Unsure How to Kick Off Your New Church Website? Start Here

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We’ve all imagined what it must be like when done correctly––you go to the grocery store with a detailed, specific list of what you need, how many, and which aisle the items are in. If only.

How I imagine shopping with a plan goes: you stay under budget, get everything you need, and get in and out quickly.

You’re probably more organized than me, but my shopping is a little more like this: I have to rush to the store as the cupboards are almost empty. I usually only have a few ideas jotted down on a phone app, but nothing really all that helpful. By the time I arrive and I’m done fighting through the parking lot, I end up frantically grabbing items that I think I can make dinner from for the next few days just so I can leave the store as quick as possible. (Pasta? Sure! Hot dogs? Ok! A few boxes of cereal? Whatever works! Until I get home and realize that I forgot hot dog buns and I got even more butter when I already had some in the fridge and the freezer. At least I won’t starve.)

When you come armed with a list of exactly what you need, grocery shopping is a breeze. (I imagine…?) And it’s actually a great comparison for launching a new church website!

So we made your website “grocery list” today. We made a list of every asset we want our ministry partners to have as we transition them into an awesome, new church website. And it’s not just a check list, we’ve got some pointers about best practices for the items on the list as well. It’s all yours! Bon appetit!

Step #1: Determine Who Is "In Charge" of the Church Website

You wouldn’t send the entire family into the store and expect to come in under budget, on time with no junk food in the cart. This is the same reason you dedicate one person for coordination and decision-making on your new website project. You want one person, one line of communication, and one trusted church administrator to be in-the-know at all times.

This means you’ll definitely have to compromise and trust this person’s interpretation of the many opinions of the church staff and members involved, but that’s okay! It’s essential to know who’s responsible for keeping track of all the details involved in the transition.

Step #2: List It Out

Once you have a “head website honcho” (or maybe that’s you), you’ll need to start assembling the following assets. We can’t promise you this list is exhaustive, but this is a great place to start. Most people we work with need these things. We’ve even listed them loosely in the order you will need them.

Sitemap

“Sitemaps are a great way to show a big picture overview of your website. They’re good at showing the relationship your pages have to each other and the overall hierarchy of your site.” ← That’s straight from the article our support team released to help you make your own sitemap! This in-depth explanation of the purpose and process of making a sitemap will help you make sure you know exactly what content will be on your website.

Logo

If you’re thinking of redesigning your church logo, you want to make sure it’s ready to go on your new site. But if your logo is already rockin’, you’ll want all of the files and branding information ready.

Color scheme

It can be helpful to know the exact RGB/CMYK color codes used in your church’s designs so you can match them on your website. If you’ve been thinking of tweaking these colors or rebranding, one of our designers, Jimmy Pham, wrote a blog post just for you.

Content that's transferring

Run a “content audit” to determine what content will be moving with you from the old site to the new one. Mark what you think will need to be tweaked, edited, or arranged differently on the new website.

Content that must be created

After you have a sitemap and an audit of all of the content you’re keeping on your church website, you’ll be able to see the holes in your site pages where you need to create new content. What do you need now that you didn’t have before? Maybe you’ve never had a “New Here” path, and you’ll need to compile all of that information into a pretty, helpful package.

Photos and videos that are transferring

Make note of all of the videos, photos, and graphic pieces that will be moving over to your new site. Collect them all in one place and make sure you have the highest quality files available.

Photos and videos that need to be made

If you don’t like the look of your current photos, our recommendation is to take this fresh start as an opportunity to have professional shots taken of your staff, campus, events, congregation, etc. Having pixelated, dated photos and videos on your site gives a bad impression to your visitors and members.

If you can’t find a professional at the right price, have no fear––technology these days is fantastic, and you can take excellent quality photos with the simple click of an iPhone camera. Just make sure any graphics you transfer over to your new site reflect the modern look of your revamp.

Department approvals on the new church website

With many passionate people involved in this new venture for your church, you want to make sure everyone’s voices are heard. Before you get to a tense place where a department head or admin feels left out, make sure everyone knows who will be responsible for each final approval. All of your key players should be involved from the start. They may not stay involved every step of the way––that’s why you have a head honcho––but they should be included at the start and again at the end.

This way, they won’t just jump in at the end and have major changes or suggestions that delay your launch. If things do ever feel tense, refocus the group discussions on compromise and the purpose for the redesign: growing your church and your mission. Try to let go of the exact wording and rally around the spirit of the message, if necessary.

Social media account links

Create a “master list” of all of the links to your social media accounts (official accounts for the church or any staff who will be including personal accounts). You'll need to use these links again soon as you place them on your new site, so have them on-hand!

To take your website from dream to reality, you’ll definitely need this information. And sometimes with churches, you might have had someone in charge of these logins who has since left––or maybe they were a volunteer who didn't know who to pass it on to, and it got lost along the way. We can help with suggestions for recovering lost domain information! It’s “technically” one of the last things you need, but you should start the research process early––just in case you come up against something weird. Hey, it happens. We’ve all eaten Pop-Tarts for dinner on a Tuesday.

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