What Pages Do I Need On A Church Website?
Church websites come in several formats and can vary depending on the church website builder of choice! Some churches have only one-page websites or an app. Others have highly structured mega-sites. Many churches are getting started and might not know where to begin. While simplicity can go a long way, the main goal for your church’s website is to be user-friendly for both new visitors and existing members!
Let’s dive into what your church’s website should have as the bare minimum! Does your church already have these pages? This would be an excellent time for you to audit these pages and ensure they are helpful for all users who grace your website. Let’s dive in.
Homepage
First, your website needs a homepage that can help navigate users to the pages relevant to their visit. While this is also the goal of site navigation in the header, the homepage can also aid in this purpose. Starting from the top of the page, you should ask “What is the first thing a user sees on my homepage?” If they are bombarded with a fast-moving carousel of events or generic photos of the church building, they might already have to work harder to find what they need.
I recommend starting with a hero section that defines the purpose of your church. A Hero section is as it sounds. It’s the “hero” of the page, usually a full-width graphic or video overlaid with a heading and a button or two. Your heading can be a simple mission statement and the buttons leading to your most popular pages, but the image or video should highlight what makes your church unique to relevant! For this, I love to see churches using shots from a Sunday on campus.
Beyond the hero, you should provide 2-3 CTA buttons that take users to popular pages, a section for upcoming events, and even a section or two that highlights your church’s ministries or media.
Finally, the most important piece is well-written content. You can spread it throughout the page, but it should be authoritative and honest about your church and ministry. When writing content, choose to write about your locale and how your church’s mission drives your ministries with examples. Include a section that is dedicated to plugging into the community or for first-time visitors to know what to expect on campus.
Plan Your Visit
Do you remember your first time visiting a new church? What’s the first thing you wanted to know? Maybe you needed to know where to go for childcare or had a question about how their parking was set up. Well, I recommend churches put this first-time information on the Plan Your Visit page.
Here are the elements this page should have:
- Address
- Weekly Service times and locations
- Parking information
- Children’s and Kids Info
- What to expect in a typical church service
This information may feel unnecessary for worship, but this is an opportunity to help visitors feel comfortable. It’s one less barrier to Worship when you’re already a new visitor. If you can share it as a video, I recommend including it on this page, too!
Finally, I recommend including a way to contact the church here. Contact forms allow new users to ask questions or learn more if they have more unique questions!
What We Believe
This page is usually a top-visited page for new and potential visitors. It’s the best way they can understand your beliefs before visiting. Users can read your beliefs and see how they are grounded in the Bible. If you haven’t cited your belief with Bible verses, you should, and putting a reference below each section goes a long way to developing trust! Take time to consider what you should include on this page. While it can be simple, you should consider sharing as much as possible.
Also, if you use your denominational faith statement here, cite it! If this page is word-for-word what can be found online from your denomination site, it’s wise to canonicalize your page. This tells search engines who the original author is and prevents the page from getting removed from indexing due to duplicate content issues.
Related: 4 Ways To Enhance Your Church Website
Do Other Pages Matter?
The simple answer: Yes! These three pages alone aren’t enough to serve your audience well. These pages are just what I believe needs to be on every church website. As you begin to strategize what pages your church website should have, consider the ministries and geography of your communities. This tactic is the best way to ensure you’ve created content that covers every aspect of your church family!
Remember, not every church needs the same content. There will be pages that your church has that might not exist on other church websites. Be sure to create pages that serve your new and existing users effectively!