Your church’s digital curb appeal is more important than ever

In today’s digital society, a website is often more important than a building’s location, curb appeal, or signage. It’s important to ensure that your church has a robust, dynamic website that shares necessary information and introduces visitors to your authentic, unique character.

Starting a website can be daunting. It’s more than going online and “signing up,” as we do for most things these days, like Facebook and Amazon.

A website needs three main components, each of which must then work together to make it work:

• A domain name is the URL - or what comes after www and before .org or .com. If you search commonly named churches, you’ll see that most are already taken. For instance, if you’re First UMC in Oklahoma City, you might look for okcfirst.com as a domain. Unfortunately, that name is currently being used by First Church of the Nazarene.
  • It’s important to get a domain name that is short enough to be memorable but that isn’t already in use.
• Hosting is where your website itself - the files, the code, etc., is actually stored. There are tons of web hosting companies. Many churches pay for five years of hosting, then forget the host name - or staff changes and institutional knowledge is lost. When this happens, staff can find that all of a sudden, the church website is down and no one knows how to set it back up. Keeping that information in a safe, obvious spot is imperative.
• Web design is the final piece of the website puzzle. This is where church staff or volunteers can become equipped to log in and change information, upload photos, and more. Web design software can range from relatively easy, with sites like Wordpress or Wix, to very difficult, using computer coding languages to design the sites.

What does this all mean to a church looking to add a website to its portfolio?

Each item listed has a cost attached. From domain rental - you never really “own” your domain name - to hosting to design, a good website is never free. Some all-in-one membership management software, like SalesForce or Salsa, offer included websites, but for the purposes of this story, we will assume that if that is an option, your church can also take advantage of their free or low-cost training.

This article focuses on three basic options for your church.

The first is to take advantage of totally free resources available on the web.

Find-A-Church is United Methodist Communications’ most-visited site. This tool allows church representatives to log into their account and add information such as worship and education times, leadership introductions, available ministries, detailed descriptions, and even photos. The search engine optimization (SEO) used by UM Comms is firstrate, which means that if you use FindAChurch, your church will come up in Google searches of your area.

Another free web resource that every church should be taking advantage of is social media. Whether your target audience is on Facebook, X, Instagram, TikTok, or Snapchat, your church can have a presence. The caveat to some social media platforms is that safe sanctuaries policies do apply to children and youth using those apps, so a good policy will be of utmost importance.

Ensuring your Google location is up-to-date is an additional step that often gets overlooked.

The second option is to use UM Comm’s Website Services. This service is available to all United Methodist churches at a low cost and includes all three necessary components to a website, plus training. One advantage of UM Comm is that their services are specific to our denomination; another is that they assist through the entire process, from beginning to end. Third, they are by far the least expensive paid option.

The third option is to do the research and purchase each component a la carte. The advantage of this option is that you have more control over the process from start to finish. If you have a web designer on hand who is familiar with a particular platform, this might be the best option for you.

We’ve compiled an analysis for the lowest cost for each option (see the chart). Whether you go with the free route or one of the alternatives, an online presence is vital in this digital age.

Consideration should be given to ensuring at least one person is trained and available to keep the site updated and ensure content on social media and FindAChurch is accurate and up-to-date.