FIRST, the church websites won’t survive without being constructed with a responsive design. The leading browsing platforms will be more mobile devices. It will be safe to have designs and features geared toward smartphones to display the contents responsively on other devices like desktops and tablets, not the other way around. You should know that 75% of digital media are accessed from mobile devices. The user interface, thus, should rely on one-hand operation with a thumb as a pointing device. The site should be based on a continuous-flow single-page design. Large images, videos, texts, and forms are placed vertically as a section. There is no need to have a top horizontal menu bar or provide the mobile menu button to display the menu items in a compatible mode. Imagery is necessary for its strong impression. It is also used to navigate a different section of the continuous-flow web page or link to other mobile-friendly web pages or landing pages.
SECOND, it should load its contents quickly. Many popular mobile apps are getting faster and better, outperforming the old desktop software. Thus, mobile users’ expectations of speed are very high. As far as speed is concerned, Mobile users act as if patience is no longer a virtue. With slow-moving websites, they move on to the next choice of search engine results. The site, therefore, should utilize a lighter and faster theme as a core foundation. The features and functionality are now the secondary requirements of a Mobile-friendly church website.
The church website, THIRD, shall be transparent in its purpose. 90-100% of the content is for online seekers. You should know that 93% of online experiences begin with a search engine. The site’s primary purpose is to become a landing point for those Local SEO searches and Organic SEO searches. Please click here for more information about On-page Local SEO optimization. Who is your church website trying to reach? Who’s the information targeted at? All this anticipation should be vividly shown on the sites. The secondary purpose is to convert those searches landed at your site into an initial contact point. Call-to-action buttons help get your site visitors to where they want or need to go quicker as the church collects their email addresses online. Build a contact database for getting regularly connected with them via email or social media networks.
FOURTH, it would help if you didn’t let the seekers find outdated events or information on your site. I think many churches think too big when it comes to web content. They seem to try to contain the whole church ministries on a website. Think this way. Your church website is just a front door to your entire church. The front door has its mission. Please discern and find out which contents are generated every week and add a flavor to them using some impressive images. Think of the content as ministry marketing materials. It is my humble opinion that the video sermons shouldn’t have to be uploaded every week unless you are a GREAT preacher and you have a professional media team available to spend a decent number of days every week working on your sermon to produce a Ted-talk quality video. Instead, create a couple of ministry marketing videos and place them on the site. It doesn’t have to belong. 10-to 30 seconds will do. The primary purpose of the church website is for those who are seeking a new place where they may continue their spiritual journey.
We analyzed church website practices, which met the design requirements with trendy features. Here are some selections of the 15-best mobile-friendly church websites for the following years. We encourage you to use one of these designs as you look forward to customizing your church website. Please click the image below to move to the showcase page. We will develop a new set of professional mock-up sites for churches to begin customization according to their requirements.
