Top 12 church website design tips

[David Gillaspey]

Hi all,

My longstanding list of Top 10 church website design tips has been expanded, and now includes 12. See http://www.greatchurchwebsites.org/top_12_tips.php.

(Note: the list is now up to 25 tips; see http://www.greatchurchwebsites.org/my_top_25_church_website_design_tips.php.)

Sincerely,

David Gillaspey
President
Great Church Websites

[StubbyD]

Hi all,

My longstanding list of Top 10 church website design tips has been expanded, and now includes 12. See http://www.greatchurchwebsites.org/top_12_tips.php.


I hadn't really paid much attention to these before, but by and large a resounding YES to all of them.

The one I do question, and Jack raised elsewhere, is the one about service times.

Why?

Also I'm not so sure a link to webmaster eMail is necessary.

My opinion though ....

[David Gillaspey]

Hi all,

The one I do question, and Jack raised elsewhere, is the one about service times. Why?


My assumption in making that statement (on my Top 12 design tips page) is that a church wants or hopes that visitors to its website will come to a worship service. If that's not the case, then of course, there's no need to put the service times on the home page. But I think it is the hope for most churches.

That being the case, is there anything more important than the service times? Service times are like movie or theater times (that is, the times when movies start playing). It's OK to be a little early to a movie or a church service, but you don't want to be late. So you need to know when the movie you are going to see starts playing. In the same way, visitors need to know when your service or services start.

(Now it's different in the Philippines, where my wife is from. There, if you arrive halfway through a movie, you can stay and catch the next showing. But in America, they'll kick you out when the show is over.)

I've reviewed 1000s of church websites. The problem I've observed is that there is no single uniform place on the inside of church websites to find services times. Some churches put them on the "Services" page, logically enough, but other churches put their service times on a different page. This might be the "How to Find Us" page, or the "Worship ministry" page, or somewhere else. If all churches would get together and mutually agree that services times would always be on a page titled Services times (or whatever was agreed upon), then this issue would be resolved. But until then, I think churches should put service times on their home page, if possible, to make it easy for visitors to find the schedule.

I said "if possible" because I realize that some churches have so many services on weekends or throughout the week, that they can't fit the schedule of services on their home page. In such cases, the church has no choice but to put their service times on an inside page. But if that's the case, they should make sure the schedule is easy to find.


Also I'm not so sure a link to webmaster eMail is necessary.

Why I would encourage churches to put the webmaster's email address on the home page?

Well, if you have a perfect website – that is, one with no typos, no bad links, and already contains every feature that could ever be desired — then, of course, there's no need for a webmaster email link to allow visitors to report problems or to suggest features or improvements.

Now for the rest of us: let's make it easy for visitors to do so.

Consider that most church websites are created and maintained by anonymous volunteer members. They go uncredited on the staff or ministry directory page, along with countless other volunteers serving in other areas. So, it seems wise to me that a church should provide an email link on its website to enable visitors to contact the volunteer webmaster about problems with the site. (I don't mean the volunteer's personal email address, by the way. Just a monitored email mailbox.)

Larger churches, by contrast, generally can afford to have paid staff develop and maintain a website. But here's the problem: sometimes the website is under the auspices (direction) of the communications ministry, sometimes it's under the auspices of the I.T. department, sometimes it's under the auspices of some other department. How does the visitor, who came across a bad link, know which pastor or ministry leader to contact about the problem? It won't always be clear. So, don't make him or her guess! Provide a webmaster email link.

Those are my reasons, anyway.

Sincerely,

David Gillaspey
President
Great Church Websites

[StubbyD]

Now for the rest of us: let's make it easy for visitors to do so.

Ok - cool. I've seen and read your and Jack's answers to this but for me I still am uncertain about it. Note, I am not saying it's wrong, just it isn't something I would do.

For me, if you're wondering, I would add the link on the contact us page.

[flutem3]

Hi, Stu,

I think worship times need to be front and center just as name, address, etc. do. I may look at an index page in a peculiar way. When I was in high school and beyond, I made posters for various events. I have also written for a newspaper. In each case who, what, where, when, how had to be immediately answered.

I see the home page as a poster for the website. Our emphasis is worship which is why I use the space I use on it. People may not read the scripture, but they would have a difficult time not noticing it. And they need not scroll down to get the basic information. It is there immediately. It seems to me that the main emphasis of the church needs to be apparent on the home page. Many kinds of emphases are possible, but a viewer needs to
be able to tell what the emphasis is, I think.

I wemt to a church website which had a map, but there was no mention anywhere on the website what state the church was in...let alone country. :-) That didn't do anyone any good at all.

Carol

PS We have a "contact us" page. There is a drop-down menu. The choices include the church, Christ Alive!, Parisn Nurse, and Website Editor. I have been told that not everyone has Outlook Express, and by having a "contact us" page anyone can respond.

[David Gillaspey]

I would add the [webmaster] link on the contact us page.Hi Stuart,

Previously I mentioned how it was that churches are not consistent about where they put the services times on their website. Well, exactly the same problem exists with contact information. Some churches put this on a page literally titled Contact Us. But on many church websites, the contact information is on the Staff Listing page. On other church websites, the contact information is on the About Us page. And there's probably a few church websites that throw the contact information on the How To Find Us page.

In this case, I'll meet you half way, as the saying goes. If your church website has a page (and link to it) titled Contact Us, then you probably are right. Putting the email link to the webmaster on that page will be fine.

(By the way, there's really two points to be made here: 1. Provide a link to the webmaster. 2. Put it where visitors can find it easily.)

Sincerely,

David Gillaspey
President
Great Church Websites

[exiruscreative]

Great tips David. Right on!

PS: Say hi to your Filipina wifey...I'm from the Philippines.

[David Gillaspey]

Say hi to your Filipina wifey...I'm from the Philippines.I will.

Where in the Philippines are you from?

[jackwarr]

Loved the Top 12 list (of course, it appears to be much larger now). A consistent theme through many of the top tips was the emphasis on the home page. It's there that you're going to grab 'em or lose them. I can't think of a tip there where I disagree with David. The main page is critical.

Another point that I consider to be in my top ten when I'm speaking to organizations (both religious and secular) is to ensure that your core message is front and center. I know that there's a school of thought (among churches especially) wherein they feel as if they might scare some potential "customers" away if they show their whole hand right off the bat (it's the whole "ease 'em into it" philosophy). If your church is about God's Love (for instance), then why highlight coffee and donuts and casual dress right in the middle of your main page? When someone goes to the website for Al's Repair Shop, they're wanting to know pretty quickly what kind of repair it is that Al does. Don't leave 'em guessing.

[David Gillaspey]

Hi Jack,

Yeah, the list is now up to 25. See http://www.greatchurchwebsites.org/my_top_25_church_website_design_tips.php.

The tips are based on my review of over 10,000 church websites to find example home pages to include in The International Directory of Church Website Design (http://www.greatchurchwebsites.org), which I maintain. There was never time to browse entire sites, so as a result, the tips are focused on home pages, as you point out.

So the bias, good or bad, is the result of practical considerations.

[exiruscreative]

David, the top 25 links is not working...

Hi Jack,

Yeah, the list is now up to 25. See http://www.greatchurchwebsites.org/my_top_25_church_website_design_tips.php.

The tips are based on my review of over 10,000 church websites to find example home pages to include in The International Directory of Church Website Design (http://www.greatchurchwebsites.org), which I maintain. There was never time to browse entire sites, so as a result, the tips are focused on home pages, as you point out.

So the bias, good or bad, is the result of practical considerations.

[David Gillaspey]

David, the top 25 links is not working...Thanks for pointing this out.

I launched a redesign of my website (which hosts this forum) yesterday. I renamed most of the files, which is why the link stopped working. Tomorrow I'll have time to create redirects to point browsers to the new file names.

As for this thread, I just now updated all the links.

The redesign is still a work in progress. Over the weekend, you'll see this forum becoming more integrated with the rest of my site.

As part of the redesign of my site, I upgraded the software that runs this forum. I'll post some information about the new features as soon as I have time. For example, members can now create photo albums in their profile. Members can add favorite threads to social bookmarking sites including Digg, del.icio.us, StumbleUpon, and Google. (Look for icons for these sites at the bottom of threads.) By the end of the weekend, I'll have added a blogging feature to this forum. This will enable members to publish their own blog within the framework of this forum. As a final example, it appears that members, if they request it of me, can be enabled to received emails of all new threads and posts in the forum.

(Now, why would anyone want to be inundated with emails from this forum? Sheez, if only that were a problem! This forum is not very large, so members who request that they receive emails for all new threads and posts would certainly not be inundated with email. The makers of vBulletin for a long time refused to add this feature. The lack of this feature hindered the success of this forum more than any other factor, in my opinion.)

[olddirtret]

Your 25 tips make a lot of sense... I plan on using them to review our church web site.

My pet peeve with any web site is #23 Don't add an audio background song or tune to your website.. That is one thing that will make me rapidly leave a web site. When I'm forced to endure music while viewing a site. Even worse, is when there is no way to turn it off. :mad: