Why Your Church Website Is Critical To Membership Growth

It is important to effectively use the internet to enhance your ministry. You must market you church on the internet. What is most essential is that people can find your church when they use a search engine such as Google. Make sure your church appears on the page when people search for churches in your area. Your goal is to make sure people see your church in the search results, click on it, arrive on your site, feel welcome, and consider visiting your church because of what they experience on your site. In many cases, the first step to assimilating people in your church is when they visit your web site...if they find it.

In other words, if your website doesn't appear on the first page of a natural search result, you may never be found! search engine optimization (SEO) and local directory registration should probably be a part of your church marketing strategy. SEO is the practice of configuring your church website so as to maximize its chances of showing up prominently in search returns on sites such as Google, Yahoo! and MSN - where the overwhelming majority of Web users begin their search. Members and friends of your congregation may already know how to find your church but what about people who don't usually attend your services? What about people new to your area who are trying to find a new church?

Search engines are the primary interface between people using the Web and websites. So if you're not found in the top 30 rankings when someone conducts a query for a keyword that discusses your product or service that ought to bring your site up, you're really invisible on the Web.

There are many techniques to increase the number of visitors to your Web Site but Website Optimization is the easiest and least expensive to implement. This is because this technique increases the possibility of your site ranking high in the search engines and this will increase traffic to your website and since people use these search engines to get the information they are looking for, getting to the top of the search engine should be a top priority.

It is not that easy to top these search results and it requires a lot to be implemented in your website, but with a small investment of time and education, the church can easily optimize their website and keep a healthy growing congregation.