Church Websites and Metrics
In a comment on my post below ("Dean Peters on Search Engine Optimization For Churches,” a post which is actually a trackback to a post on Dean’s site), Dean Peters referred to an aspect of church website design which I believe is very important, but which I suspect many church web teams do not employ on a regular basis:
.... my metrics (yeah, I got numbers) show one is better off aiming at people new to town or are looking for a switch or are rekindling a once apostate state with queries that include “denomination/brand + church + location” ... e.g. “baptist church rockville maryland”.
Metrics! For those who don’t know what Dean means, he’s talking about looking at website visitor statistics - unique visits, page views, hits (in decreasing order of importance), etc., etc. But Dean obviously takes his analysis to a deeper level than just looking at the basic stats and thinking, “Wow! Our website had 1,000 unique visits last month. That’s really great!”
Dean obviously knows that website statistics at that simple level can be: 1) meaningless; 2) deceiving; and/or 3) not actionable. How do I know Dean knows that? Because he appears to be looking at the stats in relation to different page titles and to how searchers respond to those page titles when they appear in search engine listings. Kudos to Dean!
Reading Dean’s comment made me ask myself how deeply we look at our website statistics. For example, in my day job (as an internet strategist), I am nowhere near as concerned with how many people visit a website as a result of a particular search engine listing or advertisement as I am with how many dollars people spend as a result of finding the website in a search engine.
In the business world (at least in the segment I am in), profit is king when it comes to search engine listings (we do most of our testing based on pay-per-click advertisements which is a bit easier to get a handle on than organic / natural listings, although monitoring the effectiveness of organic listings is certainly not impossible). We want to know how much profit we have made (from both web and phone orders) as a result of a particular headline in a paid advertisement, for example. We may test several headlines to see which headline brings in the most profit. We perform the same sort of testing with regard to ad text, landing pages, offers, etc.
From time to time over the past several months, I’ve let my mind wander a bit to thinking of how a church might perform similar testing. Hopefully, this won’t sound too crass. I’m wondering if it makes sense for a church to monitor how people who have recently come to Christ first found out about the church.
Actually, I’m a bit double-minded on this issue. I know that there are churches which ask this sort of question ("How did you hear about us?") on visitor cards, attendance registers, etc. While that perhaps makes for easy tabulation of statistics, I think it also reduces the newborn brother or sister in Christ to a statistic, which really rubs me the wrong way.
I guess I’m trying to think of a way to get at least some anecdotal reports of how effective a church’s web promotion might be in terms of attracting / intriguing people who eventually come to Christ (obviously, through other means - I wouldn’t expect someone to do a search on Google, find a church’s listing, and come to Christ without visiting the church’s website, meeting people within the church, etc., etc.).
Sometimes I long to find a church which would be willing to take a leap of faith, develop a website exclusively targeted at seekers, and then be willing to aggressively monitor the effectiveness of that website. Not only through website statistics which are honed down to the level of search engine listings (both organic and paid), banner ads, email blasts, newspaper advertisements, etc., etc., but also through frank conversations with those who have come to Christ. Sitting down with every new believer and asking them if they had seen the church’s website prior to visiting, and then for those who did see the church’s website, how did they find the website, were they looking for a church at the time, what was their feeling about Christianity in general, what intrigued them about the website, had they heard of the church prior to seeing the website, did they visit the church as a result of seeing the website, who they met when they visited the church, how they eventually came to Christ, etc., etc.
Obviously, anecdotal data such as this is not easily quantified, and the results might be vague in many cases, but I still believe the exercise would be helpful, even on an ongoing basis.
Thoughts? I know I’m rambling a bit here, but hopefully, it will spark further thought and discussion.
Posted by on 03/21/05 at 10:00 AM
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You may be interested in reading these articles which enumerate core principles of the strategy we advocate:
Effective Church Websites For Emerging Generations
Investigating the various ways in which a church's website can be targeted toward unbelievers in a church's local community.
A Strategy For Local Internet Outreach
How can the internet be used for evangelism and outreach while maintaining an environment of authentic Christian community?
Flawed Follow Up Or A Flawed Philosophy of Evangelism?
The ease with which we can “share the gospel” online can actually short-circuit the God-ordained process by which unbelievers are brought to faith.
Should We Include A Gospel Presentation On Our Websites?
Should conversion be our immediate goal in our internet evangelism efforts?
A Strategic Opportunity For The Church
A proposed strategy in which a church would use short video profiles of members of their congregation to entice unbelievers in their local area to consider the value of a local congregation’s ministry in their own lives.
2 John 12
Is there something incomplete about digital communication?
Wed, December 03, 2008 at 07:19 am
Frank thoroughly impressed with the professionalism of the WebTrends Ad Director team http://ping.fm/EuHLl
Sun, November 30, 2008 at 12:08 pm
Frank interested in finding good resources (blogs, books, etc.) on cause marketing.
Fri, November 28, 2008 at 11:57 am
Frank contemplating a line from "O Holy Night" - in His name ALL oppression shall cease
Tue, November 25, 2008 at 08:31 am
Frank exhausted but gratified after today's Scene7 imaging launch on telescope.com!
Mon, November 24, 2008 at 08:05 pm
Frank @benwiles although you made me think about OneNote again. I think it might have feature to allow you to forward a website to OneNote
When the Luis Palau Evangelistic Association wanted to use the internet to promote their city festivals, they turned to Strategic Digital Outreach. Read more ....
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We work with several different organizations in exploring ways in which digital means can be used to reach an increasingly digital world. Some of these organizations are more traditional clients. Some are friends. All are our partners in the gospel (1 Corinthians 3:9). Invariably, we learn as much from them as they do from us. Here is a sampling:
David & Linda Arzouni
Assemblies of God missionaries to West Africa, based in Mali (the land of Timbuktu).
Assemblies of God
The Northern California and Nevada District, based in Sacramento, California.
India Prayer Drive
A 21-day prayer drive through the nation of India.
IreneDias.com
Although the suffering they face is severe, this is not a story of despair, but of an incredible faith and even more of an incredible God who sustains His followers with lavish grace, extravagant kindness, and unrelenting love.
Luis Palau Evangelistic Association
Proclaiming the Lord's Good News to the millions of people who have yet to respond to the Gospel.
Sacred Ink
Joyfully declaring the gospel to the tattoo subculture.
Santa Cruz Bible Church
Their evangelism department focuses on marketplace ministries.
ShareFest Santa Cruz County
Churches in Santa Cruz County, California join together to become a bridge from the church to the community through work projects designed to bless the community.
TimeOut Conference
Enabling a deeper relationship with God and more effective relationships with people.
Wake Up! Santa Cruz
Presenting the claims of Christ to the business community in Santa Cruz, California.
These are projects which we have initiated (either individually or as members of a team) in our efforts to use digital means to spread the gospel:
MissionEquip
MissionEquip.com was established to provide resources to missionaries and short-term missions teams traveling worldwide.
ChristianCruz
ChristianCruz.com is a localized portal for believers living in Santa Cruz County, California.
Prodigal God
ProdigalGod.com, a work in progress, is designed to provide biblical instruction to the wider body of Christ through the use of video teaching segments and written articles.
Christian Screen Savers
ChristianScreenSavers.com offers a selection of high-quality, inexpensive Christian screen savers which reflect biblical themes. Proceeds from the sale of these screen savers are used to support the work of Strategic Digital Outreach.
Blogs I Read
Adventures Of A Web Evangelist
The Appian Way
BetaChurch.org
BlogMinistry
BlogRodent
Boyink Interactive
Carpe' Digital
Christian Web Trends
Church Beauty
Church Communications Pro
Church Marketing Sucks
ChurchTechToday
Church Website & Blog Ideas
digital.leadnet.org
Digital Ministry
The Digital Sanctuary
e-vangelism.com
Effective Church Web Sites
Effective Web Ministry Notes
Equip Blog
Evotional
GodBit
Goodmanson
Gospelcon
Heal Your Church Website
If Jesus Had A Website
Leave It Behind
MicroExplosion
Outside The Box Ministry
Sacred Digital
So You Want A Church Website?
The Ultimate Issue
Web Evangelism Issues
More Blogs & Sites
The Grace Place
Life's Eye View
MetroReach
Media Ministry
Missionary-Blogs
Mobile Ministry Magazine
Conquering Nonprofit Chaos
Palms For Pastors
St. George the Dragonslayer
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Frank N. Johnson.
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I believe that the internet provides today's church with a historic opportunity .... to tell the old, old story of Jesus and His love in ways which could only have been imagined in times past. The objective of this website is to explore the various ways in which today's technology can be used to spread the gospel around the world.
