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Whether you’ve just recently set up a brand new website for your church or have had the same one since 2019, the fall season is a great time for a good clean-up! It’s easy to neglect your website or let it get overgrown, like a garden, with too many pages and content. And nothing is more frustrating than visiting a website with a confusing navigation or broken links.

This fall, honor both your staff team and congregation by ensuring that the correct information is listed on your website and that all elements are functioning properly. Let’s chat about some of the steps you can take to spruce up your website. Our end goal is to make people WANT to visit your website regularly, and for their website visit to be a seamless, frustration-free process!

Review Page Content

The content on your website is so important! It’s the reason why many of your church’s leaders are eager to have a dedicated webpage for their specific area of ministry. They each have lots of information to share and need somewhere to put it all. With so many voices, it’s far too easy to let your website get overgrown and crowded.

This fall, slow down and take inventory of the content on your website. Check the messaging on your key pages. Upload the latest content for sermons, blogs, groups, events, etc. Update staff listings and contact information. In short … cut through the clutter. With every small update, you are making your website that much more clear and focused.

As you review page content, ask yourself these questions:

• How is our website pointing people to Jesus?
• Does the messaging still align with the mission and culture of our church?
• Are there pages we can combine to make the content more digestible?
• Is our content connecting with both newcomers and our congregation?
• Are there clear next steps or calls to action individuals can take?

Update Photography

At Fishhook, we often say that your website is your welcome mat. It is usually the first thing people interact with when they want to learn more about your church. Therefore, your site should showcase photos and videos that illustrate what makes your church unique and distinct. 

In our digital world, a picture’s worth a thousand words. So, a picture on a church’s website is worth far more than a thousand! Outdated photography may confuse or even turn people away from visiting your church on a Sunday. Comb through every frequently visited page and add photos that are true and relevant to your church’s culture. Draw new visitors in with photos of people of all ages, Sunday services, your building, staff and life-change happening through your church. Good photography is what makes a website alive and dynamic!

Check for Broken Links

Clicking on a broken link is like finding a road closure on your commute to work … it’s the worst! Not only do you have to figure out redirecting your route, it increases the time it takes to navigate to your desired location. Be sure to take that workload off of any newcomers or website users!

With a quick Google search, you can find free broken link scanners and other online tools to run your website through. Even if you don’t find any broken links, it’d be beneficial to have a member of your team take the time to review each hyperlink or button on your site to ensure they go to the correct destination. Updating outdated or broken links makes a huge difference in the overall functionality of your church’s website and a better user experience!

Also, as a reminder - all key pages on your website should only be a click or two away from your homepage!

Measure Performance

All data tells a story. It shows what’s working, what isn’t, what needs to be adjusted and what areas can be enhanced even more. A website clean-up is a great time to pull some metrics and then dig into the numbers to analyze what’s going on. 

When measuring website performance, a great place to start is tracking some key analytics over the course of a set period of time, including numbers of views per page and engagement rate per page. Tracking with Google Analytics or another similar system will help you make data-informed decisions.

For the web pages or pieces of content that are getting lots of attention, observe if there are any similarities:

• Are the web pages laid out in a similar way? 
• Is there a consistent theme or topic being discussed? 
• Has more time been spent on SEO or keyword strategy?

For the web pages that you anticipated receiving a lot of traction, but haven’t, ask yourself:

• Is this page being linked to from other places on the website?
• Is the messaging easy to understand? Are there clear next steps a user can take? 
• How can this page be featured more, highlighted on other areas of the site (or in other areas of your digital marketing strategy as a whole)?
• Can this content be added to another page, combined with a section of the site that’s already high-performing? 

Approachable Website Audit

Get ready to go into this year’s busy fall ministry season by conducting a website clean-up now! A review of these four areas (content, photography, links and analytics) will bring your website to the next level. The best part about this checklist is that it is approachable and beginner-friendly … you can get started on a basic audit of your website today! You got this! For a deeper dive into this topic, read our Ultimate Guide to the Best Church Websites. 

Looking for more website support? Our team is always willing to jump in and give support where it’s needed. If your church is needing some additional help with managing or evolving your site, let’s talk!