I read a lot of blogs and books on how to create great websites, but few have been so immediately impactful to me as Steve Krug's usability tome, Don't Make Me Think. It is often regarded as THE book on making websites easy for users to find what they want. Below is a nugget of truth from this book.
When users come to your home page, they often come wanting four specific questions answered. It's your job as web administrator to make sure these questions are answered immediately, and without creating other questions in the user's mind, or risk losing the visitor to frustration. Here are the four questions and how best to answer them.
Chances are, your church website visitors are finding you through a search engine. (A study in 2008 showed that over 60% of people find organizations and businesses through the Internet. And that was 2008!) So they probably landed on your website by searching for churches or ministries that are like you. But you only have a few seconds to convince them you are what they are looking for! Your home page should tell new visitors who you are and what you're about, and there are several places you can utilize for this purpose. Here are two:
Your logo The image you associate with your ministry was chosen for a reason--to show others what you stand for. If it's an open Bible or a fruitful tree, people will get an idea as to what you're about.
Your tagline Krug says it best: "Taglines are a very efficient way to get your message across, because they're the one place on the page where users most expect to find a concise statement of the site's purpose."
Now that users know what the site is, they want to know what kind of stuff your website has. This also applies to what your ministry does. Posting upcoming events, recent news, and prominently displaying links to your About and We Believe pages are the most effective ways of showing visitors what you do. Your website navigation should be clear as to what your website has and where users can go to find what they want.
Websites can be great tools used for ministry. Blog posts, sermon podcasts, videos of God's work through your ministry and in people's lives, stories, photos of your ministry at work--these are all effective ways of spreading the Good News of the gospel of Jesus Christ to those who haven't heard. Advertise these features on your home page banners and ads to show your visitors what they can see and do on your website.
Does your church emphasize missions or church planting? Small groups or service? Prayer or Bible teaching? All of these things? Find a way to express why your website visitor should become a flesh-and-blood visitor. Try not to think about it as competing against other churches, but rather competing against not visiting a church at all.
Utilizing a free or custom skin from iMinistries makes it easy for your home page to answer all four questions asked by new visitors.
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