- So, what makes a good
church website design?
Well, here are three things
that your church website
definitely does not need.
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Well hey there,
I'm Brady from prochurchtools.com
and this is the channel
that helps your church
learn creative skills and feel like a pro.
We publish new videos every single week
so make sure you hit the
subscribe button below.
And hey, if you like this video,
make sure you hit the like button, also.
Your church's website
is the most important part of your church
when it comes to making first impressions.
Because before a new visitor
is ever gonna step foot in your door,
the majority of us are gonna
check out your church online.
So, we need our church website design
to put our church's best foot forward.
So, consider this stat.
46% of people say that a website's design
is their number one criterion
for determining the
credibility of an organization,
or, in your case, a church.
And what that stat is saying
is that if your church
website design is poor,
half of the people in
your city and community
will write off your church immediately.
So, let's dive into three things
that your church website does not need.
Because one of the easiest ways
to improve your church's existing site
is to remove elements that
don't need to be there
rather than starting from scratch
and building something new.
The first thing your church
website does not need
is a slider.
Now, at the time this video is made,
sliders are still by far
the most widely used design
elements on church homepages.
And the main problem with rotating sliders
is that they don't say anything,
instead they try to say everything.
Instead of forcing your
church to narrow down
into the true purpose
and goal of your site,
sliders allow your church to just throw up
whatever you want, whenever you want.
Moreover, let's look at the data.
This study from Neilson revealed
that sliders are ignored
entirely by most visitors
and also, visitors find
them to be annoying.
In this study, from the
University of Notre Dame,
found that sliders got about
a one percent click-through rate
which is abysmal if you did not know.
Suffice to say ditch your slider,
it needs to go.
And if you want to know
what to replace it with,
we've got a free guide
called the Secret
Ingredient of the World's
Best Church Websites.
So click below to download that
and it's gonna walk
you through our process
of what to put on your church's homepage
in place of a rotating slider.
And the second thing your
church website does not need
is stock photography.
And it wasn't too long ago
where you could just slap
pictures of plastic people
from the world of stock
photography on your website
and kind of get away with it.
But, we're at a time in history now
where stock photos, especially of people,
is becoming very taboo.
You can blame Instagram
or your mobile device,
but we all have access to
cameras now in our pockets
that used to be reserved only
for expensive, professional cameras.
And when I land on your church's website,
I want to see your church and your people,
not models that you found online.
Finally, the third thing
that your church website does not need
is more than seven, count them,
seven items in it's navigation menu.
So, at the top of your website,
in the navigation menu,
if you have more than
seven top level links,
you definitely need to
shrink that number down.
And just look at the following
three church websites.
Newspring Church, five links.
Elevation Church, six links.
Life Church, five links.
Again, these are some of the
biggest churches in the world
with dozens of campuses
and they've managed
to keep their nav menu
buttons below seven.
Your church can as well.
And there you have it,
three things that your
church website does not need.
If you like this video,
make sure that you hit
the like button below
and definitely subscribe to
the Pro Church Tools channel.
We post new videos like this every week
helping your church learn creative skills
and feel like a pro.
And if you want to take
your church's website
to the next level,
make sure you download
our free guide called
The Secret Ingredients of the
World's Best Church Websites.
Like I said,
it's 100% free so click to download that.
Question of the day for you
is what's the most frustrating thing
about your church's website right now?
Well, leave a comment below
because I'd love to hear from you.
Thanks for watching
and I'll see you next time.
