"I just wanted to say thanks to you fellas for all you do for us. We count you as partners in our ministry! Your work, professionalism, vision, and talents really are a blessing."—Matt Vanderwarker, Bethel Baptist of Hampton Virginia
Where Do I Start?
Having an attractive, usable website is vitally important for your church communication, but the idea of building one from scratch probably seems very intimidating. Let's look at five simple steps that will let you break up the massive project of building a church website into bite-sized chunks.
Step 1-Secure Your Domain
Your domain is your web address-for example, yourchurch.org. Typing your domain into a web browser (like Internet Explorer or Firefox) points a user to your website. If you don't already have one, you can check the availability of a domain at any of the popular registrars. We recommend trying register.com, networksolutions.com or godaddy.com.
Domains can be purchased for a set amount of time (usually from $5 to $35 per year depending on the registrar used). Once you purchase a domain, it is yours for as long as you keep it renewed. It is often a good idea to purchase several domains (for example, both yourchurch.com and yourchurch.org) and point them all to your site.
Securing your domain has nothing to do with who hosts, designs, or maintains your website. More information on these areas will follow.
You will probably find that the simplest domain for your church is already taken (calvarybaptist.org for example), and you will need to spend some time trying other variations such as: mycalvarybaptist.org, mycbc.org, cbc4me.org, calvarychicago.org, cbcchicago.org, chicagocbc.org, cbconline.org, calvarybaptistonline.org, or any other variations unique to your location. Strive to keep your domain as short and easy to remember as possible. Long domains become very difficult to type.
There is no hard and fast rule regarding which suffix to use, but the most popular are .org and .com. Typically, ministries and non-profit organizations use .org if it is available.
Step 2-Plan Your Project
It's tempting to jump right into the visual design of your site, but resist the urge. Your site and your users will benefit from careful planning at the outset. Spend some time reviewing other church websites, and make a list of which ones appeal to you. Ask yourself why you like these sites. What makes them successful? Could they be improved?
In addition, ask yourself some key questions about your site, such as:
- Who is my audience, and what are they looking for?
- What is my budget for a church website?
- Who will be responsible for the content?
- What is my deadline?
We've put together a website survey document that will help you get your thoughts on paper. You can download it here.
Be aware, as you browse other sites looking for inspiration, that sometimes ideas will quickly grow beyond what your timetable or budget will allow. Divide your brainstorming into a "must have" list for immediate implementation and a "wish list" for future development after the site is live. In one sense, a website is like a car. The more bells and whistles you add to it, the more expensive it gets. Are you looking for a high-end luxury sedan or just something reliable that gets you where you need to go?
Step 3-Organize Your Navigation Structure
In web lingo, the fancy term for outlining your navigation is putting together your Information Architecture. You need to consider the main categories of your site's content and sort them into logical primary and secondary categories. Sometimes it's advantageous to call upon the tried and true 3 x 5 card. Distribute cards to every ministry that would like to contribute content to the site. Try to limit each card to one specific piece of information. Once the cards are collected, sort them into piles by primary categories and then into sub-categories.
Some churches find it helpful to include a major, dominant navigation structure for information applicable to new visitors and a smaller navigation structure for information applicable to church members. It is a good general practice to limit your top level sections to 10 or fewer so your users don't become overwhelmed with the amount of content.
Step 4-Design the Visual Interface
Once you have a clear outline of your site content in place, you can begin to design the look and feel. It's best if you are 95% happy with the visual design of your site before any serious page building begins. The further you progress down the road of the site's development, the more difficult it is to make major design changes.
Step 5-Develop & Test
Set up a private staging area where you can access your site while it is under development. When most of the heavy building is done, test your site in as many browsers and computers as possible. No two computers, monitors or browsers will look and behave alike, and it is important to discover under which circumstances your site does not work correctly.
For the most part, your site must look identical on Internet Explorer 6 and above, Firefox, and Safari. If any portions of the site or features do not display or work correctly in these browsers, then corrections to the code are necessary.
Working with Web Design Agencies
As the web has matured and technology has become more complex, it has become increasingly difficult to design, program, and maintain a quality website without professional help. It is not unreasonable for you to pursue assistance in creating a site for your church much the same way you would bring in a special speaker for revival meetings. If you decide to work with a web service provider to develop your site, here are some important considerations:
Make sure your provider either specializes in church sites or has several church sites in their portfolio. Church sites are unique. Each ministry cares greatly about the standards their graphics convey, and working with an agency with a heart for ministry makes the need to communicate these concerns much easier.
Beware of free or low cost offers. Sometimes the most expensive website you can own is the one you get for free. In the same way you would not let any traveling preacher take your pulpit for a week just because they volunteered, you need to be cautious with whom you trust your website. There are numerous companies who offer free hosting and design services, but these will either fail to meet your needs, provide no customer service, or include unwanted ad content in your site pages.
Host your site with the agency that designed it, if it is a part of their package. By way of explanation, hosting refers to the place your website actually "lives," on a server (an actual computer "box") housed with a hosting company. There are hosting companies catering to every website budget, all of which utilize some sort of monthly hosting fee for the use of space on their servers. Monthly fees range from a few dollars a month to hundreds of dollars a month, depending on the quality of the hosting service and the size of the website to be hosted. We recommend allowing your design agency to arrange and provide your hosting, if their costs are reasonable. (Some design firms will only design a site that they also host and maintain in the future.) There are several advantages to allowing them to host your site. Typically, they will have access to better servers than would be available to you, and keeping them working in the areas in which they are most comfortable will work to your benefit. Most design firms who provide hosting use a monthly fee as a way to stay involved in your site and support you with answers to your questions and simple upgrades as needed.
Pricing structures will vary. Each firm will charge for their services differently, but the bottom line is that professional level site development takes time for which developers must be paid. Some firms will charge a fixed amount for the design of the site and then a smaller amount as a monthly hosting fee. Others do not charge for the design but charge higher hosting fees and insist upon payment on a yearly basis. Others will charge one lump sum that includes design and hosting. Design agencies should be evaluated by the work they have done and the total price structure. You should not hesitate to ask for a few referrals for sites they are showing as samples of their work. Call their clients and ask about their timeliness in completing the project, ease to work with, reliability, accuracy in sticking to their estimate, etc. Asking a lot of questions early in the decision process will eliminate many problems later on.
One last note regarding finances. Never pay more than 1/2 the cost of the site design prior to beginning the project. Some providers will charge considerable amounts up-front before beginning the work. It is customary to pay a deposit toward the project in the beginning, but keep it no more than 1/2 of the total. Under no circumstances should you pay any additional funds prior to seeing substantial progress on the site, and never make full payment until every aspect of the site is just as it should be and the site has been thoroughly tested.
Use a provider that can offer a full-featured Content Management System (CMS). Websites are useless if their content is not kept up-to-date. Make sure that your finished site has a way that its content can be easily updated by you and any others you designate without requiring any special technical knowledge or skill. A good CMS will enable you to add and edit content from right within a web browser. You should never need to be dependant upon a programmer or service provider to keep your site updated. Ask the provider to demonstrate their CMS to you so you can see what features it has to offer.
In the next and final article of this series, we'll discuss how to promote your church website.