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    Church Website Best Practices - Entries tagged "Web Writing"

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    MonMondayNovNovember14th2011 7 Characteristics of Good Content on Church Websites
    Posted Monday, November 14 2011 @ 9 AM byBryan Young Tagged Best Practices for Church Websites Web Writing 0 comments Add comment
    Smart people heed the advice of people smarter than them. So I often look to the folks at A List Apart for wisdom on best practices for the web. Below is their seven-part checklist for effective website content and how it applies to church websites.

    Good Content is Concise

    "Omit needless content"
    The slogans "less is more" and "Keep It Simple, Stupid" became truisms for a reason. More content on your website makes it harder for your visitors to find what they came looking for. Using analytics and user testing can give you an idea if people can find what they want and help you rid your website of superfluous content.

    Good Content is Supported

    "Publish no content without a support plan"
    You wouldn't plant a vegetable garden and leave it to fend for itself. You must tend it, water it, and care for it. The same is true for your web content. Weed out and trim back your content ROT. Water your pages with updated information. Fertilize your sections with fresh ways to present your information--with videos, blogs, or social media integration. Only then will your content bear fruit for you users.

    Good Content Fits Your Purpose

    "Publish content that is right for the user and for the business"
    • It is right for the user: it helps them accomplish their goals
      Some users come to learn what you believe. Some visit to find out where you are. Others want to know how they can give. If your content does not help your user fulfill their mission for visiting, it is not good content.
    • It is right for you, the organization: it helps you achieve your goals
      Ultimately, churches create websites to carry-out their goals. Spreading the gospel beyond their local community, increasing online giving, and developing a bigger base of volunteers are just some goals that church website content can help you achieve.

    Good Content is Useful

    "Define a clear, specific purpose for each piece of content; evaluate content against this purpose"
    After developing some big-picture goals for your website, take it a step further by identifying the precise reason for each content item. If you can't determine a good reason for having a page or video on your website, it shouldn't be there.

    Good Content is User-Centered

    "Adopt the cognitive frameworks of your users"
    When developing content, think like your user does. According to A List Apart, "[this] means that the days of designing a site map to mirror an org chart are over." If your visitors don't know your junior high ministry's name is Uplift, why would you include that name in your navigation? Take the time to remove content that would not make sense to a user with no previous knowledge of your ministry--internal mission statements, jargon, and vague descriptions.

    Good Content is Clear

    "Seek clarity in all things"
    All content should be easy to understand and find. The more thinking your user has to do because of your content, the less likely they'll leave your website with a full reservoir of goodwill toward your ministry.

    Good Content is Consistent

    "Mandate consistency, within reason"
    Just like content that is difficult to understand increases your visitors' cognitive workload, so too does content with inconsistent voice, presentation, and mission. Inconsistent content also makes it easier for your user to become distracted or find content difficult to understand.

    Learn more about Good Content for Church Websites

    Content Strategy for Church Websites - iMinistries Blog
    5 Tips for Making Your Church Website Content More Readable - iMinistries Blog
    3 Things to Remove to Improve Church Website User Experience - iMinistries Blog
     
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    MonMondayMarMarch14th2011 Content Strategy for Church Websites
    Posted Monday, March 14 2011 @ 9 AM byBryan Young Tagged Best Practices for Church Websites Web Writing Website 101 0 comments Add comment

    What is Content Strategy and Why Should I Care?

    Content Strategy is becoming more and more popular among web professionals--both the idea and the practice. So much focus has gone into design, user experience, and techniques of getting people to websites that the reason people come to websites can get lost. Of course, I'm talking about the content, itself.  
    "Content strategy plans for the creation, publication, and governance of useful, usable content." Kristina Halvorson
    Just like you wouldn't begin a sermon without first coming up with a topic, researching, and planning, you shouldn't do the same with the content on your website. Everything successful, from businesses, to books, to websites, begins with goals and figures out the best way to achieve them.

    In order for your ministry website's content to do what you want it to do (increase ministry visitors, volunteers, dialogue), you must have a strategy and then carry out your strategy. Here's a simplified process for developing that strategy.

    1. Develop Goals (Analyze)

    Before you start typing, ask yourself some questions about the visitors to your church website.
    • What do they want to know about my church or ministry?
    • What do I want them to know?
    • What would make them want to come back to my website?
    Start a list of pages or types of content you must have on your site. These usually consist of News, Events, About, and Contact. As you develop your list of desired content, keep asking yourself if the content helps answer the questions above. If it doesn't, maybe it shouldn't be on your website.

    2. Create Your Content (Collect)

    Now that you have your list of pages or desired content, start writing. It is important for you content to be clear, simple, easy to read, and easy on the eyes, so if you aren't skilled as a writer, find someone who is, or read through our previous blogs on Writing for the Web.

    To get people to regularly visit your website, you'll need to regularly update it with interesting content. Now is the time to figure out what this content is, where it is coming from, and who will keep content creators accountable for this task. It might be helpful to create a content creation calendar.

    3. Organize Your Content on Your Website (Publish)

    Now that your content is written and you know where updates will be coming from, it's time to figure out where to put it all. Start with your most important pages--About, News, Events, Ministries, Blog, Contact--and work your way down. Think about where a user who is completely unfamiliar with your ministry would look for content and put it there.

    4. Is It Working? (Manage)

    Just because your content is live, doesn't mean your work is done. You should always be trying to improve your content and how it's structured.
    • Do your users get frustrated when trying to find information?
    • Does the content on your site meet all your goals and answer all user questions?
    • Is new content being created on time? Is it quality content?
    Ask these questions constantly. If you aren't happy with the answers, your users aren't happy with your content, and changes should be made.

    Content Audits

    A great way to make sure your website content is the best is can be is to schedule regular content audits. Sweep your website to see if your content meets all of your goals. Ask "who cares?" to each page. If no one does, get rid of it.

    Diagram in the article was created by Rahel Bailie.

    LEARN MORE ABOUT CONTENT STRATEGY

    Complete Beginner's Guide to Content Strategy - UX Booth
    The DIscipline of Content Strategy - A List Apart
    Content Strategy Blog - Brain Traffic
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    MonMondayDecDecember6th2010 Writing They'll Never Read: WebTalk 201
    Posted Monday, December 06 2010 @ 9 AM bySharon Kostal Tagged Best Practices for Church Websites Web Writing 0 comments Add comment
    Church Communicators,

    To blog or not to blog: is that your question? :)

    Perhaps you've elected for an e-newsletter over print and need to find a starting point? Or delivering quality web content has become a dilemma? If you'd raise your hand on any of the above...

    Welcome to the world of web writing.

    It's an arbitrary world of conventions, applied to intangibles with a short shelf-life. Which explains the lack of journalistic practices...which leads to a lot of writing that doesn't get read.

    Which is the reason for this WebTalk.

    If you or your pastor are staking out new blogging or e-news territory, or have never applied a process to your church's cyber-communications, here's a brief on:

    How to Write So They'll Read It

    1: Know your audience (and how to reach them).
    Blogs, e-newsletters and web stories each hit different rings of the demographic bull's eye, and most web providers have features that accomplish their basic functions.

    Learn yours, then define your target readers for each vehicle, then determine calendars and contents. As you assess your writing investments, consider:
    • Is this for congregants, or those outside, or both?
    • Viewable online, or to land in an inbox?
    • RSS-enabled, or pushed through a distribution list?
    • Who will author and who will edit? Who will manage the admin?
    • How often will it be posted or published? What would best serve the recipients?

    2: Know your purpose.
    Our purpose in every piece is to inform, inspire and instill. To adopt it as yours, coach your team to...
    • Inform: Write about what really matters.
      Of course cover sundries and events, but don't be limited to them--ministry news and personal stories are all around. Keep track of what's important and worthy, and shout it from the housetop!

    • Inspire: Let Scripture breathe verticality into your posts.
      Every story is ultimately a God-story...but not everyone will see that. A reflection on Sunday's sermon = obvious. Promoting a parking lot redirection = less so. Look for opportunities to reveal the greater narrative and help connect the vertical dots, and without over-spiritualizing, seize them.

    • Instill: Find angles that reinforce core values and your church's DNA.
      Every Harvest Bible Chapel has four Pillars. Worship, Walk with, Work for Christ. Life-transformation through small groups. Contemporary worship without compromise. Quality discipleship, not a quantity of disciples...

    3: Know your voice.
    For solo writers and projects, this one's easy. But if you're writing for yourself and ghosting for your pastor, and/or speaking generically for your church, it can be a challenge--and becomes more complex with a writing team.

    If your church's online presence waffles between vibrant first person and corporately-bland third, or your team needs some unifying direction, it's time to develop a writing style guide.

    Identify the "vocal" qualities, and the categories and types of articles you're after. Include editing and formatting guidelines.

    Identify the following:
    • Are you aiming for a collective voice or individual expression, or both? Whichever your aim, defining it will increase your effectiveness.

    • What tone do you want to convey? Avoid sounding too casual or elitist; keep the "dude" and über-scholastic references to a minimum. Extremes on both ends lose readers.
    • What buckets do your pieces fall into? Identifying the category and article type will help streamline the writing.
    Most God-stories start out as events, updates, testimonies, or teaching (categories), then become fillers, 150wc; shorts, 200-300wc; or features, 500-600wc (article types). If you're managing a team, clarify your categories and types, and find strong examples of each.
    • Are you writing with reader gender in mind? It's worth noting that a succinct, authoritative voice is received more favorably by both men and women than a descriptive, explanatory one.
    Include formatting basics:
    • visual design principles: contrast, alignment, proximity, repetition
    • bullet item lists (as opposed to paragraph form)
    • bold selectively; italics rarely; underline never
    • Scripture texts: generally italicize; only use quotes if someone is speaking
    • Scripture references: very small, no brackets
    • embed videos or galleries above the web fold
    • capitalize ministry categories, i.e. Children’s Ministry, Worship Ministry, etc...
    Gather your guidelines into a visually-friendly doc for reference and share with your team, staff, anyone with web or writing access.


    4. Now write so they'll read it.
    Not write what they'll read--we're not pandering to itching ears. But it pays to write for how they'll read. Most web readers are skimmers and will dismiss dense content. Short sentences, one-thought paragraphs, bulleted lists, white space, bold for emphasis, tight content--these are the keys to skim-writing.

    Not convinced?

    Consider how long an average visitor stays on your site. Analytics for HarvestBibleFellowship.org reveal an average of 2.44 minutes and 3.3 pages--which is relatively high.

    These stats indicate 28% or less of the content per page actually gets read. Pretty deflating if you've spent hours perfecting your transient piece.

    So let's raise the standard for:
    • high-caliber content / high-caliber writing
    • clarity, simplicity, urgency
    • strong titles, opening lines
    • quick, engaging answers to the who-what-where-when-why
    • one-thought paragraphs
    • short, active-voice sentences
    • bulleted lists
    • proofreading
    And be ruthless about word counts. If your "feature" pieces regularly top 700, start whittling down the content. If you're new or tend to be verbose, I'd commend the 50% rule: half of any first draft could probably be deleted. Seriously.

    The tighter the writing, the higher the caliber, the wider the reach...which is the whole point, right?


    Okay, so maybe this wasn’t a brief. :) Call it a “resource.”

    Know your readers, know your purpose, know your voice.

    And. Make. Every. Word. Count.

    Making Him known with you,

    About the Author

    Sharon Kostal oversees the Harvest Bible Fellowship website, digital media and other aspects of communication. Her delight is in spreading the word of God's work in our world today, encouraging Harvest church plants and pastors, and helping to further the reach of their ministries.

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    MonMondayMayMay10th2010 Is Your Homepage Attractive? Part 1: Content
    Posted Monday, May 10 2010 @ 9 AM byTravis Hickox Tagged Best Practices for Church Websites Is Your Homepage Attractive Web Writing 0 comments Add comment
    As 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.

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    MonMondayDecDecember21st2009 Better Web Writing, Part 3: I Like Your Style
    Posted Monday, December 21 2009 @ 9 AM byBryan Young Tagged Best Practices for Church Websites Web Writing 0 comments Add comment
    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
    MonMondayDecDecember7th2009 Better Web Writing, Part 2: Words As Pictures
    Posted Monday, December 07 2009 @ 9 AM byBryan Young Tagged Best Practices for Church Websites Web Writing 0 comments Add comment

    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.
    MonMondayNovNovember23rd2009 Better Web Writing, Part 1: Finding Your Voice
    Posted Monday, November 23 2009 @ 9 AM byBryan Young Tagged Best Practices for Church Websites Web Writing 0 comments Add comment

    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
    MonMondayJulJuly31st2006 How to Write for the Web
    Posted Monday, July 31 2006 @ 8 AM byDave McCall Tagged Best Practices for Church Websites Web Writing 0 comments Add comment
    Today, 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.

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    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.
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