I once had a situation where a friend turned up to church (I was away) on a week when the church was on the church week away and one of the services had been cancelled. I was devastated to learn that they had reached the church, but found it closed with no notice on the door, website or notice board. It made me reflect on how important it is for us to keep our church website up to date! 

Your church website is your window to reaching your community and communicating with your congregation. If someone is researching local churches, with an interest in coming along this coming, they need to know about this Sunday, not a few weeks ago...  

This can feel like a burden but let's explore the type of information you have on your site and how to efficiently keep this updated.  

What type of information do you have on your church website? 

Recent research by LifeWay Research found the following statistics on church website use:

• 99% use their site to provide information to visitors
• 94% use it to inform the congregation
• 71% use their site to recruit volunteers or let people know about their ministries
• 47% let people register for events
• 36% let people give online
• 23% have a secure, online church directory.

Additionally on Church Pages websites we find people include recent sermons and general news too. 

How can you keep your church website up to date? 

It can be so easy for updating your church website to become an afterthought, something you do in your (non-existent) spare time, or delegated to a volunteer within your church.

The first way to ensure your website is kept updated is to see the value in updating it frequently. This will naturally help you prioritise keeping an eye on it. 

Secondly, many churches we speak to find it difficult to technically update their website. They have a website but cannot access it, or cannot create new content. We work to ensure that churches can manage their own content and control their church website so do let us know if you struggle with this! 

How often should you update your church website? 

It can help to have a regular routine for updates. As a guideline we suggest the following: 

Weekly church website updates: 

• Events / Important information for your congregation 
• Sermons
• Urgent information should be highlighted on the homepage 

Monthly/ad hoc church website updates: 

• Ministry information 
• Sundays information 

Can we help?  

If you have any questions about updating your church website, do not hesitate to get in touch with our Church Pages team. 

Links:

https://lifewayresearch.com/2018/01/09/most-churches-offer-free-wi-fi-but-skip-twitter/