- Out-of-Date Content – This is the ultimate sin when it comes to your website. Having your Christmas musical still listed on your website in March tells the community that your church is not concerned with the community enough to give them up-to-date info.
- Too much info on the front page – Information overload is a great way to drive people away from your site.
- Too much religious-ease – Using words that only we as Christians understand is a great way to drive seekers away from your website and your church. Many times we use big religious words to make us feel important, but the reality is, many people are turned off by this.
- Having your receptionist build your site – Handing a copy of Website Building for Dummies is not effective outreach. There is much more to an effective website than just slapping some HTML code and some clip-art on to your website.
- Blogs (unless you use them) – Blogging is all the rage right now but unfortunately, unless you use it regularly and keep it up to date, only sends the message that you unorganized and really don’t care enough to up date it. Also, keep them on topic. Telling people about a rare postage stamp you won on EBay doesn’t count as relevant.
- Music – There are two schools of thought when it comes to music automatically playing: 1. Don’t do it and 2. Don’t do it. When I use music on a site (in Flash usually), I make sure that the audio if off by default and then give the user the option to turn it on if they choose. There’s nothing more annoying than having your speakers turned up and then getting blasted by unexpected music from your church’s choir.
- No way to contact you – If users don’t can’t find a way to contact you within a few seconds, it sends a very bad message. Make how to contact you prominent on a site.
- Long Download Times – This is basic web development 101 but it bears repeating. Keep your site’s download times and short as possible. It’s great that you can wield Flash like a ninja, but with great power comes great responsibility. Remember that there are still people on the internet using dial-up (poor souls).
- Poor Design – Over 90% of first time visitors to your church building will make a decision on whether they will come back or not based on the look of your facilities. I’m going to venture that more than 90% will make a decision to ATTEND your church or not based on the look and feel of your website. If you’re going to have a website, build one with excellence.
- Poor Usability – Don’t you hate being lost? I do (I hate asking directions even more), so imagine if your site’s users can’t find their way around your site. If they can’t, they’ll get frustrated and leave. Make it clear and obvious where they need to click and why.
- Browser Specific Sites – In the old days of web development (like 3 years ago), you used to be able to get away with building a site that only works in Internet Explorer. Today it’s different. With the steady growth of FireFox, Apple's Safari, Google Chrome and Opera, more and more people are visiting your sites with various browsers (not to mention mobile devices). Bottom line – test it in as many different browsers as you can prior to launching it on the world.
Do you have other church websites sins? Share them below:
