“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?

1. Make It Crystal Clear Who Your Church Is and Where You Are

Your website shouldn’t make people or AI systems hunt for basic information.

Clearly communicate your:

• Church name
• City and state
• Street address
• Worship times
• Denomination or church affiliation, if applicable
• Contact information
• Ministries
• Basic beliefs and mission

It’s especially helpful to put some of this information into natural sentences.

For example:

Not as helpful:
Welcome to Grace Church!

Better:
Grace Church is a Lutheran church in Clearwater, Florida, offering Sunday worship, Bible studies, children’s ministry, youth ministry and community outreach.

The second example immediately provides context about what the organization is, where it is and what it offers.

That helps people, traditional search engines and AI systems understand your church.

Your Google Business Profile should communicate the same basic information and should be kept accurate and current.

2. Answer the Questions People Are Actually Asking AI

Traditional SEO often starts with keywords. AI searches are frequently much more conversational.

In the past people would often Google something like

“Clearwater church children’s ministry.”

Now, it’s more common to ask their favorite AI tool:

“What churches in Clearwater have good programs for children?”

Think about the questions a person considering your church might ask:

• What does this church believe?
• What denomination is it?
• What are the worship services like?
• Is there contemporary or traditional worship?
• Does the church have children’s ministry?
• Is there a youth group?
• What should I expect on my first Sunday?
• What time are services?
• Is the church involved in the local community?

Fortunately, you don’t need to create a separate page for every possible question.

Your About, Beliefs, Worship, Ministries, New Here and Contact pages can answer many of them.

Use clear headings and straightforward language so that a visitor and AI platforms can quickly find the answer.

3. Publish Information That Comes From Real Experience

The internet is being inundated with generic, AI-generated slop.

As a result, more than ever, people, search engines, and AI tools are looking for genuine information they can trust.

Instead of filling your website with generic articles like “10 Reasons Going to Church Is Important,” publish content that demonstrates what your church actually knows, believes and does:

• Sermons
• Articles written by staff and ministry leaders
• Ministry stories
• Community outreach projects
• Answers to theological questions
• Staff and leadership biographies
• Local ministry resources
• Stories about events and ministries
• Information about how your church serves your community

Google’s 2026 guidance for generative AI search specifically encourages websites to create unique, valuable content based on firsthand knowledge and experience, rather than simply summarizing information that already exists elsewhere.

That’s also an important part of E-E-A-T: Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness and Trustworthiness.

Whenever appropriate, identify who wrote the content and why that person is qualified to speak about it. People want to know who they’re hearing from. Search engines and AI systems benefit from that context too.

4. Strengthen Your Church’s Online Presence Beyond Your Website

Your website isn’t the only place AI systems may encounter information about your church.

Your church may also be mentioned on:

• Google Business Profile
• Denominational directories
• Local news websites
• Community websites
• Ministry partner websites
• Social media
• Event websites
• Online directories
• Review platforms

This is where consistency matters.

If your website says worship begins at 10:30 AM, your Google Business Profile says 10:00 AM and an old denominational directory says 11:00 AM, AI tools could give someone the wrong information.

Keep your information accurate wherever possible.

It’s also valuable when reputable organizations naturally mention or link to your church. If your church partners with a food pantry, hosts a community event or works with another ministry, those legitimate online references help establish your church as a real organization connected to its community.

5. Build a Genuine Online Reputation

Reviews matter for traditional local SEO, but they can also provide important context about an organization.

Encourage people who have genuinely experienced your church to leave honest reviews, citing specific things they appreciate about your church.

Respond thoughtfully to reviews when appropriate.

While OurChurch.com has primarily focused on encouraging and helping churches to get Google reviews, in July of 2026 Yelp and OpenAI (the company behind ChatGPT), announced a partnership.

According to this report by Search Engine Land, “Yelp will feed real-time local data into ChatGPT, including reviews, photos and quote requests, with branded links back to its platform.”

This increases the importance of reviewing and updating your info on Yelp, and encouraging people to leave reviews on Yelp.

6. Make Sure AI Search Can Access Your Website

This is one of the few technical items specifically related to ChatGPT.

In 6 Critical Things to Check Before They Kill Your Church SEO, we explain how and why to make sure legitimate search bots are not blocked by your website’s robots.txt file, so your website can be crawled and indexed by search engines.

Similarly, it’s important to make sure the bots of legitimate AI tools are not being blocked by your website’s robots.txt file, so your website is discoverable by ChatGPT, Google Gemini, Claude, and Grok.

For ChatGPT, make sure OAI-SearchBot is not blocked. For Claude, allow Claude-SearchBot and Claude-User. Other AI platforms, including Grok, may use different or undocumented methods to retrieve web content, so also make sure your firewall, CDN, or bot-protection settings are not broadly blocking legitimate AI crawlers.

7. See What AI Currently Says About Your Church

One of the easiest things you can do is simply test it.

Go to ChatGPT and ask:

“I’m looking for a church in [your city, state]. What churches would you recommend?”

Then try getting more specific:

• “What Lutheran churches are in [city]?”
• “What churches in [city] have children’s ministry?”
• “What churches near [city] offer traditional worship?”
• “Tell me about [your church name].”

Look at the results in ChatGTP, Google AI Overview, Claude and Grok. Then take notes:

• Is your church mentioned?
• Is the information accurate?
• What sources are cited?
• Which churches are being recommended instead?

This will give you a baseline understanding of what the AI tools understand about your church.

Then as you implement the recommendations above, you can recheck the AI results and see the impact your efforts are having.

Keep in mind that there is no guaranteed way to make ChatGPT recommend your church, but the things we’ve discussed here will improve your chances of being cited more highly and regularly.

Remember, Church SEO Isn’t Going Away

For nearly 30 years, we’ve helped churches use websites, search engines and online marketing to reach more people.

While AI is revolutionizing many things, the fundamentals of how to be found online hasn’t changed as much as you might imagine.

A technically sound church website, good content, strong local SEO, an accurate Google Business Profile, legitimate links and mentions, genuine reviews and clear information about your church continue to matter.

Now there’s simply another audience consuming all that information: AI systems trying to answer people’s questions.

Bottom line….

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

Partner With OurChurch.Com to Optimize Your Church for AI Search

AI search optimization may be new, but many of the things that improve visibility in Google AI Overviews, ChatGPT and other AI search tools are built on proven SEO principles.

OurChurch.Com has been helping churches live out their mission online since 1996. We can help evaluate your church’s website, local SEO, Google Business Profile, content and technical setup to identify opportunities to improve your visibility in both traditional search and emerging AI search.

If you’d like to see if our church website design or church SEO services, are a good fit and can help you better live out your mission online, we’d love to talk.

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

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• Have you searched for your church in ChatGPT or a Google AI Overview? Was your church mentioned, and was the information accurate?

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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. Here are…

3 Ways to Get More Google Reviews for Your Church

1) Add a Google Business Profile icon/link in the header or footer of your website.

Churches often put social media icons that link to their profiles on social sites like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Add an icon and link to your Google Business Profile.

Some of your members will see the icon, click and post a review. It also helps visitors to see all the good reviews your church already has.

2) Post a request for reviews to social media.

If you use Facebook, Twitter, Instagram or other social media sites, post a request for reviews to your social channels and include a link to your Google Business Profile.

When you do, let people know that by posting a review, they are helping to improve your church’s search rankings, which will help your church connect with more people online.

The more specific the better. Positive reviews that cite specific ways God has used your church to change people’s lives help motivate people to visit on Sunday to see what God is up to in your church.

3) Send email and/or texts to members asking them to post a review.

It’s getting more and more difficult to reach people via social media.  Email still has a high open rate, and the open rate for texts is nearly 100%. Plus you can make your ask more personal in an email or text.

The same advice given for social media applies to email and texts – include a link and cast vision for how their reviews will help the church accomplish its mission.

One additional bit of advice for email (or any medium you may use to ask for reviews)… 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. We suggest trying 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.

BONUS: Use a QR code on screens and print materials

If you show announcements on your video screens before or after services, consider adding a slide asking people to post a review. When you do this, show a QR code that provides a direct link to where a review can be posted.  See How to Create a Direct Link to Google Reviews

Similarly, if you hand out a bulletin or program to people participating in your service, you can also invite people to post a review and include a QR code on your print materials.

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

For a Proven, Consistant Online Review System…

The “3 Ways” explained above are not complicated. The challenge – especially with “3) Send email and/or texts to members…” – is organizing it and doing it consistently (including the follow-up) without it becoming a huge time suck.

Our team at OurChurch.com created an online review system, and we’ve been helping Christian churches, ministries, and businesses get more reviews and better local search rankings for several years.

Check out our Online Review Service. and our church SEO service.

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

Comment Below and Discus:

• How many Google Reviews does your church have?
• What methods have you tried to get more reviews and how effective have those methods been?

For more info on online reviews, read our Ultimate Guide to Online Reviews.

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The post 3 Ways to Get More ★★★★★ Google Reviews for Your Church appeared first on Christian Web Trends Blog: Church Websites, Design, SEO.

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

1) Create, claim and verify your Google Business Profile.

While the organic search results list web pages, the local search results only show Google Business Profile (GBP). If you haven’t created a GBP for your church, it won’t appear at all in the “local 3 pack” or Google Maps. For step-by-step instructions, see  How to Create, Claim and Verify Your Google Business Profile.

2) Complete and keep your Google Business Profile accurate.

Make sure your church’s name, address, phone number, website, worship times and other important information are complete and accurate. Choose the most appropriate primary and secondary categories for your church and write a natural description that clearly explains who your church is and what people can expect.

Keep your profile updated whenever worship times, contact information or other important details change. Complete and accurate information helps Google better understand your church and match your profile with relevant local searches.

3) Add photos to your GBP.

Photos won’t necessary improve your local search rankings but people are more likely to click on a local listing that has photos.

4) Get more genuine reviews.

Reviews can help both your church’s visibility in local search and a potential visitor’s confidence in your church. Google says review count and review score are among the signals it uses when determining local prominence, and that more reviews and positive ratings can help local rankings.

Encourage members and visitors who have genuinely experienced your church to share their experience on Google. It’s also a good idea to respond thoughtfully to reviews, showing people that your church values their feedback.

We’ll talk more about the best ways to go about getting more reviews in a future post. In the mean time, check out this free resource: The Ultimate Guide to Online Reviews.

5) Optimize your website.

The authority and relevance of your website is another major factor in the local search results. If you want to rank better in the local search results, follow the recommendations we included in Church SEO: What to Optimize for Better Organic Search Results.

Bottom line…

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

Partner with an experienced Church SEO expert

OurChurch.Com has been helping churches with websites and search engine optimization for decades, and one thing we’ve consistently seen is that local church SEO works best when a church’s website and Google Business Profile support each other. Accurate information, useful website content and a well-maintained Google Business Profile give both Google and potential visitors a clearer picture of your church.

If you’d prefer to save time and have someone with church SEO experience do your local SEO right, let OurChurch.Com help you with our church SEO services.

Complete the form below (mobile) or to the right (desktop) to take the next step.

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• What comments and questions do you have about church SEO to improve local search results?

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Some churches choose to work with separate companies for their website design and SEO needs, but there are significant advantages to hiring the same company for both tasks.

This approach can streamline communication, enhance functionality, and ultimately drive better results for your church’s online outreach.

6 Benefits of Hiring the Same Company for Church SEO and Web Design

1. Seamless Integration of Design and SEO

One of the most important aspects of SEO is ensuring that your website is structured in a way that search engines can easily understand and index. This starts at the design phase.

A company that handles both design and SEO can build the website with SEO best practices in mind from the very beginning. When the design and SEO teams work together as one unit, they can ensure that key SEO elements, such as meta tags, header structure, alt text for images, and mobile responsiveness, are embedded in the design itself.

Working with two separate companies can lead to a disconnect between the design and SEO strategies. For example, a web design firm might create a beautiful website that looks great but is slow to load or difficult for search engines to crawl, which negatively impacts your SEO performance.

By using one company for both, these potential conflicts are avoided, and you can be confident that your website will be optimized for both user experience and search engine visibility from the outset.

2. Better Communication and Coordination

Effective communication is crucial when developing a website and optimizing it for search engines.

When you work with two different companies, communication gaps can occur, leading to misunderstandings, delays, and extra work. For example, the SEO company might need design changes to improve loading speed, or the design company might need SEO guidance to properly format URLs. In such cases, coordinating between two separate teams can slow down progress.

By hiring a single company, the design and SEO teams can communicate directly and work cohesively toward a unified goal. This streamlined process eliminates the need for back-and-forth discussions between multiple parties and ensures that your website development moves forward efficiently. This also means that any necessary adjustments to design or SEO can be implemented more quickly and with less hassle.

3. Cost-Effectiveness

Working with one company for both design and SEO often proves to be more cost-effective than hiring two separate firms. When you choose separate vendors, each may have its own pricing structure, and you could end up paying more in total. Additionally, some companies may charge extra fees for communication or coordination with another company.

A combined service package can help you save money and offer greater value for your budget. OurChurch.Com  offers packages that bundle web design and SEO, allowing you to receive both services at a reduced rate. This is especially beneficial for churches operating on limited budgets, as the cost savings can be allocated toward other important ministry initiatives.

4. Consistent Branding and Messaging

A well-designed church website should reflect your church’s mission, values, and overall brand. When the same company handles both your website design and SEO, they can ensure that your online presence consistently conveys the right message, from the aesthetics of your website to the content that ranks on search engines.

SEO goes beyond keywords and rankings—it involves optimizing your church’s online content to match what people are searching for while staying true to your church’s mission. It can also include creating additional content like blog articles and Frequently Asked Questions, that are designed to rank well in search results and bring additional visitors to the website.

By working with a single company, your SEO strategy will align with your church’s overall branding, ensuring consistency across all aspects of your online presence. This consistency builds trust with your congregation and visitors, and it helps your church stand out in a crowded online space.

5. Ongoing Support and Maintenance

Your church’s online needs will evolve over time. As new trends emerge, search engine algorithms change, and your church’s mission evolves, you’ll need to update both your website design and SEO strategy. Having a single company responsible for both ensures that you have consistent, ongoing support and maintenance for your website and its SEO.

Instead of managing two separate relationships, you can rely on one team to handle all updates, changes, and optimizations. This can make it easier to implement new ideas and strategies quickly, ensuring your church’s online presence stays current and effective.

6. Improved Analytics and Reporting

Tracking the success of your church’s website and SEO efforts is essential for making informed decisions about future strategies. When one company manages both aspects, they can offer unified reporting and analytics, providing you with a clearer picture of how your website is performing.

A single company will be able to track key metrics—such as website traffic, search engine rankings, and user engagement—in a cohesive manner. This allows you to make data-driven decisions to improve your website and outreach efforts. Additionally, any adjustments or optimizations can be made more swiftly, as the company has full access to both the design and SEO aspects of your site.

In Conclusion…

Choosing a single company to handle both your church’s website design and SEO needs is a smart decision that leads to better integration, more efficient communication, and cost savings.

It ensures a cohesive online presence, allows for consistent branding, and provides ongoing support as your church’s needs evolve. By simplifying your approach and working with a trusted provider, your church can maximize its online visibility, engage with its congregation more effectively, and reach new people with the message of hope and faith.

For churches aiming to build a stronger online presence, this holistic approach can truly make a lasting impact.

Work with our Church Web Design and SEO Teams

If you and your church want to take the next step to reach more people in your community by bundling your church website design and church SEO into one package, we’d love to talk.

Complete the form below (mobile) or to the right (desktop) to take the first step.

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• Which of the benefits to bundling your church SEO and web design is most appealing to you?

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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 near me”

Note that today, many people also search for “church near me” and “churches near me” but this is a unique case which search engines handle differently. We do not recommend targeting “for me” keywords by adding “for me” to on-page content.

We talk more about improving rankings for “for me” keywords in our article about Local SEO.

Expanding Your Targeted Keywords

While we recommend initially targeting keywords specifically related to “church,” it’s also a great strategy to target keywords related to services, events, and ministries your church offers that people in your community may be searching for, things like “food pantry,” “recovery ministry,” and “activities for seniors.”

This is a more advanced aspect of church SEO which we’ll address in a future article.

Church SEO to Improve Relevance

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

We recommend optimizing the following page elements:

• Title tag – This title is hidden from visitors but read by search engines and usually used as the name of the organization in search results.
• Meta description tag – This description is hidden from visitors but read by search engines and usually used as the description in the search results.
• H1 tag – The largest heading on the page
• H2 tag – The second largest heading on the page
• Text – Regular text on the page can be modified to include targeted keywords several times, but it’s important to remember that your primary audience is still human readers. Don’t make sound awkward for the sake of SEO. And don’t overdo it.
• Image alt and title attributes – Images can be given alt and title attributes that are read by screen readers for the visually impaired and search engines.
• Header/footer – One of the easiest and most important things you can do to improve relevance is to include the name of your church and its address in the header or footer of your website so it appears on every page of your website.

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.

Here are some things that can be done to improve a website’s authority.

SSL certificate

An SSL certificate encrypts data sent to and from a website. Google gives websites with an SSL certificate a small rankings boost.

Links

When one website links to another website, Google sees that as an endorsement of the linked-to site. Generally speaking the more sites that link to your website the better your search rankings.

However, the authority of sites linking to your site also matters. A link on high-authority site like your local newspaper is going to help your website’s authority much more than a link from a low-authority personal blog, but both are helpful.

Local/directory listings

Getting your church listed in directories like YellowPages and church-related directories, is an easy way to get links to your website on high-authority sites. We’ll discuss link building and directory listings in more detail later in this series.

Quality content (aka E.E.A.T)

A website with a lot of well written articles is more of an authority than a website with 7 pages that talk about the church and what it does. This is one of the reasons blogging and posting sermon notes both help improve search rankings.

In recent years, Google has been emphasizing E.E.A.T., which stands for Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness. Google sees a page as having more authority when the author shares unique stories and insight that come from personal experiences because these are things that are hard to for AI to fake and their uniqueness stands out from all the AI slop being published today.

Social media

While sharing links in social media does not directly help improve authority and search rankings, the more people who are aware of your website, content and events, the more people will post links to your website and mention it, and that does have an impact.

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.

Effective, Time-Saving Church SEO

OurChurch.com has helped hundreds of churches optimize their websites, connect with more people online, and reach people in their community.

If you want to save time and effort and make sure it’s done well, consider letting our church SEO team at OurChurch.com take care of this for you. We’d love to talk with you about your church and its outreach goals!

Complete the form below (mobile) or to the right (desktop) to schedule a discovery call to see if we’re a good fit for each other.

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• What comments and questions do you have about improving your church’s organic search rankings?

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The post Church SEO: What to Optimize for Better Organic Search Results appeared first on Christian Web Trends Blog: Church Websites, Design, SEO.

1. “Marketing”
2. “Search marketing”
3. “Church growth”

Now let’s talk about your responses.

1. For “Marketing” did you say “business” or “commercials?”
2. For “Search marketing” did you say “Google” or “keywords?”
3. For “Church growth” did you say “evangelism” or “outreach?”

But what if I said they are all connected?

Case Study: Church Growth through Church SEO

Let’s look at the case of Knott Avenue Christian Church where marketing, search marketing, and church growth are all connected.

Editor’s note: This case study documents results achieved by Knott Avenue Christian Church during an earlier OurChurch.com SEO campaign. While some of the platforms and tactics mentioned reflect that time, the underlying principle remains relevant today: helping a church appear when people in its community search for a church or ministry resources can connect more people with its mission.

Introducing Knott Avenue Christian Church

Knott Avenue Christian Church is a non-denominational, multi-ethnic Christian church located in Anaheim, California.  They are a vibrant and active church with a wide variety of ministries to help meet the spiritual needs of everyone they can and spread the Gospel in their community and the world.

In the past year Knott Avenue Christian Church (KACC) has been increasing their online presence through a variety of ways.  They have started using Twitter and Facebook.  They are podcasting sermons and messages.  They even have an iPhone app allowing people to watch their sermons from anywhere on their iPhones.  In addition to these outreach tactics, KACC has been focusing on the local search engines.

Local Search for a Local Church

Search engines continue to be one of the primary ways people discover local organizations and resources. Someone looking for a church, marriage help, recovery support, answers to spiritual questions, or another ministry in their community may begin that search online.

So, it was important for KACC to appear in the search results so people could find them when searching online.

Over the past several months KACC has been working to achieve high rankings in the search engines for searches in their local area through OurChurch.com’s Top Church Search Rankings service.  At the time of this publication, they had obtained over 500 top ten rankings with well over 100 #1 rankings.  These are rankings for search terms related to churches in their area, such as churches in Anaheim, CA.

In addition to the search engines, OurChurch.com also set up listings in local review sites, (like CitySearch.com) and Internet yellow pages, and church directories.

The Impact of Better Search Rankings 

The results for KACC’s website have been fantastic!  KACC.com has been averaging about 1250 visitors a month from the search engines alone.  Over 50% of the visitors to the website are new visitors.  I asked Jack Scalfani from KACC about the results and he said,

“I know that the website has been surviving with lots of help from your SEO. Obviously it has, because we have been consistently getting 100 visitors a day and mostly new visitors.”

Keep in mind, though, getting people to the church website is NOT the main goal; it’s a means to a bigger goal.  The primary goal is to help the church live out its mission.  So, we were thrilled that in addition to talking about the website, Jack went on to say,

“Our rankings that OurChurch.Com helped us get are bringing in new donations, new members, and new viewers on our live broadcast on our website.”

KACC has continued to see dozens of new people visit their church services each week.  These visitors include people who hear the Word of God and become followers of Christ, families who find a church home, and Christians who are strengthened and go out to minister to their community.

They are a growing church in part because they are growing in the search engines.

Watch Jack share how SEO has impacted his church in this 45 second video:

The bottom line is…

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

Why This Church SEO Success Story Still Matters

Search has changed since this campaign, but the goal has not. People still turn to Google when looking for churches, worship services, ministries, counseling, recovery programs, and answers to spiritual questions in their community.

Today, strong church SEO also helps churches appear across local search results and emerging AI-powered search experiences. The lesson from KACC’s story remains the same: better online visibility can create more opportunities to connect real people with a church and its ministry.

Partner with OurChurch.com’s Church SEO Team

Would you like your church to experience better search rankings and more visitors?

Learn more about how OurChurch.Com’s Christian SEO services can help your church, ministry or business better live out its mission online.

Complete the consultation request form below (mobile) or to the right (desktop), to schedule a call with a member of our team.

Comment and Discuss

• What part of KACC’s story resonates with you most?

Read more stories in our series 30 Stories from 30 Years

Continue reading about church SEO

The post Case Study: Knott Avenue Christian Church – Church Growth through Church SEO appeared first on Christian Web Trends Blog: Church Websites, Design, SEO.

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 all.  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 and click “Start Now.” Then login to your Google account (or create a Google account if you don’t have one).

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

The “Domain” option is the better option because it will provide data for all sub-domains and protocols. The “Domain” option requires DNS verification, which means you will have to edit your DNS zone and add some text to it. If you don’t know how to do this, your web hosting company should help you with this.

Once you’ve verified your website with GSC, you’re ready to do your first technical SEO check.

1) XML Sitemap

An XML sitemap is a file that provides information about the pages, posts, and other files on the website in a format (XML) specifically designed for search engines to read. (Note this is different than a sitemap created for human visitors to use as a guide to your website).

If your website does not have a working sitemap, Google and other search engines may not be able to find all of the pages, posts, videos and other content on your website.

If your website was built using WordPress, you can use a plugin like SEO Yoast to generate an XML sitemap for you. If you use OurChurch.Com’s WP-EZ Church Website Builder, it has SEO Yoast built in, and automatically creates a sitemap for you.

Submit your sitemap to GSC:

• Click the “Sitemaps” option in the left menu
• Under the “Add a new sitemap” heading enter “sitemap_index.xml” (without quotes).
• Click the “Submit” button.

On the GSC Sitemaps page, you should see the /sitemap_index.xml listed. If it’s working, the status will be “Success.” If the status is “Pending,” you may need to check back in a few hours.

If the status is “couldn’t fetch,” you’ll need to check to see if there is a problem with your website’s sitemap or if perhaps it has a different filename. Work with your website developer or web hosting company to get to the bottom of the issue, then resubmit your sitemap or submit the correct filename.

Resume Checks in 24 Hours

If you just submitted your sitemap to GSC for the first time, it may take up to 24 hours for Google to process your sitemap. Look on the Sitemaps page under “Discovered Pages.” If the number of discovered URLs in your sitemap is 0, that means your sitemap has NOT been processed. Check again a day later.

If/when the Discovered Pages > 0, continue with the rest of the checks.

2) Page Indexing

Once Google is aware of the web pages in your website, it has to “crawl” or read your pages.

Then it must “index” the pages.  Indexing is the process of storing and organizing pages in its database.

If a web page is not indexed, it is not in Google’s database and will not appear in the Google search results. Therefore, it’s really important to know which if any of the pages of your website have not been indexed, and try to get Google to index them.

Fortunately, in Google Search Console, if you click the “Pages” option in the left menu, you will see a report that shows the reasons why Google has not indexed pages and how many pages. Here’s an example:

Let’s take a look at each of these reasons why Google doesn’t index pages and discuss what to do about each:

Blocked by robots.txt

The robots.txt file is a file in your website that tells search engines about pages you don’t want them to index (e.g. a private page, the admin part of your site). Sometimes people or website plugins accidentally add things to the robots.txt file which blocks search engines from indexing important pages or even the entire site.

Review the pages blocked by robots.txt and if there are any listed there that shouldn’t be, edit the robots.txt file.

Not found (404)

Sometimes Google tries to crawl a page that doesn’t exist.

• Perhaps a page was accidentally unpublished or deleted and needs to be restored.
• Perhaps there’s a link on a web page that was set up incorrectly with a URL that doesn’t exist, and that broken link needs to be fixed.
• Perhaps the site admin intentionally unpublished a page that is no longer helpful or relevant.

Page with redirect

It’s not uncommon for an old URL to be redirected to a new URL In this case, Google will no longer index the old URL. It’s good to review these and make sure there are no unexpected redirects.

Discovered – Currently not indexed

Google is aware of the pages in this list, but it hasn’t yet crawled (read) them yet. This happens when a page is relatively new (published in the last week). If a page has been published longer than that, it may mean Google doesn’t think it’s important enough to read.

Crawled – currently not indexed

Google has read the pages on this list, but it doesn’t think they are important or helpful enough to include them in its search results. Unfortunately, as the amount of content published online grows exponentially (thanks in part to AI), we are seeing more and more pages fall into this category.

To try to get Google to index these pages, improve the quality of the content of the page and improve the number and prominence of the links to the pages. We’ll go into more detail on this in a future article.

Note: Don’t panic if Search Console shows some pages as “Not indexed.” Many exclusions are completely normal (especially “category” and “tag” pages, and URLs within a calendar, which could have thousands of pages for every day, week, and month.) The goal is to identify important pages that should be indexed but aren’t.

3) Manual Actions (Penalties)

On very rare occasions, Google will penalize a website for breaking its rules. Penalties can be as severe as complete removal from Google. In that case, no amount of SEO will get a website to appear in the search results until the manual action has been addressed.

Click the “Manual Actions” menu option on the left side of GSC to see if your website has been assessed any penalties.

For more info, see Google’s list of manual actions and how to recover from them.

4) Security Issues

Security issues include things like malware. If Google detects a web page has a security issue and could be dangerous to visitors, when people using the Google Chrome web browser try to access that page, they will be shown a warning page instead.

Click the “Security Actions” menu option to see if your website has any security issues.

5) HTTPS

HTTPS stands for Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure, and it’s a more secure version of the Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP). HTTPS encrypts data sent between a web browser and a web server to protect it from unauthorized access or tampering.

Google recommends all websites use HTTPS by having an SSL security certificate installed.  It sees HTTPS as a sign of trust and gives websites using HTTPS a small boost in search results over those using HTTP.

In Google Search Console, open the HTTPS report and check whether Google has detected any HTTP pages or problems with the HTTPS versions of your pages.

OurChurch.com sets up an SSL certificate for all custom designed sites we host as well as those created with our WP-EZ Website Builder. This is included at no extra charge.

6) Core Web Vitals

Core Web Vitals (CWV) are a set of metrics introduced by Google in 2021 which are intended to evaluate a website visitor’s experience.  Previously Google had Page Speed as a search ranking factor. CWV expands on this.

Google doesn’t want to “recommend” web pages in its search results that are slow to load or give visitors a poor experience, so poor CWV scores can negatively impact your website’s search rankings.

As of 2026, Google’s three Core Web Vitals are Largest Contentful Paint (LCP), Interaction to Next Paint (INP), and Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS), which measure loading speed, responsiveness, and visual stability.

To check to see how your website’s LCP, INP and CLS, use Google PageSpeed Insights.

Whew! Long post, I know, but I hope you found it worthwhile.

Any one of these 6 problems could totally kill your church’s search rankings and hinder the effectiveness of any church SEO you do.

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

OurChurch.com Prioritizes Technical SEO

At OurChurch.Com, we have worked with thousands of churches and Christian organizations over the years, and we routinely encounter technical SEO problems that prevent otherwise good websites from performing as well as they should in Google.

We check all of these aspects of technical SEO when we do an SEO Audit, which can be ordered as a stand-alone service.

Additionally, we include an SEO Audit as the first step of our church SEO service and Christian SEO services.

If you’d like to make sure these technical SEO issues are tested and addressed correctly, consider working with our team.

Complete the consultation request form below (mobile) or to the right (desktop), to schedule a call to discuss web design or SEO.

Comment and Discuss

• What comments and questions do you have about technical SEO?

Continue reading about church SEO

The post 6 Critical Things to Check Before They Kill Your Church SEO appeared first on Christian Web Trends Blog: Church Websites, Design, SEO.

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 Google Search Listings for Churches

1) Paid Ads

The first items displayed at the top of the search results are paid ads. (Note the bold “Ad” displayed to the left of the web address. You may also see “Sponsored” above the ad.) Mission Hill Church is using Google’s paid advertising platform, Google Ads. For this search there is just one ad.

With Google Ads, churches pay Google each time someone clicks on their ad.

Google uses an auction to determine which ads appear and where. The amount an advertiser is willing to pay is one factor, along with the quality and relevance of the ad and landing page.

Sometimes Google shows as many as 4 ads at the top of the search results. If nobody in your area is bidding on church keywords in your city, there may be no ads.

Google Ads is a good way to get to the top of the search results if you’re willing to pay for each person who clicks.

2) Local 3 Pack

Immediately below the ads is a map, along side 3 local listings, and a link to “More Places.” Collectively, these items are referred to as the “local 3 pack.”

The information here comes from Google Business Profiles (formerly known as Google My Business).

For a church to get into the local 3 pack, it must create and verify a Google Business Profile. Although, sometimes Google creates a church’s Google Business Profile using other data sources (which are not always accurate), and then the church has to claim the listing before it can update it.

Clicking on the map or the “More Places” link will take you to Google Maps where more local listings are shown.

We’ll explain the specific things you can do to improve your local search rankings in a future article in this series.

Also note, Google now offers Local Search Ads which display at the top of the local 3 pack as seen below.

3) Organic Search Results

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.)

Notice that not all the organic search listings are for actual churches. The second one is a Yelp page showing their church listings. Sometimes Facebook pages come up in the search results.

We’ll explain the specific things you can do to improve your organic search rankings in a future article in this series.

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.

While AI search is changing how search results look, the fundamentals of SEO still matter. Creating helpful, original content and making your website easy for search engines to understand can help your church gain visibility in both traditional and AI-powered 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.

Google is the highway to your church. -Paul Steinbrueck

Stay tuned… in our next article we’ll explain the things that can cause search engines to penalize your website or not list it at all!

Partner with our SEO and/or Google Ads team

And if you’re interested in possibly having our team of church SEO experts improve your search rankings or help with Google Ads Management so you can reach more people in your community, we’d love to talk!

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

Comment and Discuss:

• What comments and questions do you have about the three main parts of the search engine results pages?

Continue reading about church SEO

The post 3 Ways to Improve Church Search Results – Plus AI Overviews appeared first on Christian Web Trends Blog: Church Websites, Design, SEO.

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!

I’ll address this question about why church SEO is important with…

4 Reasons Your Church Should Do Church SEO

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) Christians are looking for a church community

People search for churches for many reasons. Some have moved to a new community. Others haven’t attended church in years. Some may be Christians who know they need to reconnect with a church family.

One of Satan’s biggest lies is that a person can be a Christian without being a part of a church. A “Lone Ranger” Christian is about as effective as a one-handed clap. (Go ahead and try it )

In John 13:35 Jesus says, “By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” There are about 100 “one another” verses in the bible in which we’re instructed to love, serve, help, encourage and disciple one another.

By doing church SEO and improving your search rankings you can help unaffiliated Christians get connected with your church and live out their faith in community, as we were created to do.

3) People are actively searching for what your church offers

People aren’t only searching for “church in [your city]” They’re also searching for:

• children’s programs near me
• youth groups near me
• marriage help near me
• grief support near me
• recovery ministries near me
• food assistance near me
• answers to questions about faith

Would you prefer people find these things at the local community center, Islamic center, Jehovah’s Witness hall, or Unitarian church?

Or would you prefer they find them at your church where they can also experience the love of Jesus and your Christian community?

4) 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?

Look, we’re not suggesting you invest in SEO primarily because of its ROI (return on investment) – there is a reason we put this as #4.

We’re simply saying…

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

Partner with our church SEO team

Some churches have a staff member or volunteer who can work through the SEO strategies in this series. Others prefer to have an experienced team handle it for them.

If you’re super-busy and don’t have the time to learn and implement church SEO yourself, consider hiring our team of church SEO experts. We’d love to discuss your organization’s goals and challenges, how SEO may be able to help you overcome those challenges and reach those goals!

Complete the form below (mobile) or to the right (desktop) to schedule a friendly, no obligation call.

Comment and Discuss

• Of the 4 reasons above, which resonates most with you?

Continue reading about church SEO

The post 4 Reasons Your Church Should Do Church SEO appeared first on Christian Web Trends Blog: Church Websites, Design, SEO.

When we asked this question in one of our monthly Listening Post surveys, we received lots of great questions including:

• What is SEO?
• How does SEO work?
• Why does SEO matter? (What kind of return could I possibly get that would make it worth the time it takes me to invest in this?)
• How can I get to the top of the [city] church listings on searches?
• What can I do MYSELF to get higher search rankings?

This article marks the start of a blog series in which we will answer all of these questions and more. Let’s start with this…

What happens when you search online for a church?

Go to Google, Bing or any other search engine, and search for “church in [your city]”

For many people looking for a church today, Google is one of the first places they turn.

Look at the results the search engine is showing you.

Do you see elements on the page marked “Ad?” Do you see a map with some churches listed on it? Other churches listed below the map?

How did the search engine determine which church is listed first? Second? 100th? Why aren’t some churches shown in the results at all?

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

SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization.  And…

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

Church SEO includes:

• Fixing technical problems that prevent search engines from reading the church website
• Optimizing (improving) the text and heading on the church website.
• Optimizing (improving) parts of web pages that are not visible to human visitors but are important to search engines.
• Creating, verifying, and optimizing local listings on sites like Google Business Profile, Bing Maps, Yelp
• Measuring search results and making improvements over time
• Much more.

And Now Church AI Optimization 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?

We’re Here to Help You Understand Church SEO

There are literally 100s of things a person could do to try to improve their church’s search rankings and bring more people to their website. Because of this, church SEO can seem confusing and overwhelming, and as a result, most churches do nothing.

The purpose of this series is to help you understand which elements of church SEO matter most, what you can do yourself, and where to focus your limited time for the greatest kingdom impact.

Partner with Church SEO Experts

Alternatively, if you want your church to have great search rankings and reach the people in your community without having learn the specifics and put in the work, hire OurChurch.com’s experienced church SEO team.

We’ve helped dozens of Christian churches, schools, ministries and businesses with SEO since 2005.

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

Share your thoughts and perspective on church SEO in this month’s Listening Post survey.

More Articles in this Series

1. 4 Reasons Your Church Should Do SEO
2. 3 Ways to Improve Church Search Engine Results
3. 6 Critical Things to Check Before They Kill Your Church SEO
4. Case Study: Knott Avenue Christian Church – Church Growth through Church SEO
5. Church SEO: What to Optimize for Better Organic Search Results
6. More coming soon!

Post a comment and discuss…

• What’s your #1 question about church SEO?

The post What is Church SEO? appeared first on Christian Web Trends Blog: Church Websites, Design, SEO.