This is an archived article to see the current version visit http://www.timothyfish.net/Article.asp?ID=39.
When designing a church website or any other site, one of the questions that must be asked is the question of why people will visit the site. There is often a significant difference between the reasons we would like for someone to visit the site and the reasons they do. Seldom do I see a stated purpose of a Christian oriented website that does not include some statement concerning providing information on how people can be saved. When a new website for the BMA of Texas (an association of Baptist churches) was announced the article was as follows:
The new site will include information and links to each department of the BMA of Texas and the BMA of America, information about the BMA of Texas, links to affiliated churches, a calendar of events, a résumé service, current ministry positions, downloadable BMA of Texas forms, and information on how to be saved.
First, let me say that there is nothing wrong with including information on how to be saved anywhere we can, but let's look more closely at this statement. The website will provide information about the departments of the two associations. Most of the people who will be interested in this information will be members of the churches of these two associations. We would assume that most will be members of Texas churches. It will provide like to affiliated churches. Once again, this information will probably be most useful to people in the BMA, but links have a way of directing other traffic as well. It will have a calendar of events, a résumé service, current ministry positions and downloadable BMA of Texas forms. All of these things are of interest to members of BMA churches and of no interest to the lost. The résumé service may be an exception, but, presumably, it will be focused toward preachers and people looking for staff positions. Then at the very end of the statement is the statement, "and information on how to be saved."
It is unlikely that anyone will visit the site looking for information about how to be saved. The primary audience of the site will be somewhat limited. The people who visit the site will be looking for information about the BMA of Texas. The search engines will trigger on the predominance of BMA of Texas things and will send people who are looking for this information to the site. There may be some lost people who visit the site looking for information about he BMA, but they are unlikely to take the time to read the information on how to be saved. The one redeeming factor may be that churches that want to provide the same information may link to the site rather than duplicating it.
When designing a church website, churches need to be aware of the potential for the same thing happening. There are two reasons why people visit a church website. One is to get information about the church. Some of these may type the URL by hand in order to reach the site. Another reason is that the search engine directs them to the site after they type a search phrase. If there is too much variation in the information that is provided then need person will find what he is looking for in the site.
We have little control with the people who visit from a search engine, but with people who are visiting the site with a specific reason we have something of an obligation. There are several reasons why a person might visit a church website. Some people are looking for a church home, others may be looking for information about an upcoming event and still others may be visiting because of a feature of the website. With this in mind, it is very important to keep the website up to date. Most people don't visit everyday. They may not realize that the Father/Son Banquet took place two weeks ago and when they see that it says, "Father/Son Banquet, Saturday at 7:00 PM", they think that it really means this coming Saturday and not Saturday two weeks ago. Some people may be visiting to find out if services have been canceled due to the snow storm. Others may be looking for information that they need, but don't want to ask. If the website proves to be inaccurate then they will not return.
Most people are savvy enough to recognize that not all websites are created equal. People know that when visiting a site they have to decide whether the person behind the site really knows what he is talking about or if he is speaking from ignorance. Once they have made that determination, they don't bother to read more. If the search engine takes them to that site again they ignore it and move on. If people have visited the church website in the past and found that it was out of date and inaccurate they will look for another source for the information they need. Even if the website is now very accurate and contains relevant information they will not visit because they had a bad experience in the past. It takes work to overcome the problem.
The best solution is to not allow the situation to develop in the first place. If there is information that people visiting the website would expect to find then provide that information. There is some room for extraneous information, but mostly stay away from information that does not fit the central theme of the site. Extraneous information can attract visitors that want information that is outside the scope of the site. A choice must be made between adding the information the visitors want or limiting the scope to reduce the number of visitors who want information other than what the site provides.