computer and coffee cup

3 Church Website Trends That Will Reach People In 2016

Thomas Costello Web Leave a Comment

2016 is officially upon us and as they do every year church website trends continue to evolve. For most churches the lifespan of a website is three to four years. This means that the websites we built in 2013 are coming up on the end or their lifespan. A church’s website is the first impression for nearly everyone who visits your church.  Your visitors will make assumptions and decisions about your ministry based on what they see there. If people spend time looking at reviews online of restaurants and movies before they make a decision to spend their money, how much …

Responsive Web Design For Churches Feature

INFOGRAPHIC – Responsive Web Design For Churches

Thomas Costello Web Leave a Comment

We hear more questions about Responsive Web Design than any other topic in church web design.  People are well aware that church websites need to be mobile friendly and Responsive Design is the best way to do just that. A bad mobile experience is an easy way to scare church visitors away. Every church needs to take their mobile online presence very seriously. If you don’t know what Responsive Design is, this Infographic can serve as a crash course. If you need a responsive church website that will help you reach more people in your community, we can help. Responsive Web …

Church Website Targeting

Church Website Targeting | Who Are You Trying To Reach?

Thomas Costello Web Leave a Comment

When it comes to building a church website one of the first questions we ask every client is “Who are you trying to reach?” This is the question of church website targeting. While we have heard every answer under the sun to that question, there is one that we seem to get more often that all the others.  Churches consistently tell us “We want to reach everybody.” Often they will accompany that answer with a very spiritual backing.  “Jesus accepted everyone, so I think we should do the same.”  Well, we agree with you that both Jesus and your website should …

Church Website Content Is King

Church Website Content | Seven Items You Can’t Forget

Thomas Costello Web Leave a Comment

In the web development industry we have a saying. Content is king.  When you strip away all of the graphic sliders, and parallax images, what you are left is the content of your website.  The look and feel of the website is what catches peoples attention but the church website content is what actually engages people. Before we go any further, we need to have a good working definition of what we mean by content.  For the purpose of this conversation church website content is any information including  text, images, audio and video that is created to communicate information to …

interactive church website

An Interactive Church Website Past to Present

Ian Hyatt Web Leave a Comment

What is an interactive church website, really? If you have been a part of or have known a little about the church web industry for a while now you will have heard the words “interactive church website” a time or two for sure. When church websites were born on the internet they all started out like very static brochures or were postcard-like pages. They just gave the user who came to the website the information the organization felt that user needed to have. But when did an interactive church website become important? Well after a couple years, the need for …

church website branding is important

Church Website Branding Is A Bigger Deal Than You Think

Ian Hyatt Web Leave a Comment

“Branding” is a bit of a buzz word right now out there in ministry and within church leadership. Over the past couple of years ministry leaders have started to realize that they need a brand for their local church or ministry. This is a good thing! I remember a time when churches just thought doing a couple different things for their marketing or just having a website out there was good enough. “It covered the base” so to speak and that was enough. It’s refreshing to now see pastors and ministry leaders knowing they need to go deeper and do …

Put a call to action on your church website

Call To Action | Why Every Church Website Needs One

Thomas Costello Web Leave a Comment

A strong call to action is the foundation of every great marketing effort. For those who might be unfamiliar with the term, a call to action is where the marketer asks the person who is being engaged to respond with a desired action. It tells the person what they do next if they want the benefits that are being described in the piece.  In web development, a good call to action is the difference between a site that works and one that doesn’t. Successful businesses understand the importance of having a strong call to action on every page of their website. …

sitting on the couch looking at google search on computer

Church Website SEO | Four Tips To Improve Your Ranking

Thomas Costello Web Leave a Comment

Church Website SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is more important today that it ever has been.  It is the way we learn about just about everything. Need a plumber? Google it. Want to know if a restaurant is any good? Ask Siri. This is how we make decisions. The bigger the decision, the more likely someone is to start with an online search. If people are unwilling to go to a restaurant before they check out the reviews online, they are certainly going to do several searches before they buy a car, or a new home. And one of the biggest …

young man looking at website on mobile phone

Mobile Friendly Church Websites Are No Longer Optional

Thomas Costello Web Leave a Comment

When thinking about mobile friendly church websites, it may be best to start by looking at the past. It used to be that when a church needed a website they would have one developed and check it in a variety of different browsers.  There a was a time when almost everyone used Internet Explorer (You are not still using IE are you?) but it was still important that you checked to make sure your church website worked well in Firefox, and Safari, and the fledgling Chrome browser.  The reasoning was that we wanted the doors to our churches to be …