Share the Love: Smart Church Website Design

It is essential for churches to have an effective website in order to bring in outside members of the community. People are no longer looking in phonebooks or relying on commercials for their information anymore. When they want to find out more information on a product or service, usually the first place they go is online. Make sure that your church website design is up to par with these helpful hints.

1) Select a it color scheme and stick to it.

Your website should be cohesive throughout its many pages or else you risk losing the viewer’s attention or possibly even confusing them. Try to use a color scheme that is true to your church. For example, if you want to show potential visitors that your church is casual and that you can have fun while singing praises, it is okay to use some fun colors in there. However, if your church is a more serious place of worship, neutral colors would be best. When considering colors for your church website design, don’t go overboard. Choose a palette of only a few colors to keep the design simple.

2) Give your viewers a navigation system that is easy to use.

The navigation bar can be on the top, left or right. Here you should provide tabs for different pages of your website. You should only have a few as to not overwhelm the viewer. You should have a calendar or events tab to keep your congregation up to date, as well as an “About” section and other possible tabs such as “Youth Group,” “Contacts,” or “Links.” Try and keep these to a minimum to keep your church website design simple.

3) Stay away from flash intros, moving pictures or music.

This takes away from the professionalism of your church website design. Many people are multitasking when they are on the internet and don’t want to be bombarded with loud music or have their internet slowed down by lengthy videos. If you must, make these “extras” optional and let the viewer of your website have control as to when music or video starts.

4) Make sure that your church website is easy to read and pleasing to the eye.

First, make sure there is enough contrast between the text and the background so that it can be read without squinting. Make sure the photographs or pictures are of high quality. Also, click on your links to make sure that they work and take you to the correct website. All of these factors determine how professional your church website design will come across.

5) Create content on at least one of these pages.

To keep your website coming up in search engines, it’s important to have a blog or some other type of content to keep it relevant. There are plenty of events and happenings going on, so write about them and utilize content to keep visitors coming to your website.
It is certainly a daunting task to create a new church website design. While there are some free templates available for you to use online, it would be best to have your own personal website that you can customize and change to fit the feel of your church. Not only will having a smart church web design help you attract new members, it can also keep your current congregation connected and aware of the different services and events happening on a daily basis.

Need help? Contact your local web design experts and get started on your new church web design today. Check out Paveya's portfolio here to see examples of how we can help your church.