenced by reading online reviews.

Do you know what you would do if you got a review like this?

Would you even know if someone posted a review like this?

Did you know the number of reviews and average rating also affect search rankings?

Our focus in October at OurChurch.Com is Online Reviews Month

This month our goal is to help you learn everything you need to know about online reviews including…

• Learn what to do if you get a negative review
• Learn how to use online reviews to get better search rankings and more website visitors
• Learn how to get more positive reviews
• Learn which online review sites you should be monitoring
• Learn how to “claim” and “verify” local listings so you can update information in them and respond to comments and reviews
• And much more…

To get started, share your perspective in month’s Listening Post survey, it’s more of an assessment that will help you understand your online reviews.

More Insightful Articles about Online Reviews

• Coming soon…

Work with Our Experienced Team

The OurChurch.com team has been helping local churches, businesses and ministries with their SEO and online reviews for decades. We’ve helped with everything from getting Google Business Profiles unsuspended, to recovering missing reviews, to creating a system that brings in a steady stream of new, positive online reviews.

If you’re interested in possibly working with our team of Christian SEO pros to help you with SEO or our online reviews service, let’s talk and see if its a good fit.

Complete the form below (mobile) or to the right (desktop) to schedule a discovery call.

Comment and Discuss…

• What questions, concerns and issues you would like us to address during Online Reviews Month.

The post Did you hear what they’re saying about you?!? appeared first on Christian Web Trends Blog: Church Websites, Design, SEO.

I hope so.

Let’s take a few steps in their shoes, so that we better understand what they’re going through and how they’re searching.

Go to Google and search for “church in [your city]” (Replace [your city] with the city your church is located in, don’t include the quotation marks.)

This is how most people who are looking for a church these days start their search – using an online search engine.

Look at the results the search engine is showing you.

You probably have a lot of questions like:

• How did Google determine which church is listed first? Second? 100th?
• Why are some churches shown on a map?
• Why are some churches not shown in the results at all?
• How do I get a link to my church on the first page of the results?

Did you know…

Google uses more than 200 factors to calculate its search results!

You can influence many of those 200 factors, so that your church appears higher in the search rankings, and when the people in your community search online for a church, they find your church.

We call these efforts to improve search rankings “search engine optimization” or SEO.

Church SEO includes everything we can do to help the people searching for Jesus and His church to find your church.

And Now Church AI Optimization (aka GEO) is a Thing

If that wasn’t enough, we now have AI Overviews displayed at the top of many search results.

Plus many people are using AI tools like ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini to do searches and analysis for them.

If someone goes to ChatGPT and enters the prompt, “I am looking for a church in [your city, your state]. What do you recommend?” Will it mention or recommend your church?

Optimizing for AI is often referred to as Generative Engine Optimization or GEO.

In this Ultimate Guide to Church SEO and GEO (updated for 2026), we’ll help you understand everything you need to know about search engines and how to improve your church’s position in the search results so you can reach more people in your community.

The Ultimate Guide to Church SEO & GEO includes:

1. 4 Reasons Why Your Church Should Do Church SEO
2. 3 Ways to Improve Church Search Engine Results
3. 6 Technical SEO Things to Check Before They Kill Your Church SEO
4. What to Optimize for Better Organic Search Results
5. 5 Ways to Improve Local Search Results
6. Church SEO for AI: How to Get Your Church Mentioned in ChatGPT and Google AI
7. How to Build Local Authority with Links and Listings
8. 3 Ways to Get More 5-Star Google Reviews for Your Church
9. The Church SEO Tactic that Improves Relevance AND Authority
10. The LAST Thing You Should Do for Church SEO
11. How to Optimize for Multisite Church SEO
12. Church SEO Success Stories
13. Tips from the Pros

1. 4 Reasons Why Your Church Should Do Church SEO

A person who uses our church website builder asked us:

Why should [church SEO] matter to me? We’re a small church and I already struggle to manage this site on top of all my other jobs, so what kind of return could I possibly get that would make it worth the time it takes me to invest in this?

Great question!

Before you do decide to do anything, you need to know WHY. What’s the goal? Is the goal worth pursuing?

1) Souls are at Stake

Many of the people who search for a church are not yet followers of Jesus. Let’s be honest, some Christian churches are not all that welcoming to unbelievers. By doing church SEO (search engine optimization) and improving your search rankings, you make it possible for people who are seeking God to find Him at your church.

Some churches go beyond trying to improve their search ranking for “church in [your city]” to trying to improve search rankings for other things people in their community may be searching for like a divorce support group, recovery support group, mothers of preschoolers group, things to do in [your city], or “what does the bible say about…”

2) Church SEO produces a positive financial return

The median family income in the US is about $80,000. If your SEO efforts result in just one new tithing family joining your church, that’s $8,000/yr of additional giving.

Imagine what your church could do with another $8k a year!

Imagine if you were to add 5, 10 or 20 families?

Continue reading 4 Reasons Your Church Should Do SEO for two more compelling reasons.

Church SEO is both a spiritual and financial investment that more than pays for itself.

2. 3 Ways to Improve Church Search Engine Results

Did you know there are multiple ways to get onto the first page of the Google search results pages (SERPs)?

That’s because there are 3 different types of listings shown on each page. (Actually, in some cases there’s a 4th, which we’ll address towards the end.)

Let’s start by taking a look at a screenshot of what I saw when I searched Google for “Church in Tampa” (without the quotes).

3 Types of Search Listings

The screenshot above shows 3 types of search listings:

1. Paid Ads
2. Local 3 Pack
3. Organic Search Results

Why Does This Matter?

First, each of these 3 areas (Ads, Local 3 Pack, Organic Listings) provides an opportunity to get onto the first page of the search results. Yes, it’s possible for a church to be in all 3 places.

Second, each of these 3 areas has a different search ranking algorithm. Therefore, the church SEO tactics for ads, local, and organic listings are all different.

Bonus: What About AI Search Results?

Google may also display AI Overviews and other AI-generated answers for some searches. These results can reference and link to websites that Google considers useful and relevant.

If you’d like to learn more about each of these 3 types of search listings (plus AI Overveiws), including screenshots, where Google gets the data for each, and how to improve your church’s placement for each, you can do that in 3 Ways to Improve Church Search Engine Results.

Google is the highway to your church. -Paul Steinbrueck

3. 6 Technical SEO Things to Check Before They Kill Your Church SEO

Most of the time when I talk to people about church SEO (search engine optimization), they immediately start asking about which keywords to target and where to put them on their pages.

While these aspects of church SEO are important, before addressing them, it’s important to make sure you don’t overlook some other things that could absolutely tank your search rankings.

What are these things?

6 Technical SEO Issues to Avoid

Technical SEO issues are things related to church website design that could cause search engines to penalize your website or not be able to read it at. To use an analogy…

Failing to address technical SEO issues is like starting your SEO journey with the parking brake left on.

The good thing is, Google wants to be able to crawl, index, and accurately rank your website. This is why they created Google Search Console (GSC) which has the tools we need to check all 6 of the potential problems we’re going to look at in this article.

Connect Your Website with Google Search Console

If you haven’t yet connected your church website with Google Search Console, go there, click “Start Now,” and if necessary, create or login to your Google account.

Next you will need to verify you have ownership of the website. Google Search Console provides two options “Domain” or “URL prefix.”

For a detailed look at all 6 technical SEO items to check, click to read 6 Critical Things to Check Before They Kill Your Church SEO

Do the checks. Fix any problems you discover. Then your website will be primed to win the SEO race!

4. What to Optimize for Better Organic Search Results

We discussed earlier that one of the three types of search listings displayed in the search results are “organic search listings.”

Google’s search algorithm looks at more than 200 different factors to produce its search results. A person could spend years analyzing and optimizing all those factors, so in this article we’re going to focus on the factors that are most important so you can make the best use of your time.

Before we get to the specific ranking factors, it’s important to understand the general concept of how Google ranks websites for each search query (or keyword).

Relevance x Authority = Search Ranking

All 200+ search ranking factors can be put into one of two categories – relevance or authority.

Relevance

Relevance is how closely related a web page is to the search query. Search engines look at the text, headings and other elements on a web page to determine what that page is about, and how closely related it is to a search query.

Authority

Authority is how reliable, reputable and important a web page is. Search engines look at which other sites are linking to or mentioning a website, the quality level of the content on the website, and the reputation of the person writing the content.

If a web page’s content is not related to a particular keyword, no matter how high its authority, Google is not going to show it in the search results.

If a web page is closely related to a certain keyword but has low authority, Google will display it in the search results after web pages that are also relevant to the keyword but have more authority.

Therefore, for a web page to rank well in the search results for a keyword it must be very relevant and have more authority than other relevant web pages.

Church Keywords to Target

Before you can optimize any web page, you have to know what keyword(s) you want to make the page more relevant for. We call these your target keywords.

For Christian businesses and ministries, to determine which keywords to target, it’s important to do keyword research to compare how often various keywords are searched for and how hard it is to rank for each keyword being considered.

Initially, churches can usually skip this step, because there are 4 keywords that are far more popular than any other:

• Churches in [your city]
• [your city] churches
• [your city] church

If there are cities with the same name in other states, then your top keyword might be “churches in [your city, your state]” or “churches in [your city, state abbreviation].”

If your church includes people from multiple cities you can also try to target “churches in [adjacent city].” When we work with churches, we usually don’t target more than 2 adjacent cities because in our experience, it is difficult to fit all those keywords into the various parts of the web page that can be optimized.

Some churches also choose target keywords related to their denomination or style of church like “Baptist church in [your city]” or “multicultural church in [your city],” but a lot fewer people search for these keywords.

Church SEO to Improve Relevance

Once you know what keywords you want to target, the next step is to try to work those keywords into the parts of the web page that can be optimized. We refer to this step as “on-page optimization.”

We provide an extensive guide to which elements of the web page to optimize to improve relevance in Church SEO: What to Optimize for Better Organic Search Results

Church SEO to Improve Authority

Improving the authority of a website is much more difficult and time consuming than improving its relevance. For this reason, we always improve a website’s relevance first before we start working to improve its authority.

We also list 5 things you can do to improve the authority of your church website in Church SEO: What to Optimize for Better Organic Search Results

With this guidance you should be able to optimize your church website and improve its organic search rankings. After all…

If your church wants to reach people online, those people need to be able to find your church website.

6. 5 Ways to Improve Local Search Results

Earlier in this Ultimate Guide we explained the difference between organic search listings and local search listings. Now let’s turn our attention to how to optimize for better local search results.

Before we get to that, though, it’s important to understand one thing you probably can’t change.

One Local Search Factor You Can’t Control: Distance

Google says local search results are primarily based on three factors: relevance, distance and prominence. Distance considers how far a church is from the person searching, or from the location specified in their search.

That means where your church is physically located can have a significant impact on the searches for which it appears.

A while back, I was talking with a pastor of a church in a small town that’s about 20 miles away from a larger city. He wanted his church to be towards the top of the search results for “churches in [the larger city].”

I did a quick search on Google Maps and discovered there are more 100 churches closer to the center of that larger city than his church. Additionally, the map Google displays with the results for “churches in [the larger city]” is zoomed in on the larger city to the extent that the location of his church isn’t even on the map.

I had to tell him the only way his church would ever appear in the local search results for that city is it if moved closer to the city or planted a new church/campus in the city.

If your church happens to be located close to the center of your city, you have a built in advantage over other churches. If your church is on the outskirts, you’re at a disadvantage and will have to work harder to optimize things you can change.

5 Ways to Improve Your Church’s Local Search Results

If you’d like to get into the details, click to read Church SEO: 5 Ways to Improve Local Search Results

Bottom line…

A verified, optimized Google Business Profile is a key component of church SEO, marketing, and outreach.

6. Church SEO for AI: How to Get Your Church Mentioned in ChatGPT and Google AI

One of the most common questions I’m asked when I tell people we help churches with online marketing is:

“How do we get our church mentioned in Google AI Overviews and ChatGPT?”

It’s a good question.

For years, church SEO has primarily focused on helping a church appear when someone searches Google for things like “churches near me,” “Baptist church in Tampa,” or “church with children’s ministry.”

Today, people are increasingly asking AI tools much more conversational questions like:

• “I’m looking for a church in Tampa, Florida. What do you recommend?”
• “Are there any churches near me with traditional worship?”
• “What churches in my area are doing vacation bible school this Summer?”

Instead of simply displaying ten blue links, Google AI Overviews, ChatGPT and other AI tools can synthesize information from multiple sources and provide a direct answer. They may also mention, recommend or cite specific churches and websites.

Optimizing your online presence so that it can be discovered and understood by these systems is sometimes called Generative Engine Optimization, or GEO. In this article, we’ll refer to it as AI search optimization.

And here’s an important thing to understand:

AI search optimization isn’t replacing SEO. It’s expanding it.

Google itself says traditional SEO best practices continue to be important for its generative AI search features, including AI Overviews and AI Mode.

So, how can you improve the chances that your church will be found, understood and potentially mentioned when someone asks an AI assistant about churches in your community?

For 7 specific action steps that will help get your church mentioned by AI, read Church SEO for AI: How to Get Your Church Mentioned in ChatGPT and Google AI

To be cited by AI, be clear, credible, and helpful.

7. How to Build Local Authority with Links and Listings

When people search online for a church, Google has to figure out which churches are real, relevant, active, and connected to the community.

Your church website is an important part of that picture, but it is not the only part.

Google also finds information about your church on other websites, directories, maps, community organizations, news sites, and other places around the web. This is why links and local listings matter for church SEO.

The strategy, however, has changed in recent years.

Years ago, SEO advice often focused on getting your website listed in as many directories as possible and building as many backlinks as you could. Today, churches are better served by focusing on accuracy, relevance, relationships, and trust.

Start With the Local Listings That Matter

One of the first things every church should do is make sure it has accurate listings on the major platforms people use to find local organizations.

Start with:

• Google Business Profile
• Apple Maps through Apple Business Connect*
• Bing Places
• Yelp

You don’t need to find 100 directories and submit your church to all of them. Instead, focus first on the places people actually use.

Make sure each listing has accurate information, including your church’s name, address, phone number, website address, worship times, and other important details.

Your Google Business Profile is particularly important because it can help your church appear in Google Search and Google Maps when someone searches for a church nearby. For step-by-step instructions see How to Create, Claim and Verify Your Google Business Profile.

For more expert advice on this topic, read Church SEO: How to Build Local Authority with Links and Listings

Don’t build links for Google. Build resources and connections that help people and they will find your church.

8. 3 Ways to Get More 5-Star Google Reviews for Your Church

Did you know… the number of Google reviews is one of the biggest factors in Google’s local search algorithm?

Take a moment and see for yourself:

• Google “church in [your city].”
• Look under the map at the “Local 3 Pack,” add together the number of reviews the 3 churches there have, and divide by 3 to get the average number of reviews.
• Click the map in the Local 3 Pack to see the top 20 results in Google maps
• Scroll down and take a look at how many reviews churches towards the bottom of the top 20 have.

Big difference, right?

How do you get more Google reviews for your church?

Glad you asked.

We go into detail in the article 3 Ways to Get More ★★★★★ Google Reviews for Your Church

One additional word of advice

Google knows it has a problem with fake reviews. It uses an algorithm to look for patterns in reviews that look unnatural. If your church has a handful of reviews and then all of the sudden gets 50 reviews in one day, it’s going to look suspicious. Nobody knows how many reviews in a short amount of time is too many. But the goal should be to continuously add more reviews.

Therefore, instead of emailing your entire congregation at one time, go through your email list gradually. Try to get around 5 reviews a week. Start by emailing 20 people, wait a week and see how many new reviews you received. If you got 10 new reviews, scale it down and email 10 people the next week. If you got 2 reviews, scale it up and email 50 people the next week.

If that feels like a lot, scale it back and just email one person a week to ask them to write a review.

When it comes to online reviews, you have not because you ask not. -Mark Steinbrueck

9. The Church SEO Tactic that Improves Relevance AND Authority

To improve a church’s organic search rankings,

one has to take steps to improve two categories of search ranking factors:

• Relevance – how closely a web page relates to the targeted keyword
• Authority – how reliable, reputable and important a web page is

Previously, I’ve written:

“All 200+ search ranking factors can be put into one of two categories – relevance or authority.”

Actually, that’s not exactly true…

There’s one thing that impacts both relevance AND authority.

Quality Content

Content is any information or media. It can be web pages, blog posts, images, audio, or video.

When a church publishes useful, original content about a particular topic, it gives search engines more information about what the church knows, teaches and serves people with. Consistently publishing helpful content can also demonstrate greater expertise and authority on those topics.

Fortunately, churches have an SEO advantage many organizations don’t have:

One SEO advantage churches have is they already produce at least one unique piece of content every week: the Sunday sermon.

The Sunday Sermon

Most pastors put a considerable amount of time, effort, thought, and prayer into their sermon each week. Most try to reveal something significant about God through the scriptures, and then explain how that impacts the way we live for God.

This is life-changing content!

You could allow it to be spoken once and for the Holy Spirit to use it however he chooses for just those in the room who are paying attention.

Or you could put that sermon onto the church website in a format that is useful for human visitors and readable by search engines.

People like to listen to sermon audio and watch sermon videos, and many churches are already embedding sermon audio files and/or video files onto web pages.  This is a good first step.

Search engines and AI systems are much better at understanding audio and video than they used to be. However, giving them additional written context makes it easier to understand what a sermon is about and can make the sermon more useful to people as well.

So, when you put audio or video of a sermon onto a web page or blog post, it’s helpful to also include

• a relevant title
• a short summary
• scripture references
• a link to a sermon transcript

A transcript also makes sermon content more accessible and gives people the ability to search, scan or read the message instead of only watching or listening.

Producing Additional Content from the Sunday Sermon

In addition to putting sermon audio or video on your website, there are many other ways you can use your sermons to create additional content. We discuss those and other ways churches can reuse content they’re already creating in The Church SEO Tactic that Improves Relevance AND Authority

10. The LAST Thing You Should Do for Church SEO

Throughout this Ultimate Guide to Church SEO, we’ve discussed many things you can do to improve your church’s search rankings.

If you’ve taken these steps, congratulations! You are probably already experiencing a significant improvement in search rankings and seeing more people visiting your website. You deserve to be commended for taking action to help reach people in your community!

But the last thing you should do is stop your church SEO efforts now.

(“The last thing you should do…” is a strange phrase isn’t it? When we say it, we’re not referring to something we should do after everything else, but rather something we should never do.)

Church SEO is never finished

The only constant in life is change. This is especially true of search engines and SEO.

• Search engine engine algorithms are constantly changing.
• Your website is constantly changing. (You are updating your website regularly, right?).
• The way people search (voice search, image search, mobile search)… yep, constantly changing.

Therefore, if you optimize your church website once and let it go, whatever improvements you experienced in search rankings will eventually erode back to where they were (or worse).

5 Church SEO Management Tactics for Long Term Success

To keep this Ultimate Guide concise, we’ve put together a guide to ongoing church SEO in The LAST Thing You Should Do for Church SEO

SEO is an ongoing project, not set-it-and-forget-it. -Rebecca Lieb

11. How to Optimize for Multisite Church SEO

Multisite churches have a unique challenge when it comes to search engines.

Generally speaking, a multisite church is one church congregation that gathers at multiple geographic locations, often referred to as campuses.

If you are a part of a multisite church, you want each individual campus to be shown as close to the top of the search results as possible for the specific city or neighborhood its in.

However, you also want visitors to understand you are one unified church, therefore you probably have just one website.

Because multisite churches have unique SEO challenges, we’ve included in the Ultimate Guide to Church to SEO & GEO some specific guidance for How to Optimize for Multisite Church SEO

12. Church SEO Success Stories

Sometimes when we talk with church leaders about Church SEO, they respond with something like:

“I know we need better search rankings to reach more people searching online, but does church SEO really work?”

We could answer that question ourselves, but we thought you might prefer to hear from some of the churches we’ve worked with.

Search engine optimization: you need to have it, it’s well worth it, and they [OurChurch.Com] do it right. -Jack Scalfani, Knott Avenue Christian Church, Anaheim, CA

Read: Case Study: Knott Avenue Christian Church – Church Growth Through Search Growth

We appreciate being in the top 10 for lots of other phrases, but none of that matters if we’re not in the top 10 for “Church in San Diego.” -Brett Schoeneck, Barabbas Road Church, San Diego, CA

Read: How This Church in San Diego Went to #3 in Google

I offer my highest recommendation to OurChurch.Com. They have a keen grasp of developing n effective strategy of search engine optimization. –Beverly Leasher, North Way Christian Community (6 locations in the Pittsburgh area)

13.Church SEO – Tips from the Pros

We close the Ultimate Guide to Church SEO with some advice from some local SEO and church communications experts.

Search rankings are constantly changing, but there three things you can count on: Have great content, optimize for mobile, & make sure your site is user-friendly. Google’s latest algorithm changes favors these things so your site ranks higher in search results. -Dawn Nicole Baldwin, Lead Strategist, AspireOne.com

Make it easy for your church to post online reviews. A growing number of 5-star ratings on Google and Facebook will help you stand out and boost your visibility. I recently gave a short announcement at my church sharing one URL with links to Google & Facebook Reviews, and we got a great response! -Matt Ehresman, CourageousStorytellers.com

Content. That’s it. There are lots of technical things you can do that will help, but the easiest way for most churches to improve their SEO is to create good content and post it online. Let your website archive grow and give search engines more things to link to. -Kevin Hendricks, ChurchMarketingSucks.com

Add backlinks to internal web pages. Create pillar content with other content that links to it. What does that look like for a church? Create a kids ministry page with links to other pages about kids ministry. This is what SEO experts call the cluster topic model. -Katie Allred, ChurchCommunications.com

Finally, we leave you with one last bit of advice: 6 Benefits of Hiring the Same Company for Church SEO and Web Design

The Ultimate Guide to Church SEO was written by the OurChurch.Com team which has been helping churches, schools, nonprofits and businesses live out their mission online with web design, web hosting, and SEO since 1997.

The post The Ultimate Guide to Church SEO and GEO appeared first on Christian Web Trends Blog: Church Websites, Design, SEO.

Let me give you some of the back story…

Barabbas Road Church started less than 10 years ago with less than 10 people. At the time this article was originally written, they worshiped together at Pacific Beach Middle School, their third location in 10 years, which is about 10 miles north of downtown San Diego.

This gives them 4 serious disadvantages to ranking well in search engines

1. Lots of competition – San Diego is the 8th largest city in the U.S. Google lists more than 400 churches in the San Diego area.
2. Far from the city center – For local searches, Google gives preference to organizations closer to the center of the city, making it harder for churches on the outskirts to rank well.
3. Recent move – When organizations move to a new location, Google often doesn’t know it.
4. Shared space – When organizations share space with another organization, Google often gets the location information wrong.

Despite the disadvantages, Barabbas Road Church loves the people of San Diego and is determined to reach people. They understand that most people searching for a church start their search online, so they have been determined to reach people through search engines and connect with them on their website.

So, what specifically did Barabbas Road Church do?

Progressive SEO Service

First, Barabbas partnered with OurChurch.Com, utilizing our Progressive SEO Service plus our Local SEO service. I usually don’t talk about pricing in blog posts, but I think it’s important to note that Barabbas is a mid-sized church, and yet they made a significant financial commitment of hundreds of dollars a month for an aggressive SEO service.

We started their SEO service, with an SEO audit, and continued with technical SEO, keyword research, and on-page optimization.

Next we worked to improve their local search rankings by registering and correcting local search listings

These things all helped get Barabbas good search rankings, but the big thing that helped push them towards the top of the search rankings was…

Keyword-Targeted Blogging

Brett Schoeneck, who is the Minister of Media at Barabbas, told me in a phone conversation that he tries to ask everyone who visits Barabbas how they found the church. He said that when someone tells him he found them online, he asks what phrase they searched, and the vast majority of them say “Church in San Diego.”

Brett basically told me that while they appreciate being in the top 10 for lots of other phrases, none of that mattered if they weren’t in the top 10 for “Church in San Diego.”

I appreciate Brett’s forthrightness and I give him major kudos for asking visitors how they found the church and what they search for!

The Progressive SEO Service includes writing and publishing weekly blog posts. I did a 45 minute phone interview with Brett, and based on the information he provided in that interview, we began writing blog articles specifically targeting the phrase “Church in San Diego.”

Why blog articles?

1. They gave Barabbas an opportunity to publish helpful, original content specifically relevant to people looking for a church in San Diego.
2. Helpful content can earn links and mentions from other websites, strengthening the church’s authority online.
3. Each article gave Google more useful context about Barabbas Road Church, San Diego, and the people the church was trying to reach.

This is an ongoing service, so we continue to write and publish blog posts, but already Barabbas is experiencing remarkable results. At the time this article was written they were #10 in the Google organic results for “Church in San Diego” and #3 on Google Maps.

(Update: Unfortunately, Barabbas Road Church discontinued their OurChurch.Com SEO service several years ago. Since then their search rankings have plummeted. Not only are no longer in the top 10 in the Google organic and Google Maps search results, but their church does not even appear in the top 100 results. Which is why I wrote about the importance of ongoing SEO in The Last Thing You Should Do for Church SEO.)

The bottom line is…

There’s no better way to improve search rankings than creating great content, and there are no shortcuts to great content.

Everyone wants to be in the top 10 for their top keyword, but the sites that are in the top 10 are the ones willing to commit the time and energy to create great content or commit the finances to have someone create it for them.

Partner with the Church SEO Experts

If you’d like to talk with one of our Church SEO experts about how OurChurch.com could help you improve your search rankings, increase website traffic, and reach more people in your community, we’d love to talk with you.

Complete the consultation request form below (mobile) or to the right (desktop) to schedule a discovery call!

Comment and Discuss:

• How is your church SEO going? How are you church’s search rankings?

Continue reading about church SEO

Read more articles in our 30 Stories from 30 Years series.

The post How This Church in San Diego Went to #3 in Google appeared first on Christian Web Trends Blog: Church Websites, Design, SEO.

Generally speaking, a multisite church is one church congregation that gathers at multiple geographic locations, often referred to as campuses.

If you are a part of a multisite church, you want each individual campus to be shown as close to the top of the search results as possible for the specific city or neighborhood its in.

However, you also want visitors to understand you are one unified church, therefore you probably have just one website.

In the article 3 Ways to Improve Church Search Engine Results, we explain the 3 different types of Google search listings: Paid ads, Local 3 Pack, and Organic Search Results.  We’re not going to go into paid ads here, but let’s talk about the other two and how to improve rankings for multisite campuses.

Local 3 Pack: How to improve local search rankings for multisite churches

Local listings are shown in what’s often called the “Local 3 pack” next to a map. They usually look like this:

The information in the local listings comes from each organization’s Google Business Profile.

If you want your church to have a local listing in the the Local 3 Pack (and in Google Maps search results), you need to create, claim and verify your Google Business Profile.  (Get step-by-step instructions on how to create, claim and verify your Google Business Profile here.)

For multisite churches, this means creating, claiming, and verifying a Google Business Profile for each campus.  Plus updating the contact info, description, meeting times for each individual campus in its Google Business Profile.

Organic Search Results: How to improve organic search rankings for multisite churches

Below the Local 3 Pack, are shown the organic search results (sometimes also called general search results). Google usually shows 10 organic search listings per page. (We’re only showing 2 here for the sake of brevity.)

The information in the organic search results is generated by Google and usually comes from the church’s website.

For multisite churches, there are several things that will help to improve the organic search rankings for each campus.

1. Create and optimize at least one web page for each campus.

Use the on-page optimization tactics we explain in Church SEO: What to Optimize for Better Organic Search Results

Make each campus page genuinely useful and unique. Include the campus address, worship times, campus pastor or leader, contact information, photos, ministries or programs available at that campus, directions, parking information, and other details someone considering a visit would want to know.

You can have more than one page for each campus.  If you do, there should be one campus hub page that all the other campus-related pages link to.

2. Set each campus’s GBP “website” setting to its campus hub page

The Google Business Profile for each campus has a “website” setting.  Some people make the mistake of setting this to the churches homepage (e.g. FirstChristianChurch.org). The better option is to set this to the URL of main page for the campus (e.g. FirstChristianChurch.org/springfield/ )

One exception… If your multisite church has a “main” campus and the other sites are smaller, satellite campuses, it’s fine to set the website setting in the GBP for the main campus to the church homepage.

The important thing, though, is that the GBP for each campus should have a different website setting, pointing people to information about that campus.

3. Link to each campus web page in the website menu.

Google and other search engines discern the importance and authority of the pages in your website from your navigation menu.

If you can list each campus in the top level of the menu, that will help.  Another good option is to create a “Locations” menu item with each campus listed in as a sub-menu link.

These SEO fundamentals can also help campus pages appear as sources in Google’s AI-powered search features, including AI Overviews and AI Mode. They can also help you campuses get mentioned in AI tools like ChatGPT, Claude, Grok and Gemini.

More than a decade of multisite church SEO experience

The OurChurch.com team has been helping Christian churches, ministries, and businesses with SEO for more than 15 years.

We frequently customize our SEO services to fit the goals and circumstances of the organizations we serve.  As a result, we’ve been providing SEO services for multisite churches for more than a decade.

Our experience is that multisite churches often struggle to keep information about each campus up to date and consistent across the website, Google Business Profile and other local listings. Sometimes they are managed by different people. Sometimes there are old GBPs owned by people who are no longer on staff.

Having a team of experienced SEO professionals working with you to organize the info and listings can be a big help. Click to read more about our Multisite Church SEO service.

Then fill out the form on that page or below (mobile) or to the right (desktop) to schedule a call with one of our church SEO experts.

Comment and Discuss…

• What questions do you have about multisite church SEO?

Continue reading about church SEO

The post How to Optimize for Multisite Church SEO appeared first on Christian Web Trends Blog: Church Websites, Design, SEO.

If you’ve taken these steps, congratulations! You are probably already experiencing a significant improvement in search rankings and seeing more people visiting your website. You deserve to be commended for taking action to help reach people in your community!

But the last thing you should do is stop your church SEO efforts now.

(“The last thing you should do…” is a strange phrase isn’t it? When we say it, we’re not referring to something we should do after everything else, but rather something we should never do.)

Church SEO is never finished

The only constant in life is change. This is especially true of search engines and SEO.

• Search engine engine algorithms are constantly changing.
• Your website is constantly changing. (You are updating your website regularly, right?).
• The way people search (voice search, image search, mobile search)… yep, constantly changing.

Therefore, if you optimize your church website once and let it go, whatever improvements you experienced in search rankings will eventually erode back to where they were (or worse).  So, let’s talk about…

5 Church SEO Management Tactics for Long Term Success

1) Check your search rankings regularly

We recommend checking your search rankings a minimum of once a month and tracking those rankings over time. It’s normal for a website’s position to fluctuate one or two spots, but if your church suddenly drops 5+ spots in a month, that is something to investigate. Perhaps something on your website has changed or perhaps Google has updated it’s algorithm.

2) Check your search traffic regularly

Use Google Analytics to track how many people are coming to your website from search engines, and compare that data to the previous month and previous year. You can also use Google Search Console to see what keywords your website visitors are using to find your site.

A big drop in search search traffic could indicate a problem – maybe a technical issue is blocking search engines, a page was accidentally unpublished, optimization of a page was edited out.

A big increase in search traffic could indicate a growing interest in a particular ministry, issue or topic. You might find ways to capitalize on and continue this growth.

3) Monitor website changes

When we see a church experience a drop in search rankings and search traffic, the most common cause is changes to the website that removed optimized content. For example, someone might go in and change a heading, rewrite the intro paragraph on the homepage, or replace an image that was optimized with one that’s not.

4) Read about SEO trends and changes

Google makes more than 1,000 changes a year to its algorithm. Most of them go unnoticed and don’t significantly impact many searches. But consider this:

Just a few years ago, Interaction to Next Paint (INP) wasn’t a Core Web Vital, Google’s helpful-content signals weren’t integrated into its core ranking systems, and site reputation abuse wasn’t part of Google’s spam policies. Today, all three can affect how websites perform in search.

We here at OurChurch.com read a lot of news articles about SEO and when we see something important to church SEO, we write about it. You can stay informed and save time by subscribing to our blog.

5) Continue to grow your authority

Earlier in this series, we discussed church SEO tactics that help to improve your church’s authority in the eyes of the search engines which leads to better search rankings. Things like setting up local listings, getting online reviews, and creating quality content.

A good long term church SEO strategy involves continuing to do these things on a regular basis.

The bottom line is…

SEO is an ongoing project, not set-it-and-forget-it. -Rebecca Lieb

Partner with Church SEO Experts

If all this seems like more work than you really want to do, our team of church SEO experts can help. We include all of the tactics discussed in this article – tracking search rankings, reviewing search traffic, monitoring your website, keeping up with search trends – and more in our church SEO service.

Complete the form below (mobile) or to the right (desktop) to request a free phone consultation today!

Comment Below and Discuss:

• What are you doing to manage your church SEO for long term success?

This is just one part of The Ultimate Guide to Church SEO & GEO

The post The LAST Thing You Should Do for Church SEO appeared first on Christian Web Trends Blog: Church Websites, Design, SEO.

• Relevance – how closely a web page relates to the targeted keyword
• Authority – how reliable, reputable and important a web page is

In that article I wrote…

“All 200+ search ranking factors can be put into one of two categories – relevance or authority.”

Actually, that’s not exactly true…

There’s one thing that impacts both relevance AND authority.

Quality Content

Content is any information or media. It can be web pages, blog posts, images, audio, or video.

When a church publishes useful, original content about a particular topic, it gives search engines more information about what the church knows, teaches and serves people with. Consistently publishing helpful content can also demonstrate greater expertise and authority on those topics.

Fortunately, churches have an SEO advantage many organizations don’t have:

One SEO advantage churches have is they already produce at least one unique piece of content every week: the Sunday sermon.

The Sunday Sermon

Most pastors put a considerable amount of time, effort, thought, and prayer into their sermon each week. Most try to reveal something significant about God through the scriptures, and then explain how that impacts the way we live for God.

This is life-changing content!

You could allow it to be spoken once and for the Holy Spirit to use it however he chooses for just those in the room who are paying attention.

Or you could put that sermon onto the church website in a format that is useful for human visitors and readable by search engines.

People like to listen to sermon audio and watch sermon videos, and many churches are already embedding sermon audio files and/or video files onto web pages.  This is a good first step.

Search engines and AI systems are much better at understanding audio and video than they used to be. However, giving them additional written context makes it easier to understand what a sermon is about and can make the sermon more useful to people as well.

So, when you put audio or video of a sermon onto a web page or blog post, it’s helpful to also include

• a relevant title
• a short summary
• scripture references
• a link to a sermon transcript

A transcript also makes sermon content more accessible and gives people the ability to search, scan or read the message instead of only watching or listening.

Sermons Can Demonstrate Experience, Expertise and Trust

Original sermon content can also contribute to E-E-A-T. That’s the Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness and Trustworthiness Google looks for in the pages it shows most prominently in the search results.

A sermon written and preached by your pastor reflects the actual people, beliefs, teaching and ministry of your church. Publishing that original content helps both people and search engines better understand who your church is, what it teaches and the subjects its leaders regularly address.

That’s much more valuable than filling a church website with generic content that could have been published by anyone.

Producing Additional Content from the Sunday Sermon

In addition to putting sermon audio or video on your website, there are many other ways you can use your sermons to create additional content.  Some include:

• Sermon audio can be put into a podcast.
• The most meaningful parts of the sermon video can be spliced into short-form videos like Reels and TikToks.
• Quotes and scripture references from the sermon can be used to create images that can be shared on social media.
• ChatGPT or another AI tool can help turn a sermon transcript into a blog article, devotional or summary that the pastor or church staff reviews, edits and personalizes.
• Frequently asked questions addressed in the sermon could become helpful articles on your church website.

These are just a few ideas. You can probably come up with others. Or ask an AI tool like ChatGPT, “Give me 10 ideas for ways I can repurpose sermon content.”

The goal isn’t to publish as many pages as possible simply for SEO. Focus on creating content that is genuinely useful to people, and avoid publishing large numbers of thin, repetitive or lightly edited AI-generated pages.

Other Church Content Ideas

Chances are your church is already creating other content beyond the sermon that can be also published to your church website regularly, including:

• Weekly bulletin or program
• Announcements given during the Sunday service
• Weekly or monthly newsletter
• Stories of life transformation by those who trust in Christ and are baptized
• Daily devotionals related to the sermon theme
• Thoughts (blog posts) from the pastor
• Answers to questions people in your community frequently ask about faith, your church or its ministries

Adding quality content to your church website doesn’t have to take a lot of extra time if you start by publishing the content you’re already creating.

Partner with an experienced Church Website Design and Church SEO company

If you would like some help with your church website design so that your church can add sermons, blog posts, newsletters, or other content, complete the form below (mobile) or to the right (desktop) to request a free phone consultation.

If you’d like our team of church SEO experts to help your church improve its search rankings and reach more people in your community, we’d love to talk with you about that as well.

Complete the form below (mobile) or to the right (desktop) to schedule a complimentary discovery call!

Comment Below and Discuss:

• What content is your church already creating? Are you getting it on your website?

This is just one part of The Ultimate Guide to Church SEO & GEO

The post The Church SEO Tactic that Improves Relevance AND Authority appeared first on Christian Web Trends Blog: Church Websites, Design, SEO.

Your church website is an important part of that picture, but it is not the only part.

Google also finds information about your church on other websites, directories, maps, community organizations, news sites, and other places around the web. This is why links and local listings matter for church SEO.

The strategy, however, has changed in recent years.

Years ago, SEO advice often focused on getting your website listed in as many directories as possible and building as many backlinks as you could. Today, churches are better served by focusing on accuracy, relevance, relationships, and trust.

Start With the Local Listings That Matter

One of the first things every church should do is make sure it has accurate listings on the major platforms people use to find local organizations.

Start with:

• Google Business Profile
• Apple Maps through Apple Business Connect*
• Bing Places
• Yelp

You don’t need to find 100 directories and submit your church to all of them. Instead, focus first on the places people actually use.

Make sure each listing has accurate information, including your church’s name, address, phone number, website address, worship times, and other important details.

Your Google Business Profile is particularly important because it can help your church appear in Google Search and Google Maps when someone searches for a church nearby. For step-by-step instructions see How to Create, Claim and Verify Your Google Business Profile.

* Note that Apple Maps may require verification by adding a TXT record to the DNS zone for your website. If your website is hosted by OurChurch.com, our support team would be happy to add this for you.

Keep Your Church Information Consistent

Once you’ve established your primary listings, check that the information about your church is consistent from one website to another.

This sounds simple, but churches frequently discover old information scattered around the Internet.

• Maybe your church changed its phone number five years ago.
• Perhaps you moved to a new building.
• Maybe the church changed its name, merged with another congregation, or closed a second campus.

Search for your church by name and city (e.g. “First Christian Church in Springfield, MO”).

Click on each link in the search results and look for outdated addresses, incorrect phone numbers, old website addresses, incorrect worship times, and any other inaccurate information.

If you find anything that’s not right, take the necessary steps to correct it.

This can be tricky because every website is different.

• You may need to create a new account.
• You may need to do a password reset.
• You may need to contact customer service.

My advice: if you’re not sure how to get info updated, ask ChatGPT for help. And always good notes so you know where to find passwords, what steps you’ve taken, who you communicated with and what they told you.

Build Links Through Real Relationships

Links from other websites to your church website are still valuable. But that doesn’t mean your church should go looking for websites that sell backlinks, participate in schemes or try to get links on random, unrelated websits.

Instead, start with relationships your church already has.

• Does your church partner with a local food bank?
• Support a missionary organization?
• Belong to a denomination or district?
• Work with a Christian school?
• Participate in local service projects?

These relationships may create natural opportunities for your church to be listed or linked to online.

These are valuable because they reflect real relationships and can help real people discover your church.

If your church hosts a weekly food distribution for a local nonprofit, for example, it would be useful for that nonprofit’s website to link visitors to the page on your website with the food distribution schedule.

That link isn’t just good for SEO. It helps people. And that’s a pretty good test for whether a link is worth pursuing.

Share Your Classes, Events, and Groups

No church or community organization can do everything.

Therefore, it’s helpful for other organizations to recommend (and link to) the things you do well which they don’t offer.

• Vacation Bible School
• Grief support
• Addiction recovery
• Food assistance
• Parenting classes
• Activities for seniors, youth, moms
• Classes / training on specific spiritual topics

Now most churches and community organizations aren’t good at finding and recommending other organizations, so you’ll probably have to reach out via email or text and ask leaders at other orgs if their people would benefit from participating in your classes, events and groups.

Give People Digital Resources Worth Linking To

Another way churches can earn links is by providing useful resources.

Just about every church publishes a weekly sermon, newsletter, blog article or thought from the pastor. Try to take things to the next level by offering an “evergreen” resource that will stand the test of time.

• Localized resources like Hurricane Recovery Resources for Families in Tampa Bay.
• An online spiritual gifts analysis
• An online course that helps people learn to hear the Holy Spirit
• A marriage health assessment

If your church doesn’t have any resources like this, perhaps you could think and pray about what tools and resources you could create to bless the people in your community.

The bottom line is…

Don’t build links for Google. Build resources and connections that help people and they will find your church.

We’ve Been Helping Churches Get Found Online for Years

At OurChurch.com, we’ve been helping churches improve their websites and search visibility for years. We understand that church SEO isn’t simply about rankings. It’s about helping people who are looking for a church, ministry, event, or spiritual resource connect with your congregation.

Our church SEO services can help identify opportunities to improve your website, local search presence, Google Business Profile, content, links, and other factors that may be affecting your visibility in search results.

If you’d like to talk about your church’s search visibility and what could be improved, we’d love to have that conversation with you.

Complete the form below (mobile) or to the right (desktop) to schedule a complimentary discovery call!

Comment and Discuss:

• What organizations, ministries, schools, or community groups is your church connected with that could create natural opportunities for links and greater online visibility?

This is just one part of The Ultimate Guide to Church SEO & GEO

The post Church SEO: How to Build Local Authority with Links and Listings appeared first on Christian Web Trends Blog: Church Websites, Design, SEO.