Church Website Essentials

Filed under Web Design by on July 9, 2009 at 10:13 pm {one comment}

Before you begin, make a plan for your church website. Start with a simple church website and grow when you need to. Don’t take on more than your church is ready for.

As you plan your site, consider the following pages that we feel are essentials for every church website. This list helps to set a solid foundation that can be built on in the future.

The Church Website Foundation:

  • Services:
    • List the service times and locations.
    • Indicate if there are Sunday school classes, children’s programs, etc.
  • Visitors or Connect:
    • Explain what a visitor should expect.
    • Explain how new members can connect. If you have small groups, list them and provide simple directions on how to get connected.
  • Ministries:
    • List each ministry and how to get involved or support the ministry.
  • About Us:
    • Introduce the pastor.
    • Clarify the beliefs, vision, mission, etc.
  • Contact Us: Includes an email contact form, church phone number and address. Directions using Google maps (optional).

If you are planning your church website we would love to help. We offer a free church website based on this list of church website essentials. Let us help you start with a good plan and a solid foundation.

Visit our Free Church Website Demo. If you want to test out the admin interface, just ask! We’ll send the username and password.

Website Essentials – A Solid and Simple Foundation

Filed under Web Design by on July 8, 2009 at 8:03 pm {no comments}

Creating a website requires a good starting point. If you start with a simple website containing the essential pages, you will establish a good foundation for growth. Churches, non-profits, clubs, and small businesses all have different goals and different target markets. Within each group, every organization will have a unique focus too.

Minimum Essentials

Most visitor-oriented or customer-focused sites should have two standard pages. This is not rocket science, but it is overlooked more often than you might think.

A contact form: Include a contact form and other contact information so visitors can ask questions and learn more about you. Email forms are great, but I feel it is important to offer a phone number and mailing address too.

Information about you: Tell your visitors about you and your organization. This little piece of information may never be the focal point of your site, but it gives it a personal touch. When you meet someone in person, do you ask about them? If you are interested in something, you naturally want to learn more about it. The same principle works on the web.

Organization Essentials

Each organization type has different foundational needs. The following list contains simple ideas to help you find the best pages to start a new website: