A few weeks back, the popular comic strip xkcd posted an image titled “University Website“.  It was simply a Venn diagram that showed the difference between what universities put on the front of their website versus what users actually came to their site to find.

Your church site is likely the same way.

In reviewing a handful of church websites over the last week (and checking out dozens of others), I’ve found that many of them carry common traits that aren’t helpful to users.  Here’s some of what I found.

Unnecessary clutter on the front of church websites

• Links to conference/denomination affiliation sites. Your average church member doesn’t come to your site looking for a link to umc.org, and I can promise that a first-time visitor isn’t interested in that either.  Being proud of your denomination is certainly great, but not as a primary item on the home page.
• Hit counters. These are a relic of the past; they slow down your site loading speed, draw attention away from your content, and provide no real useful metrics for your church.  Install something like Google Analytics instead.
• Upper Room devotional. Churches love to put Upper Room stuff on their site.  There’s certainly no problem with that, but not on your home page.
• Auto-playing music. This isn’t good on any site, but churches seem to be the worst offender.  Never play audio of any kind for a user unless they specifically request it (when they click a video, etc).
• Big photo of their building. I just mentioned this again yesterday, but I can’t say it enough.  While I’ve always said that a nice “facility” page is a great thing to include so that people know what the building looks like, but people need to come first.  Show smiling faces, not rows of bricks.
• Online Giving. While you certainly want to make it easy for people to give online, don’t make this too much of a focus.  If you must include it on the home page, make sure it’s near the bottom.  Better yet, put it in a sub-page somewhere so you can keep the home page as clutter-free as possible.
• Mission Statements. While a focused mission statement is important for a church to have (and follow), it likely doesn’t belong on the home page.  Most mission statements have roughly the same concept (Love Jesus and Serve Others), and they simply add clutter to your page.  I expect to be able to find it when I browse around the site, but consider it carefully before you add it to your home page.

What people really want to find quickly on church websites

• Service times. They should certainly be on the front page, and ideally on every page (perhaps in a sidebar).  In addition, I should be able to click any of the services that you list and get more information about it.
• Location/directions. Every page should include information about where you’re located, and that should always be linked to a “directions” page to help people get there.
• General contact information. At the very least, including phone and email on the front page.  Your full “contact” page should also include your address, Twitter account, Facebook Page, and any other means that might be a useful way for someone to get in touch with you.
• Staff Members. This doesn’t need to be on the front page, but needs to be easy to find.  A typical location would be a subpage under the “About Us” section.
  • If your church has more than 2-3 staff members, then build out a section devoted to your staff; a page that lists them all, with links to details on every one of them.
  • On the detail page, include a photo, phone number, email, Facebook, Twitter, etc.  If I’m new to a church and I know I need to find the youth minister after the service, I’d LOVE to have a nice photo to look at beforehand so I know what they look like.
• Upcoming Events. Include a few upcoming events on the home page, and link each one to more details.
  • Don’t tell me “Bible Study on Wednesday at 6pm”.  For who?  Where is it?
  • If you tell me “Men’s Bible Study on Wednesday at 6pm in the Fellowship Hall”, I still expect a link for more details.  What age men?  Where is the Fellowship Hall?  Always provide a link with more information.
• Sermon Series. Some people (especially existing members) will come to the site to learn about the current sermon series, or to download notes or MP3s from recent sermons.  A quick blurb or icon on the home page with a link to more info is usually a good idea.

What did I miss? Anything you find particularly annoying on church sites?  Anything that is often missing?

Don’t be like a “University Website” is a post from: MickMel

I talked about this four years ago, but feel it’s worth mentioning again.

If you ask most someone: “Tell me about your church“, they’ll usually reply with something like:

Our church is full of God-loving people, we’re friendly to new visitors, we have wonderful music, we have an excellent pastor, we have a passion for missions, etc…

On the flip side, how often do people answer like this?

Our church is covered on three sides with red face brick, and on the back side with HardiPlank siding.  We have Chelsea Green asphalt shingles on the roof, and we’re hoping to re-surface the parking lot soon.

The answer is never!  When you talk to people about their “church”, they know that you’re asking about the congregation.  However, so many church sites feel the need to feature their building as the primary image on their home page.

For Example

I Googled for local churches to find an example, and came across Holy Family Catholic Church.  Not to pick on them, but they do this worse than most.  They have eight different pictures on their home page, and none of them have a single person in them!  In case they (hopefully) change that in the future, a screenshot is on the right.

I saw another site that featured rotating images of their church sign and all of the cute slogans they put on there.  While I’m sure the congregation thinks it’s neat, it’s not helping very much with a first time visitor.  I doubt a non-believer ever came to a church because their sign said “Stop, drop and roll doesn’t work in Hell“.

The solution is very simple; just put some smiling faces on there.  Rotating images are great too, but be sure that it’s not just a black hole for non-Flash browsers (such as the iPhone and iPad).

Your Facility

That being said, I think it’s important to have photos of your building on the site.  In fact, most churches should devote a section to “our facility”.  There are two reasons for this:

1. If I’ve never been to your church and I don’t know what it looks like, I’ll feel more comfortable trying to find it if I can see what it looks like.
2. Churches often say things like “the Bible Study will meet in room B-124“, or “join our prayer meeting in the Chapel“.  Where is B-124?  Where is the Chapel?  This is more of an issue for large churches with multiple buildings, but it’s always good to provide as much information as you can.

Just be sure to put that somewhere off the home page (typically in [About Us] –> [Facility] or something like that) and you’ll be fine.  Use that valuable space on the home page to start giving people a sense of kindness and personality about your church.

Seriously, your church isn’t made of bricks is a post from: MickMel

Today’s review comes via a Twitter request from Phil: Parkside Christian Fellowship – www.parksidechristianfellowship.co.uk

It’s got some issues with Flash, but overall it’s a pretty solid site.  Check out the video and share any other thoughts you might have in the comments section below.

Church Website Review: Parkside Christian Fellowship is a post from: MickMel

Another quick review for you to check out: Calvary First – Stockton, CA – http://www.calvaryfirst.net/

As always, please contact me if you’d like for me to review your site.  I do them completely free of charge, in the interest of helping everyone to build more effective sites.

Please leave comments below if you have other suggestions for the site, or questions about anything that I say in the video.

Church Website Review: Calvary First – Stockton, CA is a post from: MickMel

Here’s the last review I’ve got for now: San Jose CRC – http://www.sjcrc.org/

If you’d like for me to take a look at your site, just contact me and I’ll be happy to help.

Check out the review below, and leave a comment if you have any other suggestions for them.

Church Website Review: San Jose Christian Reformed Church is a post from: MickMel

Here’s our next review: Mt. Zion UMC, Grandy – http://www.mtziongrandy.org/

I again referenced my “page titles” post, which you can find here. Now the review:

Any other ideas for them?  Leave your thoughts in the comments below.

Church Website Review: Mt. Zion UMC, Grandy is a post from: MickMel

One more quick review for tonight: Stratton UMC – http://www.gbgm-umc.org/stratton/

It’s just a one-page site, but there are a few things they can correct as they begin to move forward.

Church Website Review: Stratton UMC is a post from: MickMel

I’ve decided to spend some time reviewing various church websites, upon request.  I look at things such as new visitor friendliness, overall usability, SEO, and anything else that catches my eye.  I’d be happy to take a look at your church website, too — just contact me with info and I’ll do a quick review of it.

On to our first one for now: Oak Haven UMC – http://www.oakhavenumc.org/

The review is contained the video below, but I reference a few items during the video.  They include:

• A way to post automatically from your blog to Facebook/Twitter: dlvr.it or twitterfeed.com
  • I certainly don’t recommend this as a long-term technique (you should try to be social on social networks), but it can be a good way for a church to get its feet wet.
• Why churches shouldn’t create Facebook Profiles — they should create Pages.
• Creating good page titles for your site.

On to the review!

Church Website Review: Oak Haven UMC is a post from: MickMel

Over the past year, I’ve worked with a variety of churches to help get their social media effort off the ground or help to fine-tune it.  Some have embraced it quickly, while others have stepped back to take a more measured approach.  My advice is to simply dive in, because it’s happening whether you’re there or not.

Before we go any further, read this short post from CarlBliss.com about Chris.  Guess what?  Your church probably doesn’t have just one “Chris” — you’ve probably got dozens of them!  When I started intentionally focusing on social media at Mt. Bethel a few years ago I found that that there were already more than 30 Mt. Bethel-related groups on Facebook (here are some of them), and an “official” group didn’t even exist yet!

I find that churches are choosing to take wildly different approaches to social media. Over the past six months, three churches that I’ve worked with come to mind.  All three are fairly large churches, with 500+ in attendance each Sunday.

• Church #1 is scared of social media. Thoughts of lawsuits are running through their mind, and they’re afraid to do much of anything.  They’ve finally created a Twitter account and a Facebook Page, but both are mostly empty and quite useless.
• Church #2 is trying too hard to be perfect. I helped them get things set up a few months back, but they’ve yet to do much of anything.  They’re still very excited by the possibilities, but their Twitter account has just a single Tweet (“Welcome!”) and their Facebook page has less than a dozen fans.
• Church #3 is rolling. They didn’t have their full plan worked out, but they started posting events on Facebook, tweeting snippets from the sermons, and simply went from there.

In all three cases, “Chris” is already out there talking about the church, and the only difference is whether the church is able to respond.  Using the examples above, only church #3 is listening (and responding) to what is going on.

When people talk about your church online, are you able to:

• Answer their questions?
  • “@yourchurch What time is dinner on Wednesday?“
• Respond to criticism?
  • “It took me 20 minutes to find a place to park at Your Church“
• Encourage their happiness?
  • “Awesome worship at @yourchurch this morning!“

The only way to handle any of those questions is if you’re out there with them.

That being said, don’t be foolish.  Especially at the beginning, just keep things light and informative.  Talk about events, sermon notes, that kind of thing.  As things evolve, work on developing policies for which employees can post, content ideas, etc.

Also, when creating your church presence on Facebook be sure to create a “Page” and not another “Profile”.  See this post for why that is important.

The conversation is happening whether you’re there or not, but you’ll look a lot better (and reach a lot more people) if you join in.

Churches: Stop contemplating social media and just dive in. is a post from: MickMel

Right now I’m in the process of changing up some of the social icons on my various sites.  For a few years now, I’ve been a fan of the Sociable plugin for WordPress.  It’s an excellent plugin that makes it easy to add quick links to various social site (Twitter, Facebook, Digg, StumbleUpon, etc) for users to click on.

It looks something like this:

It’s a great plugin, but I was wanting more.  A few months ago, Facebook released a pretty slick “Like” button that could be added to sites, and just recently Twitter added a similar “Tweet” button.  Rather than being simple links like the buttons above, these buttons are much more interactive.  You can see who else has tweeted/linked the post, and users can tweet/like without having to leave the page.

The problem then became clutter. If I added both of the new buttons and still kept sociable, I’d be making things rather messy.  So, Sociable had to go.

You can install the buttons manually if you want, but I found a few simple plug-ins to do the job for me instead.  There are many to choose from (and all of them are quite similar), but I’m using:

• Twitter Button for WordPress
• WP FB Like Button

So far, I like them!  While it’s kind of a shame to lose the other icons, these are the two that people use overwhelmingly, and I really like how much cleaner things look.

You can see the new buttons just below this post.

What do you think?  Have you installed either of these on your site yet?

WordPress plugins; less clutter, more Facebook and Twitter is a post from: MickMel