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Jan
12
Written by:
host
1/12/2010 7:00 AM
 Let's start today's blog with a premise: your church probably doesn't have enough websites. Now I know you're probably thinking, "What!?! We can't even do one website well. How would we manage or afford multiple sites?" For the moment, set that potentially valid concern aside, and just consider these reasons you need multiple websites.
- Having multiple websites allows you to better target your intended audience. It should be pretty self-explanatory that a site dedicated to your senior high youth, for example, could have a unique look and feel that would appeal to them. Likewise, a site that focuses on visitors could have just the essentials, while a site for members could have far more information. What may be less obvious is that you can better target your audience in the site setup process through the use of appropriate keywords.
- A church that has multiple websites communicates to the community and to visitors that it is (or is becoming) a tech-savvy congregation.
- Multiple websites could improve the Google rating of your primary site a bit. Plus, at the very least, it makes it more likely that your church will be found in searches. Indeed, it's even possible that with multiple websites that you could dominate many of the first page of listings.
- Each website in a multiple website congregation can be administered by an individual who is passionate about a particular ministry. When websites are the responsibility of staff members, too often they languish untouched or are infrequently updated.
- By registering multiple domain names--even if you don't use them at this time--your church protects those names from being claimed by some other church.
- Having more than one website gives you the opportunity to try out various web platforms (WordPress, Joomla, etc.) to see which is most intuitive and easy to use.
- Websites are increasingly easy to set up these days, and it's even often free to do so, thus eliminating the expertise and expense barriers that once existed. Anyone could very easily set up a basic Wordpress blog, for example, since doing so requires practically no technical skills.
- The functionality of each site can be different when you have more than one site. One site could be set up to work seamlessly with your membership database and to coordinate ministries within the church, while another could primarily show church videos.
- The name of a particular ministry is sometimes easier for people to remember than an abbreviated church name. So, for example, if your youth group is known as "fireworkx," the website fireworkx.com will be easier to remember thanwww.yourchurchname.com/fireworkx.
- When a church begins to have more than one website, it sparks excitement and energy within other ministries in the church for the ministry of evangelism and outreach. Soon, committee members and leaders may say things like, "Hey, if the music ministries can have their own website, why can't we?"
Next time, I'll offer a few strategies for moving ahead with a multiple website strategy. Until then, just ponder—and talk with others in your congregation—about what it might look like to have a second, third, and fourth website, starting with one for some component of your faith formation ministries.
~ by Tim Gossett
Copyright ©2010 Different Voice
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