Tips for Church Websites

I am on to Mark Stephenson’s book: Web-Empower Your Church.  I was hoping to get his latest book, until I realised the book sites were telling me it wouldn’t be released until February 2011; just a few weeks too late. 

He has 14 years experience at running a church website, so I am keen to use his information.

Part of my second essay will be looking at a variety of church websites and comparing them so I will start looking at tips offered, and use them to create a checklist.  I can already use it on our facebook page, take out the picture of the church and put in the people!

Oh dear there are 70, perhaps I will just do the first 20 today. (He says, “Almost all these tips are the direct result of a not-so-nicely-learned lesson.”)

1. The people on your team are more important than the task of building your website.
2. Start with static content first, and add changing content only as you are able to keep it up-to-date.
3. Don’t post personal phone numbers or addresses without permission.
4. Never post private e-mail addresses; instead, create e-mail aliases.
5. Don’t violate copyright laws, and especially watch out for copyrighted music.
6. Design for people with low-end PCs, modems and 800-by-600 pixel monitors.
7. Keep the total page size with graphics under 150 kilobytes.
8. Use a common CSS file that can be cached by the browser.
9. Don’t use frames.
10. Restrict page width to 760 pixels or less, or to 100 percent.
11. Don’t use graphic backgrounds; white or black is usually best.
12. Don’t make pages longer than three screens vertically.
13. Never require horizontal scrolling.
14. Keep the link colours the same throughout the website, and use an obvious colour.
15. Never underline text, because it will look like a link.
16. Use animation sparingly and purposefully.
17. Never allow banner advertisements on a church website.
18. Include many pictures of people.
19. Get written permission to post pictures of kids; get at least verbal permission from adults.
20. Put a church logo or pictures of people on the front page instead of pictures of your church building.