An effective Web site is the heart of Communications Strategy.

To see how your church's Web site stacks up, try this simple method:

Open a search engine, type in the name of a church you admire, and open its Web site. Bookmark it. Find six or more, including your church's likely competition. Open your church's Web site.

Now click from one to the next. Scan it for five seconds -- the amount of time the normal Web user will give to a site's home page -- and then click to another.

Make note of your immediate reaction. First impressions are everything on the Web.

An effective Web site is the heart of Communications Strategy.

To see how your church's Web site stacks up, try this simple method:

Open a search engine, type in the name of a church you admire, and open its Web site. Bookmark it. Find six or more, including your church's likely competition. Open your church's Web site.

Now click from one to the next. Scan it for five seconds -- the amount of time the normal Web user will give to a site's home page -- and then click to another.

Make note of your immediate reaction. First impressions are everything on the Web.

·         Do you see words or pictures?

·         Long articles or links?

·         Flashing banners or calm headlines?

·         Home page fits the browser or requires scrolling?

·         Focus on buildings or people?

·         Focus on clergy or members or public?

·         Message is "Meeting your needs," or "Doing what we always do"?

Don't labor over this. Like it or not, the Web is a rapid ride. Scan, note, and move on.

Now open some sites that are considered world-class: www.yahoo.com, www.myspace.com, www.eharmony.com, www.match.com, www.flickr.com. Toggle between, say, flickr.com and your church's Web site. Notice the differences. Don't get defensive about it. Just examine the differences.

If this exercise leaves you breathless and confused, welcome to the reality of using the Web. This is what the pros do. They look at what works. For example:

·         Links, not text

·         Fast-loading pictures and graphics

·         Clear focus -- go back to www.flickr.com, and look at its clarity of focus

·         Keep it short -- no scrolling.

·         Focus on the user, not the institution

·         Promote a transaction, not offer reading material

One more thing you will notice if you go back to these sites regularly: the good sites are updated constantly, at least once a week, preferably every day.

A church Web site isn't a bulletin board. It is more like a savory stew. You have to keep stirring it.

At the Church Wellness Project, we have developed a Communications Strategy workshop that can help you do this evaluation, learn from it, and move to a Web site that is effective and not expensive. Write tom@churchwellness.com  for information.

Tom Ehrich is a writer, consultant, and leader of workshops. An Episcopal priest, he lives in Durham, N.C. The church wellness project may be found at www.churchwellness.com

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wrote on June 25, 2007

Title: Elder, St Stephen Tom's website test is a severe one, but I completely agree with everything he says is necessary for a truly effective web site. In Grace Presbytery we are struggling with finding ways for small churches to get even a static web site presence and since small churches constitute the great majority in the PC(USA) that would seem to be the biggest problem denomination wide. We have chosen to initially deal with static sites because small churches in general do not have the staff or volunteer resources to sustain a monthly update schedule, much less weekly. Now if Tom has a magic bullet for this problem, I am anxious to know what it is.

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