Church Website Best Practices - Entries tagged "Best Practices for Church Websites" 5 Reasons Your Ministry Should Be On Twitter
Twitter is a social networking service that enables its users to send and read messages known as tweets. Tweets are text-based posts of up to 140 characters displayed on the author's profile page and delivered to the author's subscribers who are known as followers. Followers can visit the author's Twitter page or use one of many tools to follow feeds, or their computer or phone.
So what does this have to do with your ministry? Twitter can be used as a tool to connect with your users, to promote the content on your website, and possibly gain more interest in what your ministry is doing. Here are five reasons why your ministry should consider joining Twitter.
1. Audience
Twitter has over 100 million active users. Many are young (between 18-48) and come from all over the country and the world. Like Facebook and YouTube, Twitter is a tool that allows you to expand your ministry's reach. In addition to your followers, your tweets can also be found by adding topic tags and by retweeting posts from other Twitter accounts.
2. Links, links, links
One of the biggest benefits of Twitter is as an avenue for posting links back to your website. By using hyperlink abbreviating programs, you can create convert your long links into shorter ones. Twitter is all about driving traffic to your main Web presence, your ministry website.
3. Networking
"It's not what you know, it's who you know." We've all heard this saying and found it to be overwhelmingly true. By gaining followers and by following others yourself, you can develop a list of diverse contacts who share your beliefs, have a common mission, and may work in different areas of ministry. If you are interested in collaborating with other ministries, Twitter is a good place to develop relationships.
4. It's easy, interactive, and viral
Twitter is like a blog in that it initiates dialogue between you and your readers. Your followers can retweet your posts, or post your tweets from their profiles, they can respond to your tweets, and they can comment on the pictures you post. And its much less complicated than blogs. Users can read a tweet in 20 seconds and pass it on to others with an extra 5 seconds. They can follow much more people at once from mobile applications, desktop programs, and other utilities.
5. It's Free Advertising
Having a Twitter profile and posting tweets costs you nothing. Nothing except time and a tweeting strategy.
That being said, Twitter is not for everyone. Above are just reasons why your church should consider it. Concentrate on the content of your ministry first, your ministry's website second, and advertising last.
Reasons why you may not need Twitter
- You don't know what a "blog" is, nevermind a "micro-blog"
- You don't have enough content to link to on your ministry website
- You can't devote any time to tweet, or you'd rather spend your time doing ministry work
- You aren't interested in learning how to maximize its potential
MORE RESOURCES FOR TWITTER
The Reason Your Church Must NOT Twitter - ChurchCrunch.com
Twitter for Ministry and Church – A Business Perspective - ChurchCrunch.com
Why I Love Twitter - Tim O'Reilly
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 Social Media: Fad or the Future?
What is Social Media?
 Hundreds of websites like Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare, YouTube, and LinkedIn have been created to help people connect with each other, from anywhere, at anytime (so long as there is an Internet connection). And many more are being created each day. For many, keeping up with the hottest new social media tools is daunting, let alone using these tools for their benefit.
So is social media just a fad? Considering that many Fortune 500 companies, small businesses, and non-profits are utilizing social media for marketing purposes, it seems that it's is not going away any time soon. Let this blog entry be a tool for you to evaluate if you should get in on the social media action.
Which Social Media Tools Should I Care About?
With new social media tools popping up by the minute, it can be difficult to know which ones matter. Here are the three social media tools you should know and consider using first.
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Facebook: This social networking website allows users to create
an account, personalize it with pictures and information, add friends,
and comment on other people's profiles. With over 400 million active
users worldwide, Facebook has become one of the most powerful tools for
mass marketing out there.
|
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Twitter: Users create an account and "micro-blog" posts of 140
characters or less. Many corporations, celebrities, and businesses have
used Twitter to build their name and post links back to their websites. |
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YouTube: After Google, this video posting website is the second
most used search engine on the Internet. In this media-driven age,
video is more important than ever for getting your message to the
masses. |
What Are The Benefits Of Social Media?
Social media tools are great ways to expand your reach on the Internet. They can be used in partnership with your website to make your name known and spread your ministry's message. Each channel can be a unique way of connecting with people. And isn't that the goal of your ministry? The best thing about the Internet is that you can touch a life in Africa as easily as you might across the street from your ministry. With social media, that possibility is only a few clicks away.
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How Can Social Media Be Used?
By now you're probably asking "Why should I know about these tools?" All social media can be used to garner interest in your ministry and as a host to links back to your website. It is to be used as a supplement to your website, not as your primary Web presence. The ultimate goal is driving traffic to your website.
Think of it as a megaphone for your website. A way to amplify your message on the Web.
In upcoming blog posts, we will explain how to achieve this goal on each of the above social media channels.
Should I Sign Up?
No matter the size of your ministry, using social media tools can help you achieve your mission of reaching others for Christ. What does it take to achieve an effective social media presence?
- Strategy: Make goals, figure out how social media can help you achieve them, and decide which tool will be most effective.
- Time: You know the old saying: "Anything worth doing is worth doing right." If you don't have the time to do your best, it may be better not to start.
- Content: To make yourself stand out in the crowd, you need interesting things to say and stuff to link to on your website.
Helping Your Senior Pastor
As a ministry "communicator" you are all about furthering the reach of the message of Christ--an aim that readily transfers into supporting His messenger, your Senior Pastor. This begs the question, have you helped your Senior Pastor today?
Below are two important ways to consider...
GET HIM CURRENT
No, we're not talking cell phones, social media or even sweater vests :). We are talking about his web bio.
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Is the information accurate?
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Are the number and names of children correct?
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Does he still resemble his photo?
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Do you even have one posted on your website?
If not, then it's time for an update! When doing so, a simple tip to lengthen his bio's shelf-life is to omit the ages of his children and replace time references with dates (i.e. change "married eight years" to "married in 2002").
COMMUNICATE THE NEWS
Is the Lord working out his purposes in your midst? Share on your website the good news by posting news, blog updates or send out e-newsletter blasts. The daily responsibilities of a typical Senior Pastor doesn’t always allow for timely sharing of even the most powerful moments in your church. The body of Christ that you are involved with can’t be kept up to date if they don't know. :)
Noteworthy events in the life of your church or ministry might include:
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Baptisms.
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Anniversaries of specific dates and milestones.
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Elder installations.
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The launch of new programs.
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Those unexpected faith-building circumstances that God orchestrates.
Then...
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Tap someone to take photos and/or video. Always!
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Be selective. Upload 10-15 good images to your website.
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Create a News item and summarize the gist of the event in a few paragraphs. Include wow-moments and a few quotes if possible for these really help to communicate the moment. Add your photos and/or video to your page.
Free Trial
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Improving Search Results Case Study - Harvest Bible Chapel
BACKGROUND
Problem
HarvestBibleChapel.org ranks low in simple Google searches using key words.
Recommended Solution
Implement standard SEO practices including:
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Revising content
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Revising site title format (as seen on top of window)
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Adding Meta tags
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Changing menu headings
Project Goals
To boost the Google search ranking to the top 10 website listings in
each of the primary search terms. Simultaneously increase the website’s
grade on WebsiteGrader.com.
Time Line
One week, from Wednesday, January 27 to Wednesday, February 3, 2010.
IMPLEMENTATION
Revising Content
Every instance of “Harvest” was changed to “Harvest Bible Chapel” in
the website page’s content, where it was possible. “Harvest Bible
Chapel” is the search phrase most used by visitors arriving via a
Google. Increasing the use of this phrase in site content increases the
site’s ranking when entered in a search inquiry.
The link title “Pastor James’s Blog” was changed to “James MacDonald’s
Blog” to increase ranking when “James MacDonald” is entered in search
inquiries.
Revising Site Tile Format
The previous site title (which appears at the top of the Internet
browser window) was changed from the format “[Site Title] – [Page
Title]” (ex. “Harvest Bible Chapel – Main Site – New To Harvest?”) to
the format “Harvest Bible Chapel | Dr. James MacDonald | [Page Title].”
Removing the site title and replacing it with “Harvest Bible Chapel”
makes it more clear to Google what this site contains. Adding “Dr.
James MacDonald” also will improve the search ranking for those who
search this phrase.
Adding Meta Tags
No Meta tags were in place before this implementation. The description,
which appears under the Web site listing in Google search results, was
added as follows:
“Harvest Bible Chapel is one church meeting on five campuses in the
suburbs of Chicago, Illinois led by Senior Pastor James MacDonald.”
Mentioning the key phrases “Harvest Bible Chapel,” “James MacDonald,”
“church,” and “Chicago, Illinois” positively influences the Google
search rankings for these phrases.
Keywords act as magnet words for Google search inquiries. Sites that
include keyword Meta tags improve their search ranking when those words
or phrases are searched. The following keywords were added:
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Harvest Bible Chapel
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HarvestBibleChapel.org
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Harvest Bible Chicago
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James MacDonald
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Walk in the Word
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Harvest Bible Fellowship
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Chicago churches
Changing Menu Headings
The menu heading “About Harvest” was changed to “About Harvest Bible Chapel.”
RESULTS
Google Search Rankings
Search rankings for each of the key phrases improved dramatically after only two days.
Results Before SEO
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Results After SEO
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41 "harvest bible chapel"
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1 "harvest bible chapel" |
| 1 "harvestbiblechapel.org" |
1 "harvestbiblechapel.org" |
? "James MacDonald"
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3 "James MacDonald" |
23 "Dr. James MacDonald"
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6 "Dr. James MacDonald" |
7 "harvest bible"
|
1 "harvest bible" |
Website Grade
The website’s grade from WebsiteGrader.com increased more than four points after the SEO implementation.
Before SEO
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Results After SEO
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91 Overall Website Grade
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95.6* Overall Website Grade |
2 Google PageRank
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2 Google PageRank |
154 Google Indexed Pages
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138* Google Indexed Pages |
94 Blog Grade
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96.5* Blog Grade |
1,012 Inbound Links
|
1,012 Inbound Links |
2,425,735 Traffic Rank
|
2,450,000* Traffic Rank |
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* average |
Free Trial
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FUTURE RECOMMENDATIONS
Increase Google Page Rank and Inbound Links
The biggest influence on Page Rank is inbound links (other websites
linking to HarvestBibleChapel.org). The higher the Page Rank of the
sites linking to you, the more influence it has on your Page Rank.
HarvestBibleChapel.org has relatively low inbound links, so it is
crucial to develop more.
The challenge is that this site is more of a “hub” which directs many
users to the campus websites so the amount of content it contains, and
the frequency in which its content changes, is less than other church
websites of a similar size (harvest.org, willowcreek.org).
Finding a way to develop more inbound links is important to increase
the site’s traffic and it’s Page Rank. Sites to get inbound links:
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Local universities (.edu sites’ links carry more weight)
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Facebook (fan pages, personal profiles)
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Extension ministries: HCA, HBF, Walk in the Word, should all be linking back to this site)
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Twitter: a Harvest Twitter account would drive traffic and add links
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Other free sites: Chambers of Commerce, church directories, etc.
 Is Your Homepage Attractive? Part 5: Ads
5. Ads
In the past few blogs, we explored how to improve the look of your homepage by writing compelling content, adding thumbnails and highlights, and by creating a custom scrolling header. In this blog, we'll explain how ads can be the finishing touch on the first page your visitors see.
The goal of your homepage is to "convert" your vistor--to convince them to stay on your site longer, see what your ministry has to offer, and hopefully visit your ministry in person or contact you for more information. One way to do this is to show them what's happening with you. You can do this on a large scale with scrolling headers, but you can also do this by creating and uploading ads.
Just like a business would use advertisements in newspapers, billboards, or television, you can advertise your upcoming events, latest news, podcasts, or blogs in the same way. The goal is the same--to get your audience to buy what you're selling. In this case, you are selling your ministry and your ministry website's offerings.
On your iMinistries website, you have a designated place where ads will display, depending on your skin. Most ads show above highlights in the right column. And with iMinistries Rotator feature, you can easily add scrolling ads to maximize the use of this space.
Step 1: Create your ads to "sell" the content of your choice.
Step 2: Make a Rotator, add slides, upload your images, and link them to your content.
Step 3: In your site's Content Administration, use the Widget feature to add your Rotator as a ad.
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MORE RESOURCES FOR ADS
What is An Ad? How Do I Create an Ad? - iMinistries Knowledgebase
What is Rotator Admin? How Do I Create a Rotator? - iMinistries Knowledgebase Video Is Your Homepage Attractive? Part 4: Custom Header
4. Header
Your ministry website's header is your place to grab your visitor's
attention. Since its placement is most prominent on your homepage, your
header can be used for several things:
- To advertise your upcoming ministry events
- To link to your About pages (Our Beliefs, Service Times, etc.)
- To let visitors know about your site's blogs and podcasts
Using iMinistries' Rotator feature, you can create a scrolling header for your homepage that can do all these things.
Step 1: Create your banner images to advertise the content of your choice.
Step 2: Make a Rotator, add slides, upload your images, and link them to your content.
Step 3: In your site's Content Administration, use the Widget feature to add your Rotator as a header.
Now your site visitors can see what your ministry is all about, and what's currently going on, from the second they get there. And in the Web world, every second counts.
Free Trial
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MORE INFO ABOUT HEADERS AND THE ROTATOR FEATURE
Adding a Header – iMinistries Support Video
What is a Rotator? How do I Create a Rotator? – iMinistries Support Document
Rotator Feature – iMinistries Feature Description
Rotator Transition Styles – iMinistries Feature Description
 Is Your Homepage Attractive? Part 3: Adding Highlights
3. Highlights
Are you using Highlights effectively? Do you even know what a Highlight
is? Every page should have at least one Highlight on it. Why?
- Because they provide additional points of interest
- Because they provide additional imagery to break up the text
- Because
they make your website appear more dynamic, even if you don't have
someone maintaining your website, by using the "Random Highlight" option
- Because they make your website look more filled with content
- Because they provide additional cross links, which makes you look better to search engines
- Because they provide additional navigational links, which help your users find more information
Free Trial
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OTHER RESOURCES ON HIGHLIGHTS
What Are Highlights? – iMinistries Support
Adding Highlights? – iMinistries Support Video
Why Highlights? – Wisdom & Insight for Your Website
 Is Your Homepage Attractive? Part 2: Adding Thumbnails
2. Thumbnails
If you are not adding thumbnails to the content that you post on your church website, you are missing a step that is a total game changer for how your website looks. I don't want to say that this is the most common thing people miss, but it is a big one. Check out the difference between our previous blog entry and the one below. They have the exact same pieces of information in them but this one has thumbnails.
Thumbnails make your content "pop" off the page. The images break up the chunks of text so your homepage is more pleasing to the eye. They also give a visual representation to your content that your users can more easily identify with. Pictures speak a thousand words, remember?
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OTHER RESOURCES ON THUMBNAILS
How to add a thumbnail – iMinistries Support Video
Free thumbnails – iMinistries Resources Is Your Homepage Attractive? Part 1: ContentAs we've said before, having a great website is more than just fancy images and flashy bells and whistles. The same goes for having an attractive homepage. So how can you make your church website's homepage more attractive to its visitors? Follow us step-by-step through this five part series.
1. Content
Being visually appealing can make or break your website, but the real
killer is your written content and how often it changes. While
graphics can either pull people in or turn them away from your church
website, how can anyone ever find
you if Google, Bing, or Yahoo never visit you because there is no information for them to consume? And how will you keep people coming back if there is no information for them to consume?
You need written content on your website's homepage that is dynamic, always up-to-date, and is constantly-changing. Adding the
News, Events, or even Blog Widgets to your homepage will make a dramatic
difference in how your website looks, both to visitors and search engines.
In the example above, you can see that there are two news items, two events, and a latest blog entry from this website. This is an excellent start, especially because the content shows on the home page by a dynamic feed, or what we call the News, Events, and Blog Widget. Any time that there is a new item added to the News, Events, or Blogs Administration panel, they will update the home page.
Free Trial
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 Keyword Phrase Strategy's Importance to SEO
"I want to be on page one of Google."
That statement is the beginning of the practice of Search Engine Optimization (SEO). It’s when a website owner realizes that launching a website is not enough to attract new business, and that a complete Web marketing plan must be started.
The one thing that is missing in that statement, however, is for what keyword phrase do they want to rank on page one of Google? Though the answer given off the cuff by the website owner is insightful, the true answer requires research and expertise.
Otherwise, website owners will spend a lot of time and money and still rank poorly. Or equally disappointing, they may rank well, but for poorly chosen keyword phrases, and the resulting traffic to their website is of poor quality.
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For example, a church might choose "church services" as a keyword phrase, thinking the searcher on Google is seeking local church service times and options. But searchers also might use these terms to mean janitorial companies that specialize in cleaning churches, or for church service times 5,000 miles away.
Any traffic received from these searchers is worthless. The website traffic stats may grow, but that’s not telling the true story. Worst of all, even though the church invested time and money to rank well, it probably received no new calls or interest.
They may then be tempted to write off SEO and Web marketing. But the true problem was poor keyword phrase research and selection.
Lastly, SEO work lasts a long time. If a website succeeds and is on page one of Google, it will have that power for months, if not years, depending on how competitive the keyword phrases are. And if it does drop to page two, with a little attention, the former position can usually be restored.
So, it is critical that website owners don’t race through the keyword phrase selection process. It is not only the first step in SEO and Web marketing plans, but also the most important.
 Google Analytics: Campaigns, Custom Links, and More
Understanding campaign variables: The five dimensions of campaign tracking
Google Analytics tracks online campaigns using a combination of the following five marketing dimensions:
Source
Every referral to a web site has an origin, or source. Examples of sources are the Google search engine, the AOL search engine, the name of a newsletter, or the name of a referring website.
Medium
The medium helps to qualify the source; together, the source and medium provide specific information about the origin of a referral. For example, in the case of a Google search engine source, the medium might be "cost-per-click," indicating a sponsored link for which the advertiser paid, or "organic", indicating a link in the unpaid search engine results. In the case of a newsletter source, examples of medium include "e-mail" and "print."
Term
The term or keyword is the word or phrase that a user types into a search engine.
Content
The content dimension describes the version of an advertisement on which a visitor clicked. It is used in content-targeted advertising and Content (A/B) Testing to determine which version of an advertisement is most effective at attracting profitable leads.
Campaign
The campaign dimension differentiates product promotions such as "Spring Ski Sale" or slogan campaigns such as "Get Fit For Summer."
Creating Custom Links
Ever wonder how many of your site's users click on your ads or hyperlinks? Google Analytics can track that, too!
After creating an ad, visit the Google Analytics URL Builder.
After adding the end location of your link, edit a few descriptors and
Google will create a custom link. Copy this link and use it as your
hyperlink URL. Every time your website users click on this link, Google
will track their visit information. To access that information, just
click Campaigns under Traffic Sources in your website report.
Free Trial
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MORE RESOURCES FOR GOOGLE ANALYTICS
Getting Started Guide – Google Analytics
Quick Start Guide for Custom Reporting – Google Analytics
How Do I Tag My Links? – Google Analytics
 Google Analytics: Viewing Traffic Reports
Analyize tons of data about your ministry website visitors
After you add your Google Analytics account number to your iMinistries website, you'll need to wait 24 hours for data to accumulate on your GA profile. When your data is complied, you can view any of the dozens of Google Analytics reports by clicking the View Reports link at the top of your Analytics screen.
Types of Reports
Important reports in the Content section:
Overview: lists pageview volume and lists the pages (Top Content) that were most responsible for driving pageviews.
Top Content: Which are the most commonly viewed pages on your site, and how are they used? The table lists all of the pages which were viewed on your site. A high "Time on Page" may indicate content that is particularly interesting to visitors.
Top Exit Pages: From which pages do people exit your site? It may be common for visitors to exit your site from a receipt or "thank you" page because they have completed a conversion activity. But a large number of exits from a news item, blog, or event pagemay indicate that the page is confusing or uninteresting.
Important reports in the Traffic Sources section:
 Overview: Shows the different kinds of sources that send traffic to your site. The graph shows traffic trends. The pie-chart and tables show what is driving the trends. How did your website visitors get to your site: Direct Traffic, Referring Sites, or Search Engines?
Direct Traffic: How do the people who clicked a bookmark or typed your site URL into their browser to visit your website compare to the "average" visitor to your site?
Referring Sites: How do the people referred from other sites compare to the "average" visitor to your site? The graph shows the overall trends in traffic volume from referrals while the table lists the sites driving the trends.
Search Engines: How does search engine traffic compare to traffic as a whole to your site? The graph shows overall trends while the table lists the search engines driving the trends. (Read our blog entries on how to improve your Google search results.)
Keywords: How does traffic from search keywords compare to traffic as a whole to your site? The graph shows overall trends while the table shows the keywords driving the trends.
Important reports in the Visitors section:
Visitors Overview: How many new and returning visitors came to your site and how extensively did they interact with your content? This traffic overview allows you to drill down into aspects of visit quality (i.e. average pageviews, time on site, bounce rate) and visit characteristics (i.e. first time visitors, returning visits).
 Visits: The number of visits your site receives is the most basic measure of how effectively you promote your site.
Pageviews: Pageviews is the total number of pages viewed on your site and is a general measure of how much your site is used.
Average Pageviews: Average pageviews is one way of measuring visit quality. A high Average Pageviews number suggests that visitors interact extensively with your site. A high Average Pageviews results from one or both of:
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Appropriately targeted traffic (i.e. visitors who are interested in what your site offers)
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High quality content effectively presented on the site.
Conversely, a low average pageviews indicates that the traffic coming to the site has not been appropriately targeted to what the site offers or that the site does not deliver what was promised to the visitor.
 Time on Site: If visitors spend a long time visiting your site, they may be interacting extensively with it. This can sometimes be misleading because visitors often leave browser windows open when they are not actually viewing or using your site.
Bounce Rate: Bounce rate is the percentage of single-page visits (i.e. visits in which the person left your site from the entrance page). Bounce rate is a measure of visit quality and a high bounce rate generally indicates that site entrance (landing) pages aren't relevant to your visitors.
 New vs. Returning: A high number of new visitors suggests that you are successful at driving traffic to your site while a high number of return visitors suggests that the site content is engaging enough to keep visitors coming back. You can see how frequently visitors return and how many times they return in "Recency" report and the "Loyalty report," both under "New vs. Returning" in the Visitors section.
Map Overlay: Use this map to visualize visits by geographic region, country, and city.
Length of Visit (Visitor Behavior): Length of visit is a measure of visit quality. A large number of lengthy visits suggests that visitors interact more extensively with your site. The graph allows you to visualize the entire distribution of visits instead of simply the ‘Average Time on Site’ across all visits.
Depth of Visit (Visitor Behavior): Depth of visit is a measure of visit quality. A large number of high pageviews per visit suggests that visitors interact extensively with your site. The graph allows you to visualize the entire distribution of visits instead of simply the average pageviews per visit.
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Terms Used By Google Analytics
Visits vs. Visitors
Analytics measures both visits and visitors in your account. Visits represent the number of individual sessions initiated by all the visitors to your site. If a user is inactive on your site for 30 minutes or more, any future activity will be attributed to a new session. Users that leave your site and return within 30 minutes will be counted as part of the original session.
The initial session by a user during any given date range is considered to be an additional visit and an additional visitor. Any future sessions from the same user during the selected time period are counted as additional visits, but not as additional visitors.
Pageviews vs. Unique Pageviews
A pageview is defined as a view of a page on your site that is being tracked by the Analytics tracking code. If a visitor hits reload after reaching the page, this will be counted as an additional pageview. If a user navigates to a different page and then returns to the original page, a second pageview will be recorded as well.
A unique pageview, as seen in the Top Content report, aggregates pageviews that are generated by the same user during the same session. A unique pageview represents the number of sessions during which that page was viewed one or more times.
Viewing Traffic Reports
Check out the video below to see report checking in action.
MORE RESOURCES FOR GOOGLE ANALYTICS
Getting Started Guide – Google Analytics
Quick Start Guide for Custom Reporting – Google Analytics
Reporting Basics – Google Analytics
 Google Analytics: Why Add it to Your Ministry Website?
Track your website traffic with detailed reports from Google Analytics.
Google Analytics (GA) is a free service offered by Google that generates detailed statistics about the visitors to a website. It is the most widely used website statistics service, currently in use at around 40% of the 10,000 most popular websites.
GA can track visitors from search engines and other websites and direct traffic. GA is designed to be used by both the casual Web administrator to the advanced Web marketer.
In your general reports, GA will display:
- number of visitors to your site (within custom date ranges)
- average pages per visit
- bounce rate
- average time visitors are on your site
- percentage of new visitors
- traffic sources
- a list of your most-visited pages
How to Add Google Analytics
Adding Google Analytics to your iMinistries website is as easy as "copy and paste."
We are excited to offer you the ability to track your websites hits through Google Analytics. Set up is easy and free and the information that Google provides you is very useful.
- To begin, you must create a Google account. It is free.
- After you create your account, go to Google Analytics.
- Login with your new Google account.
- At the bottom of the screen, click on "Add a website profile."
- Next, enable the first radio button titled Add a Profile for a new domain.
- Add your url into the URL area.
- Click Finish.
- The next page is the important one. Look at the code that is provide and find your Google tracking code. Here is a example:
- Now, go to your website and log into Site Administration.
- Click on Site Controls
- Click on Site Preferences
- Enter in your Google Analytics Account number. It will be in this format - UA-xxxxxxx-x.
- Save
- That's it! Your reports should begin to populate after 24 hours.
Free Trial
We believe the best way to describe our tools is for you to try them out yourself. We offer a 15-day free trial account which will give you a few days to use all of the features available to our paying clients. There's no risk and no obligation. Who knows, you might even enjoy the new control you have over your very own website.
Create Your Free Trial Account
MORE RESOURCES FOR GOOGLE ANALYTICS
Getting Started Guide – Google Analytics
Quick Start Guide for Custom Reporting – Google Analytics
How Do I Tag My Links? – Google Analytics
Why Add Highlights?
How Highlights improve the look and function of each page on your church website.
 Each page, news item, and event on your iMinistries website has five "slots" to insert highlights. Highlights are other pages, blog entries, news, events, or content that you select as a highlight when you create it. To maximize your ministry website's potential, it is important to fill each page with as many relevant highlights as you can.
Look
Although you may have heard that empty space is a good way to break up text on a page, allowing too much space can make your site look empty and unimportant. Each inch of space is valuable real estate--don't waste it by forgetting to add highlights.
When creating a page and selecting it to be a highlight, add a thumbnail. Thumbnails provide you a chance to be make your site pop by breaking up text with images (people love images!).
Be creative. Choose a theme for your thumbnails and run with it. Have all your thumbnails feature:
- People from your ministry
- A consistent color scheme
- Christian imagery (a Christmas star, open Bibles, and empty tombs)
- A similar look-and-feel
- Or a mixture of all
Free Trial
We believe the best way to describe our tools is for you to try them out yourself. We offer a 15-day free trial account which will give you a few days to use all of the features available to our paying clients. There's no risk and no obligation. Who knows, you might even enjoy the new control you have over your very own website.
Create Your Free Trial Account
Function
Highlights help your users find related information as they explore your website–content they might not otherwise have found. For example, on your About Us page, highlight your Contact Us page so visitors can easily navigate there to send you a comment or question. On an event that is located at your camp, highlight a page with camp directions and information. On a blog entry that hosts your sermon audio, highlight sermon notes for users to follow along.
Using highlights as links to other content on your ministry website makes it easier to keep your menu clutter-free. Partnering highlights with hyperlinks, resource pages, and widgets keeps you from adding every page into your menu. Your users will thank you for this ease in navigation. Not necessarily in verbal (or e-mailed) praise, but definitely in repeat visits to your site.
OTHER RESOURCES ON HIGHLIGHTS
What Is A Highlight? – iMinistries Support Document
Adding Highlights (Video) – iMinistries Support Video
What is a Thumbnail? – iMinistries Support Document
 Your Church Media: Widgets
What is a Widget?
 A widget is a “chunk” of HTML code which commands content to display on a page. The great thing about a widget is you don’t have to know anything about HTML or writing code to utilize it. You just plug in your information and the Web site embeds content for you.
What Can I Embed?
With widgets you can embed (click the links for examples):
Blogs
Post entries from any of your ministry website's blogs on any page.
Blog entries posted on a website's homepage
News and Events
Add a widget to your homepage to display your website's latest news and events. Or add a widget to a page or blog entry listing a specific ministry's news and events.
News and events embedded into a website's homepage
Photo Galleries
Show off your ministry website's photos on any page with a gallery slide show.
Photo gallery embedded in a news item on our demo website
Products
Embed your site's products (CDs, T-shirts, DVDs, etc.) inside news items or blog entries.
Products embedded in a blog entry on our demo website
Flickr Slideshows
Incorporate your Flickr photos, sets, and collections into your iMinistries website.
Flickr slideshows embedded in a ministry website page
Twitter Feeds
Display your most recent tweets in an ad and show it site-wide. Or embed it in any page. You can limit the number of tweets shown and add a custom heading ("Pastor Dave's Tweets").
Twitter feed embedded in an ad on a ministry website's homepage
Interactive Google Maps
Enter your ministry location's address to add a Google map on any page (About Us, Contact Us, Ministry Information). Users can zoom in and out and get directions to and from this location, making it easier for visitors to find you.
Interactive Google map embedded into a ministry website's "Service Times & Directions" page
YouTube and Vimeo Videos
Gone are the days of pasting embed codes into your HTML editor. With widgets, just paste your ministry video's ID (found in your URL) and embed vidoes on any page. You control the size of your video, making it possible to embed them into ads.
Vimeo videos embedded into a ministry website's "Videos" page
MP3 Players
Turn any page into a jukebox, a spot for your latest sermons, or a host for your new Podcast. Just upload your MP3 file through Content Administration and paste its URL into this widget and add anywhere.
MP3s embedded into a ministry website page
How do I use the Widget Feature on my iMinistries Site?
You can embed widgets on any page that uses an Editor (news, events, blog entries, pages, ministry descriptions, ads, etc.). Here are the steps to adding a widget:
- Create or edit the desired page or item.
- Click on the widget button in the editor toolbar.
- Select the type of widget you want to embed.
- Fill in your information, choose your preferences, upload any files (MP3), and click Add.
- Save your page or item. To preview the widget, click on the green arrow next to the item in Administration.
Free Trial
We believe the best way to describe our tools is for you to try them out yourself. We offer a 15-day free trial account which will give you a few days to use all of the features available to our paying clients. There's no risk and no obligation. Who knows, you might even enjoy the new control you have over your very own website.
Create Your Free Trial Account
MORE INFORMATION ON WIDGETS
"Web widget" – Wikipedia.org
Widgets in Action – iMinistries.org
 Your Church Media: VideoThe modern website visitor is one with a short attention span. They want information, and they want it immediately. They want news, and they want it the second it occurs. And the less effort they have to put forth, the better.
Video is a great medium for spreading information, giving updates, and sharing stories. It engages the viewer without requiring anything on their end but the ability to push "play" and watch. Video combines the power of images with the authority of audio.
 Embedding Video with YouTube and Vimeo
The best way to add
streaming video content to your website is by uploading it to
to a video hosting site like YouTube or Vimeo and embedding it into your desired page. Each video posted on these sites displays an embedding code. By copying this code and pasting it onto your site, you can add video to any page.
Even easier, you can add your video by using our Widget feature. Just edit or create your page, click the Widget button, type in your video's location, and add.
YouTube or Vimeo?
Even though YouTube is more popular, we suggest using Vimeo to host your ministry's videos. Why?
- YouTube limits uploading videos 10 minutes or less (unless you pay extra). Vimeo only limits you in amount of Mb of video uploaded per week.
- Vimeo allows you to choose the videos your video links to. YouTube gives you the option to turn off the links, but only on the embedded video. The video on YouTube still displays links to random videos (some may have inappropriate content).
- Vimeo allows you to password protect your videos to limit its viewability.
- With Vimeo, you can limit which sites can embed your videos, limiting them from being posted on other sites.
- You can create "Channels" for your Vimeo videos for better organization.
- Your Vimeo videos or channels can be grouped into a slide show or badge widget for easy access to your video library.
Free Trial
We believe the best way to describe our tools is for you to try them out yourself. We offer a 15-day free trial account which will give you a few days to use all of the features available to our paying clients. There's no risk and no obligation. Who knows, you might even enjoy the new control you have over your very own website.
Create Your Free Trial Account
MORE INFORMATION ABOUT ADDING VIDEO
Vimeo Basics - Vimeo.com
"Upload a Video" Tutorial - Vimeo.com
YouTube Help Center - YouTube.com
"Embedding Video" Tutorial - iMinistries Support Video
 Your Church Media: PodcastingIn this communication age, it is important to utilize as many ways as possible to reach your audience. In a previous blog entry, we explained how to find your audience and your writing voice. Through Podcasting your sermons and lessons, you can use your actual voice to reach a wider audience.
What Is a Podcast?
 Podcasting is a standardized way to distribute audio files to Internet users, for downloading and listening offline (through a program like iTunes) or listening from a host site online. Podcasting is done by placing files on a
Web server and using an RSS feed to describe each file. On your
iMinistries site, podcasting is simplified using the Blog functionality. A Podcast on your site is a blog entry with an audio file embedded within the entry. Since all blogs on
your site automatically offer an RSS feed, your blog becomes a Podcast
when you add audio files to the entry.
This all sounds more complicated than it really is. On an iMinistries site, all you have to do is create a blog, add entries, and upload your audio file with each entry.
Creating a Podcast
- Create a Blog (see How to Create a Blog)
- Create a Blog Entry
- Upload an mp3 file as an enclosure by browsing to the file on your computer.
- Visit the blog page (you can use the open
 to get to the blog page when you are on the actual Blog Entry page).
- Locate and click the RSS Feed link. It looks like a larger version of this :
 .
If you don't see it on your page, you haven't add the RSS Feed panel to your Blog.
- Your browser should show some XML code (language used to
communicate your Podcast). Find the URL in the address bar of your
browser. This is the address of your Podcast.
After adding your audio file to a blog entry, you can add your sermon or lesson to the iTunes directory to reach even more people. Those visiting the iTunes Store can search and download your Podcast without visiting your site.
 Adding Your Podcast to iTunes Podcast Directory
- If you have iTunes installed, you may simply follow this link and skip to step 5.
- Open iTunes (if you do not have it installed already, visit Apple's website for a free download)
- Visit iTunes Music Store
- Click Podcasts
- Click Submit a Podcast
- Paste your the address of your podcast into the box and follow all the steps
MORE INFO/HELP ON PODCASTING
How Do I Create A Podcast? - iMinistries Help System
Making a Podcast - Apple.com
FAQs: For Podcast Makers - Apple.com
 What's the Difference (Between Church Web Content Management Systems)
 There are many ways for a growing church to put together a website—even a high-quality website. You might consider:
- Find talented web designers in your church to create a website for you.
- Find someone technical within your church to set up one of the open source content management systems available.
- Hire a web designer or web master to create and maintain your website.
- Contract with a web design firm to design a template and pages.
- Use a hosted content management system like iMinistries
- Use a combination of a few of these.
A hosted church content management system (CMS) is the right choice for most churches. However, we’re aware that there’s a choice between web CMS's. Why choose iMinistries over other CMS's? Why choose us over one of the more established systems available like Joomla or Drupal? Why choose us over the other church-specific web CMS's?
Should your decision be based on a feature comparison, the available designs, ease of use, available support or the cost?
The answer is "yes," you need to balance all of these. The system you choose should:
- Have the features you need.
- Be able to be designed to fit your image.
- Be easy enough to use that everyone in your organization can use it.
- Be supported by people who care about your mission.
- Be one that you can afford to maintain long term.
Why choose iMinistries? Because our goal is to strike the perfect balance between these priorities. If you explore us, we believe you will find that we’ve done just that. iMinistries provides:
- A full set of website features needed by churches and ministries
and then some. Powerful enough that Steve, your technical volunteer,
will be impressed and able to help you get the most out of the system.
- The flexibility to implement a wide array of designs, including several free designs as well as a growing number of affordable designs. Flexible enough to accommodate even Nate, your fussy volunteer designer.
- A unified user experience designed with church users in mind. Simple enough to be used by Carol in the front office.
- Free support from
people whose passion is to help ministries reach people for Christ and
raise up His disciples. Our team will help you get your site up and
running quickly and keep it running. Support enough to keep Joe, your
executive pastor, happy with the time line and the up-time.
- Packages priced to fit your ministry. Affordable enough that Fred, head of your finance committee, will be a fan for life.
In all honesty, we don’t strive to be the best in any one of these areas— we strive to balance them the best. We think you will agree—so will Steve, Nate, Carol, Joe and Fred. Why not give us a try and find out?
 Better Web Writing, Part 3: I Like Your Style
 Now that you have found your voice and learned how to beautify your text, it's important to set some rules for your content. You wouldn't teach your child to speak, dress them in their Sunday best, and then let them run amok. You shouldn't do the same to your content.
Creating rules for yourself (and others who create content) helps to guide your content in the right direction. Like bumpers on a bowling lane, content rules help keep you from throwing gutter balls. Take the steps below to set up your guidelines.
Incorporate links into the text.
Avoid making links out of just "click here." Instead, build the links into a sentence. So, if I wanted you to check out a previous blog entry, I would add a link to the underlined text in this sentence.
Be consistent.
Pick a style and go with it. Not only
will this promote a clean, uniform feel on your site, but it also improves its look.
There are many established styles (AP, Chicago, MLA, APA). But you don't have to use one of these. You can create your own by making stylistic choices and utilizing that style throughout your content. What will you capitalize or abbreviate? What will you call reoccurring events? What will you name your ministries?
Here are a few decisions to get you started:
- 9:00 A.M. or 9 a.m. or 9am?
- Colorado or Colo. or CO?
- October 25 or Oct. 25th
- 5th Graders or fifth grade students?
- Children's Ministry: Jesus and Me or Kid's Club?
- small groups or Small Groups?
- address your visitors as "loved
ones" or "friends"?
- New Believers Class or First Steps or Theology 101?
Avoid Churchisms.
Keep your articles free of overused, ambiguous words and phrases that have become like Christian jargon. Think of something fresh that visitors, churched and un-churched, easily understand. A good rule of thumb to use: if you have to explain it, get rid of it.
Start by purging your content of the following:
- "food, friends,
and fellowship"
- "come alongside"
- "lift up" as "in prayer" or "in song"
- "God put it on my heart"
- big theological words like: "dispensationalism," "parousia," and "transubstantiation"
SOURCES FOR THIS BLOG/FURTHER READING ON WRITING FOR THE WEB
The 10 Commandments of Internet Writing: Web Pro News
Better Writing for the Internet: Ask Oxford
50 Free Resources That Will Improve Your Writing Skills: Smashing Magazine
Copywriting 101: Copyblogger
 Better Web Writing, Part 2: Words As Pictures
Writing Compelling Content for Your Church Website.
 There's a saying that "pictures are worth a thousand words." On the Web, because attention spans are so brief and space is so important, words have to be pictures. Confused? Use the advice below to start crafting your text into word-pictures.
Care how it looks.
Web content is a visual medium. Visitors like text that looks good on
the page. If a page is not attractive, why would
someone stay on that page, let alone read its content? If the text is distracting, visitors move on without reading what you have to say.
Use white space to break up chunks of text to allow the
reader to scan the content. Use lists, bullet points, and tables to organize your blocks of text. Use bold and italics to make important words, phrases, and headings stand out. Limit the use of all caps and
exclamation points. Include images whenever possible.
Instead of this...
Help us serve those in our community by providing for their needs and DONATE TO OUR FOOD PANTRY!!
Our current needs include: cereal, instant potatoes, canned vegetables, baby formula, and pasta.
Please help us by dropping off your boxes or bags of NON-PERISHABLE foods in the Food Pantry bins in the lobby!
Do this...
Help us serve those in our community by providing for their needs. Donate to our Food Pantry.
 Our current needs include:
- cereal
- instant potatoes
- canned vegetables
- baby formula
- pasta
Drop off your boxes or bags of non-perishable foods in the Food Pantry bins in the lobby.
Shorter the better.
Use short, choppy sentences. Chunk these sentences together into brief
paragraphs of 2-3 sentences so as not to intimidate the reader with
long blocks of text.
Like a newspaper article, answer all the important questions at the
beginning (who, what, when, where, why, and how) and explain in more
detail as the article continues. Cut out unnecessary information,
adjectives, and adverbs. Adhere to the "Keep it Simple" attitude.
Example of short and choppy:
Calvary Baptist Student Ministries:
Impact is our ministry for students in High School. Impact students are committed to a single purpose: living for the glory of God. They meet
three times a month in home groups and at a large
group meeting twice per month.
Xtreme for Christ is our ministry for students in Junior High. They meet each Thursday at 7:00 P.M. in the Youth Room. Each week is
filled with small discussion groups, worship, and hang out time.
Jesus And Me (JAM) is our Children's Ministry. JAM meets every Sunday morning and evening during our main worship services. Each child is given a Bible-based lesson, activity, and memory verse every week.
 Better Web Writing, Part 1: Finding Your Voice
Writing Compelling Content for Your Church Website.
 Visitors will come to your church website because of flashy imagery, but they'll keep coming back for fresh, well written content. Writing for the Web is different than writing for other mediums. Web visitors have shorter attention spans than any other medium, so it is important to know how to write to keep their attention as long as possible and keep them coming back for more.
Over the next several blogs, we will give you tips for improving your Web writing. The first step to becoming a better Web writer is finding and developing your writing "voice." We've used the analogy in a previous blog entry that your church website is like a conversation. Your voice, like your speaking voice, is the tone projected by the words you use and how you use them.
Here are three keys to developing your voice:
Know your audience.
Before you begin crafting the words directed toward your website users, it is important to understand their expectations and wants so you can meet them.
Your ministry visitors want to feel in touch with your pastor and want to sense being cared
for by staff members from the minute they walk in the door. They want to interact with you and not feel
like a number sitting alone in a pew. You want them to feel at home, too, so when you greet these visitors to your ministry, you smile, welcome them, and give them your undivided attention. Your writing voice should do exactly the same thing.
Be friendly.
Your tone has the power to invite people in or turn people away. Use informal language. Say "we" and "you" instead of "our
congregation" or "ministry leaders" to make yourself more relatable. Use your page as a handshake and
your text as a "welcome."
Example of friendly voice:
If you are interested in becoming a member of Calvary Baptist, we invite you to attend Meet the Pastors.
Meet the Pastors is a great first step
towards becoming involved at Calvary. If you are investigating or
have recently decided to make Calvary your church home, then we welcome you to join us at Meet the Pastors.
Please register for Meet the Pastors today. We would love to see you there!
Be firm and use active voice.
Use active voice when writing news articles or blogs to energize the
content and involve the reader. Use strong commands when writing ad
content to promote action. Use the present tense and confident words to
give your text authority.
Example of firm, active voice using present tense:
Join us at one of our two Sunday services. We meet at 9:30 A.M. and 7:00 P.M. each week. We invite you to engage in Christ-centered worship and an
application-filled study of God’s Word with us.
Visit our "What To Expect" page to find out more about our services and our beliefs. If you have a question or comment, fill out a Contact Us form.
SOURCES FOR THIS BLOG/FURTHER READING ON WRITING FOR THE WEB
The 10 Commandments of Internet Writing: Web Pro News
 Improving Search Results, Chapter 3: Directories and Social Media
Make Your Ministry Website More Visible By Using Directories and Social Media Websites.
Now that you have conquered Google by increasing your PageRank, and other search engines by adding Meta Tags, you can still improve your search engine results. By adding your site to directories and social sites, you can improve your church website’s credibility which will move your site up the chain of search results.
Directories
Directories are man-made lists of websites. Each site that is added to a directory is evaluated and deemed one of high quality. So being added to one or more of these directories is seen by search engines as a thumbs up from peers, which influences the order in which they list sites in query results.
Three directories you should add your site to:
- DMOZ
- Yahoo Directory
- ZoomInfo
DMOZ
A volunteer-run directory hosted by Mozilla, only sites with quality content will get listed here. New sites are less likely, and since it is managed by volunteers, it can take time to get added. DMOZ is the largest human-edited directory of the
Web, so if you aren't listed here, search engines will be given a reason not to list your site at the top of results. Add your site to DMOZ.
Yahoo Directory
Yahoo's Directory unfortunately is not free, it costs you $299 per year. But its size and name recognition might make it worth your while if you care deeply about improving your search results. Add your site to Yahoo Directory.
ZoomInfo
This directory and search engine is geared more toward businesses, but allows you to create an informative profile. You can add a searchable profile for your ministry and link to your website. ZoomInfo has profiles on more than 37 million people and 3.5 million companies, so it can be valuable to have on your site's "resume." Create a profile on ZoomInfo.
Social Networking and Media Sites
These sites can be used to drive more traffic to your website. More traffic means more respect from search engines and a better search ranking.
Three social networking and media sites you should add your site (and its content) to:
- Facebook
- Del.icio.us
- Digg
Facebook
We all know that Facebook is great for keeping in touch with old friends from the past, but it can also help you increase your Web traffic and boost your search engine results. You can create a free group and allow people to become a "fan" of your ministry. You can also link to your website and post news and event updates (which you can link to news and events on your site) to drive more visitors to your site. We thought that we should take our own advice and recently created a group. If you are an existing client or are thinking about becoming one, why not join the iMinistries Facebook Group?
Del.icio.us
If you create compelling content on your site, your users will share it with others on this web-based bookmarking site ( learn more about Del.icio.us here). The best avenue for creating the kind of constantly changing content people share is in our blog feature. Here you can discuss your weekly sermons more in-depth, and allow your visitors to add comments. You can share your insights on relevant topics or events. If you haven't started a blog, visit this help file to find out how you can do so today.
Digg
Digg is a site that allows you or your visitors to submit and rate articles. Each article can receive diggs, or votes, from Digg.com users. More diggs means articles move closer and closer to the Digg homepage or its topic homepages. If you or visitors to your site submit articles and they are compelling enough to become popular, this could mean increased traffic to your site--and we now know that high-traffic sites get listed higher on search results. To submit articles, you must first create a free account.
 Improving Search Results, Chapter 2: Utilizing Meta Tags
Make Your Ministry Website More Visible With Meta Tags
What are Meta Tags?
Meta Tags are keywords and phrases hidden in the background of your church website to describe your page to search engines. These tags help them determine if your site is best for a search query. They also appear as the title and description of your site in the results of those search queries.
If you have not added Meta tags to your site, search engines will use the first lines of your page as your description, so you can see why Meta tags are an important tool to ensure that users find you. Meta tags give you control over the first impression you present to searchers.
For example, Calvary Church and Grace Bible are two ministries in suburban Boston. Calvary has added Meta title and description tags to their site. Grace Bible has not, so the search engine has grabbed its menu bar as its description. Below are the search results for “Bible church in Boston suburbs”:
Calvary Church - Welcome
Calvary is a Bible-believing church that has faithfully served the Boston suburbs since 1974. Calvary offers diverse ministry for men, women, children, and students…
Grace Bible – Home – Grace Bible Church
Home – Ministries – Contact Us – FAQ – info@gracebible.net 123 Main St., Suburbs, MA 12345…
You can see how these small tags can make a big impression on search engine users. Calvary Church’s website jumps out as more relevant, simply because they added a brief summary of their ministry as a Meta Tag.
What Content Should I use in a Meta Tag?
Concentrate on creating three types of Meta Tags, using the analogy of a book:
-
Title (book title): Summarize your ministry in a few short words. Obviously, you ministry name should come first. But adding two or three words after the ministry…
-
Description (back cover summary): In a few short sentences, describe your ministry. This description will be displayed under your site's title in search results (like above) and is often called a "snippet." To read more about how to create more effective snippets, check out this article from Google.
-
Keywords (subject, genre, author): List words and phrases that relate to your ministry. Like your location, your senior pastor or founder’s name, and even “church.” Google has decided to help you out with keyword development. Their Keyword Tool allows you to generate suggested keywords by entering in your website's URL.
How can I add Meta Tags to My iMinistries site?
Adding a Meta Tag to your iMinistries site is easy. Just follow these steps:
-
Navigate to your Site Administration.
-
In your Site Controls, select Site Preferences.
-
On the General tab, click [Meta Tag Administration]
-
Click Add Tag
-
Name your tag (ex. “Description”), fill in the Content field, and save.
You can also add Meta Tags to individual pages. When you edit any page, event, news article, or other content, navigate to its SEO (Search Engine Optimization) tag. Add your descriptions and keywords in the fields provided.
 Improving Search Results, Chapter 1: The Google Monster
Make Your Site More Visible on Google Search Results By Improving Your PageRank.
How Does Google Determine Search Ranking?
Many new visitors to your church website find you through search engines. Whether they type in generic terms like “churches in downtown Louisville” or your exact ministry name, you want your website to be the first in lists of search results. To make this a reality, you should know about search engine optimization (SEO).
Dominate among search engines is Google who utilizes its own system for the order of how websites are listed in search results. Their PageRank formula is a important part of that system.
Simplified, the formula Google uses to determine whether your ministry is the first site listed when someone enters in a search query that relates to you is this:
Search Ranking = Relevance x PageRank
Relevance
To determine your site’s Relevance, Google looks at your site’s content and compares it with other sites similar to yours, in both quality and quantity. So, for example, if another “church in downtown Louisville” uses those words and phrases less than you do on your site, your Relevance is likely to be higher. If the title of your site’s pages all include your name and someone searches that name, your Relevance will be higher than other sites.
PageRank
Google assigns a number from 0-10 (10 being best) to each website to measure its credibility and overall quality. This number is determined primarily by how many other websites link to your site, with links from sites with higher PageRanks counted as much more significant because their links are more valuable. Think of it this way, a job reference from the President carries much more weight than one from the lunch lady.
Here is a summary of PageRanks and the sites that make them up, from HubSpot.com:
0-1: New sites; sites with not many other sites linking to it
2-3: Sites with minimal links
4-5: Popular sites with a fair amount of other sites linking to it
6: Very popular sites that have hundreds of links, many of them quality links
7-10: Usually media brands (NYTimes.com), big companies, or A-list blogs.
To find out your PageRank, use one of the free tools below:
PageRank Checker
WebSiteGrader
How to Bump Up Your Google Search Ranking
Here are a few easy steps you can take you improving your PageRank:
-
Spell-check the content on your site. Visitors can't find you if you spell Calvary Church “Cavalry Chruch.”
-
Include words that people might enter in their searches in your content. If your ministry is in Louisville, make sure it says so on your site.
-
Make sure each page on your site has a title in the top toolbar.
-
If you have partner ministries, include a page on your site where you link to their sites, and encourage them to do the same. The more sites you can get linking to you, the better.
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Be picky about who you link to. Only link to quality sites who update their content regularly.
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Update your home page and other pages constantly with fresh content, news items, and events. Use our Widgets Feature to do the work for you.
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Sign up for Google Analytics and use it. Using this free tool will let you see traffic to your site and give you insights on how to improve your content.
- Link to other content on your site using hyperlinks. In the text of a news item, link to an event so visitors can register. In a blog, link to a photo gallery. These links help balance your PageRank over your whole site.
- Take pride in the quality of your content. Avoid duplicate pages and information. Make text clear and brief.
- When you link to other pages or sites, use keywords. Instead of writing "click here" and making it a hyperlink, use text that relates to the item you are linking to, like "All Church Picnic Registration."
Sources for This Blog and Further Reading on SEO
The Importance of Google PageRank - HubSpot.com
12 Things to Do to Improve Your Site's Google Page Ranking - Stason.org
 Make Your Location Map Interactive
Use the Google Map Widget to Embed an Interactive Map on Your Church Website
To make it easier for your church website users to visit your ministry in person, consider embedding a map, like the one below, from Google in your About Us section.
To make a map like what you see above, follow these steps:
- Edit or create a news item, page, or event.
- Select the Widget button from the Editor's toolbar.
- Click on the Google Map link to expand the feature.
- Enter in your location's address, the size you want your map, and your desired zoom level and Add.
- Change the status of your page to Published and Save.
- Bask in your new found knowledge as well as how you now are providing an interactive map to the users of your church website!
After you save your changes, navigate to your new page and insure you like what you see. If you would like for it to appear differently, go back through the steps that you have just taken and adjust the map accordingly. When users of your website visit this page, they can interact with the map getting very detailed directions.
 Bounce Rate and How to Reduce It
 What is Bounce Rate?
A bounce occurs when a person visits your church website and leaves without visiting any other pages on your site. This is the equivalent to a visitor attending your church and then leaving after they hear your opening prayer. The problem with this is obvious.
Bounce Rate is a term used in website traffic analysis. It represents the percentage of visitors to a site who "bounce" away to a different site, rather than continue on to other pages within the same site. The formula used to calculate bounce rate is: Bounce Rate = Total Number of Visits Viewing One Page ÷ Total Number of Visits.
Just as you want church visitors to stay longer than the first 10 minutes of your service, you want your website visitors to stay on your site long enough to learn about who you are as well as get connected to your ministry. Lowering your Bounce Rate is the key to achieving that goal.
A high Bounce Rate from any page means that your site's pages don’t give visitors any reason to stay, so making your homepage and other pages as relevant as possible to your visitors is crucial.
Ways to Reduce Bounce Rate and Keep Visitors on Your Site
- Streamline Your Menu
Your menu is the most important tool to navigate your site. Visitors want to find information quickly and easily, so don't bog down your menu with too many choices. Limit your main menu categories to the 6-7 most important, and only include relevant pages (five or less) as sub-categories.
Use the example menu below as a good rule of thumb:
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Home
- About Us
- Our History
- Our Mission
- What We Believe
- Weekend Services
- Staff
- Ministries
- Men's Ministry
- Women's Ministry
- Student Ministry
- Children's Ministry
- Small Groups
- Media
- Contact Us
- My Church
In a previous blog entry entitled, "Spring Cleaning for your Website," we talked about simplifying a site's menu by combining items and making it easier to navigate by using breadcrumbs--all great advice for helping your users find information.
- Add Highlights with Thumbnails
On the sidebar or footer of each of your site's pages, news items, events, and other items is a space to include up to five highlights--links to other content on your site. Adding highlights that relate to the content on each page is an easy way to entice users to explore your website. For example, on the home page, you might include highlights for your "Weekend Services" page, "This Week's Sermon" blog, "Meet the Pastors" event, and "Our Mission" page. (See this help file to learn more about highlights.)
Include a thumbnail with your highlight to make it "pop" off the page. Read this help file to find out how to add thumbnails to your items.
- Add Recent News or Events with Smart Tags
With Smart Tags, you can embed content from your site inside other content. To let your visitors see the latest happenings in your ministry, use Smart Tags to display the most recently added news and upcoming events. Here is an example of a page with events embedded within it.
You can also embed recent blog entries inside of other pages--so on your senior pastor's staff page, you can include the latest entries from his blog and connect with visitors on a more relational level.
Learn more about Smart Tags by clicking here.
- Create Ads Which Link to Other Pages/Site Features
Ads on your site act to promote the content within. Use flashy images and compelling text to advertise other pages, blogs, photo galleries, or media.
Have a Podcast of your weekly sermon series? Create and ad which links to it and display it on your home page. Don't make visitors hunt for your features. Lead them there. Click here to learn how to create an ad.
- Sign Up for Google Analytics
Utilizing free Google Analytics is an important step in understanding how your site traffic works. Analytics allows you to chart your Bounce Rate on individual pages or site-wide, creates reports that show your hits per day, month, or the change over the course of a year, and tracks clicks on individual links or ads. And that's only the beginning.
Once you plug your Google Analytics number into your iMinistries website, check out your bounce rates on this page. To learn more about statistics like this and how to use them, read this help file on adding your Google Analytics number to your iMinistries website.
Sources for This Blog and More Reading on Bounce Rates
What does Bounce Rate Mean? - Google Analytics About Us: Beginning The Conversation
Use Your About Us Page to Introduce Yourself to Visitors
When you first meet someone, you both ask questions to begin your interaction.
What do you do? Where are you from? What do you like to do?
The answers to these initial ice breakers often dictate how the exchange continues. If you both share common interests or personality traits, you could find yourself in a deep conversation. If not, it could end up just a brief chat.
When people visit your church website for the first time, they are seeking similar information about your ministry. They should be able to find these answers immediately, and all in one place, or the “conversation” may end before it begins. This is why a well thought out About Us section is vital to an effective website.
Next to the homepage, the About Us section of your website is the most visited by new users. It is more than just a place to list your history or address, but its goal should be to connect with visitors by taking steps to building a relationship with them.
The three main questions that should be answered in this section are:
- Who are you?
- What do you do?
- Why should I trust you?
About Us should be offered in your menu and can list several pages as submenu items. Below are pages that you can include within your About Us section:
- Ministry History
- Basic Ministry Information
- Ministry List/What You Offer
- Beliefs/Values
- Contact Information
- Staff
- Extension Ministries/Partners
- Employment Opportunities
- Ministry Location, Directions, and Maps
- Frequently Asked Questions
The more information you provide, the more trust you earn from visitors, the more credibility you give to your ministry, and the better likelihood of engaging in a meaningful conversation.
Blog Sources/Further Reading
http://www.onextrapixel.com/2009/07/31/the-essence-of-about-us-page-with-12-captivating-showcases/
http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2009/07/01/best-practices-for-effective-design-of-about-us-pages/
http://www.useit.com/homepageusability/guidelines.html
 Using Your Church Website to Promote Your Brand
Bad News, Good News
Bad news: The amount of time spent by visitors on your church website can be measured in a few short minutes. And because of the modern Web-surfer's short attention span, it has become critical for ministries to focus more on building and maintaining a brand to keep visitors on and returning to your website.
Good news: iMinistries' Skin feature makes developing and maintaining a brand on your website a few easy clicks away.
To a ministry or church, branding can seem overwhelming or even unnecessary. But think of it in these terms: developing and maintaining a brand can help you determine your mission and is a strategy to communicate what you are and what you stand for.
Your website is often your bridge to prospective attendees, volunteers, or donors and is your best way to broadcast your vision and how you go about achieving it.
You want people to know what you're all about from the moment they see your homepage and to remember your site long after they’ve left. To accomplish this, you have to first establish a brand identity.
Establishing Brand Identity on Your Website
1. Logo and Colors
Think of your ministry’s focus. Think of the words, phrases, visuals, and colors to help convey this theme. Create or use your existing logo as a symbol for your ministry's mission.
 
Keep these colors and themes in mind when selecting an iMinistries skin (our free skins can be found here) or when developing a custom skin for your site.
New Life Covenant Ministries wanted to invoke the theme of growing in Christ. To do this, they used earth tones and greenery images throughout their site.
2. Logo Use: Size and Position
Now that you have a logo to represent your ministry, it should be the first thing users see when they visit your homepage. Display the logo large and prominent, usually in the top left corner of your homepage and continue that pattern on each page of your site.
With iMinistries' Skin feature, the majority of the work is already done for you. You can add your own header, and inside of it you can place your logo so that it appears on each page.
Harvest Bible Chapel created a Header with their logo and including a photo of their campus pastors on their respective campus websites.
3. Consistency
Use your logo, colors, and visuals to envelop your site with your mission. Use the same fonts, graphics, relative positions, and proportions for each web page on your site. A uniform navigation scheme coupled with a good color scheme can also help reinforce your brand image.
Pick a style and go with it. Be consistent in your content voice and style.
The use of Headers, Ads, and Thumbnails can help to achieve stylistic consistency. All of these features are included when you choose iMinistries for your website needs.
OneVerse, an association of artists committed to Bible translation, displayed their logo in Headers, bright greens and blues and decorative graphics in their page bodies, and colorful Thumbnail photos of their artists across each of their website's pages. By using a custom or free iMinistries skin, achieving uniformity and consistency is easy.
Sources for this Article/Other Resources Regarding Branding:
The Significance of Establishing a Prominent Brand Identity for Your Website: OneExtraPixel
Find Your Church's Brand Identity: Church Solutions
Discovering Your Brand: Church Relevance
 Streaming VideoAdding video to your church website has never been easier. You see, streaming video is not the easiest thing to "serve up" on end-user machines (that is, the people who are surfing on your website). I won't go into the details of:
- Having the content encoded correctly
- Uploading your content via FTP
- Adding a page to your website and then using the HTML editor to add a bunch of code no one really understands
- Dealing with various end users who have older computers or don't have correct settings
- A seemingly endless sea of support questions
By now you are probably familiar with the name of YouTube. Well, I am about to introduce you to two new names that I have just come across. And they are even better, in my opinion. Vimeo and Viddler are your new friends, because they allow you to have much higher video quality and, even more importantly, you are not limited to YouTube's 10-minute-video-or-less limitation.
Once you have uploaded your video to any one of these providers, check out this video help file on how to add a YouTube video to your website.
 Browsers: Switch or Upgrade...?We want you to have the best web experience possible. Because of that, we want you to think about the tools that you use when you are online. This post is geared specifically at web browsers.
Browsers
Internet Explorer (IE), Firefox (FF), and Safari are the most mainstream browsers out there. The reason for this post is to encourage you to make sure that you are using the latest version of whichever browser you have chosen to use. To be perfectly honest, that comment is directed to anyone who is using IE for a browser, sorry.
IE doesn't play nice with the web community at large and is slowly beginning to change because people continue to switch. How do I know this? Check out the statistics that are found here at the w3schools website. You can see that users are upgrading to IE 7 from IE 6, but more importantly, users are switching all together to FF or Safari!
FF and Safari render the text and graphics on your website as they should and adhere to the rules of the Web community.
Graphics Lesson
If you really love IE, then stick with it. Know that I will be praying for you. HA! In all seriousness though, the reason why I want to encourage you to update your IE version is because the websites that you visit will look better. This is because IE 7 finally decided to render graphic files with the file extension of PNG.
Images that you have probably heard of are JPG and GIF. PNGs trump these other formats because they are the best of what JPGs and GIFs have to offer. PNGs will render a gradient (fading from one color to another) without degradation (this is what a JPG does) as well as render a transparent background correctly (that is what a GIF does).
If you go to a website (with IE 6) and you see a strange box or a graphic that looks completely out of place, this is probably because the designer of the website needs to render a gradient (like a drop shadow on an image), and it needs to sit on top of another graphic without blocking the background image from view (thus needing transparency), so they are using a PNG. BUT...because IE 6 can't figure out what to do with the graphic, it renders the graphic with a whacked out color in the background.
If you would like to be uber nerdy, you can check out Wikipedia's explanation of JPGs, GIFs and PNGs by going here:
 Google AnalyticsWe are excited to offer you the ability to track your church website's hits through Google Analytics. Setting it up is easy and free and the information that Google provides you is, in a word...amazing.
- To begin, you must create a Google account . It is free.
- After you create your account, go to Google Analytics.
- Login with your new Google account.
- At the bottom of the screen, click on "Add a website profile."
- Next, enable the first radio button titled Add a Profile for a new domain.
- Add your url into the URL area.
- Click finish.
- The next page is the important one. Look at the code that is provide and find your Google tracking code.
- Now, go to your website and log into the Administration area.
- Click on Site Controls
- Click on Site Preferences
- Enter in your Google Analytics Account #. It will be in this format - UA-xxxxxxx-x.
- Hit Save
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That's it! Your reports should begin to populate after 24 hours.
Free Trial
We believe the best way to describe our tools is for you to try them out yourself. We offer a 15-day free trial account which will give you a few days to use all of the features available to our paying clients. There's no risk and no obligation. Who knows, you might even enjoy the new control you have over your very own website.
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 Shortcuts to SuccessWhile I wait for church to start on Sunday morning, I have begun playing a little game. Since our church is an iMinistries customer, I read through the bulletin and look for references to the church website. I've had weeks where the website gets 20+ references. What I am especially happy about are shortcut references.
Throughout your site you are able to add shortcuts to practically any page. A shortcut allows you to give your visitors a direct, easy-to-remember reference to a page. For instance, if you create a shortcut to a photo gallery which is "potluckpictures," your visitors can access that gallery by simply typing "http://yoursite.org/potluckpictures."
For our church, this has led to a dramatic change in the bulletin. The ministry team has been relieved of providing every bit of detail for each item and can now offer a small introduction while directing the curious straight to more information on the website. Our research shows that people use these shortcuts a lot.
Free Trial
We believe the best way to describe our tools is for you to try them out yourself. We offer a 15-day free trial account which will give you a few days to use all of the features available to our paying clients. There's no risk and no obligation. Who knows, you might even enjoy the new control you have over your very own website.
Create Your Free Trial Account
Here are a few tips to using shortcuts:
Keep them short but descriptive
People can only remember so much. A shortcut like "mensretreatandworkweekendphotogallery" sort of defeats the purpose--"mensweekendpics" is probably better.
Avoid acronyms unless they are very well known
"VBS" is good, since I'm more likely to identify the "church's summer program" as "VBS" than "Vacation Bible School" anymore. But if your church offers a class called "Introduction to Christian Faith," chances are that "ICF" isn't entirely memorable while "introtofaith" might be.
Shortcuts can only be used once
One customer has already run into "overlap" with their shortcuts. Last year's New Year's Eve event had the shortcut "newyears" and had to be removed before that shortcut could be used on this year's event. We'd suggest "newyears2008" as a better practice for something you do regularly.
Feel free to drop the WWW
Your site is most certainly reachable at both "www.mysite.org" and "mysite.org." When you write your shortcuts, save space and leave off the "www." The URL "mysite.org/shortcut1" is simple to type and takes up little of your valuable bulletin space.
Don't miss out on using this feature.
 Fill It Out With HighlightsWe believe strongly that your church website can be a great tool for your ministry and help fulfill your ministry goals. As we've discussed before, two of the strongest contributions your site might make are:
- To connect new people with your ministry
- To help current visitors/attendees/members find new ways to "plug in"
Generally, people will visit your website looking for something specific. Let's call this "what they think they want."
- For someone who hasn't attended, this might be the service times or your statement of belief.
- For a current attender, this might be the times of that prayer meeting or the e-mail address of one of your pastors.
- For the member, this might be pictures of last weekend's retreat or your worship music archive.
But each of these visits also represents an opportunity for you to give them "what you think they need to know. Don't miss these opportunities.
- When the potential attender looks for service times, why not also show them how to become a believer, information about the new believer's class, and a link to a welcome letter or video from your pastor?
- When a current attender comes to find out about the prayer meeting, why not offer her some information about your membership classes?
- When a member comes to see pictures, why not show him a volunteer posting for next year's retreat?
Your iMinistries website has what we call highlights. Highlights are simply "slots" in the margins of a page where you can place a sort of mini-ad for another item on your site. Each highlight shows the item's thumbnail, the title, and a brief summary. Each page can have up to five highlights. Highlights can be explicitly selected or you can have the system present a random highlight on the page.
Highlights are great for "filling out a page," but their more important goal is to direct visitors to other potentially interesting content. This is, after all, one of the distinct advantages to the Web as a communication vehicle--users can and will click around to see more information. We track the use of highlights in our sites, and we've found that, when they are presented, users click them. Are you using them?
 Spring Cleaning for Your WebsiteOne of the premier web usability books on the market today is abruptly titled, Don't Make Me Think. The premise of the book is based on the title. No surprise.
The author asserts that web users not only don't want to think, but that they won't. Your site's visitors will lose patience if they are made to work too hard.
With that said, we'd like to make a suggestion. Maybe it is time for a website "spring cleaning." There are certainly ways you can simplify your church website. Here are some suggested places to look for improvement:
Navigation
Can your menus be simpler? Are you using breadcrumbs and do they make sense to the user? Are items titled what people would expect, can they find items in the search? For most sites, each level of your menu should offer 4-7 options, does yours?
Combining/Splitting
Are there pages on your site that could be combined for simplicity? Are there items which would make sense as two items?
Free Trial
We believe the best way to describe our tools is for you to try them out yourself. We offer a 15-day free trial account which will give you a few days to use all of the features available to our paying clients. There's no risk and no obligation. Who knows, you might even enjoy the new control you have over your very own website.
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Highlights
Are you routinely using all five highlights? Depending on your site's size, this may or may not be appropriate. Bigger sites should probably use highlights as much as possible to help users get to information more easily. For smaller sites, don't allow highlights to clutter your site too much. Two or three highlights may be enough.
Purging
Are there items on your site that are out of date or just need to be refreshed? Is all your content relevant? Is your staff directory up-to-date? Are you using expiration dates?
As with any communication, try to put yourself in a visitor's shoes. Can they find what they want? Are they finding what they want with help from your site or in spite of it?
 How Fast is Your Website?When someone requests a page from your church website, a number of things are happening at the same time.
- The user's computer checks a domain name server (DNS) server to find your domain.
- The browser checks its cache to see if it has a copy of your page. If not, it goes to the server and requests the page.
- When the page is requested from the server, the server does some determination to find the requested page. On an iMinistries site, there are a few steps required to correctly get the right page.
- Now the browser pulls apart the HTML from the page to see whether or not there's anything else to request. If your page contains any images, stylesheets, javascript, flash or videos, the browser checks its cache to see whether it has a copy of any of these files. If not, the file is requested from the server.
- The first time a user visits your site, this may mean a significant wait time as each item is downloaded.
Do you know what a first time visitor to your website has to download? You should.
Free Trial
We believe the best way to describe our tools is for you to try them out yourself. We offer a 15-day free trial account which will give you a few days to use all of the features available to our paying clients. There's no risk and no obligation. Who knows, you might even enjoy the new control you have over your very own website.
Create Your Free Trial Account
We do everything we can to make the parts of your iMinistries website that we control lean and lightweight. We send relatively little HTML through. We include only the necessary javascript files on your site and we do what we can to maintain lightweight CSS files. However, this is only what we control. What about what you control?
You can easily find out. We would suggest you visit the following site:
WebSiteOptimization.com
Enter your site's URL and see the results. Remember, we're living in the Web world. Most users are too impatient to wait more than a few seconds for a page to load. The good news is that much of the content on your page is going to get cached after the user visits the first page of your site, but if you visit your Site Watcher page, you will notice that it isn't uncommon for a user to move on from your site after simply visiting your homepage.
My advice is that you ask yourself how important each image and flash file you have on your site (especially your home page) is to the overall goal of your site. Without doubt some will be worthy of your user's wait time. It's up to you to try to determine which items aren't.
 How to Write for the WebToday, I'm simply going to point you to another website. This article was written by Jakob Nielsen. Jakob is widely regarded as the world's foremost usability expert. As a usability expert, his primary concern is not with the way computer applications (and websites) perform or look, but how easy it is for the end-user to use them.
Free Trial
We believe the best way to describe our tools is for you to try them out yourself. We offer a 15-day free trial account which will give you a few days to use all of the features available to our paying clients. There's no risk and no obligation. Who knows, you might even enjoy the new control you have over your very own website.
Create Your Free Trial Account
He wrote this guide "How to Write for the Web," that is almost required reading for anyone who maintains a website.
As I know many people don't have time to read the whole thing, you may want to skip to the conclusions section at the bottom which gives you a summary of the findings.
For those with more time, spending some of it on the host site, useit.com could be useful. What RSS is and Why You Should Care
What is RSS?
RSS, which stands for Really Simple Syndication, is a standard created to enable sharing of content across the internet. The goal is to make it easier for people who created internet content to distribute the content.
There are several ways to "consume" RSS content and different content types are consumed in different ways. Text content is read, audio content is heard, video or image content is seen. The most common way to consume RSS content is using an RSS reader (sometimes called an RSS aggregator). These software applications allow users to consume RSS in a similar way to the way email programs present email. Typically, these applications indicate which items have been read and which have not. There are many very good RSS readers which are distributed free.
Interestingly, there are a number of other novel applications of RSS. For instance, Podcasting is a technology which uses RSS to distribute audio. Soon we'll start hearing more about videocasting which will distribute video files. Another novel application is to allow sharing between websites. For instance, My Yahoo now allows users to consume any RSS feed on their My Yahoo homepage, putting any RSS content next to the latest headlines, weather, stock prices and horoscopes.
Why You Should Care?
Your ministry's website should serve as one gateway to your
ministry--connecting people with events and news that will help them get connected. RSS makes that information easier to get to. Users who are already using RSS (and there are a lot of them out there and more each day) may decide to subscribe to your RSS feed using their favorite RSS reader. In this case, as soon as new news or events are added to your site, these readers will know.
Free Trial
We believe the best way to describe our tools is for you to try them out yourself. We offer a 15-day free trial account which will give you a few days to use all of the features available to our paying clients. There's no risk and no obligation. Who knows, you might even enjoy the new control you have over your very own website.
Create Your Free Trial Account
The great news for iMinistries customers is that RSS feeds are already available on your site. Your site's blogs, news and events have feeds already available. It is possible that users of your site are already consuming RSS and staying up-to-date with your ministry.
Get Started Now
You can get started right now. How? Follow this link and subscribe to this blog right now.
For More Information:
See Wikipedia
See this listing of RSS Reader applications  Under Construction is AssumedApart from animated images, nothing says "this website is lame" better than "Under Construction" pages. The dirty little secret of the web is that every site is under construction. Websites are meant to constantly change. This is what makes websites a valuable method for distributing information.
Free Trial
We believe the best way to describe our tools is for you to try them out yourself. We offer a 15-day free trial account which will give you a few days to use all of the features available to our paying clients. There's no risk and no obligation. Who knows, you might even enjoy the new control you have over your very own website.
Create Your Free Trial Account
The best way to build a website is to do it a little at a time. We recommend to our clients that they only add a page to their site once
they have the information to fill out that page. This saves users from the frustration of following a link just to find out that the information they are looking for is not available.
Don't worry if you've created "Under Construction" pages before. It happens to the best of us. I've done it. But, we become responsible for what we know. And now you know. |
Church Website Best Practices by
"Get wisdom...get insight" and maximize your church website.
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