Did you know that 17 million Americans don’t even attend in-person worship services and visit church websites instead? When community members look for a new church, they’re not attending your service—they’re checking out your website. This makes having a great website extremely important to engage with people. Here are a few essential aspects of delivering a standout online experience:
- A great domain name
Location is everything, but your church’s domain name is even more important than its physical address—and it will reach more people than your on-site location ever will. A strong domain name should reflect your brand name, avoid unnecessary clutter like hyphens or numbers, and is short (1-2 words) so it’s memorable and stands out in search results. Examples of churches with great domain names include shorelinecity.church and newlife.church
- Effective website builder
Your church website builder should be reliable, easy-to-use, and fast when it comes to loading. Also be sure it has features that allow for integrations with online giving, video, and audio capabilities so collecting donations and live-streaming sermons is a seamless process. Some effective church website builders include the Digital Church Platform (Launchsites.church) and TheChurchCo that also offer .church domains.
- Compelling web design
Remember, your online presence is your only opportunity to make a first impression. People are visual first, verbal second—they want to be inspired and then informed. According to Google, you have less than 50 milliseconds to make an impression, so be selective about how you draw people in with a simple, dramatic, or minimalist design. Some examples of well-executed church websites on the top 100 list of best church websites are: Highpoint.church, Oaks.church, and Ccv.church.
- High performance
53% of mobile site visitors will leave a page if it takes longer than three seconds to load. For this reason, your church website has to be fast and high-performing to keep users engaged—and ensure you rank well on Google.
- Excellent, relevant content
There’s nothing worse than visiting a website for the first time and feeling confused. In a study consisting of over 1,000 church websites, 61.7% of users reported that they did not have easily accessible new visitor information. It’s important that content is upfront and simple to navigate for new and repeat visitors.
Ready to strengthen your online presence—beginning with a .church domain? You don’t need to look any further. .church domains are sold by virtually every domain name retailer—and there’s even a limited-time, low-price offer from Name.church. Open your digital front door to new ministry members and expand your community’s reach with .church.
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DJ Chuang is an ambassador for .church domain names, a part of Identity Digital powering the most relevant domain names on the Internet. DJ also works as the Technical Registry Manager for the .BIBLE top-level domain (operated by American Bible Society). DJ is known as a thought leader who helps churches and nonprofits learn how to use the latest digital technologies.
This post is sponsored by Identity Digital
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More in-depth articles:
How To Make the Best First Impression for Your Church
How to Get the Best Domain Name for Your Church
How .Church Brings Spiritual Communities To Life Online
How Your Church Can Grow In This Post-Pandemic Era
Why More and More Churches are Branding with .Church Domain Names