When someone wants to find a new church in the area, one of the first things he or she does is looking at the local directory for church websites. He or she wants to explore several churches in the vicinity before he/she ever sets foot in one. When an existing member wants to learn more about an event in your church, he or she will head to your website. That's how important a website is for the expansion of your church. Over 75% of American churches have websites. If your church doesn't have a website, it's high time you build one right now.

Building a website for your church isn't tricky. Many web designers specialize in building church websites. You can quickly pay one of these designers to build a website for your church. But what do you want to achieve by creating a website for your church? This is the most important thing to consider when designing a website for your religious organization.

The website should be a hub for people who have never attended your organization and the members who have been with you for years. There are 4 main goals in designing a church website. If your website doesn't help achieve these four things, you have wasted money on something that doesn't give you the expected results. It's better not to have a church website at all unless the website does these four things. Here are four important things a church website should have.

1. Allow People To Discover You!

The most important thing in designing a website for your religious organization is to allow people to discover you. If your website doesn't help attract new people, there is no use of such a website. A website is a marketing and branding tool that showcases your church to the visitor. Who is the intended audience for your website? What does this audience need? Creating personas will let you know who you reaching with your website. The more details you have about your target audience, the more you can tailor the site to meet their needs. The website should have a clear message that allows people to discover your church.

The church should look and feel the same online as it does in person. Your tone, logo, imagery, color, focus, and the way you describe your church to the world - all matters when designing the right website for your church. Church branding is all about reinforcing the identity of your church. These are important things to consider when designing a site that allows new visitors to discover your church.

2. Create Likeability Through Design!

The second most crucial aspect of creating an effective church website is to have a great design for the site. Great web design will make people like your website and reduce the bounce rate. Google has already stated that the bounce rate of a site plays an important part when ranking a site higher on Google SERPs. If the visitor doesn't like what they see on your site, they will click the back button and go to another website. This increases the bounce rate of your site and decreases the rankings on Google SERPs.

Your site should be easy to navigate with high-quality content for the visitor. Your content should be of the highest quality and engaging. It should entice the visitor to stay on your site for longer. Using appropriate images and video can help boost the visibility of your site. The more the visitor stay on your site, the higher it will rank on Google and the other search engines. Don't forget to have a mobile-friendly design for your site because the majority of visitors will search for your site through smartphones.

3. Builds Trust

The latest studies have shown that a website has only 6 seconds to create a positive impression with users when they first arrive on the site. The visitor will spend only 6 seconds looking at the color, layout, church graphics, & the content of the site to decide if it is trustworthy or not. It's a small window to convince the visitor that your site is one that he or she can trust. The design of the site plays a major part in building trust in the site. The site should have relevant information like their vision, team, beliefs, and how the visitor can join the church. It should have a resource section for the visitor to peruse. The prayer dates and times should be clearly stated on the site. These are important information to attract more visitors to your church site.

4. Calls To Action For Church Engagement!

One of the most essential functions of your website is to connect visitors to your church in a tangible way. The visitor should move from spectator to participant as quickly as possible. That's where an effective call to action comes in handy. The website should be able to connect people with church programs that are most suitable for them. The call to action should be very clear and tell the visitor what he or she needs to do to connect with the church.

If your website doesn't do these four things, you will be disrupting the sociological progression of a person's discovery process. You will be losing new visitors to other churches in the area.