An online presence for your church is essential to keep the followers engaged and connected on the internet. No wonder, almost every church has a website these days. However, just having a website is not enough as you need to make sure that it is engaging enough to keep your audience hooked on. The secret lies in upgrading the site time and again to give it a fresh look and feel. Looking after your church website is, thus, a never-ending task because you need to serve the best to your audience. If you are planning an upgrade for it, make sure that you do a good job. Here are some tips that can help you in revamping your church website effectively.
Think about the audience
You may probably have considered your target audience when you first invested in your church websites. But things change over time; maybe, the target audience was initially the middle-aged group but you want more followers from the younger generation now. When you think in terms of revamping, have a fresh look at the target audience and ideate with their expectations in mind. This approach will give you a fresh perspective and you will be able to come up with a design that appeals to the people who matter the most.
Learn from others
While your audience is really important, you cannot forget your peers. The prime motive is to be better than them because you would want to surpass them in terms of a number of followers. Check out their websites to see the kind of design and content they are catering. If you think that they are doing something better than you, don’t hesitate in getting inspiration. However, make sure that you stick to your tone and messaging even while getting inspired by others.
Know your flaws
Knowing your flaws is important before you start upgrading. List down the aspects where your current website lacks and create an upgrade roadmap that covers them. Understanding your mistakes is equally important because you would not want to repeat them with the new site. Consider the design flaws and content weaknesses and rework on them to create an impressive upgraded website.
Check out the latest trends
A website upgrade is all about getting a fresh look and feel while sticking to the latest trends. Follow the church website trends that are emerging strong and implement them in your upgrade strategy. Look for the latest worship backgrounds for church websites and integrate them into your design for a contemporary look. Don’t forget to choose the color schemes and font styles that are trending. Remember that matching the trends is easiest when you avail of a revamp for your site. So don’t miss the opportunity!
Prioritize simplicity
A complicated website can be a killer because not the entire audience is tech-savvy. Someone with minimal tech skills may not be able to navigate your website properly and end up leaving it for good. Why not have a simple design that is clean and clutter-free? Why not give them easy navigation that enables them to move from page to page without much work? Reassess your current website to understand whether it is simple for your followers to use and navigate. Ensure that you keep simplicity at the core of your upgrade strategy.
Realign your SEO strategy as well
When you upgrade your church website, don’t be confined to its look and feel alone. This is the best time to realign your SEO strategy as well. Have content that is optimized with the relevant keywords so that the upgraded website has the potential to make it to the top of web searches. When you find the trending keywords, do consider voice searches because this is the way that most of the users search these days.
Think mobile-first
A mobile-first approach is key to creating a winning website. A majority of the users are likely to search via mobile devices and websites that fail to deliver seamless experiences on these devices lose on the audience. So when you consider revamping your church site, ensure that it is optimized for mobile devices. Responsiveness of the church website ensures that the mobile users will get a great UX and join your church as regular followers.
Pay attention to speed optimization
While you revamp your church website, speed optimization is another factor that should be on your wishlist. A site that loads lightning fast is far more capable of engaging with the audience than a slow-loading one is. Moreover, people are pressed for time and will not wait for ages for a website to load. They will quickly move to another alternative if your site loads slowly. So you must keep speed optimization on the top of your upgrade strategy.
Simplify online donations
Another key tip that you should follow while upgrading your church website is to simplify donations for the followers. It is crucial to have this feature on the website because people prefer to donate online because of sheer convenience. If your site already has a provision for online donation, reassess the payment options. Having the popular and secure ones on your site gives you a better chance of getting more donations for your church.
Be prepared to invest
Upgrading your website is all about improving the user experience it delivers across all devices. Get a complete overview of the existing UX of the website and see where it lacks. Be prepared to go the extra mile to improve the user experience, even if you have to avail of professional upgrade services for your church site.
Your church website should be your top priority because it is the replica of your physical presence. Both your existing and prospective followers will create an impression of your church from what they see on the site. Therefore, you should not compromise with its look and feel in any way, even if it means a considerable investment. Think like the audience to understand what they expect and bring the same mindset on your website.