The 7 deadly sins committed by church websites
Having seen thousands of church websites from many denominations and throughout many countries, we've seen the good, the bad and the downright ugly! As a result we thought we'd draw up our list of the most common church website mistakes. If you find your church website guilty of making any of these '7 deadly sins', then either attend to them straight away or take our 14 day free trial and see a sin-free site in action.
- It's obviously been done by an amateur. Most churches will try and find a member of the congregation to produce a website for them. Normally to cut costs. No problem with that, but if you are serious about attracting visitors and communicating effectively with your members then you might have to pay someone to do a professional job. If your design looks shabby and amateur, then guess how people are going to perceive your church?
- It doesn't relate to the unchurched. Your church website should first and foremost be written with the unchurched person in mind. Now that may shake the foundations of most church websites, but we must understand that although we obviously want to relate to church members, the church is not an exclusive community. So many church websites are full of 'in-house' information that alienates them and Christian jargon confuses them. (And whilst we're talking about wording, make sure that your content is well written, with no spelling mistakes or bad grammar. Write your copy in conversational terms and use lots of words like 'you', 'your', 'I' and 'our' to make it personable and engaging.)
- It's not easy to navigate. If your page links are hard to find, not grouped together carefully or not consistent on every page, people will quickly become frustrated and it won't take them long to browse away from your site. So often church web designers pay more attention to graphics, animations and other 'eye-candy' that their site becomes overloaded with various elements competing for attention. Your church website may have an initial 'wow factor', but if people can't easily find the information they came looking for, their is little purpose in having one! It is better to have a simple, well presented site than an all-singing, all-dancing one that acts like a merry go round - an exciting ride, but it doesn't get you anywhere.
- The type size is too small. This is one of the greatest mistakes across all types of website, and unsurprisingly makes our list of church website mistakes as well. Anything between 12 - 14 pixels should be about right, depending on the typeface you use. You might want to try adding a little line spacing also, to make it easier on the eye. Rather than cramming in loads of words and reducing the font size, make your text shorter.
- The information is out of date. Latest church news from last month (or dare I say, last year) is old news and portrays your church as being 'behind the times' and 'irrelevant' (two main objections that unbelievers already have with church without us making a further rod for our backs). You simply have to put the time in to keep your church website up to date. Designate someone to supply and update the news section, upload sermons or discipline yourself to write short blogs every few days. These are just some ways to keep your site fresh and alive.
- The church building is more prominent than the people. The church isn't your building, the people are. Yes, pictures of your facilities are a good reference point and are relevant for people to get a 'feel' for your facilities, but don't plaster them all over the home page. Rather, have pictures of people - ideally your own people. Get someone handy with a camera to take loads of shots of different people in different situations (natural, not posed) and select the best ones to go on your site. (Remember to get permission from everyone before you upload them.)
- Religious music starts playing or stereotypical images appear. Don't impose your taste of Christian music on your website visitors - even if you think it is 'anointed'. Even if you are thinking about putting music on your site - think twice! Research shows that most people are annoyed when they arrive at a page when music is automatically played. Have it available by all means (if it's relevant, of good quality - and legal!), but give people the choice to play it or leave it. On the graphics front, if your church website has a 'rotating cross', a 'dove flapping its wings' or any other similar images/effects, then please, please remove them! These are incredibly 'old hat' and very corny.