We’ve reached the final week of 2009. The web, TV, magazines, and newspapers are filled with retrospectives looking back at the past year. While those are mostly for entertainment purposes, taking a look back at the past year is an extremely important exercise for anyone who is serious about anything – career, ministry, family, health, etc.
So, if you’re serious about your website, now is a great time to take a look at what’s happened with your website over the last year. It can give you perspective on how much (or little) you’ve accomplished, how much (or little) things went according to plan, and much more. That perspective is invaluable for setting goals for next year.
Next week, we’re going to start a series on setting goals for your website in 2010, so before we get to that here are
10 questions to help you evaluate your website’s progress in 2009
- What were your 2009 goals for your website?
- How many of those goals did you reach?
- What were the most significant improvements you made to your website in 2009?
- What was the biggest setback you experienced with your website in 2009?
- How much did your site traffic increase (or decrease) from 2008 to 2009?
- What was the most popular page on your website excluding your homepage in 2009?
- What was the most popular search phrase used to find your site in 2009?
- Which non-search engine site sent the most visitors to your site in 2009?
- What do other people within your organization say about your site? (Beautiful? Ugly? Busy? Hard to find stuff? Out of date? Hardly ever use it?)
- How well did you engage people through social media in 2009?
If you can’t answer some of these questions, taking steps so you can answer them a year from now may be among your top priorities for 2010.
Co-founder & CEO, OurChurch.Com
Paul has been the CEO of OurChurch.Com since its founding in 1996, combining his passion for faith and technology to lead the organization.
An accomplished writer, Paul has authored over 2,000 articles on faith and technology, featured on platforms like ChurchLeaders.com, The JoyFM, and his personal blog, LiveIntentionally.org.
Beyond his professional achievements, Paul serves as an elder at Journey Community Church and is deeply engaged in his community through his involvement with the Florida Sheriffs Youth Ranch and the Safety Harbor Chamber of Commerce. He is a contributing author of the book Outspoken! Conversations on Church Communication.
12 Comments
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Greetings!
Happy New Year 2010.
My achievement in my website was that I reached people and they all liked it.
My greatest achievement was when one person came to my chat room, and announced that she accepted the Lord Jesus Christ through the website. Praise God. I am not an evangelist who drew thousands of souls to Christ, but Jesus would have died if that person was the only one to be saved. So I am satisfied with that. Thank you Jesus. God bless you and your work.
Regards,
Joseph Aquilina
What our goals was to start was to get set up and learn how to develop a web site. Regarding the second question so far we have reach our goals. For 2010 we are planing to update package so that we can do a better job of teaching. Our most popular page is our devotional page with two or three of our Bible study pages. We did not start this web site until 2009 therefore we have had a steady increase. This web site was started on an act of faith on my part when I read Psalms 91:1 "for we abide under the shadow of the Almighty". In addition, this web site is for the sole purpose of teaching the Word of God. Therefore, we trust in the Almighty God to provide all things.
Sounds good.
We're a non-profit with huge hearts but a small operating budget (or none! as 100% of every dollar goes into the works of the ministry on the field). Our website is in need of some serious cleaning up (updating of pictures)….and I am trying to decide how best to make the site look appealing without being too 'flashy' (so as not to appear to be a flashy organization….I'd rather be in the dirt playing with the kids we serve in Juarez!)
As we enter our 5th year in ministry, keeping the website up has been a source of anxiety for a "50 something" woman (in this day of blogs, twitters, apps, ipods….agghhh).
I need to get the most out of the website for the least amount of money and time (both of which are scarce right now~).
Hi Annette, hope you had a great Christmas.
>>I need to get the most out of the website for the least amount of money and time
I can understand that. I think a lot of people feel that way. I would just remind you and others who may be reading this that good communication is huge for any organization that is dependent on the giving and involvement of others. People give and volunteer when they feel involved, informed, and inspired. If you don't show pictures and tell the stories of how God was at work in your last trip, you may find fewer people supporting your next trip.
Annette, if there's anything we can do to help, let us know. I love your heart and your ministry. 🙂
Thanks. A good start for me. Stay blessed…john
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1. What were your 2009 goals for your website? My goals where to become more interactive by employing more use with video and social networking like yahoo or skype.
2. How many of those goals did you reach? somewhat successful. My mistake was that i didn't write down the goals, but rather kept them sort of nebulous in my own mind. This year i am going to write down three of four concrete things to have my cyber-church be able to do that it is not doing now.
3. What were the most significant improvements you made to your website in 2009? It looks more professional, though it looked nice before. I updated to a different hosting model. I did the work that brick and mortar churches do in starting churches such as drafting vision statement, mission statement, value statement, etc. which are posted on the site. I made some videos so it isn't just reading pages and pages of text.
4. What was the biggest setback you experienced with your website in 2009? MONEY! What i would like to do costs more than i have, including advertising the church online.
5. How much did your site traffic increase (or decrease) from 2008 to 2009? i only get about three unique visitors on average per day. some days are amazing for some reason, other days have like one or two. but it is steady around three.
6. What was the most popular page on your website excluding your homepage in 2009? the most popular page seems to be either the Bible Code page, or one of the worship pages.
7. What was the most popular search phrase used to find your site in 2009? "benediction" which i find surprising. though lately it's "obama, bible code"
8. Which non-search engine site sent the most visitors to your site in 2009? hmm. didn't pay attention to that one. google or yahoo i would think.
9. What do other people within your organization say about your site? (Beautiful? Ugly? Busy? Hard to find stuff? Out of date? Hardly ever use it?) they like it and send out links to people they know trying to get more visitors.
10. How well did you engage people through social media in 2009? on the web page, not at all. though i post a link for everything happening on the web site on facebook and i have facebook fan pages.
Good stuff. Good idea to write down your goals this year and make them more concrete.
Ha, i just realized that i totally misunderstood question 8. the answer would be Facebook. I post updates and daily Bible readings, and even have two fan pages on Facebook for my daily Bible reading (YOUR DAILY BREAD) and for the cyber-church in general. A few of my Facebook friends re-post my posts.
I¡¦m no longer positive where you’re getting your info, but great topic. I needs to spend a while studying more or understanding more. Thanks for excellent information I used to be searching for this info for my mission.