As we begin to close out the summer months and prepare for the upcoming fall season, there could not be a better time to do a quick check-in on your ministry’s website.
With children heading back to school and families getting back into a regular routine it is important that your ministry’s website is up to date and ready to invite and welcome members to your ministry’s worship services and events each week.
Here at Worship Times we realize that running a ministry is a full-time job. Let us walk you through some of the most important items to check and update – if needed – on your ministry’s website before fall arrives.
Getting Started
Below are several different items to think about when you begin to check on the content that you have published on your ministry’s website. By no means is this an exhaustive list, but you can use the items below as a springboard to check some of the most important and frequently visited content on most ministry websites.
Worship Schedule & Times
The first – and arguably the most important – item to check on your ministry’s website is the worship service schedule. Often times service times change during the summer months. Look at your ministry’s website and make sure that no matter where you have your worship times listed they all match and are correct.
This is also a good time to make sure that your worship service schedule is displayed in a common location for any new visitors to your website. Some great places to display your ministry’s worship times include the homepage, a landing page dedicated to your worship service, and in the footer (this it the very bottom) of your website.
Upcoming Events
Another important area of any website – especially a ministry’s website – is the calendar of events. The first item to check here are your worship events. Similar to the information above, make sure that your worship events are set and displayed on the correct date and time.
Next, go through and add upcoming events for the first month or two of the fall season. This will not only help keep you and your ministry ahead, but it will also allow members to plan for events they would like to attend. While you are adding new events, be on the lookout for incorrect information. You want your ministry’s calendar to be error free. This will help families incorporate attending your worship and community events into their busy schedules.
It is also a good idea to go through – if your ministry hasn’t already – and categorize and color-code events on the calendar. This will further help visitors to find events that they are interested in attending and it will help keep everything looking clean and tidy.
Sermons & Newsletters
Time with family around a campfire making s’mores is amazing! During the summer months everyone gets busy and time seems to sneak by us.
As fall approaches it is important to check that your ministry’s website has the latest sermons, newsletters, and other publications available for download.
Take a look at your ministry’s website and note the latest sermon and newsletter that is available for download. If your latest sermon or newsletter is from April…or March…or maybe even a little bit farther back, take the opportunity to upload your July or August newsletter!
If your ministry does not have either of these items on your website, the last couple weeks in August are a great time to try this and iron out all of the details before the fall season gets moving! Here at Worship Times we have custom tools to make publishing your sermons, newsletters, and other publications as easy as pie!
This is another great time to evaluate what your ministry is doing with your various social media accounts. Social media is about creating a community that engages with your content and spreads the word about your ministry! As we approach the end of summer it is never too late to start a new campaign to revitalize your social media family!
Cleaning Up Old Content
Finally, while you are doing some fall cleaning for your website it is a great time to remove old pages for content that is out of date. Pages about vacation bible school, summer retreat programs, etc. can all be removed from your site until next year.
Having a clean, updated website shows new and returning visitors alike that you care and want to make learning about and joining your ministry as easy as possible.
Worship Times
Here at Worship Times we realize that updating a website can be a large undertaking. If your ministry needs some extra hands on the team, we offer services from designing and building new websites, managing social media accounts, to even providing one of our staff members to join your communications team! Drop us a line today! We are only a single click away!
