Some people just stroll into a new church cold.
These are the minority.
The vast majority of people have researched your church before visiting and already come with preconceived ideas about what to expect based on the content and impression they got from your website.
Here I outline why improving your church website’s visibility online through the use of SEO will make sure you extend the warmth of your church welcome to your online space.
If you’re new to the world of website design you may not know what SEO is. So, let’s start with a few definitions and work from there.
What is SEO?
SEO stands for Search Engine Optimisation and includes a range of techniques to improve the performance and visibility of your website in internet searches using search engines like Google.
Churches that come top on a Google search have sussed out SEO for churches. Users find those churches because those church websites are “optimised” for search engines. They are built in such a way that search engines find them easily and can direct users to them quickly.
Local SEO: a special priority
People use the internet to research businesses and services in their local area more now than ever.
Data suggests that 78% of consumers use the internet to find information on local businesses more than once a week, which is up from 69% in 2020.
46% of total Google searches consist of people searching for businesses in their local area. Churches are inherently local institutions serving a local community of people. It is logical to presume that a vast number of people will utilise Google Search to find a local church.
In fact, one report found that 33% of parishioners interviewed said they found their new church by looking online first.
Therefore, one of the most critical aspects of SEO for churches is Local SEO.
What is Local SEO?
Local SEO is the act of optimising your website for local search. It is all about helping your church show up when people nearby search for the services, groups and resources you provide.
The goal is to make sure you’re easily found when someone Googles something like “evangelical church near me” or “best playgroup in [your city].” This involves things like:
- optimising your Google Business Profile
- getting reviews
- using location-based keywords in your website’s copy and metadata (your webpage’s titles and descriptions)
- Making sure your Name, Address and Phone (NAP) details are consistent across all online platforms and third-party directories.
When someone types ‘churches near me’ into Google or ‘church services in [name of your town], it will be the churches that have cracked local SEO that will appear high up on the Google ranking, helping them be found easily.
Why do you need SEO?
1. Expand your reach (let people know you’re there)
In the days when a whole village would walk to their local chapel every Sunday morning, it didn’t take more than a walk around the block to learn where your local church was.
But, the world doesn’t work like this anymore and we can’t rely on church spires and bells to draw attention to our churches anymore.
Nowadays, when someone is looking for a new product, organisation, community group or service one of their first stops is Google Search.
Statistics such as these show that optimising your website for Local SEO for churches is crucial if you want to have a presence in your local area.
2. Grow in different ways
Your church website needs to cater for several “target audiences”. A target audience is a group of people that you know will want to utilise your organisation’s services. Your target audience probably includes:
- Church members (Christians who are committed to the Church)
- Non-Christian church visitors
- Seekers (people who are on their Spiritual journey)
- Paid staff
- Volunteers
- Commercial users (e.g. those who want to hire the church hall)
Therefore, different pages need to reach and serve different target audiences.
SEO is a way you can make sure your website serves all these different audiences.
For example, if you run a stay-and-play at your church as part of your evangelistic or community support programme, you can create and optimise a page around the keywords “local stay and play” or “toddler group”.
If you want to increase revenue, then ensuring the page dedicated to hall hire is optimised for local search and appears in the Local Pack (the Map that often pops up when people use “near me” in their search query) can increase enquiries.
If you want to reach those who are trying to learn more about the Christian faith, writing blog posts answering questions like “What do Christians believe?” or “Why does suffering happen?” can help people discover your church.
There are a myriad of ways to optimise your church site to reach the audiences you care about.
3. Demonstrate you care about what you do
Have you ever walked into a church and wished you hadn’t?
Tatty carpet, a “wet dog” smell, chipped paint and poor lighting.
It doesn’t scream “We’ve got the most important message in the world” to visitors.
A scruffy building would not encourage people to have confidence in your church as an organisation.
Yes, your church’s building is just a shell that houses God’s real church every Sunday morning.
But the effort we put into maintaining our church building is a foundation for our evangelistic programme. We can’t claim that the “Gospel is Good News” if we appear to not care about the resources God has given us. What we say and what we do have to match up.
The same is true in the online space.
A professionally designed, optimised website shows you are a “proper” organisation that cares deeply about its mission. It helps build a strong reputation in your community, which in turn builds confidence in your church.
4. Demonstrate that you’re trustworthy.
I don’t know about you, but when I search for something on Google and see a list of ‘sponsored’ websites or ones prefaced with ‘Ad’ at the top of the list, I’m inherently suspicious.
Paying for Google Ads is not only expensive but can reduce the credibility of your website in the eyes of users.
Websites that earn an organic ranking (the blue links below the Ads) are considered by Google and other search engines to contain content with real value.
Have I convinced you?
The take-home point is that what every church website needs is good SEO. Your church will go unnoticed unless you pay careful attention to how visible it is online. A well-optimised website helps people trust your church and the message that you’re delivering. The ongoing effort required is worth it if it means more people are hearing your message, joining your church, catching your vision, and becoming part of your community.
Does this sound like too much of a technical headache for you to take on?
Some people are tech-savvy, and we love having those kinds of people in our churches. It might be that you’ve got someone who’s great at SEO and can optimise your church website for you.
However, your situation might be quite different.
If that’s you, then let Brighteye Creative ease your burden through our SEO service.