Nearly every guest that enters your facility for the first time has already visited your church. Some visited your church in the dead of night, while others visited during office hours. The interesting thing about these visits is that you never saw those guests or knew they were there. They first visited your website before they ever visited your physical church site.
All of this begs the question, is your church website guest friendly? Studies show that the average person landing on any webpage decides to stay or leave in under ten seconds. This is why your church website must be guest friendly.
Here are some recommendations that can and will improve the success of your website. These recommendations can be implemented in your church whether you run 100 on a Sunday or 10,000.
First, let’s learn from, Top Mistakes of Websites – You want to do the opposite of what I list here.
- Too much clutter. This is the number one mistake I find on church sites. Less is better. Think Google!
- Not mobile-friendly. How does your site look on a cell phone? How easy is it to read and navigate?
- It's all about the church with little said to the person visiting the site. Design your landing page for guests, not members.
- It looks like a Sunday bulletin. That might be great for your members, but it will not gain you, visitors.
- Saying too much. This adds to the clutter. Think of brief short statements and paragraphs.
- Outdated stuff. Your website needs to be a work in continual progress.
- Failing to optimize pages for search engines. If you are not on the first page of a search engine, it is doubtful that anyone will find your site to click on it. Pay attention to what is called Search Engine Optimization, SEO.
- Hiding the giving button. If people must hunt and look for your giving page, it's unlikely that they will give.
When it comes to your giving page, here are some of my basic recommendations…
- Put your most important information at the top of the page.
- The page must be easy to understand and use.
- Show what you are doing to reinforce how important giving is.
- Think mobile. Take your smartphone and check out your site to see how it looks.
- Change the format regularly.
- Provide multiple digital options for how people can give! We can help you with that. Contact us at, contact us at (615) 206-4000 or email us at support@onlinegiving.org.
- Work to drive people to the site! By using your URL, you can use print and social media to make it easier for people to connect to key sites to quickly get the information they need and want.
So, look at your website, pretending it is your first time. Do you find it easy to navigate? Could you, for instance, quickly find the giving button? Now, post-Covid, this is a crucial question. Now, more than ever, people are searching church websites for answers. Making it guest-friendly will increase the odds of those guests becoming fully functioning disciples.
Need help making your giving pages more effective? We can help you with that. Contact us at (615) 206-4000 or email us at support@onlinegiving.org.
Make your website guest friendly!
The Stewardship Coach
Nearly every guest that enters your facility for the first time has already visited your church. They first visited your website before they ever visited your physical church site.
— Online Giving (@onlinegivingorg) June 13, 2022
All of this begs the question, is your church website guest friendly? https://t.co/6uB34JjEIx pic.twitter.com/pobLOfmr4j
