Church Website Mistakes ... common design mistakes The most frequently made mistakes in the design of church websites are given here. Don't repeat them on your site... please! 1. Starting with the church building Many church websites begin the homepage with a history of the church building. This approach shows the webmaster has forgotten that the Church is the people, not the building. So don't begin the website with "St Hilda's was built from local stock red brick in 1908". In fact, unless your church building is a significant attraction to visitors, such as Canterbury Cathedral, there is probably little reason to have much, if any, historical information about it on the website. If there is something that you want to include, move it into a "Church Building" section. You may wish to include a picture of your church building on your site to help visitors recognize that they have come to the right place. Exceptions are where your church building provides facilities to the community - in which case you may wish to include information about these and rental costs etc. 2. Incomprehensible statement of belief If your denomination or network has a 'Statement of Faith' or 'Doctrinal Basis' then you may be tempted to include it on your website. However, these documents are rarely written with non-churchgoers in mind, and are unlikely to help many of your visitors find out what the church believes. A better way is to create a "What we believe" page which contains a simple explanation, avoiding Christian jargon, of what it means to be a Christian. Then, if you still want to include a more formal statement of belief, simply provide a link to the relevant page on your denomination's website. 3. Out of date content It is a good idea to include news of forthcoming events and service details. But it isn't sensible to keep displaying this on the website after the date has past. Keeping your website up-to-date is truly easy with Church123. 4. Special effects Some 'cool' features of websites, such as day-glow flashing text, 'hilarious' whizzy animations or innovative menu systems, are just irritating. It has been shown that most visitors ignore all these special effects, and will leave your site if they can't find what they want quickly. 5. Long download times Websites filled with graphics may look appealing when you view them on your own computer, but when users access them they can

take ages to download. Although more and more people are getting fast (broadband) Internet connections many people still use slow modems. Remember, most people won't hang around on a slow website. So, if you want people to find out more about your church then make sure that the website runs quickly. The best way to do this is to avoid too many graphics. Photos are fine, and they help to show who you are, but if you have lots then place them on a special "pictures" page so that people can choose whether or not to view them. 6. Ugly site design There is a common misconception that a ‘techie computer person’ or someone with a degree in computer science is the ideal person to make a church website. This is so often far from the truth. Making a good website requires a range of skills including artistic design, communications and technical abilities. In truth few people have all these, which is why there are so many truly ugly church websites. If you don’t have someone with a flair for artistic design to work alongside your technical people then you may come unstuck. Ugly site design can be solved by using a template-driven site development system (as long as they have a good range of templates and one suitable for your church). 7. Homebrew navigation systems For some reason technical people often think it would be really clever to do something no one else has ever done before. Every once in a blue moon this new idea is fantastic, but more than likely the reason that it hasn’t been done is actually because it doesn’t work well. Why make things complicated for your visitors by forcing them to work out how to use some unique menu system? A simple menu on the left hand side or along the top is standard. We strongly recommend sticking to this convention. Don’t make things difficult for your visitors, if they can’t quickly find what they are looking for it is likely they will leave your site. Church123's templates automatically generate menus that are easy to navigate – they are also accessible to visitors using systems such as Braille readers (for the visually impaired). Information adapted from: http://www.church123.com/church_website_design_mistakes.htm    

Considerations for Internet Use in Ministry ... consider your target before you build The biggest challenge of website/social media use in ministry is reaching a target audience. You can have the most beautifully created website and follow all the best use tools, but if you don’t consider your audience they may never find it. • Most people will find your Church’s online presence through traditional means. o People will tell them about it. o They will see it in the newspaper. o They will see it when they drive by your church. • The best people to share your online presence are the people already in your church. o Word of mouth is how social media works and how people find most things online. o Creative ways of getting the people passionate about your ministry sharing your web presence is how this information will get out there. o The retired person on Facebook is sometimes better at sharing these things than the teenager on Facebook. • Church websites are mostly for new people. o Following tracking on general church websites it generally is new people looking form information who use them. o Existing users like things like Facebook because it is about what is going on now. o Church websites get the most hits the week before Christmas and the week before Easter! • Dead sites are not Christian. o Living sites, dying sites, and resurrected sites are fine. o Update content weekly. Even if it is just a new sermon. o Social media(Facebook) should be updated at least weekly if not more, it is meant to be the living presence of your organization. Church members can post too. • Consistency in address is professional. o Website, Facebook and Twitter addresses should be consistent with one another.  Example: Mychurch.org, Facebook.com/mychurch, twitter.com/mychurch, email: [email protected] o Also it is important to be United Methodist, but it does not have to be

in every web address we have. • Simplicity at the beginning is better than ill maintained complexity.

... additional ideas to help you out • Link things for simplicity. o Link your Facebook so it posts directly to Twitter https://www.facebook.com/twitter/

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o Link sermon posts via RSS feed to Facebook(advanced). Audio Sermons if you can. o Get a portable MP3 recorder and use sites like sermondrop.com or sermons.net to easily place your sermons online. o People value being a part of your church, even if they can’t always be there. If you can’t do audio sermons, post the text. Giving online – A must o If there is no way to do it, you won’t get the money. o Paypal is relatively easy to setup to receive online donations. Take find to find your church through google, facebook and other search engine business listings. You can usually take ownership and update information.

-Ways to get a website built – -Through the conference webmaster. – Email us at [email protected] -E-zekial –A good company for designing websites and has a deal with the techshop. http://e-zekiel.com also available through UMC Techshop for reduced rates. -Bozemanumc.org uses Sharefaith and has had great luck so far. http://www.sharefaith.com/category/church-websites.html    

   

Church Website Essentials ... basic elements of a church website This page outlines what should be considered the minimum requirements for a church website. Make sure your site isn't missing something! But, before we start, a word of advice… If this is your church's first website then keep it simple. Whilst it is good to dream big dreams, it is best to make a small site that works well than have a big site that is poor. Most churches can run effective sites with between 8 to 10 pages on the menu. For larger churches you can then use subpages: grouping pages logically to provide information about all your ministries and programs. 1. Sunday services Every church website should contain basic information about the Sunday services. As a minimum people will want to know the start times and whether there are children's groups or a nursery. Make sure that this information is up-to-date, and provide the details for special / seasonal services (e.g. at Christmas) well in advance. 2. Visitors’ page Make a page called ‘Visitors’ put it on your main menu in a prominent place. People who have wandered onto your website but don’t know your church will see that this is a page with information for them. It will save them trawling through pages of information to piece together the bits they want and it will make them feel special and welcomed. Make a particular effort with your visitors’ page; both the wording and the images should be carefully considered. Try and work out what someone who has never been to church is going to make of it. If you were a visitor what would you like to know? It would be polite if your website told the visitor what to expect if they turn up at your church. Briefly walk them through the visit. Tell them about everything from the parking to the warm welcome. Give them a brief jargon-free breakdown of what the service might be like, including activities for children etc., then tell them what happens at the end of a service (e.g. ‘join us for tea and coffee after the service’). From the visitors’ page you can link to a number of key areas of interest, e.g. how to get to the church, children’s work, testimonies (but probably don’t call them that) or a page about the Christian faith (or Christian living). Finish the page by inviting people to contact you either by email or phone with any questions they may have, and state that you look forward to seeing them at one of your events or services. 3. Explanation of the Christian faith Let people know what the church believes,

in simple jargon-free language. If you don't wish to write your own explanation then at least link to someone else's. An attractive way of explaining the difference Christianity makes is to provide the testimonies of a few church members. If you do this, then get testimonies from a range of different people (e.g. a teenager, a young mum, a middle-aged couple, etc). Instead of calling them ‘testimonies' use a heading like ‘Real life stories' or ‘What others say'. If your church runs a new-attender-type course where people can investigate Christianity for themselves, make sure you create a web page about it. Then link to this page from your visitors' page as well as from other pages about the Christian faith. 4. How to find you Show where you are so that people can come and find you! If you are trying to reach your local community then people probably know the area, so you just need a map with a few streets around your church building including other local landmarks (e.g. pubs, supermarkets). Depending on your church’s location, you may also wish to include information on travel via bus and train, to help your visitors provide links to local timetables. Using an online map is ideal, please take time to link on local map website. 5. Contact details It is easy to provide contact details for your church minister and church office (if you have one). Let people know their phone number and email addresses. Also a simple contact form might help field inquiries from the church website. Most basic website builders have one included. Information adapted from: http://www.church123.com/church_website_design_content.htm