Simplifying and Streamlining the Online User Experience
What’s the ultimate goal of a church website? There are a dozen answers to that question, but it all boils down to 3 major principles: Invite, Inspire, Inform. Every user that lands on your homepage is looking for these three factors to convince themselves that your ministry is worth their attention (and hopefully, their visitation). Give it the right attention, and your church website can become a major evangelistic tool in your ministry toolkit.
Before we set out to accomplish these goals, there are some prerequisites. The best church websites don’t begin with web design; they begin with mission clarity and operational readiness. Here are a few essential things you need before crafting your church website:
- Your church logo & brand colors
- Documented Mission, Vision, and Values (Including Core Beliefs)
- Meeting Location/ Time(s) & Key Details about Your Service(s)
- Quality Pictures & Video of Your Church (The People, Not Just the Building)
- Headshot(s), Name(s) & Title(s) for Senior Leadership
- (IF APPLICABLE) Details About Kids/Children’s Church
If you have all these things set, you have everything you need to build an attractive, informative, and inviting website that gets real people into your church. Now we just need to get a better understanding of key strategies that make for an excellent online user experience!
Build for Many, Design for One
Yes, your website is supposed to serve more than one person. However, the experience is less like your average in-person church service and more like a 1:1 meeting. Very rarely are groups of 2 or more people browsing the web together, let alone visiting church websites together! You’re not creating and crafting your website to a group of users; you’re creating an experience to be had one user at a time. Speak to the individual. Dare to nearly overuse the word “you”. Do whatever it takes to make that person feel like they will be recognized, valued, and loved (because, hopefully, they will be)!
Real Recognizes Real
Each person that lands on your page is looking to find a real church home with real people. They want authenticity. They want to know what being a part of your church body looks like. They want to hear real stories and testimonies from real people. This is what separates a good church website from a great one: show them who you really are, not just polished stock imagery and footage. A healthy mix would be 80/20, with the majority being original content. Don’t just provide information on how to give, or how to volunteer, or how to join small groups. Tell the stories of your people! Real testimonies on the impact of what your church does makes the rest of the info on “how-to” more relevant to those visiting your site.
Call Them to Action (with CTAs)
We’ve seen too many church sites with great sounding initiatives, events, and opportunities…unfortunately with little to no information as to how the user can engage. A church website that inspires and informs without a clear invitation is like a sermon without an altar call.
With everything you add to your site, ask yourself this simple question: “What do we want the user to do here?”. Do you want them to register for an event or class? Sign up to be a part of a small group? Contribute to a new initiative? Whatever it is: make it known, make it clear, and make it actionable.
There are many other design, interface (UI), and user experience (UX) principles that can help enhance the overall journey each user has on your website, but ultimately these three strategies will help even the most basic church websites stand out and be a clear representation of who your church is and what it represents. Remember: the end goal isn’t just to look good…it’s to give hope, clarity, and opportunity for those that need what your church has to offer!
For more information on how Ignitd can help you continue “Untangling the Web”, visit getignitd.com and hit the Let’s Talk button on the homepage!