“One day Alice (from Alice in Wonderland) came to a fork in the road and saw a Cheshire cat in a tree. Which road do I take? she asked. Where do you want to go? was his response. I don’t know, Alice answered. Then, said the cat, it doesn’t matter.”   If you don’t know where you want to go, it’s easy to get there, but it may not be helpful.  A good article about why church website strategies don’t launch successfully because the planning and the approach to building the strategy was started wrong.  Learn how these 6 wreck church’s abilities to build a good plan: 1. Skymall Syndrome 2. Ministry Schizophrenia 3. Enough about you, let’s talk about ME 4. The Blind leading the Blind 5. Death by Committees 6. Volunteer Hostage Situation Read the entire article: 6 Ways Churches Fail with their Website

Church Website Guide  has published an article in Christian Computing Magazine for October 2009 titled: “I’m New, the Home Depot Approach to Why Your Church Website Needs to Answer a New Visitor’s Unspoken First Question in 10 Seconds or Less.”  You can check out this article about church websites and their most accessed content other than the homepage here: http://www.ccmag.com/articles/articles.php?recordID=214 We have included part of the article below. I’m New! The Study Results In our church website analytics study of more than 50 church websites, we discovered that the most accessed content on church websites other than the homepage falls into a grouping we are calling “I’m New”. These are pages related to people attending for the first time, those who are looking for service times or locations, those looking for other information about the church and its beliefs and doctrine, or those who have no knowledge of Jesus Christ. The most important church website content For our survey respondents, a quarter indicated that I’m New church website content was the most important to them of all the content on their church website. The only content considered more important was Sermon downloads....

Full List of Directories that were a Source of Referrals for Church Websites in Church Website Analytics and Ministry Survey Study 2009 This is the full list of the ten different directory types that churches in our Church Website Analytics and Ministry Survey Study were listed on.  Churches that are listed on directories get more new visitors than churches who do not.  See Get More Visitors to Your Church Website With Directory Referrals. For Free! for an article introduction to this list of directories that churches are signed up for. Church Association, Denomination Directories – Require churches to ascribe to certain theological and doctrinal stances or association membership.  Some of the largest directories! Think Willow Creek or Southern Baptist Convention. Social Local Sites- Ratings, reviews, forums, messaging and feedback mechanisms, and a searchable user-powered database allow users to get a good feel for the listings they are browsing. Yelp. Local Search Engines- Google Local or Yahoo Local, will show up in search results. Local Metro Directories- Focus on local businesses, institutions, and culture. Nashvillelife.com Chambers of Commerce- Local and Nationwide Chambers. Trade Chambers. Internet Yellow Pages- Maps,...

Check out church website analytics and ministry survey research from Church Website Guide published in the September 2009 issue of Christian Computing Magazine! Get More Visitors to Your Church Website with Directory Referrals. For Free! explores the three types of church website source traffic, direct traffic, referral traffic, and search traffic. Get More Church Website New Visitors Through Directory Referrals The article also discusses how to get more new visitors by getting your church signed up (free!) on varying different types of directories that will be included below. While the article does not discuss the long term positive effects of directory links on search engine optimization (SEO), future articles released here at Church Website Guide will go into the efficacy and relevancy of SEO for church websites in effective online ministry! Directories Are Highest Source Of Church Website Referral Traffic The article also reveals some telling results from our church website analytics and ministry survey study- Directory referrals were the highest source of referral traffic for church websites, higher even than social media outlets like blogs, Facebook, and Twitter. Churches need to get on board with free directory submissions (and...

Church Website Guide’s analytics and survey research is published in the August 2009 issue of Christian Computing Magazine!  Your Church Website Is Vital for New Visitors makes the case for the church website as a critical messenger to visitors, impacting whether potential visitors even show up on Sunday morning at your church community.  The article continues below: Your Church Website is Vital for New Visitors Before you read this article, open your church’s website and take a few moments to examine it. What are the visual and content elements that jump out? For whom are these elements designed? Is it primarily a resource for people who already attend your church? Are the largest elements the recent sermon series, events or ministries to serve? Is your church website a place to welcome new people, or does it appear to be a site for regular attendees? Your church website sends a critical message to visitors and impacts whether they will ever visit your church community. “When we moved, a church’s website had to be our first filter to find a church. A lot of churches had crummy websites and regardless of how great a church they may be, we passed them by,” stated Ryan Heinese, as his family searched for a church...

Data gleaned from church website surveys and church website analytics from Church Website Guide are being cited and published in Christian Computing Magazine starting July of 2009. The first article, which has some church website user survey results and church web analytics research, is titled The Truth About Church Websites and Social Networking, and was written by Drew Goodmanson, pastor of Kaleo Church in San Diego, and the CEO of Monk Development, designer of a premier church content management system, Ekklesia360. An excerpt from this introductory church website and social networking  article published by Christian Computing Magazine is included below. ‘We have all heard about the importance of a church website, the growth of social networking and the need for pastors to blog.  But how effective are these strategies for outreach, making disciples and gathering people?  In spring 2009, Monk Development began a study that over one hundred churches participated in representing 30,000+ members.  This study includes over 1,200 survey responses and nearly fifty years worth of combined Google Analytics data to help us understand what happens on a church website and the experience of online visitors. All of this market research...

Church Website Survey Research from Church Website Guide was cited and published this month in the Nov/Dec 2009 issue of  Your Church magazine, a publication of Christianity Today. Drew Goodmanson, chief executive of Monk Development and co-founder/pastor at Kaleo Church writes an article titled “Website Wisdom:  New Research, Cooperative Reveal Best Practices for Churches“.   Speaking from the research that we’ve started releasing on Church Website Guide this year, Drew discusses best practices for church websites in attracting new visitors, connecting people, and equipping church leaders. Here is an excerpt: “Research conducted earlier this year, which surveyed hundreds of churches representing more than 70,000 members combined, attempted to drill deeper into two fundamental questions as the Internet grows in its influence and importance in our culture and beyond: 1) Do church websites strategically help attract new visitors, connect people, and equip leaders? 2) And if so, what are the best practices for a church’s web strategy? Three significant discoveries, as well as several best practices, emerged from this work. This information can help large churches (congregations such as Willow Creek Community...

CONTENT RANKINGS BY METRIC Size 501-1,000 Member Churches Top Pageviews % Average Homepage 27.44% Groups 19.48% I’m New/Information 17.42% Media Total 13.39% Events 6.75% Media-Sermons 4.53% Blog 3.38% Media-Others 3.26% Giving 0.88% Media-Articles 0.74% Gospel 0.17%