Every church needs a website, but many churches have a difficult time keeping their websites up-to-date because they have a lot going on at their church, they don’t have the team to support regular website updates, or they are overwhelmed by how many facets of a church website there are to keep updated. We’ve compiled a guide to the most important parts of your church website to keep fresh so that online audiences know your church is an active, thriving congregation.

Sermons

It’s helpful for churches to maintain a page on their website with their past sermons, whether they be in PDF, video or audio form. This is a great way to not only give current members of your church a way to stay up-to-date on services if they are unable to attend in person, but also lets prospective new members know what you’re about and get a taste of what makes your worship unique by actually watching it. 

Events

An updated events page allows current members to know what’s going on at your church and also shows prospective new members you have opportunities for them to get plugged in. Make sure to maintain an events page on your church website where you can input event names, times, locations, descriptions and photos to let people know what is happening. Events can include special worship services, community celebrations, church fundraisers or anything else you may be hosting.

Calendar

In addition to an entry for bigger special events, keep an updated digital calendar on your church website for regular events that may be helpful for current and prospective church members to be aware of. Google calendars are typically simple to embed on websites, though there are other tools you can use.

Blog

Church members want to be updated on the latest news. Maybe your church gets a new staff member, is launching a new fundraiser or has a member doing something amazing in the community you want to feature. A blog is a great way to write short stories to engage your online audience and let them know what’s going on at an organizational level when something exciting or new happens. 

Blogs can also add search engine optimization (SEO) value to your church website. Consider using a tool like Google Keyword Planner to find what people online are searching for and address their faith-based questions with a quick written piece from your pastor.

Images

Keeping the images on your church website fresh is a simple way to show online visitors that your church is active. Updating the images across your site allows you to show new faces and events as they happen and makes for a more engaging church website experience. This is an easy way to ensure that your website reflects a thriving, modern church community.

Church websites require regular maintenance to do their job, so use this article as a reference in your ongoing website developments. It’s your turn to maximize your church website’s effectiveness and communicate with your congregation members and faith seekers.

We also offer churches within the denomination state-of-the-art websites through the UCC Everywhere (UCCE) program. For a monthly or annual subscription fee, churches get their own site along with other digital marketing tools and support to make sure their message is reaching faith-seekers in their community via the appropriate virtual channels. These websites make it easy to manage content from sermons to images to events so that keeping your website updated is intuitive and quick.

Visit https://ucceverywhere.org/ to learn more, request a demo or sign up today!