Are church websites even important any more since we have Facebook?
In this video I share three reason why you need a great church website. It is important especially if you want to reach more people in your community.
Transcript
Hey everybody. In this video, we’re going to talk about church websites, and specifically, I’m going to answer the question, Do I still need a church website if I have the Facebook page? Okay, let’s get into it.
Hey everybody, I’m Joshua, I’m the creator of WorshipResources.church. We help you discover and learn how to use quality resources to make your church better. Hey, if you haven’t yet, I hope you’ll like this video and subscribe to this channel. Click that little bell below so you don’t miss any of the new content we produce. We’re trying to get to a 100 subscribers, so if you wanna be one of the first hundred subscribers of this channel, go ahead and click that subscribe button right now.
So today we’re gonna talk about church websites and specifically answer the question, Do I need a church website, or is my church website that important since we’re on Facebook? I’ve actually had this question asked to me a few different times from churches, and it’s interesting that people ask that – because they assume that everybody is on Facebook.
Now, let’s be honest, the majority of people are on Facebook, something like 89% of Americans are on Facebook, but.
What people wrongly assume is that because their congregation is on Facebook, that they are seeing the content that they are producing.
Unfortunately, the way Facebook’s algorithm works is that the majority of your congregation on a Facebook page is not seeing what you publish.
Okay, let’s say you have a 1000 people who have liked your Facebook page. The way the algorithm works for Facebook is that maybe 10 or 15 people out of that thousand are going to see what you post, unless you pay to have it boosted or pay for more people to see it. That’s on a Facebook page. So for you to assume that because your church is on Facebook and because you’re posting on Facebook, that everyone in your church is seeing the content – that is an incorrect assumption.
The majority of people are not seeing what you publish on Facebook, I’m sorry to let you know.
Many of you know that Facebook Groups have a better audience or a better potential reach than a Facebook Page does.
I encourage churches to have a Facebook Page, which you can kind of think of like someone’s driving by your church and they see your church, and that’s what a Facebook Page does. It still needed. You need a Facebook page.
Facebook Groups, which have a better chance of reaching more people or more people seeing your content, that’s kind of like the front porch of your church. You’re gathered on the front porch and you’re having a conversation – a friendly conversation inside of your Facebook Group.
So you do need a Facebook Page and a Facebook Group, but where do websites fall into this, and do we still need a website if we have Facebook?
The way Facebook allgo… Struggling today, boys.
The answer is yes, absolutely. You need a church website. You need a good church website.
Okay, let’s look at a few reasons why you need a church website.
First of all, guests. I guarantee you that nobody who you want to reach is on Facebook looking for your church. They’re not a part of your Facebook page, and they’re not a part of your Facebook Group, if you want to reach first time guests, then you need a church website to reach them.
So let’s talk about Google for a minute. If someone searches “churches in my area” or “churches near me,” you want to be one of the first churches that show up in that list. If you’re not one of the first churches on that page, it’s very unlikely that guests are going to visit your website.
Now, the technical language for this is called SEO – search engine optimization. We’ll talk about more of that later in another video. But what you need to know is that your website will help you reach first time guests because it’s Google friendly. So when someone searches, “churches near me” or “churches in my city,” you want to be one of the first ones that show up. You can make that happen with your church website.
So the first reason you need a church website is to reach first-time guests.
The second reason you need a church website is because you can build your website to be accessible to everyone, not just the 89%. And let’s be honest, not everyone is on Facebook all the time. Facebook is very mobile-friendly and it looks great on a device, but there are some people who are not engaged in Facebook, especially those who are 30 and under.
If you don’t believe me, go back and look at your analytics. Your Facebook crowd is going to be between the ages of 45 and 65. That’s the majority of that audience – which is an important part of your church, don’t get me wrong. But you probably want to reach some younger people. So in order to do that, you need to be involved in some of the social media channels they’re involved in, but you especially need to have your own church website – a great church website that’s Google friendly and that young people can find easily.
Okay, the third reason you need a church website is because it, along with your email list is the only digital real estate that you actually own.
I’m gonna say that again, your website and your email list are the only digital real estate that you actually own. Your church’s Facebook account, your Twitter account, your Instagram, you’re Linked-In any other social media platforms that you’re a part of for your church, your YouTube account – you don’t own those. Those companies are letting you be a part of their platform. Which means at any time they can make a change and it can drastically affect your audience.
Think back a few years ago when Facebook changed their algorithm and all of a sudden, the organic reach for posts went from 8% to 0.8%. That’s because Facebook made the change and there was nothing we could do about it.
Your church website is digital real estate that you own. Right now, at least you can do anything you want on your church website. Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Instagram – they can’t restrict what you put on your website. And so it’s important for you to have a quality website with great content that not only your church family, but also your guests can access very easily.
I hope you guys are getting the idea. Your church website is important. You need a great church website.
So I mentioned digital real estate. Let me expand on that just a little bit more. Your email list is also some digital real estate that you currently have full control over. Right now, there are no algorithms restricting you from how many emails you send to your email list. And you actually should nurture that list and do better with communicating through email. We’ll talk about that in another video.
But your email list and your church website, those are the only two digital real estate assets that you own, and you can do whatever you want to with them. So you can’t put all of your eggs in the Facebook basket. You can’t put all of your eggs in the YouTube basket.
It’s kind of like your retirement account, you don’t need to put all of your money in one fund, because if that fund goes down, then all of your money is gone. The same is true for your digital reach, you don’t need to put all of your digital assets in the Facebook basket okay! Don’t put all of your eggs in the YouTube basket, you need to diversify.
So yes, you need to post on Facebook. You need to be active there. You need to be active on YouTube. But you also need to have a quality website that your church can be proud of.
Okay, so this video is the first of many that we’re gonna talk about church websites. I’m gonna tell you basically everything I know about church websites, and hopefully it’ll be helpful to you and your church.
If I can help you further about church websites or anything tech related, send me an email, joshua@worshipresources.church. And I hope you’ll visit WorshipResources.church to discover all the resources that we offer there on the site.
Well, I hope you’ll let me know what you think about this video in the comments. Was it helpful for you? I wanna hear from you. Let me know if this content is helpful and we’ll keep producing more content to help you and your church get better each week.
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Hey, have a great day guys, we’ll see you back your next week!