Church Website Don'ts

• Going cheap

  • Avoid like the plague any web host that offers free/low-cost hosting in return for popup ads they choose.

  • Ad content can be offensive or inappropriate.

  • Worst offenders: www.angelfire.com and www.tripod.com.

  • Example: Light of Christ, La Porte

• Outdated content

  • KEEP WEBSITE UP-TO-DATE!!! (Requires work, but well worth the effort!).

• Spelling errors

• Incomprehensible mission statement or statement of belief

  • Rarely written for non-churchgoers or "seekers."

  • A writing exercise. Waste of time, except when a church lives up to it!

• Featuring the church building

  • A church is about people not its building!

  • Unless the church building is historically significant (like Westminster Abbey), there is little reason to mention or show it at all.

• Multiple fonts

  • Give site a disjointed, "design by committee" look.

  • No more than one or two fonts.

  • Use fonts common to most computers:

    • Arial/Helvetica (widely available sans-serif; included on all Macs and PC's).

    • Verdana (sans-serif, especially designed for the internet; included on all Macs and PC's).

    • Times, Palatino (both common serif fonts; included on all Macs and PC's).

• Glitzy Special effects

  • Most users are turned-off by fancy menu systems or flashy introductions.

• Long download times

  • Caused by overuse of animations, high-resolution photos.

  • Most people don't hang around slow-loading websites.

  • 10 SECONDS TO CAPTURE A VIEWER'S ATTENTION!

• Complicated navigation systems

  • Stick to the tried and true.

  • Use a simple line of links on the left or across the top.

• Splash screen or intro page

  • Often well-designed and very "arty" but with no navigational links.

  • Only has "Enter" link which takes visitors to the actual site.

  Auto-load sound files (just plain annoying!!!)

• Use of "Applets"

  • Applet: a program written in Java programming language that can be included in an HTML page, much in the same way an image is included in a page.

  • Load slowly and repeatedly crash browsers.

  • Visitors won't return.

• Message from the pastor in big letters.

• Little more than a "billboard" on the information highway with name of pastor, church address and phone number (nothing else).

• Domain name includes hyphens, underscores, periods, special characters.

  • Difficult to remember and type.

• Dark, out-of-focus photos of bored people.

• Include "visitors welcome" on home page (but no map, no directions, no link to visitor page).

• Lacks color sense.

• Long descriptions of programs.

  • Remember the 10 second rule.

• Overwhelming amount of information on the home page.

  • Again, the 10 second rule.

   

  First-Aid for Your Ailing Website