At some point, most churches will want to rebuild their website. Whether it’s outdated or just doesn’t resemble who they are in the community anymore, it never hurts to have a refresh! But before you go and pay for the trendiest church website builder or even pay to have a fancy app, there are a few things your church staff should consider first!
I wanted to break down my top three considerations when it comes time to overhaul your church website. Let’s dive in!
Budget
While most of us want to dive into the fun part of building a new website, it’s essential to slow down and start with the first consideration, your church’s budget. No matter how big or small your church is, you should weigh the importance of your budget when building a website. Of course, there will be some costs to building a new church website. You’ll have to pay for hosting, domains, and platform fees. If you are consulting with a third-party developer, you’ll likely have costs for their service.
I recommend using a good-better-best process for budgeting out building your church website. Choose the budget that seems like the most reasonable fit for your church. Churches want to save money. That doesn’t mean the cheapest option is always the best, though. Consider the needs of your church and how each platform can reach that need digitally.
Culture
In addition, you should consider your church’s culture when building a new website. This step is essential because it can also help you plan your strategy! Consider how your church members interact with your staff every week. Consider communication – Do you send a weekly newsletter and is social media the way your church members invite their friends to join them each week? What about tithes and giving – are your members tech-savvy enough to give online? What about the ministries that are growing in your church – How often are you communicating with parents about weekly youth and children’s events?
You’re going to create landing pages for important parts of your church’s ministry. Knowing your culture enables you to decide what gets priority and what you have time to build later. My favorite examples of this tend to live around online giving and aged-based ministries.
If your church is predominantly an older generation that isn’t tech-savvy, you may not spend much time focusing on your online giving efforts. Instead, it would be more beneficial to build pages that are informative and easy to navigate. In this same church, you also likely aren’t spending your first efforts on building the youth group landing page, either.
I recommend taking some time to observe the culture of your church. Take these observations and look for ways you can use technology to improve your communications in these ministry areas.
Platform
Finally, we’ve made it to the fun part – choosing the platform that best suits your needs! You have a lot of platforms to choose from. Using the previous considerations, you can refine these options. While many of these platforms are dedicated specifically to churches, there are a few technical elements you should consider:
- Is the platform mobile-first?
- Is the platform user-friendly and fast-loading?
- Can I implement site analytics and tracking on my website?
- Can I create custom content and implement it freely?
- Can I optimize my site with SEO?
I recommend asking these questions when you are vetting platform options as well as the three considerations mentioned above.
What If I Need More Help?
Building your church website might be an exciting task, but it’s important to consider these three things: Budget, Church Culture, and Website Platforms. Whether you’re planning to build your church website in-house or hire a third party, it doesn’t have to be overwhelming.
I consult churches and parachurch ministries in their digital efforts. I believe that a great church website helps ministries point communities to Christ both locally and virtually. No matter how big or small your ministry is, I would love to come alongside your staff! Let’s get started building your website and sharing your stories.
