Greetings in Christ, and thank you for purchasing a multi-page website from ChurchSEO.io. This blog post will cover the process of building a website with us.
Check out the video walking you through the process:
Process Overview
In broad strokes, this is what the process to building a website looks like:
- You – Review Information Needed
- You – Assignment of Responsibility
- You – Information and Content Gathering
- You – Information and Content Submission
- ChurchSEO.io – Draft Build and Delivery
- You – Revision Requests
- ChurchSEO.io – Revision Build and Delivery
- If necessary, one more round of revisions.
- ChurchSEO.i0 – Deploys website
- You – continue to expand and maintain the site via the Content Management System
The Process in Detail
1. You – Review Information Needed
After payment, you will receive an email with a link to an online form. Review that link as soon as possible so that you can begin to gather the information and content needed to complete the site.
2. You – Assignment of Responsibility
Assign one person to be the primary contact person and final decision maker (same person). This will be the person that ChurchSEO.io looks to for assistance and guidance in completing the website.
Ideally, this person should be given not just responsibility but also authority to make decisions about the site. While he should consult with others, including the pastor, other church leaders, and applicable committees, “Design by Committee” must be avoided.
When soliciting feedback from stakeholders in the congregation, the primary contact and decision maker will receive some good and valuable advice. However, some of the advice and suggestions that come back will inevitably run counter to a functional website. We design our websites with tried and tested aesthetic, search engine optimization, user experience, conversion rate optimization, and copywriting principles in mind. Part of your job is being the voice of the congregation to ChurchSEO.io but also helping to articulate to the congregation the principles at play in the site.
This person also needs to have no small amount of pesonal resilience and also sensitivity to others. This person needs personal resilience because it will take no small amount of work to coordinate on the church’s side of thing and also because you will have to navigate complex social dynamics at your church to help pull this off. That brings us to sensitivity. For somewhat baffling reasons, changes to church websites elicit outsized and often irrational emotional reactions from members. I’ve even encountered church members who get worked up over a small change in a metatitle, an html tag. Being able to sensitively convey that people’s opinions are important while also having resolve to carry out what needs to be done is the balance this individual will need to exercise.
3. You – Information and Content Gathering
Now is the time to start gathering information and content for the site. This is usually the longest part of the process, and some churches even stall out here.
It is advisable to start recording submission information in a document that you can then cut-and-paste into the form. While the form will retain information for up to 30 days for logged-in users, do not count on that. Be ready to submit the information in one go, from a document that you have used to assemble it.
Here are a few notes on some of the information and content being requested:
Pictures
Good pictures are critical for a successful website, but they are also one of the biggest hangups for churches trying to complete their site. Start working on gathering good pictures right away.
The best thing is to hire a professional photographer with experience in capturing both events and building.
However, if hiring a photographer is not in your budget, you can also in-source this within your church. Smartphones take excellent pictures these days, and young women (Millenial and younger) are often excellent photographers. This can be a good way to involve young women in your congregation.
To give us access to the photographs, a cloud drive like Dropbox or Onedrive is best. Make sure to set the access permissions to allow anyone with the link to access them.
If your church has a logo and stylesheet, submit it in the cloud drive along with the pictures.
Here is a starter list of good pictures to take:
- Exterior front of the church
- Church sign by the road
- Main entrance doors
- Parking lot / arrival view
- Wide sanctuary shot during worship
- Wide empty sanctuary shot
- Pastor preaching
- Pastor greeting people
- Headshot of Pastor and up to 2 additional staff members
- Altar / chancel area
- Cross, crucifix, or altar detail
- Baptismal font
- Communion setup / altar rail
- Congregation singing
- Organist, pianist, choir, or musicians
- People talking after church
- Coffee / fellowship time
- Families with children
- Sunday School, VBS, or children’s ministry photo
- Church event, potluck, picnic, or community outreach photo
- Picture representing each ministry to be posted (see below)
3 Ministries
You will have the ability to submit information for 3 ministries. Think things like Youth Group, Grief Share, and Food Bank for these. You will have the ability to add more ministries through the Content Management System – these simply “prime the pump” and put a baseline of content on your site.
Pastor and Staff Info
You will have the ability to submit information for the pastor and three members of the staff. You will be able to add as many staff as you need via the Content Management System once the site is deployed.
4. You – Information and Content Submission
Once you have gathered the necessary information and content, submit it via the form. A link to the form will have been provided to you via email.
5. ChurchSEO.io – Draft Build and Delivery
Once you submit your information, we will build a draft of a website and deliver it to you to review. This process usually take a couple of weeks.
6. You – Revision Requests
You will have the opportunity to review the site and submit requested revisions.
7. ChurchSEO.io – Revision Build and Delivery
ChurchSEO.io will work on requested revisions and re-deliver.
8. If necessary, one more round of revisions.
We allow two total rounds of revisions, if necessary.
9. ChurchSEO.io – Deploys the Site.
We will need delegate access to your domain name service in order to do so. Your site will not be complete before we deploy. There will still be content you want to add, like additional staff members, ministries, and so on, and we will continue to find small things to tweek. That’s completely normal and part of why we structure things the way we do, to continue to support you have having a succesful site.
Once we deploy the site, we will then conduct any off-page SEO work that needs to be done, such as link building.
10. You – Continue to expand and maintain the site via the Content Management system.
Good websites are never ‘done.’ They continue to grow and change along with the congregation.
You will be granted editor access to the site, which will allow you to edit and maintain it without being able to screw anything up. Most of your work will be done via the Content Management System.
The Content Management System (CMS) will allow you to:
- Add and edit scheduled events, like regular Bible studies, Sunday school, worship services, etc.
- Add and edit special events, like special services, fellowship meals, etc.
- Add and edit ministries, like quilting, food bank, etc.
- Add and edit documents, like permission slips or scholarship application forms
- Add and edit staff members
- Add and edit articles (blog posts)
- Add and edit video
- Add and edit sermons
Part of your monthly fee goes to 1 hour of support per month from ChurchSEO.io. We will always be here to help you maintain your site.
Tips
- Start working on pictures right away. This is usually the biggest hangup for churches.
- Collect information in a document to then cut and paste into the onboarding form.
- Design by committee will kill the effectiveness of your site. Committees should be consulted, but authority needs to flow through one individual.
- Perfection is the enemy of the good. The best websites are not static but continue to develop and improve over time. Feel comfortable deploying before everything is at 100 percent – it will never be at 100 percent.
- Once the site is set up by us, you will need to continue to expand and maintain it. This is easily done via the Content Management System.
