Is Your Website Effective?

Written by: Tessa Taylor

Joel Gardner (Office and Finance Manager for ONA) and his wife recently moved to Greenville after graduating from college. They used the web in deciding what churches to visit. They landed at a church plant that they decided to visit because of its website. Joel represents many people his age. The first contact they will have with your church is through your website.

Below are some helpful guidelines in critiquing and building your website:

Content

    1.       Understand that the average visitor spends only 90 seconds on a church website. How does   that impact your layout?

    2.       Think about topics from a visitor’s point of view- not yours!

    3.       Make information potential visitors need easy to find. If information is too hard to find on the site, it will drive people away!

a.       Add a “I’m new here section” consisting of:

                                                              i.      Location and service time

                                                             ii.      Directions

                                                            iii.      Vision statement, brief summary of beliefs,  and denomination affiliation

b.      Add pictures, graphic designs, and videos instead of lots of words upfront. 

Design

   1.       Using website templates can make building a website much easier

   2.       Make the page elements obvious, using patterns and alignments- be consistent!

   3.       Use space effectively

a.       Break text into small chunks. 8-10 words per line makes reading easy.

b.      Use lots of headings

c.       Don’t center text- instead left justify

   4.       Text and Colors

a.       Don’t write in all caps. All caps is computer language for yelling and is harder to read. Use bold or colored text for emphasis instead of capitalization.

b.      Don’t underline anything but links. Use italics sparingly.

c.       Provide good contrast between text and background. (Some people are color blind, so contrast is essential.) Dark text on a light background is easier to read that light text on a dark background.

d.      Think about all your site visitors when you choose colors. Colors evoke emotions. Warm colors include red, orange, and yellow and can evoke emotions ranging from feelings of warmth and comfort to feelings of anger and aggression. Cool colors include blue, purple, and green and are often described as calm, but can also be melancholy. You also don’t want to use too many dark colors that cause your website to appear dark.

Drew Goodmanson is also a great resource for church websites and technology. He offers tips on his website as well as articles for other publications.

http://www.goodmanson.com/resources/articles/