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5 Reasons Why Your Church Website Should Have a Blog

MonAug82011 PostedMonday, August 8, 2011 @ 9 AMByBryan YoungTaggedBest Practices for Church Websites

In this digital age, one of the most important ways businesses, companies, and organizations connect with the world is through blogs on their websites. While corporate websites provide traditional information for web users (your typical About, Contact, and History pages), blogs provide more insight into an organization.

In his book, Blog Wild: A Guide For Small Business Blogging, Andy Wibbels explains why small businesses should create and update a blog regularly in order to better connect with web surfers. His reasoning also applies to church websites, where potential visitors and church members have the same desire to more deeply connect with your ministry.

Here are five reasons why your church or ministry website needs a blog.

1. Blogs connect with a desirable audience.

According to Wibbels, the type of person who reads blogs regularly are the people you probably most want to connect with.

Blog readers are web-savvy.
The people reading your blog aren't afraid of the web. They like exploring websites, so they are more prone to have a long look around yours. And the longer they stay, the more informed they are.
Blog readers have passion and initiative.
The people who run your food pantry or volunteer for children's ministry probably read your blog. If you need volunteers, a blog entry might be a good place to start.
Blog readers are seeking the next level in engagement.
Obviously, if they are reading your blog they want a deeper level of connection with your ministry, and, ultimately, Jesus Christ. Intimate, compelling blog posts about past sermons, Bible verses, or personal experiences can help fill that need.

2. Blogs provide fresh content.

Web users might only visit your website once to find your address or learn about your mission, but they keep coming back when you have constantly updated content. Posting upcoming news and events, videos, and pictures are all good ways to produce new content--so are blogs.

Every new blog entry is another reason for a web user to come back to your website and connect with your ministry. This is why setting up a regular blogging schedule (once a week; every Monday and Thursday; every day) and sticking to it is so important. Readers will come to expect and look forward to your entries. You don't want to let them down.

3. Blogs are conversational.

We've written before that your About Us page is your introduction to your web visitor--your digital handshake. If that's the case, your blog is the actual, two-way dialogue with your visitor. Blog entries begin with you writing you thoughts on a topic, then allow for users to comment. Blogs give your visitors a voice and empowerment. This is why entries should primarily be informal, welcoming, and non-intimidating.

4. Blogs are a gateway to your website's other content.

In most blog entries, you should try to find a way to reference other content on your website. Since users will continually come back to read your blog, linking them to more information is a good way to engage them further. Here are some ways partner information:

include cross-links to other, similar blog entries
add highlights or right column links to news or events
write a short "Have questions? Contact us ..." sentence at the bottom of each entry and link to your contact form
include a bio of your writer with each entry

5. Google loves Blogs

While your readers might express their enjoyment in your blog by return visits and posting comments, search engines show their blog-love by boosting your search rankings. Google especially gives special treatment to blogs. Here's why ...

Frequent updates:
Because fresh content often equals more visits (see #2) and better website management, search engines often weight fresh content as more important.
Linked and networked:
Blogs are likely to have more outgoing and incoming links through cross-linking and visitor comments. This generally means more people like these sites, so these links significantly effect page rankings.
Archived and organized:
Because of the dated entry cataloging system, blogs have have a more "scan-friendly" behind-the-scenes architecture, which makes them more readable to search engines.

Blogs are built into each iMinistries website

Building a church website with a blog is easy with iMinistries. Each iMinistries church website comes with the ability to add site-wide or ministry-specific blogs--with no limitations as to how many or number of entries.