Blog | What to Consider When Redesigning Your Church’s Website

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You’ve probably heard it said before, but your website is your church’s new front door. Especially in the post-Covid age of virtual Sunday streaming, your website is the place people go to get to know more about your community and to see if it’s the right fit for them. It’s important that your website makes it clear to visitors who you are, what you’re about, and what kind of person you serve.

1. Is a website redesign necessary?

First thing’s first— do you really need to redesign your website? While exciting, sometimes completely redoing your website isn’t necessary and you could better put the time and expenses towards something more impactful for your mission. Or maybe you have some website issues that could be remedied with simple updates to photography or messaging. So before you start calling your developer or tinkering around in the HTML, consider these questions to evaluate whether now is the right time to overhaul your site:

2. Who is your website for?

Once you’re confident a redesign is the best next step for your church, it’s important to clearly understand the person you’re hoping to reach. Visitors will use your website to gauge if your community is for them, looking for messaging, visuals, photography, and content they can recognize themselves in.

While it might seem superficial, design is essential on your church’s website. Studies show that it takes less than a second for users to judge a brand or business or organization based on their web presence, and that rapid impression is mostly attributed to design. Depending on if they like or resonate with what they see, they’ll either click around or click out. From there, messaging and content will help seal their interest and take them from your home page to your front door on Sunday morning.

As you approach your design and messaging, remember that you want users to visit your website and think, “this is for me.” To get inside their minds, consider:

Understanding how your visitors think and feel and how you can help them will help inform your design and messaging.

3. Is your website easy to use?

Making your site easy to navigate is always important, but imperative for a church. Ask yourself, what is the number one thing you want a visitor to do when they come to your site? Maybe this is to reach out for more information, plan to join you on Sunday morning, or something else entirely. Whatever it is, make it easy for visitors to take this action by including frequent calls to action (CTAs) and explicitly asking them to do this thing.

In addition to clear and frequent CTAs, make important information super easy to find. For most churches, this will include your location and service times, what to expect on Sunday mornings, and details about what you believe. Most people looking for a new church community will want to gauge whether their beliefs and priorities align with yours, so make your core values and creeds easy to find. Don’t worry about alienating people by boldly sharing what you’re about— your church isn’t for everyone and not everyone is for your church. Trust that you’ll attract and repel the right people, and those who aren’t for you will find another community that’s right for them.

4. Is your website approachable?

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, your visitor is on your website to see if your community is a good fit for them or not. One of the best ways to demonstrate your culture is by ensuring your photography and messaging aligns with your personality. If possible, use real photos of your congregation and meeting space. Include images and personal bios of your staff and team members. This gives visitors an idea of who you are, what to expect, and if they can see themselves joining in.

Humans love human faces, and seeing your real smiles online gives visitors the impression of getting to know you before they get the chance to meet you in person— which makes showing up on Sunday that much easier for them. Use welcoming language that’s warm, easy to understand, and, if possible, avoid Christianese, obscure Biblical references, or deep theological jargon. Unless it’s your niche, insider language like this will turn most folks off.

Redesigning your church’s website is a significant undertaking, but with careful planning and consideration of these key factors, you can create a user-friendly, engaging online platform that effectively communicates your church’s mission and values to the world. By investing in your online presence, you’ll strengthen your ability to reach and connect with people both near and far, ultimately furthering your ministry impact in the digital age.

Redesigning your church’s website is a significant undertaking, but with a strategy informed by knowing who you are and who you’re trying to reach, you can create a user-friendly, engaging online presence that helps reach and connect with potential new members and further your mission in the community.