- Most church websites are designed entirely for their members, or unwittingly exclude non-Christians because of their choice of language and content.
More | Extra - A good church site must communicate with three very different target groups:
More | Extra - This ‘three-way stretch’ is a challenge, but can be achieved.
More | Extra - Take time to consider the needs and viewpoints of non-Christians.
More | Extra - Avoid all ‘churchy’ jargon and ‘Christianese’ language throughout the site, especially on the homepage.
More | Extra - Non-Christians may have negative images of Christians: boring, killjoys, judgmental, etc.
More | Extra - Christian outreach often fails because Christians do ‘megaphone proclamation’ from behind the protecting walls of their ‘ghetto’.
More | 2 - A primary task of the website is to convince non-Christians of these four things:
More | Extra - Do not think of your church site in isolation, merely as a stand-alone online brochure.
More - Church is people: the home page should have at least one photo of a church member. This is absolutely foundational to good communication, yet infrequently done.
More - Internal pages on the site can include photos of both outside and inside of the church building.
More - Include some ‘meet our members’ pages.
More - All links, page titles, and sub-headings should sound enticing.
More - If testimonies are used, they should be completely free of religious jargon, exaggeration and sentimentality.
More | Extra - Consider a ‘New to this site?’ visitors link on your homepage. This enables you to offer a particular welcome to an outsider.
More | Extra - Games and fun stuff are attractive and make a site sticky.
More | Extra1 | 2 - Consider adding some ‘bridging’ pages to the site.
More | Extra1 | 2 - Involve your church members in praying and supporting the web design team, and ‘owning’ the site.
More - Demonstrate a specific welcome for people with disability.
More - Summing up: the overall impression of the site must of a gentle, loving, enticing welcome. But...
More - Sadly, it is this issue of welcome and assimilation that frequently breaks down.
More | Extra1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 - The context of your country, area and culture may lead you to apply these principles in different ways. Analyzehow some very effective church sites are using them: Brandywine | Southside | Bridge | King’s Church | Atlanta |North Branch | Questions
- Church websites are not the only form of web evangelism.
More | ExtraDesign
- Your church site will be the first point of contact for many people in your community. First impressions count.
More | Extra - Do not place too much information on your homepage.
More - And all important information should be ‘above the fold’.
More - Avoid ‘churchy’ graphics – open Bibles, stained glass windows, doves, candles. And appeals for money.
More - Use at least one graphic of a person’s face on the homepage.
More - A 3-column layout is often the most suitable for a church site.
More - Never use an introductory ‘splash page’.
More - Every page should display the same overall appearance, with the same navigation options in the same place.
More | Extra - All links, menu options and buttons should be clearly identified as ‘active’ – they should change color when hovered.
More - If you use Javascript for any effects, ensure everything on the site still works for those with Javascript disabled.
More - Don’t use frames for site design.
More - Learn how to use ‘include’ files – a great time-saver.
More - Also learn how to use CSS.
More | Extra - Use colors correctly: understand how to choose a color scheme, how colors relate to each other, and what mood they communicate.
More | Extra - Don’t use patterned graphic backgrounds behind body text.
More - Consider a ‘liquid’ page design: the content should flow naturally and fit together, at any screen resolution (i.e. size of the monitor screen measured in pixels) or reasonable font resize by a user.
More - And don’t put ‘best viewed at resolution’ or ‘best viewed in browser Y’ on your website.
More - Don’t include ‘mailto’ email addresses in plain coding on the site.
More - Your site need not be large or complex.
More - Don’t leave out-of-date content online.
More - Use several people to proof-read for typos and poor grammar.
More | Extra - Make your pages printer-friendly.
More | Extra - Take time to assess your target audience, their interests, needs and circumstances.
More | Extra - Not least, pray – both for planning and implementation.
More | ExtraYour church webmaster/team
- A church webmaster or team needs a clear job description.
More The church should encourage the webmaster or web team in their back-room role. - What if there is no-one technical in your church, to take on the webmaster role? You can use a pre-designed template system. These also answer the problem of what to do if the only technical person in the church moves on, leaving a website that no-one really knows how to update. Follow ‘Extra’ for a listing of providers and how to assess the features they offer.
More | Extra - A larger church site can benefit from ‘CMS’ – Content Management which enables multiple users to keep the site updated.
More | Extra - Learn from others. Help is only a mouse-click away.
MoreReadability
- For normal body text, use black font on a white or near-white background.
More - Do not used fixed font size in your coding.
More - Therefore make all font sizes relative, so that users can resize text if they wish.
More - Choice of fonts is important. The Verdana font is designed for computer monitors, and is widely perceived as the most readable for body text.
More | Extra - Understand how to make your site user-friendly to color-blind and visually-impaired visitors. color tester. More
Testing
- Test your site from a technical viewpoint in different browsers, and at different screen resolutions.
More - Also test your site with real first-time users. Remember, you know your site backwards. They do not.
More | Extra - Find non-Christians to critique your site. Yes, non-Christians! They are your primary target audience.
MoreNavigation and usability
- Good navigation allows a first-time non-technical visitor to move round your site easily.
More - Good navigation gives visitors constant clues to fulfill the vital requirements: ‘Where am I, where have I been, and where can I go’. Many websites, of all types, fail to be effective because they lack a good intuitive navigation system.
More - Do not offer too many links in your navigation menu.
More - You can use ‘paper prototyping’ to plan different ways of structuring links within the site.
More | Extra - Make sure your pages download quickly.
MoreBeing found – online and physically
- The title tag in the head of your homepage, which should contain the full name of the church, plus town, state and country.
More | Extra - Your church name, street, town, area/state, country and phone number should also appear in unabbreviated form in a small font in the footer of your homepage (or preferably every page).
More - Submit your church site to main search engines and secular directories.
More | Extra - Make every page of your site a logical entry point to your site.
More - Framed pages present problems to being listed in search engines.
More - Ensure the church URL is easy to remember. Take every opportunity to give it a high profile.
More - Make full use of press releases to local newspapers and radio stations. These should always include your URL. Larger churches can consider publishing regular news using an ‘RSS’ feed.
More | Extra1| 2 - Include clear directions for finding the church. Give details of parking, public transport links, and a map.
MoreResponding to emails
- Ensure that every day, someone reads incoming emails to the church.
More - Some people may be emailing for help on serious life issues.
More | Extra - It need not necessarily be the pastor or pastor’s secretary that does this, especially out of hours.
More
Thursday, February 25, 2010
Checklist / Tips for 70+ things to consider in a church web site
http://www.internetevangelismday.com/church-site-tips.php
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