By: Trevor Sutton
Little things matter.
A coronavirus particle has an average diameter of roughly 125 nanometers. (The head of a pin is around 1 million nanometers wide). And, yet, this little thing has traveled around the world, infected millions, disrupted nearly every facet of daily life, and made for a massive pandemic.
Churches have also been impacted in big ways by this little thing. Stay-at-home orders from governments have forced many congregations to close the sanctuary doors and livestream services instead. The need to #StayHomeSaveLives has moved Bible study from the parish hall to the internet. Instead of passing an offering plate, many congregations are passing a link to online giving.
As a result of the coronavirus pandemic, it is now very important for congregations to have an excellent web presence. There is no better time than now to make sure that your church has a usable and well-designed website.
Regardless of the size of your congregation, little things can make a big difference when it comes to a church website. You do not have to be a professional website designer to improve your church website.
Here are two little things to avoid when it comes to you congregation’s website:
Avoid Asking Staff: The easiest thing to do when making changes to the church website is to ask the church staff for input. It is very easy to call or email a staff person and ask for feedback about the website design. And, to a certain extent, asking pastors, musicians, and ministry staff makes good sense. Yet, there is a key problem with this approach: the church staff are not the primary users of the website. While the pastor or ministry staff may know the most about what is happening in the church, this knowledge can actually make it hard to give good feedback about the website. Information on the website that might be crystal clear to staff could be very unclear to others.
Avoid Hoarding: The internet is infinitely vast. If you want to have 100 or 1,000 pages on your website, you could do that. It is possible to post every sermon, every study, and every single snapshot from your past service project. While it is easy to cram your website full with all kinds of content, it is best to resist this urge. The less content you have on your congregation’s website, the less likely it is to be overwhelming to the visitors of the website. Rather than thinking of your website as a binder containing everything single thing that is happening in the church, think of it like a brochure that you might hand out to a visitor at your church.
Along with avoiding certain things, there are also some small things that you can do to improve your congregation’s website:
Ask Users: When it comes to getting good feedback about your website, the best people to ask are the actual people who will be using it. Rather than asking staff members about the design of the church website, reach out to some active members in the congregation. Ask them how often and for what purposes they use the website. Get in touch with people who are new to their church and learn about their experience in finding and using your website. Also, you can reach out to several people who are not connected to your church and have them look at your website as if they were a potential visitor to the congregation. By engaging real people who would potentially use the website, you can ensure that you are designing it around their actual needs.
Be Consistent: Imagine entering a room with a hundred different items scattered about and every wall painted a different color. That is what it’s like to visit a website with a mess of different fonts and colors. People do not often consciously think about the subtleties of a website’s font or color scheme. However, even if people are not consciously thinking about these things, they still play an important role in a website. Use a consistent font throughout your website. Try to limit your color scheme to a select number of colors. While these might seem like minor matters, they are actually very important.
The coronavirus pandemic has taught us that little things matter. Little things like keeping your distance from others, washing your hands, and not touching your face can make a big difference.
Similarly, little things can make a big difference when it comes to your church website. These little things go a long way in maximizing your ministry efforts.
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