What pages should I include on my Episcopal Church website?

One of the first steps to creating a meaningful website for your parish is deciding which pages to include.

1. Define the purpose of your site

   You can ask yourself, what job should it do?

   Legitimize

   The legitimizing role carries more weight when you identify that your website is mostly for new people in your parish. A sloppy or outdated website sends a strong message to a person who has never met you before and can be a huge turn-off. And when your take the time to make sure your design, information, and other content are accurate you can create a strong curiosity for a potential visitor.

   Convert

   The next kind of website is one that moves a visitor towards action. There are all kinds of actions you could imagine - calling/emailing your office, attending worship, or subscribing to a newsletter are some common calls to action.

   Additionally you might want to consider a secondary action such a download of some kind. Think about a guide that would be really useful for a new person who moved to the area

   Each of these jobs or roles require that you have good content and well written SEO descriptions (the hidden information that a search engine uses to organize and rank your online presence).

   What does your site NOT need to do?

   Remaining simple and focused is absolutely essential.

   Do you need to answer every question about your church?
   Does your site need to have every granular detail of your history?

2. Start with a really simple list

Additional Pages

• FAQs

• Parish History

• Community Events

• Local Community

• Diocese Resources

• Episcopal Resources

• A podcast

Standard Pages

• Home

• Worship

• Giving

• Parish Life

• Contact

• About

Structure your site for SEO

A parish blog is a terrific way to share what’s important for you as a community and also to help search engines to index your content. A blog is a place where you can write about your parish, life in the Episcopal Church, you can nerd our, feature different colleagues in your parish and what’s important for them. Google really likes when you create new content for your website.

From the list I made for you about, then you can expand:

• Home

• Worship

  • Times

  • What to expect

  • Online

  • Sacraments and Rites

• Giving

  • Why is giving important?

• Parish Life

  • Formation

  • Fellowship

  • Students

  • Volunteer

  • Pastoral Care

• About

  • What we believe

  • Staff and Clergy

  • Vestry

  • Our Campus

• Contact (Incredibly simple, obvious, and easy to navigate)

It is tempting to over-name, and easy to get carried away with your list of pages. Stay focused on the people you seek to serve, be clear, and if you get stuck, I’m always here.