Kyle O'Neal

Now…I’ve only designed and helped design a few websites (Kyle O’Neal, Kyle & Melissa, The Well, TenneyTunes Studio), but I in no way claim to be an expert on website development.  But I do have some thoughts on the way church websites SHOULD be.

Every church website should:

1. Have an easy to remember domain name. Your church website’s domain name should be simple and memorable.  When someone is interested in finding more information about your church, you want them to find that information easily without the use of search engines.  Keep it simple and make it easy to remember.  In promoting your web address, leave off the http://‘s and the www.‘s.  This makes your web address easier to remember and easier to say.
2. Be incredibly easy to navigate. People don’t spend a whole lot of time on a website.  They visit your site, search for what they are looking for, and then close the window.  Your church’s website should be designed so that people can find what they are looking for quickly and close out.
3. Have concise and current information. Again, people don’t want to spend a whole lot of time on a website.  No one wants to read a belief statement that they have to scroll down for hours just to read the whole thing.  Be short and concise.  Use the concept of Twitter.  Things should be simple, short, and to the point.  Also keep things current.  Too many times I go to a church’s website and the newest “Upcoming Event” was from 2 months ago.  Once I even saw one that was from 2 years ago.  That’s just insane.  If you are going to have a website that will not be maintained, then don’t integrate things like a calendar or a sermon mp3 player or photographs.  If your church doesn’t have someone to maintain your website and keep it up to date, then I suggest to make your website a simple information only type website.  It looks unprofessional to have old, out dated information on a website.
4. Be a tool to be used by the church. The people in your church are going to your website to find out something or use a tool on your website.  If someone is checking out your website before they visit your church, directions and service times should be easy to be used.  Church calendars should be clean looking and uncluttered for people within the church to keep in the know.  Every program or tool you use should be useABLE!
5. Be accessible on multiple platforms. Whether you’re excited about the change or not, Flash sites seem to be dying.  Flash sites take too long to load and they require a certain plugin to run and be view properly.  The art of CSS web design is taking shape and growing fast in popularity.  CSS  is also mobile friendly so your church members can access your website on the go.

(for examples of how I used this on our church website, check out discoverthewell.org)

This entry was posted on Tuesday, September 8th, 2009 at 9:00 am and is filed under Technology. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.