8 Deadly Sins of Church Web Sites
By Marc Lee
The creation of web sites
by churches continues to rise. There are some excellent church web sites,
and some that are really poor.
Church web sites can be
effective vehicles for communication and for attracting
newcomers, but only if they are interesting and attractive. A sampling
of web sites reveals, however, that almost every church site weakens its
effectiveness by committing one or more of the following cardinal sins
of church web site design.
- Using the Internet as if it were just another
church publication.
The internet gives you a potential audience of millions. These people are mostly under 55, well educated, willing to try new things. They are shopping, but you have to get their attention. Be like St. Paul, go into the agora, the market place, and speak to them in their language. Communicate visually and boldly. Don't write "Visitors Welcome" in small, hard to read italics print. Try "WORSHIP AT GRACE" instead.
- Designing for the wrong audience
It is important to know from the beginning who your intended audience is, to
design accordingly, and to provide answers to their unspoken questions. There are three kinds of visitors you will have come to your web site. But they speak to three different, equally valid designs.
The first, and often most important (but the least in numbers) will be newcomers. Their main question will be "Where is the church? What time are the services? Why should we try this church?"
The second group will be people who are already members, many of whom will not only look approvingly on what your site says, but also notice what it fails to say. Their main question will be, "Have you left someone or some program out?" Provided you leave no one out, its nice to have a page with the pictures of "50 Year Members, but not if your audience is group one.
The third group will be Episcopalians from other parts of the country. They might
be coming to visit in your town, but more likely they are looking to see what kinds of church sites are out there on the net, looking for ideas for their own church site. Once they've looked at more than a dozen they will be asking, "What makes this church the same as others or different from all the rest?"
Which group is your web site trying to reach? Sorry, only one selection allowed.
- Trying to say or show too much.
There is so much information on the web that people quickly tire of all the words. Images and impressions are the things they remember. You don't want to feed people everything on-line. You want them to worship with your community -- to come to church and find with you the joy of the living God! If you want to show people your church, offer a Virtual Tour, but don't make it the first thing people see. Put the Annual Report on-line -- but only if you're trying to save money on printing!
- Sending people away.
It's nice to have reference material on your site, but don't give the impression that everything the visitor wants is someplace else. If your links are the first thing the visitor sees, they feel "I come to you with questions, but you send me to someone else."
- Telling visitors that "Who we Are" is a building.
Our church buildings are usually pretty, even beautiful. But is that really who your church is? Aren't you really much more than a lovely building? Perhaps its because everyone already has a photograph or rendering of the church facade, most church sites lead with their edifice and name. Some even have long-loading exquisite photos that take up the entire screen. Instead, get a picture of a parish activity with a group of people laughing or smiling or holding hands in prayer. That picture will speak attractive volumes of what it is to love God. (If you're designing for existing parishioners, be prepared for some jealousy!)
- Distracting colors, useless information, glaring
special effects.
Do you want people to notice the color of your background, or the content of your page? Use white, or gray or a cream colored background color, not bright aqua! What do flashing signs or bouncing balls have to do with worship? Why do you need a counter? They often tell you how many visits you don't have. Does it really matter how many people come to your site? Wouldn't one new family (with three kids) entering each year through the cyber door be enough?
- Dull content.
Maybe you can't put the youth group in all their splendor on the front page, but
make the link interesting: "Youth Group: Top 10 Reasons to Attend Church!"Be sure that when you get there you don't disappoint. One link titled "Cyberspace Devotions" turned out to be a portion of Morning Prayer straight out of the prayer book.
- Failing to Advertise your web presence.
Designing a site is just half the battle. To get visitors, people need to know your
on-line address. Publish your URL address everywhere: newsletters, stationary, business cards, newspaper ads, yellow pages ads. Put the URL on the sign out front, and at the end of your answering machine message. Get your site listed with the major web search engines, especially Yahoo and Alta Vista. Send your information to Anglicans OnLine. Request links with the diocesan home page and with other parishes in your diocese. Ask your congregation members to put an attractive, eye-catching link on their pages.
Copyright © 1998 by Marc Lee, Affinity
Web Design Consulting.
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