Minding a few simple rules can ensure the creation of a usable church website.
Thou Shalt Nots
1) Lack of accessibility (i.e., by using church-y lingo)
Simplify the language used on your church web site. Explain your meaning when you must use a lesser known word. The Old English your “Statement of Beliefs” is likely written in can be confusing to readers. For those obscure Christian words with no simple substitution (e.g., sin, baptism), you could link each word to a pop up that defines it in layman’s terms.
2) Not-so-personal
This is where the basic site plan is pared down to a stale and boring flyer.
The average surfer wants to get a feel for your church, not just find out what you believe or where you meet on Sundays.
If your site is void of personality, put some life into it. Put in minor biographical information about your staff, next to pictures of their smiling faces. Use photos, in modest amounts, from church gatherings: in the design, on title pages, or in a gallery. Use a fluid color scheme.
Make sure your church web site conveys an accurate representation of your congregation.
3) Cobwebs
Cobwebs grow on neglected web sites. If there are script errors and bugs that no one got around to fixing, those are cobwebs. If the calendar still has last Junes events on it, those are cobwebs. If your staff page lists the youth minister who left two years ago, that is a cobweb.
If you abandon maintenance of your church site, your site will be completely useless to both your congregation and anyone local who stumbles upon it. Searchers may even think you’ve abandoned both sites, online and off-line.
To counter the cobwebs you should have a regular webservant or web team.
4) Poor layout
Have you seen a “forever scrolling page”? The one page site is a common design blunder. Instead of organizing information into separate pages (and with a menu), all the information is lumped onto one page, one bit after another. That is just one example of a poor layout choice.
5) Lack of domain name/using free host with ads
Do spend the small amount of money to secure a real web address for your church site! If your church name has been taken, change .com to .net, or add “the” or a dash, or just be creative by coming up with a website name that includes your church name or abbreviation.
6) Too much personal information
My husband introduced me to a lady in an online bible study group who had been stalked on the Internet. Just looking at a weeks worth of her posts: she had said something about the region she was in, her IP was easily accessible, and we knew she worked at her church as a secretary. Plus, we knew her first name. Within one hour I was able to find her, mainly because of her bio on her church’s staff page. As a result of that detailed bio, I found out about her kids and other intimate details of her life.
When adding personal information, pictures, etc., to your church site, bear in mind the security of the people involved.
7) Ugly, Ugly
Examples of ugly site design include, but are in no way limited to: mismatched color schemes, large animated graphics, 300k pictures, giant text, and outdated clip art. These can be avoided entirely by having a professional design the site.
Lack of promotion
Sites need “web promotion” to be of use in Internet outreach. For example: if someone in your area “googles” to find a church, you must be listed in Google to show up in search results.
You can upload a site to the Internet, sit back, and no one will ever see it. You must tell the world it is there by adding your URL to search engines and related directories.
9) Too much
There are many ways to go overboard in site design, e.g., sound blasting music, too many options in the menu, and so on. These blunders, like having a downright unappealing site, can be avoided by having a professional involved in the creation of your church web site.
10) One track mind
It is all about potential! A church site can be utilized for both outreach and fellowship. Having a one track mind concerning your site isn’t a carnal sin, but it can be a waste.
Overall, be sure to put a lot of prayer, thought and planning into your church website, and it’ll turn out great.