My name is Chris Jackson AKA SEO Priest, the founder of ChurchSEO.io. This company was founded at the juncture of passion for the Gospel of Jesus Christ, necessity, and boredom.
Passion for the Gospel of Jesus Christ
Woe to me if I do not preach the gospel!
1 Corintihans 9:16 (ESV)
The Gospel of Jesus Christ – the message of salvation by grace through faith in His righteous life and atoning death – is the foundation of my life. Apart from His justifying work, I am nothing and have nothing. In His mercy, God has called me not only to believe this Gospel, but also to preach this Gospel as a Christian pastor.
The use of technology has been a central part of this calling. Don’t get me wrong – when it comes to church life, I’m pretty old-school. We use historic liturgy, pipe organs, and hymnals at the churches I serve. However, tech affords the opportunity to extend our ministry of the Gospel of Jesus Christ beyond the four walls of our church.
Necessity
The majority of my service has been in two small, rural congregations in Wisconsin. I am the pastor of Saint Peter’s Lutheran Church in Door County, Wisconsin, and Saint John’s Lutheran Church in Algoma, Wisconsin.
As rural congregations, it became obvious to me that I would need to rely heavily on tech in order to effectively proclaim the Gospel here. My ministry area covers a large region, and we don’t have tens-of-thousands of people discoverying us simply by driving by.
Search engine optimization (SEO) has been at the center of our tech strategy.
Boredom
In 2022, I was in a personal funk. I’ve always been an early riser, and I have always used those early-morning hours for personal projects. In the past, I’ve used those hours to:
- Earn my doctorate
- Write popular and scholarly journal articles
- Prepare for my obligations as a school board member
But, in 2022, I didn’t have any of those outlets. I didn’t have any degrees to study for. I lost interest in writing. I lost election to the local school board.
I needed something to fill that gap. So, I started a travel website for Door County.
Terrible idea. Travel is one of the most competetive niches in digital marketing, and it took me forever to get traffic to the site.
Nonetheless, I began to get my articles to rank and make a nice side-hustle income.
I decided to apply the SEO principles I learned through that site to my church’s website. It worked, and I was able to get my church to the top of search engines.
In 2024, I began to use those SEO skills for other churches, the beginning of ChurchSEO.io. And, in less than a year, we became one of the top providers of SEO for churches.