Frank,

Thanks for the link, and more importantly the thoughtful debate! Disagreement is good when it is discussed intelligently - and you sir have done so quite nicely.

That said, please bear in mind my 10-Commandments are scoped to church home pages. Obviously, to get the best SEO effect, one must attack the problem as more of a pincer movement than a direct assault.

Meaning in my follow-up article (which is sure to include a quote from above), I’ll discuss the importance of content laden sub pages - each of course uniquely and correctly titled and headlined.

But for the home page - kinda hard to get all that seeker stuff in above the fold - so 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”.

Anyway, good stuff Frank! Thanks for the thoughtful back-n-forth.

Dean:

Thanks for your comment. Yes, intelligent disagreement is good.

I definitely see your point about the home page being different than sub pages. I wonder, though, if there isn’t a way to still make the title on the home page general, but still more seeker-sensitive. As I write this, though, I’m having a hard time thinking of a way to do that.

One particular part of your comment interested me (and I think I’ll expand this in a subsequent post) - the part about metrics. I’m curious to know how far down the “path” you track the metrics. In other words, are you looking at the number of people who visit the site with different approaches to the title, number of people who visit the church as a result of the search engine listings which reflect different titles, number of people who convert to Christ after searching and finding different titles in the search listings?

I’m definitely not trying to be flippant at all. I’m sincerely interested because most churches wouldn’t even give a thought to testing at the level you seem to be testing at, and I think metrics are very important.

great post - and I think its a healthy debate.

I think its a very good thing for a church to think through as they consider their web strategy and probably worth setting some goals and boundaries on very early.

I don’t have an issue with Churches using their sites for different purposes but I guess its worth being clear about the implications of one’s choices. I’ve seen sites that are used for a variety of purposes:

1. Build community of existing communities
2. Aiming to bring in people who are not Christians
3. Aiming at attracting Christians that don’t go to the church who are looking around

etc

It can be hard to do all three.

I personally would like to see Church websites having less focus on attracting Christians who are church shopping and more effort put into connecting with the wider community. Having said this I have some reservations about that too as the best place to make those kinds of connections might actually to be in person with people.

anyway - great debate - looking forward to what else comes out of it.

Hey Darren! Great to have you “here”!

Regarding whether a church website is “the best place to make those kinds of connections” happen (rather than in person with people), I absolutely agree! Check here for more of an understanding of what I think a church website should be.

When I think about church websites, one of the things I often ask myself is, “Is there a better way to accomplish what we are trying to do through the site?”

That’s why I have a hard time thinking of a church website as being the best way to develop community among believers. I’m convinced that face-to-face relationships are a better way of doing that (although website features such as blog commenting systems, forums, chat, etc. could be used as a supplement to face-to-face relationships).

When it comes to evangelism, I am equally convinced that face-to-face relationships are the most effective approach to outreach (cf. John 17:21-23 - authentic Christian community is the foundation of all effective outreach).

But I think church websites (and other Christian websites) can fill a unique role in publishing content which is intriguing to unbelievers and will motivate them to want to meet the people whose stories they read on our websites. In today’s increasingly wired world, it seems to me that many people are at least tempted to begin forsaking face-to-face relationships and the web may be one of the only ways we have of entering their world (and encouraging them to come and meet us!).

Thanks again for your comment - I really appreciate your participation.

Frank