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If you’re planting a church, you’re probably not a professional web designer. And while a functional website used to be “enough,” the industry standard has risen over the last few years.
That copy-heavy homepage with a large-smiling-pastor image used to meet your needs, but today, it communicates a lack of keeping up with the times.
That communication might land ok with the Baby Boomer crowd, but the younger generations can be pretty judgy about this stuff.
Let us save your website from that Gen Z judgement.
But seriously, the majority of your first-time guests in 2022 will find your church online. That means designing your website for church growth is essential.
Your website is your first impression, so let’s make sure it’s a good one, shall we?
Here are three essentials for your website according to our church growth experts.
A clean introduction.
If you’ve never heard the term “above the fold,” you’re probably a normal, non-website designer.
The content that lives “above the fold” is what someone sees when they first arrive on your website.
In this space, you should communicate who you are, why you exist (in one sentence), and show off a little bit.
If you want people to feel welcome, start with Welcome Home. If you want to show off your production skills, create a background video that shows a Sunday service.
This is the most important visual real estate on your entire website, and with people browsing an average of 15 seconds or less, you don’t have much time.
What you don’t want to do: clutter your website above the fold with copy and unnecessary information.
What you do want to do: simplify your messaging…and show off a little.
A location-based keyword structure.
A large percentage of people searching for a church use the trusty ol’ Google search engine. Because of this, optimizing your website for your church’s location is essential.
Your website’s homepage should include the location of your church (ex: church in Denver, Denver church, etc.) in five places:
- Meta Title
- Meta Description
- Meta Tags
- Headlines and copy
- Image alt-text
These SEO options will vary from website to website, but our team of experts is standing by to assist you with this. Bonus points if you’re able to apply this across every page on your website.
A clear call to action.
Who are your most important website visitors? Potential first-time guests.
Many church’s make the mistake of building a website for existing members, but those people already know how to interact with you.
Your primary job is to make it as easy as possible for the first-timers to plan their visit to your church.
That’s why we created the Visitplanner church growth software, to turn your website visitors into real-life, first-time guests.
In less than 5 minutes, you can install a plugin that engages potential first-timers from the moment they arrive on your website.
Our church partners have seen, on average, a 100% increase in first-time guests every month.
Which is not surprising when you design your website specifically for church growth.
Try Visitplanner risk-free for 30 days, and when you have questions, reach out to our team of church growth experts by phone or email.
We’re here to help you grow your church in 2022…and to save you from the judgement of Gen Z, at least on your website.
