How do guests find your church? Do they connect through a friend? Maybe they are introduced to your church at a community event. Research has indicated that the vast majority of people looking for a church, use the web as a tool to learn more about their options. The truth is, a lot of potential guests will visit your website first before attending a worship service with your congregation. Understanding this is key to building a relevant website that offers helpful information to people in a church search. Consider these elements to engage with potential guests when they visit your church website.
A Warm Welcome
Communicate your church’s vision to your web visitors in a welcoming way. This can take many forms. You can create a church website welcome video to share your church’s story and vision. Another fantastic way to warmly welcome guests on your website is adding a personal letter from the pastor. This page can include details on what your church is all about and what to expect during a typical worship service. Here’s a great example of a welcome page from the pastor of First ARP of Burlington.
They Need the Details!
Potential guests will need the details on your church’s location and meeting times if they intend to visit on a Sunday morning. This information can be added to multiple sections of your website. It would definitely be wise to include a special section specifically dedicated to worship service details. Furthermore, you might consider providing web visitors with more details about your service schedule, nursery availability, etc.
State Your Faith
A statement of faith is a good thing to include on your church website for curious visitors. They want to find a church that they can trust theologically. Communicating your core beliefs through a statement of faith is a great way to lay out your church vision to potential guests. It’s another way to communicate the message of your church before they reach your front doors.
Introduce the Leadership
When guests visit your congregation on a Sunday morning, chances are high that they will interact with someone in your church’s leadership. This could include a pastor, an elder, or a deacon. However your church leadership structure is set up, it’s a good idea to introduce your church leadership staff and officers on your website. Some good “best practices” include adding a photo, contact information, and a brief bio. This allows visitors to get to know leaders prior to stepping foot in your church building.
Adding this personal dimension can help facilitate relationship-building on a first-time visit.
Share Your Sermons
A sermon library is a great resource for potential guests. They can create realistic expectations of your preaching style and content through sampling a recorded sermon. Posting sermon audio to your website allows potential visitors to get acquainted with your church’s theology and preaching style.
Give Them Realistic Expectations
Your church website should be set up in a way that clearly communicates to potential visitors what your church is all about and what they can expect when they visit you. Creating an engaging website experience for first-time guests requires you to share the service details, your church vision, your leadership’s background, and content from your sermons, welcome letters and videos.
If you want to get more church website best practices, download the free webinar recording below! You’ll learn more about keeping your content fresh and improving your visibility on the web.
