I try to make one thing clear on the blog, when I teach, and when I review church websites: the number one audience for your church’s website is those people who have never been to your church. Further, our websites should be focused on “conversions.” Not helping people to begin a relationship with God. (That will come later.) When I talk about conversions, I mean converting people from website visitors to church visitors through clear and multiple calls to action. You can read more about that here:
What Can Churches Learn from Expedia.com?
But what about everyone else?
A website can be a great hub for keeping your congregation connected. It can be the solution that replaces or supplements overstuffed bulletins, outdated bulletin boards, endless announcements, unread newsletters, and unopened emails.
But how can you keep your church’s website clearly focused on potential visitors and make it a hub of information? That’s easy. Don’t. Then what about the hub idea? Simple, make a second website designed for your members and regular guests.
There is a great piece on the Pro Church Tools website that talks about this very idea. Check it out:
You Can’t Ignore This 2017 Church Website Trend – ProChurchTools.com
Pro Church Tools is releasing a really nice platform for this purpose that will be available for churches. But, if it is out of your price range, you can still duplicate the concept using Squarespace, Weebly, WordPress or another website platform.
If I was still serving a local church, I would be building this right now. It may seem like a lot of extra work but it gives you the ability to focus each site for it intended purpose. Your main site can be completely focused on new people, while your member site can be full of information for people looking to go deeper.
Are you doing this already? Thinking of trying it? I would love to hear about it.