Free Church SEO Checklist
Beat the Heretics
Millions of people search for churches online every month. Most of them will end up visiting a heterodox church because you couldn’t be bothered to do the tiny bit of work it takes to show up well in search results.
Connect with Sinners
Your community is full of sinners.
They need God’s grace and mercy.
Search engine optimization is one way that sinners can find you, so that they can find forgiveness through Word and Sacrament.
Free &
Easy
Being cheap and lazy is no excuse not to download this checklist.
I break everything down into easy, manageable steps.
And, I don’t charge you anything for it.
As a pastor, I know the challenges of bringing in new members. Outreach events, follow-up, and integration are labor-intensive and expensive. And, that’s under ideal circumstances.
The circumstances in which we minister are far from ideal.
Churches have strong headwinds against them, including:
- Family schedules crammed with events
- Distrust of organized religion
- Increased interest in alternative spiritual teachings and practices
All this means that finding new members is incredibly difficult. And, the numbers don’t lie. Most churches are declining in membership.
That’s why I focus my church’s outreach on people with the fewest barriers to joining. Modern technology makes that easy, because you can reach them through search engines like Google.
Every month, 2.2 million people search for the term ‘churches near me.’ In large metro area, thousands of people search for churches every month – 8,000 in St. Louis, for example.
The people making those searches already know they want to find a church. The hardest work, convincing them that they should be involved in a church, is already done. They are some of the easiest people to incorporate into your congregation.
But, if they are like most people, they won’t go past the first page of results on Google.
That’s where search engine optimization (SEO) comes in. SEO is the art and science of showing up in the top results on search engines like Google. When people search for ‘churches near me,’ you want to be in the top results, because those results get the majority of clicks.
I created this checklist as an easy way for you to improve your church’s SEO. It is the important first step for your church’s search engine optimization that will help you show up higher in search results.
SEO helped get my church to the top of search results. Its online presence has brought in new members. This checklist will help your church do the same.
Think about what might be motivating people to search for a church. Perhaps,
- A friend or family member told them about Christ, and they want to know more.
- Their marriage is struggling, and they want help fixing it.
- They are weighed down by the shame and guilt of their sin, and they want forgiveness.
- They are growing old and wonder what happens after they die.
No matter what motivates someone to look for a church online, souls are at stake.
That’s the ultimate reason why I am offering this checklist for free. I want to enable Christ-centered churches to serve people who need to know the Lord.