I have been on thousands of church websites over the past few years.
I’ve seen a lot of great-designed websites, and I’ve seen a lot of poorly designed websites.
While design plays a huge role in keeping visitors on your website, I believe these 3 website trends are slowly driving many visitors away.
I’m going to give you an example of a church doing each trend and an example of what you should do instead. If you see your church listed in one of the trends, please don’t get offended.
This post has nothing to do with your church. It’s mainly about changing how we look towards potential visitors.
Displaying the pastor first and foremost
This is a huge trend in churches. It’s a trend that I’ve even done for some of the church websites that I’ve built.
An example of this is Elevation Church. When it comes to church web design, Elevation is the standard. From their crisp images to their clean minimalist layout, their website is simply beautiful.
What is the first thing that you see when you go on their website?
Steven Furtick (or a guest pastor).
As a visitor who may be dealing with depression, addiction, loneliness, sickness, fear, doubt, etc, seeing this big picture of a pastor isn’t relatable.
Yes, their life could be changed by watching the sermon, but they have to click on it first. That might be hard to do when they simply can’t relate.
Relate to the visitor first
As soon as you go to Life Church’s website, the first thing you see are people smiling. The words ‘There’s a place for you here,’ are prominent.
This is relatable.
There’s a quick encouraging word right below the heading. Like Elevation Church, they also give you the ability to watch a sermon.
I don’t have an actual stat for this, but I’m willing to bet that a visitor will more likely click on Life Church’s sermon button than Elevation’s sermon button simply because their page is more relatable to them.
Putting an emphasis on giving
I remember when churches used to pass an offering bucket around in the aisle.
When I was a kid, I remember having to get up and drop the tithes and offerings in front of the pulpit.
Times have changed tremendously. Now you can scan QR codes, tap and pay, pay in Bitcoin, have it automatically come out of your bank account, etc.
Bottom line, there are so many ways to give and it’s so easy to do it.
For this next example, I’m going to use Union Church.
They have 5 links in their navigation bar. All 5 of them are white, except one. The ‘Give’ link is yellow.
This can be a huge red flag for a visitor. It might seem like all your church cares about is money.
Visitors are already skeptical when it comes to pastors and money. Why give them a reason to add to that skepticism?
Make giving easily accessible but not prominent
At The Village Church, their ‘Give’ button is also in the navigation bar.
What makes them different is the fact that all the links are the same color. They want you to equally know who they are, about their ministries, how to serve, how to give, and their upcoming events.
I understand that churches are non-profit and that they need money for them to run. Highlighting that may make them appear desperate or greedy. Simply make it easy for people to give instead of making it stand out.
At the end of the day, people are going to give or not give. Don’t put your trust in people, put your trust in God. He is our provider.
Generic welcome heading
If you frequently visit a lot of churches, what is the one phrase that you always see?
WELCOME HOME.
I probably first heard this phrase back in 2014 when I joined a new church plant. I didn’t have an issue with it until I kept seeing it every single church; mainly on websites.
I don’t know anything about Freedom House Church. I searched, ‘church near me’ on Google, and they were the first website that I clicked on.
There are so many other things that you can say instead.
You can put your church’s mission or motto. You can put an encouraging word. You can put something relating to your city, which can help improve your church’s local SEO.
Whatever you do, be unique. There are hundreds of ‘Welcome Home’ church headings—choose to be different.
Make a relatable and unique welcome heading instead
It looks like Definition Church is using its mission for its heading. It’s unique and relatable. People want to experience Jesus, become like him, and do the things that he did.
Their heading is unique and relatable. It stands out from the typical ‘Welcome Home’.
If you don’t know what to say, use ChatGPT to help you come up with a welcoming message.
Conclusion
Always have the visitor in mind when it comes to your church website. They are the ones that will most likely be on your website.
All of the trends mentioned are very subtle. Move the pastor toward the bottom of the page. Remove anything that makes your ‘Give’ link stand out. Get more creative with your opening heading.
By doing these small things, you can expect to see some big results on your website.
Evan Smith is the owner of Two Ten Creatives, a creative design company specifically for churches. He strategically finds ways to bring more visitors to churches by designing church websites and focusing on local SEO. He is a follower of Jesus, a husband, and a father.
