A good checklist can get anyone through a busy or stressful week. It lets us organize, prioritize, and budget our time so that we accomplish the things we set out to do. So when it comes to the busiest seasons in your church––back-to-school, Christmas, Easter––I wouldn’t be surprised if you told me you have a few “to-do” lists swimming around on your desk.
One of the hardest parts of making a checklist is deciding what should or should not be on it. This is exactly why today we’re giving you a church website checklist to help you prepare your online presence for one of the busiest days of the year.
If you want to be ready for Easter and squash stress before it even has a chance to creep up on you, here are some Easter ideas for church websites to make sure you give yours a little extra love and attention in the coming weeks:
Editor's note: this post was updated on February 23, 2017
Any information you have on your website should be 100% current and relevant. But this is 200% true for your contact information. This should go without saying...but we see it kind of a lot. :) Go check yours right now. I’ll wait…If you’ve had any changes in phone numbers, office hours, service locations, or staff, now is a great opportunity to get that all up to date. It’s easy for this kind of stuff to slip through the cracks––the church leadership knows where to show up and who to call, it’s hard to remember that not everyone is as tuned in as you are.
Provide directions on Google Maps if you can. And if there are any common misconceptions about your location––like the main door is on 3rd street, but they’ll have to enter the parking lot from 2nd––make sure you explain that stuff here. If you were having a phone conversation with a new Easter visitor, how would you give them simple directions? What would you tell them to make it easier for them to come through your doors? How is that communicated on your Contact Us page?
Not only does it need to be current, it’s important that the Contact Us page itself is easy to find in your website’s main navigation. Once your reader has pulled up the Contact Us page, the address needs to be simple and easy to spot. Don’t make people hunt for you. You can also include your address in the footer of each page (which is a common practice).
While you’re in there checking your “contact us” page, be sure to check the links, too. We often come across site that look like the email address listed is correct, but when you click it, the email link actually sends to the wrong place. This is an easy fix with a an instant payoff.
The content here should be totally updated and as specific as possible. Your church's location should be one of the easiest things to find on your website. You need to be able to get to your New Here page from your main navigation menu and from your About Us tab.
Any new website visitor must be able to get here intuitively, and learn valuable information to help them feel welcome. If you have more than one campus, break it down simply and have someone who's unfamiliar read it back to you. This is an efficient way to test how a new visitor would react to the page!
Specifically for Easter, you can post your entire event listings on this page so it serves as a true one-stop shop for anyone visiting during this busy weekend.
Emphasize how this service is different so new visitors can get even more excited about joining in such a big celebration in your church.
If you're adding additional service times or having different service times than usual, make sure that's communicated early to your existing congregation and clearly to new visitors. List these services in one place in your homepage rotator or banner, and again on your calendar. If the services vary (for instance, child care is offered at one, but not another), note that boldly. Make it difficult for people to show up for the “wrong” service.
People travel for Easter, and they like to plan early so they can gather with friends and family after church. Your events page should be fully functional as early as possible, including hyperlinks to outside pages with more in-depth detail, photos, or videos.
This page is your chance to showcase all of the amazing events your visitors and current members will get to experience this week! Don’t be afraid to promote it as often as possible in the weeks leading up to Easter––on social media, in your newsletter, and in your emails. Don’t forget to ask your pastor to talk regularly about how this page will be the community’s guide to all things Easter. Get the word out!
The Staff Page almost doesn’t need it’s own section. But it’s worth mentioning distinctly so you can make sure to remember to check it. It’s especially important to make sure visitors know who to reach out to if they have questions about Easter (children’s pastor for anything specific about children’s ministry, youth pastor for youth, etc.).
Here are some quick things to double check:
5. Is Your Homepage Ready?
A few weeks ago, we published a blog post about common homepage rotator mistakes that you all went crazy for! It was awesome to see so many church communicators fine-tuning their homepages to increase engagement from their website visitors and guide people to the answers they need––right away.
If you haven’t had the chance to yet, now is the time to look over the tips from that blog post so that you can be sure your rotators are in tip-top shape before the Easter rush. We’ll save you the click-thru, here are the tips at a glance:
If you think your website needs more than just a few small tweaks before Easter, you might be asking, “Do I have time to get a new website up and running?” Of course! If this checklist is making you wish for a fresh new site altogether, time is still on your side. If you want Easter to be the holiday when your church rolls out an engaging, beautiful website with your mission at its heart, you have a few options:
Option #1: Start browsing themes to get an idea of the look and feel that best matches your church’s ministry goals and branding. Themes can be activated quickly (as soon as you pick one you love), and they are easy for you to customize in terms of content and color schemes.
Option #2: For a more customized church website, a theme is a great “launchpad” for a tailored design. Essentially, we can use a theme with the features you love to include functionality specifically engineered to your ministry’s unique needs.
Are small groups an essential part of your online ministry? A Small Group Finder layout could be an amazing addition to your site to help your members find stronger, closer relationships with other members with the same hobbies or interests. This is just one of the many options you could have if you began with a theme at Easter and tailored your website until it’s exactly what you need. Our church websites grow with you!
Option #3: Maybe a theme or tailored design doesn’t quite seem like the best solution for your church’s online ministry needs––maybe this checklist has helped you realize just how far your website can go. While we wouldn’t be able to follow the complete custom website design process before Easter, we can still get to the point where you’ll have a big announcement to share with your church family that week! We can start getting to know you, your church, and your mission. You can use Easter to announce the plan, gain momentum, and (within reason) gather input about how your congregation would like to use your church’s website. Contact us to discuss timeline details.