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Church SEO Tips for Church Websites

December 21, 2011 By Leave a Comment

church seoLooking for church SEO tips? Since you want your church website to be able to reach many people, one of the best ways to do that is to practice good church marketing by understanding the basics of search engine optimization (SEO) for churches.

Why is Local Church SEO A Good Idea?

A good church website design is awesome, but local church SEO is just as important for any church website because it will help churches drive traffic thru higher search engine rankings. This means your church website will appear in the first or second page of a search engines so people searching will come across it.

Church SEO Strategies

Advanced Church SEO is not an easy thing to, but many people are able to get a handle on basic church SEO strategies. Here are some good and simple strategies you can use for your church website:

Using keywords and key phrases

The first thing you should do regarding church SEO is to make sure to use many good keywords and key phrases in your church website. How do you know what a good keyword is?  Ask your unchurched friends what they would search for on Google if they were looking for a church.  After you find pertinent keywords, make sure to have them liberally on the page so search engines can pick up your site when church seekers type the  phrase .  By the way, it’s also good to have the location of your church in multiple areas of your church website so that can be picked up too. You can also use the google keywords tool to add many relative keywords and phrases. The more, the merrier when it comes to SEO for your church website.

Use major keywords in your headlines and body.

This is another good church SEO strategy for church websites. The first question is, what kind of church are you and what common keywords would accurately describe it? Then, it is important to insert those keywords into every headline and body of your church website. This will significantly increase your google ranking.

Church  SEO by Social Media Marketing and Submitting New Content

The use of social media like Facebook and Twitter are very important  aspects of good church marketing and SEO  Placing your site articles on social media sites is a great  free way to take your content to the masses, as well as get a back link to your site, which is also good for church SEO. It is imperative to consistently update your blogs and write new articles as well  because search engines are attracted to new content. Find well-known blogs to link with and share articles on, because that’ll bring in loads of traffic too!

Overall, SEO seems like something way to advanced for just anyone to do, but there are many basic, simple, effective, and free strategies you can use to get your church website to a much higher potential.

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Church Website Do’s and Dont’s

December 17, 2011 By Leave a Comment

church website do's and don'tWe wrote this church website do’s and don’t article for all those with bad church websites out there. Many church leaders who want a church website make many church website designmistakes. Here are some church website design dont’s that someone new to the trend should watch out for.

Don’t it yourself.

This may seem like a typical thing to say coming from a church website design company, but your church website is going to be the a first impression to your first time guests or those looking for a church. If a well meaning attendee volunteers to make a great church website for free, please make sure they know what they are doing when it cones to both church website drsign andchurch website SEO. Look, a top church website should look professional and appealing to the eye, which is near impossible to do without proper training and experience. Please do not put just any cheap church website design piece of junk out there. People may tend to avoid a poorly-done church website

Don’t make people guess

One common church website design mistake is making site navigation very confusing. Many people get frustrated when trying to find something as simple as contact information because of a website’s poor navigation system. For example, contact info should be accessible on EVERY Basically, think like your church website visitor, and ensure everything on your website simple and easy to find.

Don’t spend all your money.

Another common church website design mistake is spending all of your money. You shouldn’t invest all of your money into just the church website. But just remember you do have to invest some money if you want a decent church website. You can get professionally done and ideal website without totally emptying your wallet. It’s imperative to still have some money to invest in marketing your church website.

Don’t have a blog.

That is unless you actually update it on a regular basis. Nothing is more of a church website turn off than a blog that has not been updated for months. What does that say about your church? The only reason you’d need a blog is if you’re willing to update it at least 3 times a week with fresh content. If you do, the search engine spiders will love you, and your guests will too. An outdated blog is nothing but a turnoff to visitors.

Don’t try to make your church website meet everybody’s needs

Before building a church website know who it is you are trying to reach. One bad church website design mistake is losing focus of your target. Many sites try to have many targets and try to meet everybody’s needs. This just ends up turning the church website a sloppy mess. It is important to make your church website the most appealing to the types of people that would visit your church website

Don’t use Flash.

This is one of the stupidest church website design mistakes out there. Besides being annoying to visitors on how it loads, the big reason why using flash is bad is because it impedes search engines from analyzing and listing your pages.You want people to visit your church website, so that means that you want your church website to be highly ranked in a search. Flash is counter-productive to this, plain and simple,

Don’t expect the best church website overnight.

An great church website doesn’t just pop up out of nowhere. It takes a lot of time and effort involved to build and to drive traffic to your church web site Don’t get discouraged if you don’t see results right away. Keep writing great fresh content, have a clean church website design and use all the free church marketing tools out there to create buzz, and you will reap the benefits over time.

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Good Church Website Development Tips

December 12, 2011 By Leave a Comment

church web site developmentThere are many poorly-developed church websites on the internet. Not only do i mean the looks of the websites, but other things as well. You want your church website design to attract people and make them want to visit your church. Here are some church web development tips that will give basic guidelines that churches should follow to develop a successful church website.

Church Web Development Tips

1. Explain what your church is all about, and your mission.

This is an important web development tip. The first things people want to know when they visit a church website are basic pieces of information about your church, such as what you believe, your vision, and your denomination. Don’t make it difficult for people to find those things on you church website. Also, let people know that your church is the church they’ve been looking for. It is vital to have your church website grab people’s attention within a few seconds.

2. Have an easy to remember domain name.

Having a simple and easy to remember URL is important when developing a good church website. The last thong you want is people to forget or misspell your web address. Having your domain as a “.com” is also a good idea because it is the most common type.

3. A simple and efficient navigation system.
Make every post and page easy to find and easy to get to. Many church web development companies make it difficult for people to find important pages on a site because the navigation system is messy or because they’re not in common places. It’s a good idea to have all of your important pages across the heading or on a side bar.

4. Easily accessible and good contact information.
Any person who is thinking about going to your church will want to view some of your church’s contact information. Make sure to put it in an easily found place such as the header and sidebar. Include things such as the senior pastor’s name’ phone number, and email, the church’s phone number and email, and, if you want, some church leaders’ names and emails. Basically, make it as easy as possible for people to get in touch with you. Also make sure to include the church address and a link to google maps on the page.

5. local search engine optimization.
The most import tip for good church website development is making sure your  church site is local search engine optimized. By this, I mean use a lot of keywords, have many links, and have a good amount of pictures and videos. This will help your sight get picked up more easily by search engines and will bring in a lot of traffic to your church website. If you don’t know how, make sure your church web development company does.

6. A good hosting platform. This is important because the last thing you want is someone to take control of your church website. Having the most secure platform from a well-known hosting company is key to preventing anything like that.

7 . An eye-appealing church web design that will attract people to explore your church website.
Here’s another good church web development tip. Many people will decide whether to explore a church website by the way it first looks when they visit it. Use an attractive blend of colors, cool fonts, and provide a lot of pictures and videos.

Over all, these are just a few of the things that go into goo church web site development.

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Top Church Websites

December 9, 2011 By Leave a Comment

top church websitesDoes your church website have what it takes to be one of the top church websites on the internet?  Most churches nowadays already have a website, but not many of them qualify to be a top church website.  Unfortunately, the reality is that many pastors and  even some church web designers don’t know what their website needs to have to be one of the top church websites.  The following pointers will help guide you through the process of making your churches website one of the top, cool church websites out there! Almost all of the top church websites of 2010 and 2011 will have the following qualitis

A Top Church Website Uses Top Quality Images

This is something that is often times overlooked by churches when they make their website.  Many churches use low quality images that look like any ‘average joe’ could have taken them with their camera phone.  Pictures are very important to a church website design.  If a person has never been to your church before, pictures they see on your website are their first impression of your church.  You want them to look as professional and high quality as possible.  Get a professional photographer to take amazing pictures, or find/buy some high quality photos on the internet.

Top Church Websites Link To Social Media Sites

Having links to your Facebook and twitter pages are very important!!  This gives people a way to stay informed about things going on at your church and your church website.  Not only does it keep people informed and up to date on upcoming events, services, meetings ect, it also markets your church website for free.  Every time somebody likes your Facebook page, or mentions you on twitter,  the action can be viewed by their entire social media network.  This spreads your churches website around the internet like wildfire!

Keep Your Website Up To Date!

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve visited a church website, and found an article about the upcoming Easter service…from last year!  If you dont keep your website active and updated, you will turn people away!

Top Church Websites Use SEO

You dont have to be an expert, but knowing some basic search engine optimization (SEO) techniques will really help your church website get traffic. Search engine optimization helps your church website rank high up in the search engine results pages of search engines such as Google, Yahoo and Bing.  Make sure your website is coded correctly, and that you use key words and key phrases that people would commonly search for.  Write lots of quality content, and use tags to help search engines pick up your website.

As you build your church website, keep these tips in mind. Building a top church website is not as complicated as many churches make it out to be.  All you need is a solid vision of what your website should be like, and the drive to work hard, and you will be well on your way to having one of the top church websites on the internet.

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How to Get Traffic to Your Church Website

December 2, 2011 By Leave a Comment

how to get traffic to your church websiteWondering how to get more traffic to your church website? Getting traffic to your church website isn’t a simple task unless you have the right tools and experience. Most people think getting traffic to their church website is an expensive project, but that’s really not the case. The following are some effective and free ways to get traffic to your church website.

Increasing Church Website Traffic For Free Tips

To get more traffic to your church website, it is imperative to use the right percentage of key words and key phrases for your site. By doing this, search engines will be able to pick up and drive visitors on your church website more easily. Having a lot of content is also important. You should frequently update your church website with posts and articles of the kind your readers will find helpful.

Increasing Church Website Traffic & Search Engine Optimization

You can get more free targeted traffic to your church website through search engines. That’s where the strategic use of meta tag titles and meta tag descriptions comes in. Also, submit your pages and articles to as many online directories as possible. By doing pthis, other websites will link your church website. This will make your website accessible from other websites.

Submit RSS Feeds

If your church website does not have them (all CMS Getting more traffic to your church website can also be done through  RSS feeds. With RRS feeds, people can see the latest updates without visiting your website. They are definitely something to look in to.

Social Media

Using social networks is a great way to get more traffic to your church website. There are many different great social networks such as facebook, twitter, and myspace that you can use to reach a whole bunch of people. Think about it, everybody is part of some social network nowadays, so putting your website on them allows these people to see what’s going on at your church.

network

Networking with other websites and blogs is another way to get more traffic to your church website. Show reputable sites your articles and if they like what you’ve done then they may mention your articles on their sites.

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Building a Church Website Advice

November 25, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Are you deciding on building a church website? Building a church website seems like a huge task and many people don’t know where or how to begin. A church website is your business card  for the whole world to see, so if you do decide to build a church website yourself,  and not use a professional church web designer, it should still look professional. While this article does not provide a how to build a church website guide,  the following are some tips that will help you know what to do and what not to do when building or making a church website.

Top Building a Church Web Site Tips

Church Website Layout And Design

This is key. In your  Christian church website building,  It is important to make your website look pleasing to the eye and professional. That way, it gives a good first impression to visitors and will encourage them to look through your church website.  Experts say it takes only  7 seconds for a visitor to  decide whether or not stay  or leave on your chruch site, so it better look good.

Let People Know What Your Church is All About

You are getting traffic to your church website? Awesome!  But now what?  When building a church website, it is imperative that people understand almost immediately what your  church vision is.   Many church websites don’t really describe their church vision or mission, even though that’s what most visitors are looking for in a church website. So make sure you have a homepage link that provides a brief description your story, vision and mission  when building a church website.

Make Sure to Have Contact Information All Over Your Church Website

This is a no brainer, but you would be surprised how many church leaders miss this when building their church websites. Please make sure you provide the church email address, phone number, and any other contact information you would want to have. These things should be on every page on your church website, either in the header or the footer. This includes articles, posts, and pages. That way, people will never have trouble finding information to get in touch with you. I would also have this info on my Facebook an dTwitter pages as well, as part of practicing good social media marketing for your church.

A Short and Easy to Remember URL

Make sure your  church website address is easy to remember and basic when building a church website.For example, my church site is Oasis-Church-NJ.com. You want it to be unique so people will remember it, but simple enough so people don’t misspell or forget it.

Simple and Straight-Forward Site Navigation

Great church web design and navigation go hand in hand when building a church site.  I’m literally shocked at how complex some church websites are. Some pastors feel using flash will attract people to their churches on account of all the bells and whistles.  In fact, flash makes the site much more cumbersome to use, and most flash church websites  actually block search engines from  recognizing web pages. Beyond a web design that is search engine friendly,   you want to have a header and sidebar navigation that put all your important info upfront and easy to reach for the visitor.

 Local Church Search Engine Optimization

When building a church website, it’s  good to research local search engine optimization (SEO) for your church. Having a good  looking church website is only half the battle, while people actually finding it is the other half. Using the right keywords and codes will definitely help bring in some traffic to your church website.

Over all, the above  are just some of the ingredients any church leader should consider when building a church website. This is a forum to learn together so if you any  other tips on buiding church websites, we’d love to hear them.

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Church Web Designer-What To Know Before Hiring One

November 24, 2011 By Leave a Comment

church web designerAre you looking to hire a church web designer to build your church website?  There are many church website designers out there, and they all have their own styles, prices, and format of doing things. I hate to say it, but some are not too good, and some are just plain crooks.  As a church looking for church website designers, it will make things much easier for everybody (you and your church website designer) if you can answer the following questions for your prospective church website designer.

Church Website Designers Need to Know Your Budget

When you first contact a Church website designer, you should let them know what your budget is right off the bat.  This will eliminate a lot of back and forth emailing.  Instead of just asking what the church web designers rates are, you should let them know exactly what you have to work with and see what they can do.  Many church web design companies have hidden fees in the packages, and you should definitely find out about this before you even begin.  You should also let the church web designer know up from what your budget is so you don’t end up wasting  your time.

Some church web designers put exorbitant prices on their custom designs.  Therefore, instead of saying “Hello, we are looking for a church website designer. What are your hourly rates?”  You should say “hello we are interested in having you design our church website.  Our budget is $4,000.  Is this a project you would be interested in?”  The first response that you receive will you know if this is the right church website designer for you to hire.

The Church Web Designer Should Know Your Vision

It is very important that you let your church web designer know this right away!  If they dont know, then they have nothing to base their design off.  Look at some other church website designs that you like, and  show them to the church web designer to use as a reference for the style of the design.  And the style of the design should be in line with who you are trying to reach…which brings us to the next question you should ask yourself

Church Web Designers Should Know Your Target

Your church web designer in addition you your vision, will want to know your target audience so he can design a church website geared toward that.  For example, if you are trying to reach senior citizens, your church website design will have to be drastically different than if you are trying to reach out to twenty or thirty somethings. It is very important that your church web designer knows exactly who your church is trying to reach because it will really give them a feel for the direction they should go in style wise.

Overall, when hiring a church website designer, you need to make sure that they are on the same page as you. When you answer the above questions before contacting any church website designers, you can give them a much clearer picture of what you are expecting them to do with your website.
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Churches with Websites-Why Your Church Needs a Website

November 18, 2011 By Leave a Comment

churches with websitesThere are many churches with websites in the US. Depending on the Christian church webdesign company, some are great and some or not so great. So why does your church need a website? Churches with websites have more successful ministries than those without a church website (estimated at 35%). So what are the benefits of having a church website?

Churches with Websites-Top Reasons Your Church Needs One


1. Churches with websites attract more first time guests. Fact is, nowadays people’s first course of action when looking for a church or any other servie for that matter is searching the internet. For example 90% of the over 600 guests who found my NJ church in the last year came because they found our church website on Google, Bing or Yahoo. So church websites are a necessity in the 21st Century.

But let me add one very importnat disclaimer: Any old cheap church website will simply not do. Your church website must be designed in a such a way that both human visitors and search engine spiders love. Getting traffic to your church website should not be considered an painful expense, but rather a worthwhile investment for outreach. Build your own church website for free templates will NOT get the results you hope for.

2. Churches with websites have the most effective way to advertise. Most church plants and churches are simply too poor to go the traditional marketing campaign route of expensive mailers and newspapers ads. But the that’s a good thing! Some churches spend thousands of dollars each year (like most other churches) on these kinds of advertising but do not get their bang for the bucks they spend. Churches with websites that are search engine optimized for their local area are much more effective for a number of reasons.

First, churches with websites have the benefit of 24/7 marketing, unlike mailers and newspaper ads.  And do I have to remind you that in regard to mailings you must send thousands of mailers at least 3 times a year to even have the hope of reaching  .025 of your target? You also have to pray that the mail gets to its intended addressee, that the person actually reads it, and that there’s a positive response.

Conversely, people who find your church website are actually already eagerly looking for church, and they found you because they searched for the keyword terms you wrote about. It’s laser focused outreach, as opposed to the scatter gun approach to mailers. See the difference? Bottom line is a well designed and marketed church website has the capability of bringing in  a lot more targeted traffic than expensive mailers, and at a slither of the longterm price. We can’t afford mailers at my church, but even if we could we probably wouldn’t use them, but invest more money in local search engine optimization (SEO) for our church site

3. You need a church website to answer initial questions people may have about your church. Many people want to know about a church before they go to it. Makes sense, right? They are looking for certain things, whether it’s a kind of music, denomination, or the church’s mission. Churches with great websites will already have all of those questions covered (with podcasts and videos) before the guest ever darkens the door.

4. Churches with websites expand their ministries exponentially. This is especially true of churches who use podcasts and video. Within minutes an optimized church website can get the Gospel beyond church walls into places unreached.  For example, our church website stats tell us our messages go out to over 172 countries of the world, including EVERY muslim nation! Think about that, and tell me why you don’t need a church website that’s search engine optimized? Over 1 billion people regularly use the Internet, so having a church website is a great conduit to meet them on their turf.

6. Churches with websites have different ways for people to give to the ministry.  This point alone is a great reason why you need a church website. Content management systems (CMS) like WordPress, the software we use to design our custom made affordable church web designs, makes it easy to place online giving links on your site. Also, having a church website gives many people who are not able to physically go to your church the opportunity to listen to sermons and to give online too. Does it get any better?

The above are just a few of the reason why you need a website for your church. But remember the most effective and awesome church websites are those that have church web designers who know what they are doing.   If you are church leader and want your thoughts about churches with websites, just leave your comment below.

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Blogging Websites with WordPress

October 24, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Church Websites WordPressAt Christian WebMedia, we build custom Church websites that use  content management systems (CMS) like WordPress. These types of  church website designs are now in fashion more than ever because of the benefits they offer churches and church plants. Church and ministry web sites that have WordPress blogging software attract much more traffic than static sites because of RSS feeds and the fact that they are generally search engine optimized out of the box.  Add to that professional services of Christian website designers  and  local church SEO experts like the kind of folks we have at Christian WebMedia, and you will get a Christian church website ranking high up in the search engines for your church’s important local key phrases. This kind of ranking is most important for any who take church social media marketing seriously.

Additionally, these types of church websites built on a content management system (CMS) like WordPress are  far more interactive than traditional church websites without blogging capability.

I know this about blogging websites from my own awesome experience at Oasis-Church-NJ.com, where we have attracted over 600 people in the last year and a half solely from the internet.

I am so glad I not only have blogging websites, but also that I use WordPress for them. In fact, we designed this website you are reading right now using WordPress blogging tools. :)

Our Church Web Design Company Uses WordPress

Another great thing about WordPress is that you can make your church website look like anything you wish…even a traditional web site.

At Christian-Website-Designs.com we are experts at building custom church websites using the  Wordpress content management system.  If you are interested in having us  build your church website design, just give us a holler by filling in our contact form

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Church Websites-Why to Use a Blog for Your Church Website

October 24, 2011 By 2 Comments

Christian Website Design TipsAs a church website designer, I know that while 65% of Churches now have church websites, most of these church websites drive little to no visitors to their churches. This is a missed opportunity, since the vast majority of people under 35 go to the internet not the Yellow Pages FIRST when looking for a church. So what good is having a church website if only the pastor and the board surfs to it? I think you know the answer to that one.

The problem is that most church websites are not search engine friendly. And if your church website is not listed high in places like Google and Yahoo, you will get no traffic. And no traffic means no guests checking out your church website, let alone your church.

Church Websites Solutions

The solution to the “church website blues” is to get your website local search engine optimized (SEO)  so that seekers can actually find your church web site when doing a search for a place of worship in your area. How do you do this? The answer is simple. Use a blog like WordPress to run your church website. Based on our own own personal experiences as a Christian webmaster and church planter, I have had several blogging websites (including this one) using blogging tools like WordPress that have had tremendous success attracting and keeping guests. Isn’t that what a church website should be all about? Below we list several great reasons (I could have listed more) why a church would want to us at Christian-Website-Designs.com to build custom church website using WordPress.

Top Reasons to Use Us to Design a  Wordpress  Church WebSite

We Have No Hidden Fees and Amazing Web Hosting Features

Why spend  thousands of dollars on  a Church Website designing company that will nickel and dime your church out of existence with hidden fees?  As mentioned on our Pricing Page, all of our  beautiful websites cost a one time fee of $2000. Compare other Church website design companies, and you will quickly see our prices are fairer, and we give you tons of added features at NO added cost.

It’s Easy to Use and Update a Church WebSite Built on WordPress,

Not a techie? No problem because  you won’t need to know HTML or PHP, and  many of the things you may want to do, like putting on a church sermon podcast or embedding a video is  one click or two click installation.  Also, Writing content and putting in images is just like using your old fashioned word processor. If you need help with your blogging church website,  we have tutorial and 24/7 support for you .

The really cool thing about WP is that it functions as a content management system (CMS), which simply means that we as church website designers can give it the appearance of a regular Church website, while reaping all the benefits a blog (see below) brings to the table. At Chritian-Website-Designs.com we will  make your church website have the exact look and feel you want.

We Use WordPress to Make Your Church Website Search Engine Optimized 

That means way better search engine rankings…which means…you got it more visitors coming to your church website…which means more guests at your services. You don’t need to know ANYTHING about how search engines work because we will do basic search engine optimization SEO for you so that  the search engines automatically find your church website, along  all the  new content and RSS feeds for them to index. Furthermore, instead of waiting weeks and even months for the search engines spiders from Yahoo and Google to index your static church website pages,we will ensure that your church website gets indexed in a matter of a few days.

Our Church Website  Designs and Features will Bring Your Church Into the 21st Century

Most church websites out there just ooze old…and irrelevant. Blogs are the here and now, and using one as a church website will convey newness, hipness and relevancy to the young families, the Gen X and Gen Y types you should be targeting if you want to reach people for Jesus AND see your church to grow. OK, I promised I wouldn’t preach.

Easily Put Podcasts and Video on Your Church Website

For no additional fees other than our monthly hosting fee ($50) we will install and multi-media you wish, and  make it a snap to use on your church website.Imagine having all your messages neatly indexed, categorized and online for all to enjoy. Believe me, it’s not rocket science.  Using multimedia like a podcasts and video  you will geometrically grow your ministry reach. On my other Christian outreach site (see Why Use Christian-Website-Designs.com) I already reached over 100,000 people a month. Are we excited yet?

How to Get Your Church Website Designed

Fill out this Contact Formor call us and we will be glad to help get you what you are looking for. We truly consider this a ministry so feel free to call us too, if you have any additional needs: 732-406-7821

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