But photos can also create a problem.

The high-resolution images produced by today’s phones and cameras can be very large. Upload several of those images directly to a website and they can dramatically increase the amount of data visitors have to download.

That matters because people don’t like waiting for websites to load, and neither does Google.

Since 2018, Google has made page speed is a factor in its search ranking algorithm. They expanded this in 2021, making Core Web Vitals a factor in search rankings.

One of those measurements, Largest Contentful Paint (LCP), measures how quickly the largest visible content element appears. On many church websites, that element is a large photo near the top of the page.

At OurChurch.com, we’ve designed, hosted, and optimized church websites since 1996. In our experience, unnecessarily large and poorly optimized images continue to be one of the most common contributors to slow-loading pages.

Fortunately, church website image optimization doesn’t mean you have to stop using great photography.

7 Ways to Optimize Church Website Photos for Faster Load Times

1. Don’t Upload Huge Camera Images Directly to Your Website

Modern smartphones and digital cameras produce images that are thousands of pixels wide.

That’s great if you’re creating a large print, but your church website doesn’t need images that large.

If an image is going to display at a fraction of its original size, uploading the full-size original wastes disk space, bandwidth and visitors’ time waiting for it to load.

Before uploading a photo to your website, create a copy on your computer and resize that copy to 1920 pixels wide.

2. Let Your Website Serve Responsive Images

Responsive website design allows a website to make several sizes of an image available. The visitor’s browser then automatically loads the ideal size based on the width of the device and the space available on the page.

That means someone viewing your church website on a phone may not have to download the same large image needed by someone viewing the site on a desktop monitor.

WordPress automatically creates multiple sizes of uploaded images, and a properly configured website can use those versions to serve images more efficiently.

You don’t necessarily need to understand all of the technical code behind responsive images. The important thing is to make sure your website isn’t forcing every visitor to download the largest version of every photo.

3. Use Modern Image Formats

JPEG and PNG are no longer your only choices.

Modern image formats such as WebP and AVIF can often provide excellent visual quality at smaller file sizes. Google Search currently supports both WebP and AVIF images, along with JPEG, PNG, GIF, SVG, and several other image formats.

For most churches, you don’t need to become an expert on image formats. A simple rule of thumb is:

• WebP is an excellent general-purpose format for website photography.
• AVIF can offer even greater compression when your website and hosting environment support it.
• JPEG is still perfectly acceptable for photographs.
• PNG is useful when an image needs features such as transparency, but it often produces unnecessarily large files when used for ordinary photographs.

Rather than manually converting every image yourself, an image optimization tool can often handle this automatically.

The OurChurch.com website design team utilizes the Smush WordPress plugin in the websites we build.  Smush can compress images, and its current feature set also supports modern formats such as WebP and AVIF.

4. Compress Images Without Making Them Look Bad

Image compression reduces the amount of data in an image file.

The trick is finding the balance between file size and image quality.

Too little compression leaves you with a larger file than necessary. Too much compression can make faces look fuzzy, produce strange blocks around edges, or cause smooth areas of color to look uneven.

There isn’t one perfect compression percentage that works for every photograph or image format.

Instead, compare the optimized image with the original.

Pay particular attention to:

• Faces
• Text that appears within an image
• Fine details
• Sharp edges
• Areas with gradual changes in color or lighting

If you can significantly reduce the file size without noticing a meaningful difference when viewing the image normally, you’ve accomplished the goal.

5. Lazy Load Images Visitors Don’t Need Yet

Imagine a webpage with 10 photos.

When someone first opens the page, usually only the top photos is visible on their screen. The other 9 are farther down the page.

Why make the visitor download all 10 images immediately?

This is the idea behind lazy loading.

Lazy loading delays the loading of images until the visitor gets closer to the part of the page where those images will actually appear.

Lazy loading improves the load time for any page with images “below the fold” but the more images a page has the greater the impact.

Therefore, this can be particularly useful for:

• Photo galleries
• Staff pages with lots of pictures
• Event recap pages

The OurChurch.com website design team utilizes the a3 Lazy Load WordPress plugin in the websites we build. And we recommend it if you build your own WordPress website.

But there’s an important exception.

6. Don’t Lazy Load Your Most Important Image

The large image visitors see immediately when they open your homepage is different from an image halfway down the page.

That first large image will usually be a part of your page’s Largest Contentful Paint, or LCP.

If you lazy load it, you’re essentially telling the browser, “Don’t hurry to download this.”

That’s exactly the opposite of what you want.

Google’s performance guidance recommends making important LCP images discoverable as early as possible and, in appropriate situations, giving them a higher download priority.

LCP optimization is something our team includes with both our custom website design services and our search engine optimization services.

That includes evaluating how the primary image at the top of a page loads, making sure it isn’t unnecessarily delayed, and addressing other technical issues that may be affecting Core Web Vitals.

The principle is simple:

Lazy load images visitors won’t see immediately. Prioritize the important image they will.

7. Test Your Pages Instead of Guessing

How do you know whether your images are actually slowing down your church website?

Test them.

Google PageSpeed Insights can analyze a webpage and identify performance issues, including problems related to images and Largest Contentful Paint.

Testing can also reveal if there are any other things slowing down your website.

Themes, plugins, scripts, fonts, hosting, third-party tools, and other elements can all affect performance. That’s why it’s better to evaluate the page as a whole instead of assuming that simply compressing a few images will solve everything.

Test some of the most important pages on your church website, especially:

• Your homepage
• Your I’m New or visitor information page
• Any landing pages receiving significant search traffic

Faster Doesn’t Mean Giving Up Great Photos

Church websites need great photography.

People considering visiting your church want to see your congregation, worship, ministries, children, volunteers, and community.

The solution to a slow website isn’t to eliminate those photos.

It’s to deliver them intelligently.

Resize images appropriately. Use responsive images. Choose efficient formats. Compress files. Lazy load images visitors aren’t ready to see. And make sure the most important image on the page gets the priority it deserves.

And remember…

We’re obsessed with speed. -Google

Want a Faster Church Website That Performs Better in Search?

Image optimization is just one part of website performance. If you’d like to discuss how a custom designed website and/or church SEO could help you reach more people in your community, we’d love to talk!

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

Comment and Discuss:

• Are the photos on your website optimized for speed or do you have some work to do in this area?

Read more Church Website Photography articles

The post How to Optimize Photos for Faster Load Times, Better Search Rankings appeared first on Christian Web Trends Blog: Church Websites, Design, SEO.

Great photos can help people get a feel for your church before they ever attend a service. They can show visitors what worship looks like, who attends your church, what happens in your children’s ministry, and what kind of community they can expect to find.

But even a good photo does not always look great straight out of the camera.

Maybe the picture is a little dark. Maybe there is too much empty space around the people. Maybe the camera was slightly crooked. Or perhaps someone left a trash can, microphone stand, or other distraction sitting in the background.

The good news is that you don’t need to be a professional photographer or know how to use Photoshop to fix many common photo problems.

Today’s photo editing tools make it surprisingly easy for church staff and volunteers to improve photos before adding them to a website.

Here are…

7 Easy Church Website Photo Fixes Anyone Can Make

1. Crop Out Distractions

One of the easiest ways to improve a photo is simply to crop it.

Look around the edges of the picture. Is there a lot of empty space? Half of another person? A doorway that adds nothing to the photo? Something distracting in the foreground?

Less is more.

Cropping allows you to remove unnecessary elements, which brings more attention to the most important elements of the picture.

For example, if you have a photo of three people talking after worship but they only occupy the center third of the image, cropping closer to them can make the picture feel much more personal and engaging.

Just be careful not to crop too tightly. Give people a little room around their heads and bodies, and avoid cutting people off awkwardly at joints like knees, elbows, or ankles.

Tip: Before cropping, ask yourself, “What do I want someone to notice first when they see this photo?” Then crop to emphasize that.

2. Straighten Crooked Photos

Have you ever looked at a photo and felt like something was wrong without immediately knowing why?

Check the horizon.

A slightly tilted photo can make a room, stage, building, or group of people look strangely off balance.

Fortunately, nearly every basic photo editor has a straighten or rotate tool. Use a wall, doorway, horizon, or another naturally horizontal or vertical line in the picture as your guide.

This is an especially useful fix for exterior photos of your church building, sanctuary photos, group pictures, and event photos taken quickly with a phone.

It may only take a few seconds, but straightening a picture can make it look much more polished.

3. Brighten Photos That Are Too Dark

Churches can be challenging places to photograph.

Sanctuaries are often dim. Stage lighting can create bright areas surrounded by darkness. Fellowship halls may have uneven lighting. Outdoor events can leave people’s faces in deep shadows.

Before giving up on a dark photo, try adjusting its brightness or exposure.

Many basic editors also allow you to adjust highlights and shadows separately. This can be especially helpful when people’s faces are dark but other parts of the image are already bright.

The key is moderation.

Increasing the brightness too much can wash out faces and make the picture look unnatural. Your goal is not to make every photo bright. Your goal is to make the people and important details easy to see.

4. Improve Color and Contrast

Sometimes a photo is technically fine but just looks flat.

A small adjustment to contrast, color, warmth, or saturation can bring some life back into it.

For example, indoor lighting can sometimes make photos look overly yellow, while other lighting can make skin tones look cold or gray. Small color adjustments can help the image look more like the scene did in person.

Again, subtlety is your friend.

It can be tempting to push the saturation up until the colors really pop, but people should still look like people. Grass should not glow neon green, and your pastor should not suddenly look like he spent the weekend at a tanning salon (unless he actually did).

Good editing should make a photo look better without making people wonder whether it was heavily edited.

5. Reframe Photos for Different Spaces

The same photo may not work equally well everywhere on your website.

A wide banner near the top of your homepage has a very different shape from a smaller photo beside a paragraph of text. A portrait of your pastor may work well on a staff page but poorly in a wide homepage section.

Instead of stretching or squeezing a photo to force it into a particular space, try creating a different crop.

You might crop one version horizontally for a banner and another version more tightly around a person for a smaller section of the website.

This is one of those small details that can make the difference between a website that looks thrown together and one that looks professionally designed.

6. Use AI Editing Tools to Remove Distractions

Artificial intelligence has made some photo edits much easier than they were just a few years ago.

Imagine you took a great picture of people talking at a church picnic, but there is an overflowing trash can behind them. Or perhaps you have a good staff photo, but a thermostat in the background draws attention away from the person.

AI tools such as ChatGPT, Grok, Canva, and Adobe Express can now make photo edits surprisingly easy, including removing distracting objects from the background of an image.

Perhaps even easier, most phones now have AI image editing built right into them.

On iPhones, Apple’s Photos app has a Clean Up tool powered by Apple Intelligence. On Android phones, Google Photos includes Magic Eraser, which is specifically designed to remove unwanted distractions from photos.

This can be extremely useful, but there is an important principle churches should keep in mind:

Use AI to improve reality, not invent a false version of it.

Removing a trash can from the background is very different from adding people who were never there or altering an actual church event so dramatically that the photo no longer represents what happened.

Photos on your church website help potential visitors understand who you really are. Editing should support that authenticity, not undermine it.

We’ll explore the bigger questions surrounding AI-generated images, stock photography, and authenticity in another article.

7. Know When a Photo Can’t Be Fixed

Photo editing tools can do some amazing things, but they cannot rescue every picture.

If a photo is badly out of focus, someone’s face is obscured, the main subject is missing from the frame, or the picture simply does not tell a useful story, the best editing decision may be to use a different photo.

This is especially true when photographing people.

A technically imperfect photo showing genuine interaction, joy, worship, or community may be worth improving. But don’t spend 30 minutes trying to rescue a photo that wasn’t very good to begin with if you have a better option available.

Editing should help you bring out the best in a good photo, not force every photo to become usable.

Easy Photo Editing Tools for Churches

You don’t need expensive professional software to handle most of these edits.

The photo app already built into your phone or computer may be enough for cropping, straightening, brightness, and basic color corrections.

For churches that want additional options, tools such as Canva and Adobe Express provide easy-to-use photo editing features, including newer AI-assisted editing tools. Canva, for example, currently offers tools for adjusting lighting and color as well as removing or repositioning elements within a photo.

Pixlr is another photo editing tool we recommend. It’s free, easy to use, and its browser-based, so there’s nothing to download or install.

Good Editing Helps People See Your Church More Clearly

Your goal isn’t to make every church photo look like it came from a professional advertising campaign.

Your goal is to remove the things that distract from the people, relationships, worship, and ministry you want visitors to see.

The bottom line…

The goal of photo editing isn’t to make your church look different. It’s to help people see your church more clearly.

Need Help Improving Your Church Website?

Great photos are only one part of creating a church website that makes a strong first impression and helps people take their next step toward your church.

OurChurch.com has been helping churches and Christian organizations build and improve their websites since 1996. We offer professional church website design and a DIY church website builder to help churches create an online presence that reflects their ministry and serves both members and potential visitors. Our church website design process starts with a conversation about your church, your goals, and what you want your website to accomplish.

Fill out the form below (mobile) or to the right (desktop) to schedule a discovery call with one of our church website experts!

Comment and Discuss

• What photo editing challenges does your church run into most often?
• What photo editing tools does your church currently use?

Read more articles about Church Website Photography

The post How to Edit Photos for Your Church Website: 7 Easy Fixes Anyone Can Make appeared first on Christian Web Trends Blog: Church Websites, Design, SEO.

Photo Quality Matters

What’s your first thought when you go to a website that has blurry, dark, over-exposed, or tiny pictures on it?

Eek!

It’s like wearing a stained t-shirt to a job interview. Poor images give visitors the impression that the people who are a part of the organization are either clueless or don’t care.

But what do you think when you see good, compelling photos on a website?

It shows a vibrant community of people who are full of life, care about people, and are inviting you to be a part of what they’re doing.

To put it bluntly:

Photos make or break a website.

If you are the administrator of your website and you’re not sure whether the photos on your website are good quality or not, ask someone in your church who has an eye for photography or request a free website review.

Because there are specific things most church website visitors want to know about, there are specific photos every church website should include.

5 Photos Every Church Website Should Have

1) Outside of the church building with people.

People who are considering a first-time visit to worship with your church want to know what the outside of your church building looks like so they know what to look for when they visit.

Throughout our 30 years of doing church website design, the most common photo we see on church website homepages is a photo of the church building.

But, the outside of a church building by itself is boring and lifeless.

Remember… the church is the people!

So make sure there are people in the photo – people who are friendly, kind and engaging.

2) Worship service.

Potential visitors also want to see what the inside of your church building looks like DURING a weekend gathering.

They have questions on their mind like:

• How big is it?
• How formal is it?
• What are people wearing?
• What are they doing?

Whether they realize it or not, most people are looking to see if your church includes people like them – their ethnicity, their gender, their age, their style, etc.

3) Senior Pastor.

People are interested to know who the senior pastor is and what they look like.

Some pastors like to show photos of themselves that convey spiritual authority by showing them dressed formally or preaching, but most people want a pastor that understands them, is friendly and cares about people.

Consider this when taking or selecting a photo.

If you are church that is trying to reach families, consider showing a photo of the pastor with his family. If you are a church that wants to welcome new people, consider showing a photo of the pastor welcoming people at the front door.  If you are a church that values engagement with the local community, consider showing a photo of the pastor serving or participating in an event at a community center.

4) Safe, Engaging Children’s ministry.

In 2022, Barna research found that 62% of churched parents said children’s ministry was very important when choosing their church. In fact, when asked which programs churches should prioritize, children’s ministry ranked first among parents and first among churchgoers overall.

What specifically are people looking for in a children’s ministry?

First and foremost, parents want their children to be safe.

Second, parents understand that their children aren’t going to learn about God and grow in their love for him if they are bored.

Therefore, it’s important to show that children in your church are safe and engaged.

Don’t cop out and show stock photos of happy kids. Parents want to see real children in your real church engaged with real adult teachers. (Make sure you get those photo release forms signed when you do this.)

5) Authentic Community.

Church is not supposed to be just a bunch of religious people who show up on Sunday morning out of religious obligation to perform their religious duty. A local church is supposed to be a community of people who love Jesus and love each other.

People who love each other spend time together, laugh together, help each other, and encourage one another.

It’s important to show the heart of your community through photos.

Take Action:

If some of the photos on your website are poor quality or your website doesn’t have some of the photos described above, commit to taking some good, new photos this week and get them on the website.

Website Design with a Trusted Guide

While reviewing your website, you may realize it needs more than just adding or replacing photos. If you’re thinking about a new website, consider our church website builder or our church website design service. We’d love to talk more and see what’s the best fit for your situation.

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

Post a comment…

• Which of the 5 photos described above do you already have on your website? Which are you going to add?

Read more articles about Church Website Photography

The post 5 Photos Every Church Website Should Have appeared first on Christian Web Trends Blog: Church Websites, Design, SEO.

Google is very smart, but it doesn’t totally understand photos.

Search engines have gotten much better at identifying what objects are included in each photo, but they don’t understand the context of those photos.

For example, a search engine might be able to identify smiling children in a photo, but it’s not going to understand that it is kids in your children’s ministry worshiping God and getting to know Him in bible lessons.

Therefore, search engines rely on website developers and administrators to explain what’s in each photo using what is called the “ALT attribute.”

The ALT attribute provides alternate information about a photo in case a website visitor cannot view it (for example if they have a slow Internet connection, have images turned off, or are visually impaired and use a screen reader).

Let’s talk about…

3 Ways Website Admins Address Website Image ALT Attributes

Bad: Most website admins ignore the ALT attribute and leave it blank.

Better: Some admins put a few descriptive words in the ALT attribute.

Best: Smart website admins who want their website to rank better in search engines craft their ALT attributes to include words that describe the image and keywords they want to rank well for.

Here’s a view in the website editor of an image showing the pastor of my church and his family.

The “Alternative Text” includes the name of the pastor, his wife and kids, which puts this image in the “better” category I described earlier.

The best alt attribute (alternative text) would be something like this:

Our church meets in Safety Harbor, FL. We want to rank well for “church in Safety Harbor.” By including this keyword phrase in the alt attribute, it helps Google understand this is what our website is about, and helps our church to rank better for this keyword.

Note: the ALT Attribute is not a caption. This text cannot be seen by website visitors (unless they are using screen reader or viewing the source code), so changing the alt attribute does not change the appearance or text of your website at all.

Easy, right?

On-page SEO is about helping search engines better understand what your website is about. -Paul Steinbrueck

Take action!

Go through your website and add keywords to the alt attributes of your photos and other images. And from now on, every time you add new photos to your website, be sure to include a keyword-rich alt attribute for each one.

Partner with Church SEO Experts You Can Trust

If you’re thinking you’d rather turn your SEO over to experienced professionals, let’s schedule a free consultation to talk about how we can help you with SEO for your church, school, ministry, or business.

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

Post a comment and Discuss:

• Have you optimized your images by including keywords in the alt attribute? Why or why not?

Read more articles about Church Website Photography

The post An Easy SEO Trick for Photos appeared first on Christian Web Trends Blog: Church Websites, Design, SEO.

It’s an important question to answer before investing in SEO.

Can I optimize my website for search engines once and it will rank well for my targeted keywords from that point forward, or do I need to continue to monitor and manage the optimization after the initial optimization?

To answer that question, let me share with you the story of one of our SEO clients…

The SEO Client:

As they used to say at the start of Dragnet, the following story is true, but the names have been changed to protect the innocent.  I have purposefully omitted the name of the organization, but wanted to give a little background information about them.

The client is a large Christian publishing company with several departments and hundreds of products and services who offers great Christian curriculum options for both children and adult.

They host their website with another web host (not OCC) and have a team of web designers who control their website design.  Our contacts, the heads of the product lines, did not have control over website itself and because of the size of the company and complexity of the website; they decided to have their web team implement the optimization as per our instruction.

The SEO Service:

The primary service OurChurch.com provided was SEO Management.  With this service, OurChurch.com:

• Performs in-depth keyword research
• Optimizes web pages for the best keywords
• Monitors the optimization of the pages
• Runs regular search ranking reports
• Keeps the optimization practices current

The Initial Results:

With each page optimized, the initial results in the search engines were dramatic.  On average, we were able to reach 50 top ten, 37 top five, and 14 #1 rankings for each page.

Incident 1: The Sudden Drop

After having optimized several pages and maintained many of them for a couple of months, the rankings suddenly dropped for all of the pages we had optimized.   We discovered this during a review of the search ranking report we send our clients each month.

We immediately reviewed the web pages we were maintaining and discovered that much of the optimization of these pages had been lost.

It turned out that the web design team made some changes to the client’s entire site and inadvertently removed some of the optimization.  We notified the client of the issue and they were able to quickly re-optimize the pages.  Within a week the top rankings were returning for all of the pages.

Incident 2: Duplicate Content

A few months later, the rankings for several of the pages started dropping again, this time more gradually.  We made a few adjustments to the optimization of the pages and continued to monitor the pages, but the rankings continued to drop.  This decrease in rankings was a bit baffling.  All of the typical things that may cause a website’s rankings to decrease looked fine.

Then we did some manual checking of the keywords in the various search engines and made a discovery: the rankings had not actually dropped but shifted to different pages.

After further research, we found that they had performed another significant web design change and created duplicates of each of the websites.  Some of the search engines were now listing the duplicate web pages instead of the original pages.

We responded by prescribing some changes to the code of the websites to ensure the search engines would not penalize the client’s site for duplicate content issues.  Then we adjusted our reports to show rankings for all of their pages.

Incident 3: Another Drop In Rankings

The next incident occurred when the client made some major changes in the structure of their website and the website’s design.  Two of the pages we are managing were affected in the website redesign.  Much of the optimization was lost and rankings began to fall.

I wish I could tell you that for the third time we were able to reapply the optimization and regain their rankings.

We did contact them about it immediately, however, this time due to changes in how the company managed their website, the client decided not to re-optimize the pages.

At the time this article was published, the pages had less than half the top ten rankings they had just a few months before and lost most of their #1 rankings.

So, is ongoing SEO management important? 

I think we can say without a doubt, “Yes, case closed!”

SEO is a lot like landscaping…

The initial landscaping takes a lot of work and costs quite a bit.  It makes the business or church look a lot better.

If you just left it at that, it wouldn’t take long before weeds started growing and flowers started withering.  After a few months the landscaping that was making your location look great is now an eyesore making the investment in landscaping worthless.

However, if you have the landscaping company come out regularly to maintain the landscaping, it will continue to look great.  It costs a little more, but you continue to experience the benefits of the initial investment.

An SEO Management service is similar in that it keeps your website optimized, producing traffic and leads.

As illustrated in this case study, ongoing SEO Management has several benefits. Let’s talk about the most important ones.

The Three Biggest Benefits from Ongoing SEO Management

1. Worry-free Website Updates

When you have an ongoing SEO management service, it enables you update your website and keep it current with fresh content (which is super important), AND you still have peace of mind that those updates are not going to wreck your search rankings and cause you to lose visitors.

2. SEO that Changes with the Times

Search engines like Google make hundreds of changes to their algorithm every year.  Your SEO has to keep up otherwise your search rankings and traffic will drop.

An ongoing SEO management service, includes updated SEO strategies and tactics to keep your search rankings and traffic improving.

You’re already busy. Why would you burden yourself with trying to keep up with the latest changes and constantly worry about overlooking or misunderstanding something?

3. Stay in the Know on your SEO

If your boss or supporters ask you how your website is doing with respect to search rankings, visitors, and leads/conversion, how will you respond?

An ongoing SEO management service provides you with data you need to evaluate how well your website is helping you live out your mission online.

Worry-free Search Engine Marketing

If you’re interested in talking with an experienced Christian SEO expert about how SEO can hep your organization better live out its mission online, we’d love to talk with you.

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

Comment and Discuss

• What are your thoughts on the importance of ongoing SEO management?

Read more of our 30 Stories from 30 Years.

The post Search Marketing Case Study: The Value of Ongoing SEO Management appeared first on Christian Web Trends Blog: Church Websites, Design, SEO.

What is this church really like?

They may read about your beliefs, ministries, worship services, and church history, but long before they read every word on the page, they will notice your photos.

These photos can communicate a great deal about your church. They can show whether your congregation feels warm and welcoming, whether families and children are active in church life, what worship looks like, and how your church serves its community.

That is why choosing photos for a church website should involve more than finding images that simply look good.

The purpose of placing photos on your church website is to show people who you really are.

Visitors Form Impressions Before They Read Everything

Think about how you use a website you’ve never visited before.

You probably don’t begin by reading every paragraph from top to bottom. You scan the page. You notice the headline, the layout, the colors, and especially the images.

Someone visiting your church website does the same thing.

They may be wondering what it would feel like to attend on Sunday. Are people friendly? Are there children? What does worship look like? Is the congregation formal or casual? Are people involved in activities outside of Sunday worship?

Your photos can begin answering those questions before visitors ever open your About Us or What We Believe pages.

This is particularly important for people who are considering visiting a church for the first time. Walking into an unfamiliar church can feel intimidating. Seeing authentic photos of the congregation can help remove some of that uncertainty by giving visitors a glimpse of what they can expect.

The Purpose of Church Website Photography

Church website photos shouldn’t simply fill empty spaces in a design.

Every image should have a purpose.

A photo might help introduce your congregation, show what happens during worship, demonstrate how your church serves the community, highlight a ministry, or help visitors picture themselves participating.

After helping churches and other Christian organizations build and improve their websites for 30 years, our team at OurChurch.com has seen how much a website’s images can contribute to the impression it creates.

In fact, the stories churches and other organizations have shared with us over the years often come back to a similar idea: a good website should accurately represent who the organization really is.

Grace Baptist Church in Tyler, Texas, described its new website as one that “sets the true tone of our church.” That’s exactly what good church website photography should help accomplish.

The question isn’t simply whether an image makes the website look better.

Ask whether it helps someone understand your church.

A beautiful photograph of your church building may have value, particularly if it helps first-time visitors recognize the building when they arrive. But if most of your website consists of photographs of buildings, signs, classrooms, and empty rooms, visitors may learn very little about the people who make up the church.

Your church is more than a building.

Your photography should reflect that.

What Are Your Church Photos Communicating?

One helpful way to evaluate the photos on your website is to compare them with what you say about your church.

Let’s consider some messages your church might want to communicate and how your photography can reinforce those messages.

“We are a welcoming church.”

Show people interacting naturally with one another. Photos of conversations, fellowship, greeters, meals, and gatherings can communicate warmth much more effectively than a picture of an empty lobby.

“Families are important here.”

Show real families participating in church life. Include children, parents, teenagers, and multiple generations whenever they genuinely represent your congregation.

“We are involved in our community.”

Show your congregation serving. Food drives, mission projects, community events, volunteer activities, and other ministries demonstrate that your church’s mission extends beyond Sunday morning.

“Worship matters to us.”

Let visitors see worship. Show the congregation singing, praying, listening, celebrating communion, or participating in other elements that accurately reflect your worship services.

See how this takes your website beyond the simple question, “Is this a nice picture?” to “What does this picture tell someone about our church?”

Show People, Not Just Buildings

One pattern we’ve seen on church websites over the years is an emphasis on the church building rather than the congregation.

That’s understandable. Your sanctuary may be beautiful. The stained glass may have special significance. A new facility may represent years of prayer, generosity, and hard work.

But someone searching for a church is usually more interested in the people inside the building.

After all, they aren’t simply looking for a place to sit on Sunday morning. They are looking for a church community.

Consider the difference between these images:

• A photo of an empty fellowship hall shows visitors what the room looks like. But a photo of people laughing and talking around tables shows visitors what happens there.
• A photo of your sanctuary shows the architecture. But a photo of your congregation worshiping shows the experience.
• A photo of a classroom shows where a Bible study meets.  But a photo of people gathered around an open Bible shows community and discipleship taking place.

Whenever possible, give visitors opportunities to see people participating in the life of your church.

Show Visitors What They Can Expect

Church websites often provide practical information such as service times, directions, and ministry schedules. Photos can provide another kind of practical information by showing visitors what they can expect to experience.

For someone who has never attended your church, that can be extremely helpful.

Consider including photos of:

• People arriving for worship
• Greeters welcoming people
• Your congregation during a typical worship service
• Children’s ministry activities
• Youth gatherings
• Adult Bible studies or small groups
• Fellowship meals
• Community outreach
• Church events
• Pastors and ministry leaders interacting with people

These images help make an unfamiliar church feel a little more familiar before someone visits.

They also help visitors see that the ministries described throughout your website are active parts of your church rather than simply names listed on a ministry page.

Choose Photos That Represent Your Church Today

Churches change.

Children grow up. Pastors and ministry leaders change. Worship spaces are renovated. Ministries begin and end. Congregations change over time.

Your website photography should change with them.

If someone visits your website and sees photos taken many years ago, they may develop expectations that don’t match what they experience when they arrive.

Periodically review the images throughout your website and ask whether they still accurately represent your church.

Look especially at prominent images on your homepage and ministry pages. These are often the photographs that have the greatest influence on a visitor’s first impression.

And you don’t need professional photography for every image on your website. A current, well-lit photo taken during an actual church activity can often communicate more about your congregation than a polished stock image ever could.

The goal isn’t simply to make your website more attractive. It’s to help people see the people behind the website.

Because when someone who has never attended your church looks at your photos, they aren’t just looking at pictures.

They’re trying to picture themselves there.

Partner with a Church Website Developer Who Understands You

If you’re a busy ministry leader who wears a lot of different hats, website developer doesn’t have to be one of them. You can save time and get peace of mind that your website is being done right by partnering with our team.

We just spent 1,000+ words telling you how important it is that your website shows who you really are. To do that, you need to work with a church website developer who cares enough to take the time to get to know you, so they can help you express who you are through your website.

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

Post a comment and discuss:

• What’s your single biggest takeaway from this article?

Read more about Church Website Photography

The post What Your Church Website Photos Tell First-Time Visitors appeared first on Christian Web Trends Blog: Church Websites, Design, SEO.

But can adding more photos to your Google Business Profile also improve where your organization ranks in local Google search results?

Earlier research found a strong connection between the number of photos on a profile and the amount of activity the profile received. More recent testing, however, suggests that uploading additional photos does not directly cause a profile to rank higher.

So, what does the research actually tell us, and how should churches, ministries, schools, and local businesses use Google Business Profile photos?

What Earlier Research Found About Google Business Profile Photos

In 2019, BrightLocal published a study examining 45,000 Google My Business listings across 36 industries. (Note: Google My Business has since been renamed Google Business Profile.)

The study found that organizations with more photos tended to receive more:

• Views on Google Search and Maps
• Website visits
• Phone calls
• Requests for driving directions

Businesses with more than 100 photos received considerably more activity than the average business in the study. BrightLocal also found that the median business had only 11 photos on its listing.

At first glance, these findings appear to suggest that uploading more photos will improve the performance of a Google Business Profile.

However, the study found a correlation, not necessarily a cause-and-effect relationship.

An organization may have more photos because it is already popular, receives more visitors, has operated longer, or belongs to an industry in which customers commonly take and upload pictures. Hotels and restaurants, for example, are likely to receive far more customer photos than accounting offices or other professional service businesses.

Organizations that actively manage their photos may also be more likely to keep the rest of their profile accurate and invest in other forms of marketing.

Therefore, we cannot assume that the photos alone caused those organizations to receive more views, calls, or clicks.

What More Focused Testing Found

In 2021, local search agency Sterling Sky conducted their own test to determine whether adding photos directly improved Google Business Profile rankings.

The agency uploaded relevant photos to four business profiles and tracked their positions in local search results. The test found no measurable improvement in rankings after the photos were added. Google also frequently continued displaying an existing cover photo instead of the newly uploaded images.

Because only four businesses were included, the test does not prove that photos can never affect rankings. It does, however, challenge the common recommendation that businesses should continually upload photos because Google rewards fresh profile content with higher rankings.

Simply adding another photograph does not appear to be a dependable local SEO strategy.

Sterling Sky conducted separate testing involving images placed on business websites. That test suggested that larger, high-quality website images that closely matched the subject Google was looking for could positively affect organic search rankings.

This is an important distinction. Photos uploaded to a website and photos uploaded directly to a Google Business Profile may be processed and used differently by Google.

Are Google Business Profile Photos a Ranking Factor?

There is not enough evidence to say that increasing the number of photos on a Google Business Profile will consistently improve local search rankings.

Google can analyze the subjects and quality of images. Relevant photos may provide Google with additional information about an organization and its location. However, the direct ranking benefit is difficult to isolate from other factors.

The 2026 Local Search Ranking Factors report includes photo and video quality among the many signals local search professionals evaluate. It also treats photos as a conversion factor, meaning they may help people choose an organization after discovering its profile.

That distinction is essential:

A ranking factor helps determine where a profile appears in search results.

A conversion factor helps persuade someone to call, visit the website, request directions, or visit the organization.

The evidence that photos influence conversions and visitor decisions is stronger than the evidence that uploading more photos directly improves rankings.

Why Google Business Profile Photos Are Still Important

Even when photos do not cause a ranking increase, they can significantly affect what people do after they find your profile.

Imagine that someone is looking for a church in a community they recently moved to. They find two churches with similar descriptions, service times, and reviews.

One profile has only a logo and a distant exterior photograph. The other includes current photos of the building, entrance, sanctuary, worship services, children’s areas, ministry activities, and welcoming people.

Which church will feel more familiar and approachable?

People naturally feel more comfortable visiting a place when they know what to expect. Good photos reduce uncertainty and help potential visitors picture themselves participating.

The same principle applies to Christian schools, ministries, and businesses. Photos can help people understand:

• Where the organization is located
• What the entrance looks like
• What products or services are offered
• Who works or serves there
• What the atmosphere is like
• Whether the organization appears active
• What they should expect during their visit

Photos may not move a profile from position five to position three, but they can influence whether someone selects it after it appears.

Quality and Relevance Matter More Than Reaching a Specific Number

The earlier BrightLocal study found that profiles with more than 100 photos received much more activity. That does not mean every church or business needs to reach 100 photos.

A small church with 30 useful, current photos may provide a much better experience than a profile containing 150 repetitive, outdated, or low-quality images.

Focus on building a helpful and accurate visual overview of the organization rather than reaching an arbitrary number.

Churches could include photos of their:

• Building exterior and main entrance
• Sanctuary or worship space
• Worship services
• Children’s and youth areas
• Fellowship activities
• Ministry programs
• Pastors, staff, and leadership
• Parking areas
• Accessible entrances
• Community outreach
• Seasonal events

Christian schools could show classrooms, activity areas, campus facilities, student projects, staff members, and school events while following appropriate privacy and permission policies.

Businesses could include their storefront, signage, interior, staff, products, services, completed projects, parking areas, and other details that help customers know what to expect.

Original photos of the actual organization are generally more helpful than stock photos or promotional graphics.

Should You Add New Photos Regularly?

Keeping photos current is good practice, but organizations should not upload images merely to satisfy a posting schedule or chase an assumed ranking benefit.

Add photos when you have something useful to show.

For example, new photos may be appropriate when:

• The building or interior has changed
• New staff members have joined
• A church launches a new ministry
• A business introduces a new service
• A school updates its campus
• Older photos no longer represent the organization
• A recent event helps show that the organization is active
• Visitors would benefit from seeing a new entrance or parking arrangement

A regular review of the photo gallery can also help identify outdated, blurry, unhelpful, or inaccurate images.

Customers and visitors may upload their own photos to a profile. Profile owners cannot prevent user submissions, but they can report images that violate Google’s content policies.

Should You Upload Every Website and Social Media Image?

No. A Google Business Profile gallery should be curated rather than treated as storage for every image an organization produces.

Some social media images may contain event dates that have already passed. Others may be text-heavy promotional graphics that do little to show what the organization is actually like.

Uploading every available image can also fill the gallery with repetitive content and make the most useful photos harder to find.

Before uploading an image, ask:

• Does this accurately represent our organization?
• Will this help a potential visitor or customer?
• Is the photo clear and properly lit?
• Is the information still current?
• Do we have permission to publish it?
• Does it add something new to the gallery?

For churches and schools, permission and privacy are particularly important when posting photographs of children.

A Better Google Business Profile Photo Strategy

Instead of trying to accumulate the largest possible number of photos, follow a more purposeful strategy:

1. Upload a clear logo and an appealing cover photo.
2. Add original photos that represent the most important parts of the organization.
3. Include practical images of the exterior, entrance, parking, interior, staff, services, programs, or products.
4. Replace outdated images when the organization changes.
5. Add new photos when they provide meaningful, current information.
6. Review user-uploaded photos and report any that violate Google’s policies.
7. Use strong, relevant images on your website as part of your broader search optimization strategy.
8. Measure calls, website visits, direction requests, and other actions instead of focusing only on the total number of photos.
9. Continue improving other important aspects of the profile, including its categories, contact information, hours, description, services, updates, and reviews.

Photos should support a complete local search strategy. They should not replace accurate information, strong website content, good reviews, or ongoing Google Business Profile management.

Focus on Helping People Make a Decision

Current evidence does not support the claim that continually adding more Google Business Profile photos will automatically improve local search rankings.

However, that does not make photos unimportant.

Relevant, current, high-quality photos help people understand an organization and decide whether to take the next step. They can make a church feel more welcoming, a school feel more trustworthy, a ministry feel more active, and a business feel more credible.

The bottom line…

Google Business Profile photos may not improve your Google rankings, but they can improve a visitor’s confidence in choosing you.

Your partner for a better Google Business Profile that reaches more people

Getting your Google Business Profile setup, verified, and optimized is a really important part of reaching people in your community who may be looking for a church (or Christian school, ministry or business).

It can also be really tricky to jump through all the hoops when you don’t know the systems or best practices.

Our team has been helping Christian organizations with their Google Business Profiles for more than a decade.

If you would like help improving your Google Business Profile and local search presence, learn more about OurChurch.com’s Christian SEO services, we’d love to talk more with you.

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

Comment and discuss:

• How well do the photos on your Google Business Profile represent your church, ministry, school, or business?

Read more about Church Website Photography

The post Do Google Business Profile Photos Improve Local Search Rankings? appeared first on Christian Web Trends Blog: Church Websites, Design, SEO.

This transition can be a big challenge for many families. I know this first hand having 3 kids myself. Plus my mother was a teacher for 30+ years, my sister-in-law is a teacher, and a member of the OurChurch.com team is a former teacher.

But this transition is also a great opportunity for churches and followers of Jesus in our churches to provide the support, encouragement and friendship many families, teachers, and schools in our communities need.

So we put together…

12 Back to School Ideas for Church Outreach Events

1. School Supply Drive/Giveaway

No child should be at a disadvantage heading into the school year because they lack basic schools supplies like pencils, paper, notebooks, and a backpack. Organize a campaign to collect school supplies and backpacks for students in need.

Then move on to idea #2 – organize an event in which you give away the school supplies you’ve collected. It’s such a blessing for the giver to see in person their gifts being received by children. It’s also a blessing for the children to see that their school supplies aren’t coming from a store or an organization, but from real people who love them.

2. Back-to-School Bash

Throw a fun event with games, music, and food to celebrate the new school year and build community among families. You could combine this with the school supply giveaway event.

While it’s nice to through a back-to-school bash FOR families. It’s even better when you do a back to school bash WITH families.

So, don’t just stand behind tables and serve people. Get out there, interact with kids, learn their names, what school they’re going to, what grade they’re going into. Make connections with parents.

I recently had a chance to be a part of a back-to-school bash a local church did with a local foster care ranch, and it was amazing!  Everyone was blessed through the experience!

3. Prayer Service

Designate a specific weekend worship service in which you pray for students and teachers. Some ideas for ways to make the service more meaningful…

• Invite students to stand or come forward before praying for them.
• Same thing for parents, teachers and administrators.
• Give students and teachers special roles in the service like reading scripture or saying a prayer.
• Invite students, parents, teachers and administrators to write their name and prayer request on pieces of paper. Have a prayer team committed to praying for those specific requests.

4. School Prayer Walk

Organize a prayer walk around local schools to pray for students, teachers, and administrators as they start the new year.

If you’re not familiar with prayer walking or if you’d like some additional guidance, check out this Campus Prayer Walk Guide from Go to the Campus.

5. Tutoring Program

Create a tutoring program where church members can volunteer to help students with their homework and studies. Schedule specific afternoons or evenings where tutoring is available.

6. Tutoring Option 2

If organizing a tutoring program within your church doesn’t seem like the best option for your church, another option is to encourage church members to participate in existing tutoring programs in local schools.

7. After-School Club

Start an after-school club where kids can gather for snacks, games, and a safe environment while they wait for their parents to pick them up.

Most of the time, after school clubs happen at school, but I’ve seen a number of situations where a church with facilities next to a school, created an after school ministry that takes place on their property and students are able to walk to it. For younger students, adult volunteers come to the school to escort the students to after school program.

8. Parenting Workshops

Hold workshops for parents on topics like effective communication, setting routines, and managing stress during the back-to-school period.  Not only can these one-off workshops provide helpful training for parents, but they can also be a way of introducing people to your church and other Christian parents, which could lead to new relationships and next steps in their faith journey.

9. Parent Activities and Support Groups

This is a great time to start a Mothers of Preschoolers (MOPs) group at your church, moms bible study, or life groups for parents that have kids around the same age.

10. Community Clean-Up

Coordinate a neighborhood clean-up day where church members and local families work together to clean up school grounds and surrounding areas.

11. Adopt Classrooms or Teachers

Teachers and students don’t just need help and encouragement one time at the beginning of the school year, but throughout the entire school year. Some schools have “adopt a class” programs, in other cases you may be able to support specific teachers you already have a connection with. It’s an opportunity to pray for them, volunteer, and provide classroom supplies when needed.

12. Pack-a-Sack

Most schools provide free or reduced cost breakfasts and lunches, but some of those students end up going hungry over the weekends or holidays. Churches can organize a “pack a sack” program, which gives students a back of snacks to take home each Friday.

OurChurch.com supports the local (Tampa Bay Area) pack a sack program organized by One Community Now. Our president, Mark and his wife, lead a team that packs food for kids at multiple schools every week.

Together, we can be the hands and feet of Jesus to the children, parents and teachers in our communities.

Take your Church Outreach Online

No matter which Back to School church outreach events your church chooses, 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 a Team that Shares Your Heart for Church Outreach

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

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

Comment and Discuss

• What Back to School outreach event(s) is your church planning?

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

Continue reading: Making the Most of the “Back to School” Season

The post 12 Back to School Ideas for Church Outreach Events appeared first on Christian Web Trends Blog: Church Websites, Design, SEO.

The OurChurch.com team provides free website reviews to anyone who requests one.

It’s one of the ways we live out our mission – to help Christian organizations live out their mission online.

We check for the 10 most common website problems. If a website passes all 10 points, it receives an award. If it fails any of the 10 points, we send a list of recommendations.

It saddens me to say that…

Only 14% of websites reviewed last year passed all 10 points of the website review.

We analyzed the data from our website reviews to determine the percentage of websites that fail each of the 10 points. One problem stood out well beyond all the others.

The #1 reason church websites fail website reviews is because of problems with images.

70% of websites failed because of problems with images!

To put this into perspective, the 2nd most common problem was present on 30% of sites. So images problems are at least twice as common as every other problem we see.

Some of the image problems we see include:

• Missing images (URL of the image is incorrect)
• Blurry images (photo taken out of focus)
• Tiny images (that don’t fill the width of the content area)
• Distorted images (caused by stretching or squashing an image into a space that has different proportions than the image)

We live in a very visual culture. If your website has any of these image problems, people instantly think either you don’t know what you’re doing or you don’t care.

To address and help with this problem…

August is Church Website Photography Month at OurChurch.com!

We’re going to do everything we possibly can to help you improve the images on your website so that instead of distracting people from your mission they help you achieve your mission!

But before we get to that, I want to make sure we’re providing the resources that are most helpful to you.

So, my question to you is this:

When it comes to your website images, what is your single biggest struggle or frustration?

Click this link, and post your response in this month’s Listening Post.

Then go ahead and post your response in a comment below to get the conversation going here.

Partner with the Church Web Design Pros

We are coming up on 30 years of helping Christian churches, schools, ministries and businesses live out their mission online with better websites. If you’re interested in custom website design, our DIY website builder, or search engine optimization to help you reach more people, we’d love to talk with you.

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

More articles about Church Website Photography

1. Do Google Business Profile Photos Improve Local Search Rankings?
2. What Your Church Website Photos Tell First-Time Visitors
3. An Easy SEO Trick for Photos
4. 5 Photos Every Church Website Should Have
5. How to Edit Photos for Your Church Website: 7 Easy Fixes Anyone Can Make
6. How to Optimize Photos for Faster Load Times, Better Search Rankings

The post The #1 Reason Church Websites Fail appeared first on Christian Web Trends Blog: Church Websites, Design, SEO.

The letter may look like an invoice. It may include your real domain name, an “expiration” date, a payment slip, and language warning you about losing your online identity if you don’t act quickly.

Here’s the truth: these mailers are not sent by your actual domain registrar. They’re solicitations designed to get you to pay a third party and, in many cases, unintentionally transfer your domain away from the company that currently manages it.

What’s actually happening

This deceptive tactic is often called “domain slamming.” The mailer is crafted to resemble a renewal bill, but the fine print typically reveals you’re not “renewing” with your current provider at all. You’re accepting an offer to switch (transfer) your domain to the sender—often at a higher cost and with terms you didn’t intend.

The Federal Trade Commission has taken action against at least one well-known sender of these notices. In a 2003 case, the FTC alleged that Domain Registry of America (DROA) used mail solicitations that appeared to be renewal notices or invoices, leading consumers to unwittingly switch registrars, and the stipulated order barred misleading representations and required consumer redress.

In its 2025 Business Scan Study, the Better Business Bureau received more than 1,000 reports of scams, including more than 40- specifically related to domain names.

And unfortunately, we here at OurChurch.com have had several of our clients who have fallen prey to these scams.

Companies that Send “Domain Name Renewal” Letters

Yeah, we’re going to go ahead and name names, so you know who to be wary of.

Note that this list of “Domain Name Renewal” and “Domain Name Expiration Notice” mailers is not exhaustive, and it’s not uncommon once a company gets “outed” to start operating under a new name:

• Domain Registry of America (DROA) (including “Domain Renewal Group” branding shown in sample letters)

• Internet Domain Name Services (iDNS), mentioned as a common example of these mailers

• “Domain Name Services” mailers that look like invoices but operate as transfer solicitations

• “Domain Registry” / “Domain Name Expiration Notice” style letters (various branding variations)

Why they have your business name and address

These mailers often pull contact info from public domain registration data (WHOIS) or other compiled business data sources. So the fact that they know your domain and mailing address doesn’t mean they’re your registrar—it often just means they know where to send a convincing-looking solicitation.

Red flags that a “Domain Name Renewal”  or “Domain Name Expiration Notice” is really a solicitation

Here are the most common clues we see:

• It arrives by postal mail and looks like a bill you weren’t expecting.

• The sender name is unfamiliar (or “official-sounding” but not your provider).

• The letter uses urgency and fear: “final notice,” “act today,” “loss of online identity,” etc.

• The fine print says something like “THIS IS NOT A BILL” or “THIS IS A SOLICITATION,” but it’s easy to miss.

• The “renewal” term is unusually long (often multiple years) and priced higher than what you normally pay.

What to do if you receive one

• Do not pay it right away.

• Do not call the number on the letter.

• Verify your real renewal date by logging into the account where your domain is actually managed (or ask your web team to check).

• If your accounting department handles mail, make sure they know domain “renewal” letters are a common trap.

• If you already paid: contact your real domain provider immediately so they can help you protect your domain and check whether any transfer was initiated.

OurChurch.com policy: we will never mail a domain renewal notice

If your domain is with OurChurch.com, please know this clearly:

We will never send a domain name renewal notice through the U.S. mail.

If you receive a letter, email, or any communication about your domain that feels suspicious or confusing, you are always welcome to send it to us and ask, “Is this legit?” We’d much rather take 60 seconds to confirm it’s junk than have you spend money (or risk your domain) by mistake.

If you want, paste the text from a letter you received (or upload a photo of it), and I’ll help you identify the red flags and draft a short message your team can use internally to handle these when they come in.

Work with an Honest Website Partner

If it’s important to you to partner with people who act with integrity and will look out for you, learn more about our DIY website builder, web design services, and search marketing services.

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

Learn more in from our Website Hosting Frequently Asked Questions

The post Don’t get Scammed by “Domain Name Renewal” Letters That Come in the Mail appeared first on Christian Web Trends Blog: Church Websites, Design, SEO.