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

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