1. It helps prospective visitors to better understand what topics and themes are being taught and how your pastor(s) teaches.
2. It helps members see and/or hear messages when they miss services.
3. It’s great for SEO.

Let’s go into more detail on benefit  number 3…

4 Ways Posting Sermons on Your Website Helps Your Church SEO!

1) Search engines love fresh content.

When you publish a new page to your website each week with that week’s sermon info on it, you are creating at least one fresh, unique piece of content each week.

2) Social shares improve search rankings.

Each sermon is published on its own URL which can then be shared both by the church and by anyone who listens/watches the sermon. The more shares, the better your search rankings.

3) Rank for specific topics and questions.

People use search engines to find answers to all kinds of questions, including spiritual questions.  Some examples include:

• Why does God allow evil?
• What happens after we die?
• Was Jesus a real person?

Every sermon preached at your church answers questions like these which people around the world are searching for. It’s a great opportunity to give people true, biblical answers to these questions, and help these people connect with your church.

4) Improve rankings for local keywords.

Pastors who are strategic about engaging their congregation in ministry opportunities don’t just make announcements, they preach announcements. What I mean is pastors should be strategic about talking about ministry opportunities in their sermons and relate them to the message.

When you do this, you can improve search rankings for things the people in your local community are looking for like “Vacation Bible School in Springfield” or “Easter Sunrise Service in Springfield” or “Celebrate Recovery in Springfield”

Those are some pretty sweet church SEO benefits, right?

But, you might not fully realize these benefits unless you are posting your sermons in the right way.

9 Ways to Maximize the Church SEO Benefits of Your Sermons

To maximize the SEO impact of your sermons, do as many of the following as possible:

1. Post each sermon to its own page/post.  (Don’t put a whole bunch of sermons on one page)
2. Embed video of the message. (Google loves videos)
3. Optimize the video. If the video is posted to YouTube of Facebook, edit the title, description, category, and tags. Include scripture references, topics discussed, and questions addressed.
4. Embed audio of the message
5. Podcast the audio of the messages
6. Include the sermon outline or notes
7. Include all scripture references mentioned in the sermon and link out to where people can read them on a site like BibleGateway.
8. Include recommended action steps. If any of those action steps include going somewhere or doing something with another organization, link out to their website and include their address.
9. Include links to recommended resources

The bottom line is…

Posting sermons to your church website can dramatically increase search rankings and visitors… but only if you optimize them well.

Looking for a great church website builder with a sermon manager?

A lot of the big corporate website builders don’t have sermon managers built into them.

OurChurch.Com’s WP-EZ Church Website Builder uses the built in blogging functionality for its sermon manager. If you want to take your sermons to the next level, organizing and categorizing sermon audio, video, notes and graphics, check out our premium EZ Sermon Manager.

If you’re interested in having us design and build a new website for your church or help with your  church SEO, we’d love to talk more with you.

Complete the form below (mobile) or to the right (desktop) to schedule a free phone consultation.

Comment and discuss

• Are you posting sermons to your church website? If you are, what benefits have you experienced? If not, why not?

Continuing reading Church Website Builder Tips and Tools

Paul Steinbrueck

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. 

steinbrueck.org

The post How Sermons Can Give Your Church Website Better Search Rankings appeared first on Christian Web Trends Blog: Church Websites, Design, SEO.

There is no standard for capabilities needed to call something “SEO friendly.”

Your search rankings have a huge impact on your church’s ability to connect with people searching online for a church. You can’t afford to just take someone’s “SEO friendly” claim at face value and then find out later – after you’ve built your website – that you can’t fully optimize your website. Your search rankings will suffer as a result!

So, we’ll break it down for you and tell you what to look for.

10 SEO Features to Look for in an SEO-Friendly Church Website Builder

1) Page URLs You Can Edit

Some website builders set the URL (web address) of your pages to something obscure like yourdomain.com/page13.htm which is both hard to remember and has no keywords in them.

Having keywords in the URL of your pages like yourdomain.com/clearwater-youth-ministry/ will help your web pages rank better for those keywords.

2) Mobile Friendly

More than half of all website visitors use a phone or tablet. When a person searches Google from a phone or tablet, Google shows “mobile search results,” which are different from the search results it shows computer users. One of the factors that affects mobile search results is whether a site is mobile-friendly or not. So, make sure your church website builder creates mobile-friendly sites.

3) Title Tags You Can Edit

The title tag of a web page is not visible to visitors but is read by search engines and used on the search engine results pages (SERPs).

Some web builders let you to set one title tag for the website and then use that one title tag for every page of the site. This is terrible for SEO! Others don’t give you any control over title tags at all, automatically setting them to “[site name] – [page title]” (also not good).

Make sure your church website builder allows you to set each individual page’s title tag.

4) Meta Description Tags You Can Edit

The description tag is another page element that is hidden from visitors but used by search engines and shown on the SERPs. Like the title tag, you want to be able to customize the description tag for each individual page.

5) Image Alt Attributes You Can Edit

When adding an image to a page, there is special attribute called an “Alt” attribute which is used to describe the image for people who are visually impaired. Even though search engines are getting pretty good at recognizing objects in images, they use alt attributes to tell what the images are about and factor them into search rankings.

Some web builders don’t allow you to set the alt tags for your images. Make sure yours does.

6) Proper use of H1 & H2 tags

The HTML H1 tag is supposed to be used for the title of each web page. H2 tags are used for major headings. Search engines consider the words contained in the H1 tag the most important words on the page, and those contained in H2 tags the second most important.

Each web page should have just one H1 tag and 1-3 H2 tags. I’ve seen some web builders create pages that have no H1 or H2 tags on them, while others have too many.

7) XML Sitemap

An XLM sitemap is a pages that lists all the pages in a website and is specially formatted for search engines. Search engines use sitemaps to make sure they don’t overlook any pages in a website.

Your church website builder should automatically generate a sitemap for your website.

8) Ability to Insert Verification Code

It’s a good idea to connect your website with the Google Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools. These tools provide lots of insightful data and will notify you if there are problems with your website.

To integrate your website with these tools, Google and Bing require you to verify you are an administrator of your website by inserting hidden code in the header of the website or uploading a special file into your web hosting account.

Make sure your website builder will allow you do to verify your site in one of these two ways.

9) Blog

A blog is something most people wouldn’t consider an “SEO-friendly” requirement. However, blogging is one of the best ways to improve a website’s search rankings because it enables you to help visitors with keyword-targeted content.

We help all of our Progressive SEO Management clients write, optimize, and share blog articles. This is something we could not do if they used a website builder that lacks a blog feature.

10) Social Share Buttons

Like a blog, social share buttons aren’t on most people list of SEO-friendly factors, but social shares do factor into some search ranking ranking algorithms. Plus the more people who share your pages and blog posts, the more likely it is that people will link to your website and blog articles, and links are a big factor in search rankings.

The bottom line is…

Your church website builder should help your church get better search rankings not hinder it.

Get a Church Website Builder built for Church SEO

Because we at OurChurch.com provide SEO for churches, when we developed our WP-EZ Website Builder we made sure to include all 10 of these SEO capabilities, so it would be the best church website builder possible.

Comment and Discuss…

• How important do you think these SEO features are in a church website builder?
• Will you check for these SEO features before building your next church website? Why or why not?

Continuing reading Church Website Builder Tips and Tools

Paul Steinbrueck

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. 

steinbrueck.org

The post 10 SEO Features of an SEO-Friendly Church Website Builder appeared first on Christian Web Trends Blog: Church Websites, Design, SEO.

I hope it was awesome!

I hope your gatherings or services glorified God, people heard the Good News of Jesus’ resurrection, and God revealed himself in powerful ways.

I also hope God has revealed some things through your church’s Easter communications.

Our blogging this month focused on Easter – preparing your church website for Easter, doing church SEO for Easter, preparing to tell stories and follow-up after Easter.

Now that Easter is behind us, what have you learned from your Easter communication? And what changes do you want to make?  To help with this, here are some more specific questions to consider.

Easter Communications Assessment Questions:

• What aspects of your Easter communications worked well? How can you build on them?
• What aspects of your communications didn’t work well? How can you improve on them?
• Have you reviewed your Analytics since Easter?
• Have you reviewed your communication cards?
• Have you debriefed with your team?

3 Easter Communications Revelations

1) Church Website Revelations

If your website experienced an increase in traffic in the week leading up to Easter but you didn’t see many visitors to your Easter services, that’s an indication you did some great things to get people to your website, but there are likely problems with your website.

Perhaps it’s outdated, hard to navigate or not mobile friendly, and needs to be fixed or redesigned.

If you’re not yet using the Plan Your Visit strategy, that might be something to consider.

2) Church SEO Revelations

If analytics indicate your website got lots of visitors from search, that’s awesome – your website is probably well optimized and your local listings well established. If you didn’t get many visitors from organic search, that’s an indication your website doesn’t rank well in search engines and SEO is an area that needs work.

3) Church Social Media Revelations

If analytics indicate your website didn’t get many visitors from social media, consider stepping up your social media engagement. If you put a lot of effort into social media but your analytics still show not many people visited your website from social, it’s probably time to re-evaluate your social media strategy.

If you don’t have any analytics and/or communication cards to evaluate, then perhaps your next step is to get those things going so you have a better idea of your strengths to build on and weaknesses to work on next time.

God speaks to our hearts through his Word. He also speaks to our minds through data and the insight of others.

Want to work with our web design and/or SEO team?

If you need a hand getting Google Analytics and Google Search Console integrated with your website, or if you’d like an analytics expert to review your analytics, or you’re ready to delegate the website design or search engine marketing of your Christian church, ministry or business to an experienced team, we’d love to talk with you.

Complete the form below (mobile) or to the right (desktop) to schedule a call!

Comment and Discuss

• What did God reveal to you this Easter?  (Spiritually or in your communications)

Read more articles in our Easter Communications series.

Paul Steinbrueck

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. 

steinbrueck.org

The post An Easter Revelation appeared first on Christian Web Trends Blog: Church Websites, Design, SEO.

If you’re a pastor, church communicator or heavily involved in church ministry, I hope you can take a breath now. But you’ve got one more important Easter task to do…

Review Your Easter Analytics

Hopefully, you’ve already done some reviewing of your Easter services and related events, gotten feedback from members of your team, and made notes about what worked well and what didn’t. You’ll be able to learn from these observations and make next Easter even better.

What about your website? Your emails? Any social media you used? Any online advertising you did? Have you reviewed how they did?

You should have your website connected with an analytics system like Google Analytics.

Analytics can answer important questions like…

• How many website visitors did we have the week before Easter this year compared to the week before Easter last year?
• How many website visitors did we have the week before Easter compared to a “normal” non-Easter week a month ago?
• Look at the sources of your visitors in the week before Easter to last month and last Easter? Which sources saw the biggest increases? Organic search? Email? Facebook? Google Ads? This will give you a good idea of how well your Easter marketing and outreach worked.
• If your website is connected with Google Search Console, look at your search analytics to see which keywords were searched most often to find your website.

Don’t be content to just guess as to what worked well (and and not so well) with your website, search marketing, and Easter outreach…

Smart people make data-based decisions.

Partner with our team of SEO/Analytics experts!

This is why when we begin working with an organization to help them with their Christian SEO or Church SEO we configure their website with Google Analytics, Google Search Console, and Bing Webmaster Tools.  With these tools we and our clients can make good data-driven decisions, which helps them better live out their mission online.

If you’re interested in getting some expert help with your SEO, fill out the form below (mobile) or to the right (desktop) to schedule a time to talk.

Post a Comment and Discuss…

• Have you reviewed your Easter analytics? Why or why not?
• If you have, what is the most significant thing you learned from your Easter analytics?

Read more articles in our Easter Communications series.

Paul Steinbrueck

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. 

steinbrueck.org

The post Secrets Revealed by Easter Analytics appeared first on Christian Web Trends Blog: Church Websites, Design, SEO.

That means Mother’s Day is an excellent opportunity to reach out to people your community and show how the love of Christ compels us to love moms and families – those who are already a part of our congregation and those outside our community of faith.

If you’re looking for new church outreach ideas for Mother’s Day, we’ve got a bunch of them grouped into two categories: first, events you can do in-person, and second, ways to promote your events and connect with people online.

14 Church Outreach Event Ideas for Mother’s Day

1. Mother’s Day Service

Plan a special Mother’s Day service to celebrate and honor mothers. Include special music, scripture readings, and a message that honors the role of mothers in our lives.

2. Mother’s Day Brunch

Host a Mother’s Day brunch for the mothers in your church and community. Serve delicious food, offer a time of fellowship, and create an environment where mothers feel appreciated.

3. Mother’s Day Cards

Encourage children and adults to create Mother’s Day cards to give to their mothers, grandmothers, or other mother figures in their lives. You could even have a card-making station set up after the service.

4. Mother’s Day Gift Bags

Create Mother’s Day gift bags filled with goodies and distribute them to mothers in your church or community.

5. Mother’s Day Photo Booth

Set up a photo booth where mothers and their families can take pictures to commemorate the day. Have props available to make it extra fun!

6. Mother’s Day Devotional

Create a Mother’s Day devotional that can be shared with mothers to encourage and uplift them.

7. Mother’s Day Tea

Host a Mother’s Day tea (perhaps the day before Mother’s Day) for mothers and their daughters or friends. Serve tea, light refreshments, and provide a time of fellowship.

8. Mother’s Day Movie Night

Host a movie night the Friday or Saturday before Mother’s Day and show a family-friendly movie that celebrates mothers.

9. Spa Day for Moms

Host a spa day where mothers can be pampered and relaxed. Offer massages, manicures, and other spa treatments. Alternatively, you could give away gift certificates for a spa day to special moms (e.g. oldest mom, newest mom, mom w the most kids)

10. Mother’s Day Sunday School

Create a special Sunday school lesson for children that focuses on the importance of mothers and the biblical examples of motherhood.

11. Support a Women’s Center

Does your community have a local women’s center that provides ultrasounds and support for expectant mothers, or baby supplies for new mothers? Raise funds or collect items for donations for your local women’s center.

12 Launch New Groups for Moms

Mother’s Day is a great opportunity to announce new ministries for mothers like a a preschooler play group, bible study for moms while their kids are in school, or a class for parents of teens.

13. Mother’s Day Out

Offer free or inexpensive child care at the church, so moms can have some time to themselves, with their friends, or to shop without kids.

14. Mother’s Day Corsages

The youth group could sell and assemble Mother’s Day Corsages as a fundraiser and distribute them before services on Mother’s Day.

8 Mother’s Day Online Outreach Ideas

1. Create a Landing Page

Create a dedicated landing page on your church website that provides all the details of your Mother’s Day services and events. This page should be easy to navigate, and the information should be displayed prominently.

2. Utilize Social Media

Social media is an effective way to reach out to your community and promote your Mother’s services and events. Utilize platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram to create posts and share information about your Mother’s Day services and events.

3. Ask Your Congregation to Utilize Social media

Posting info to the church’s social media profiles will only reach so many people. If you really want to maximize your social media reach, get the people of your church fired up and excited about sharing your church’s social media posts.

4. Share Testimonials

Share testimonies from members of your congregation about the impact that their Mother has had on their life. Or testimonies from mothers on the impact God has had on their family. These testimonials can be shared on social media and on your website to help promote your Mother’s Day services and events.

5. Email/Blog Devotionals

We suggested giving away physical Mother’s Day devotionals in #6. An alternative would be to invite people to subscribe to receive daily devotionals via email.

6) Use Graphics and Videos

Create graphics and/or promotional videos for your Easter services and events. These visuals can be shared in your services, on your website, on social media and via email to catch the attention of your audience.

7) Use Online Advertising

Consider using online advertising to promote your Mother’s Day services and events. Platforms like Google Ads and Facebook Ads can be used to target specific audiences and promote your Mother’s Day services and events.

8) Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

Make sure people can find your church and Mother’s Day events when they search online. For help with that check out The Ultimate Guide to Church SEO

Forsake not your mother’s teaching, for they are a graceful garland for your head and pendants for your neck. –Proverbs 1:8-9

Want to work with our team?

And if you’d like some help with church web design and church SEO so you can have your best Mother’s Day outreach ever, we’d love to work with you.

Fill out the form below (mobile) or to the right (desktop), to schedule a call.

Comment and Discuss…

• What Mother’s Day outreach is your church planning?

Continue reading… Church Outreach Ideas & Events for every holiday and season

Paul Steinbrueck

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. 

steinbrueck.org

The post 22 Mother’s Day Ideas for Church Outreach (events and online) appeared first on Christian Web Trends Blog: Church Websites, Design, SEO.

Most churches recognize this and put extra effort into reaching people in their community and inviting them to their Easter service.

As I’ve said many times, most people start their search for a church online, so one of the best ways a church can connect with people looking for a church to worship with on Easter is through search engines like Google. So…

How does a church show up in the search results for “Easter service near me?”

And how does that differ from what a church needs to do to show up in the search results for “Church near me?”

Here’s a screenshot of the search results I’m shown for “Church near me”

You see Anchor, Bayside, and Holy Spirit Old Catholic churches get the top 3 spots.

Now let’s look at the results for “Easter service near me”

Notice Bayside is the only one in the top 3 for both searches. Harborside and Heritage UMC get in Google’s “local 3 pack” for “Easter services near me.”

Why the difference?

First, notice in the “church near me” results that Google displays a review below the name of each church that has the word “church” in it. In the “Easter services near me” results that Google displays an excerpt from a “post” below the Bayside listing.

Reviews are posted to Google Business Profiles by visitors and members. This highlights the importance for a church to get members and visitors to post reviews.

Posts are articles the church itself has posted to their Google Business Profile. In this case Bayside posted a post to their GBP encouraging people to invite their friends to an Easter service.

Second, Anchor Church and Holy Spirit Old Catholic Church are both in the local 3 pack for “church near me” but not for “Easter services near me” and neither church mentions Easter on their website at all.

Based on these observations, here are some recommendations.

5 Tips to Get Your Church in the Search Results for “Easter service near me?”

1) Use the word Easter on your church website homepage.

Preferably more than once.  The bigger the heading the better. Include the times for your Easter worship services and any other Easter events you have planned.

2) Optimize Easter images. 

If you are using one or more images to promote your Easter services, make sure the images are optimized for search by giving them a filename and alt attribute with “Easter service” in them.

3) Claim and verify the Google Business Profile for your church.

Google cannot know your church website is connected to your Google Business Profile / Google Maps search listing – and thus will not see the Easter content on your website – unless you claim and verify it.  Verify My Google Business Profile

4) Add a “Post” to your Google Business Profile about your Easter services.

If you have a page on your website about your Easter services and events, a GPB post can be as simple as the title of that page and a link to the page.

5) Ask for Easter reviews. 

As we see with Harborside Church, having Easter mentioned in the Google Reviews people post can have a huge impact. It’s probably too late to have people post reviews and for those reviews to have an impact this year, but you could ask people during or after the service to post a review.

The bottom line is…

Most people start their search for a church online. Will people find your church when they Google “Easter service near me?”

Get Help Ranking for “Easter Service near me” (and more!)

If you and your church would like some help with your church SEO so you can reach more people in your community, complete the form below to request a free consultation.

May God bless you as you celebrate the resurrection of our Savior, Jesus, and seek to introduce the people of your community to Him and his kingdom!

Discussion:

• Where does your church rank in Google for “Easter service near me?”
• What questions or comments do you have about setting up your Google Business Profile or ranking for “Easter services near me?”

Read more articles about preparing your website, SEO, and online communications for Easter.

Paul Steinbrueck

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. 

steinbrueck.org

The post How to Get Your Church Website to Rank for “Easter Service Near Me” appeared first on Christian Web Trends Blog: Church Websites, Design, SEO.

According to the Pew Research Center…

More Americans search for “church” around Easter than at any other time. -Pew Research Center

There are several things your church can do to help those who are searching.

Start with the Church SEO basics that apply all year:

1. Eliminate SEO Killers.

Connect your website with Google Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools which will tell you if there are any problems with your website that prevent it from being read by search engines.

2. Make it Mobile Friendly.

Make sure your website is mobile friendly. This is important for good search rankings and a good user experience.  You can use the  Bing Mobile Friendly Test to see if there are any issues with your website’s mobile usability.

3. Setup/Check Local Listings.

If you don’t have a Google Business Profile yet, get that setup ASAP. See How to Create, Claim and Verify Your Google Business Profile for step-by-step instructions.

If you already have a Google Business Profile, review it. Make sure all the info is up to date and that you have info about Easter services and events on it.

It’s also good to setup or review listings in other local/maps sites like Bing Maps, Yelp, and Apple Maps.

4. NAP Time.

No, don’t fall asleep… Make sure your church Name, Address and Phone number are in the header or footer of your website (top or bottom of every page).

Optimize Your Church Website for Easter

Once you’ve taken care of the basics that are essential for good search rankings, there are some additional steps you can take to connect with people who are searching before Easter.

1. Create an Easter page for services and other events.

In addition to mentioning Easter services on your homepage and calendar page. If you want it to be found in search engines, create a page specifically for your Easter services and Easter events.

2. Promote and link to all events on your homepage.

This will help both human visitors and search engines that visit your homepage to find your event pages.  The idea is to use headlines or promotional graphics on your homepage just to get people’s attention, and link to the Easter page where people can get the rest of the details. This way your homepage doesn’t get cluttered with all the details.

3. Share your Easter events on social media.

Social media shares and likes help search rankings. Plus the more people who see the event in social media, the more links it will get.  Consider creating a Facebook Event and sharing to any local Facebook groups.

4. Email newspapers and community groups.

Many newspapers and community websites list upcoming events. Email them and see if they’ll post and link to info about your Easter events.

And somewhat of a hybrid between social media and community groups, there are social apps like Eventbrite, Meetup, and Nextdoor.

People are searching online for Easter services in your community. Will they find your church?

Get some help from our team of experienced SEO pros!

If you are interested in having our Church SEO  experts help your church bring more people to your church website through search engines, we would love to talk with you!

Complete the form below (mobile) or to the right (desktop) to schedule a call.

Comment & Discuss:

• What are you doing to connect with people searching online for Easter services and events?

Continue reading… 5 Things to Prep Your Website for Easter

Paul Steinbrueck

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. 

steinbrueck.org

The post How to Optimize Your Church Website for Easter appeared first on Christian Web Trends Blog: Church Websites, Design, SEO.

In this Search Engine Optimization Frequently Asked Questions (SEO FAQs) video blog, I address the question, Should a Christian organization hire a Christian SEO Company? by sharing 4 benefits Christian a organization experiences when working with a Christian SEO company.

(The article below is a summary of the video, but you’ll get more details and examples if you watch the video.)

Should a Christian organization hire a Christian SEO Company?

Now, I might be a little biased as the leader of a Christian SEO company, but I want to share…

4 compelling reasons why I it’s beneficial for Christian organizations to partner with a Christian SEO company

1. Shared Mission

When you partner with a Christian SEO company, you share the same beliefs and values. Here at OurChurch.com, our mission is to help Christian organizations live out their mission online. We don’t see the organizations we work with as clients but as partners in advancing the kingdom of God. This shared mission creates a powerful bond.

2. Understanding Christian Terminology

Words matter in SEO, especially in keyword research, on-page optimization, and content creation. It’s important that these tasks are handled by individuals who understand Christian terminology, theological beliefs, and denominations.

A Christian SEO company ensures that these terms are used correctly, making your online presence resonate with your audience.

3. Christian Staff

Our entire team at OurChurch.com consists of followers of Jesus. When you work with us, you experience a genuine sense of community with fellow believers. This camaraderie enhances your SEO journey and create a unique connection.

4. Supporting Christian Causes

Many tech companies support causes that may conflict with our Christian values. At OurChurch.com, we prioritize Christian causes. We contribute to our local Christian radio station, support a community organization that helps hungry children, and back a local foster care facility.

When you partner with OurChurch.com, you’re also supporting these meaningful Christian causes aligned with your values.

The bottom line is…

When you hire a Christian SEO company, you’re partnering with an organization that shares your mission, beliefs, and values.

Learn more about working with a Christian SEO company

If you want to improve your search rankings, increase website visitors, and better live out your mission online, and you want to do it with a Christian SEO company that shares your mission, beliefs and values, the next step is a phone call.

Fill out the form below (mobile) or to the right (desktop), to schedule a call.

Comment and Discuss…

• What questions or comments do you have about working with a Christian SEO company?

Read or watch more SEO FAQ articles and videos!

Paul Steinbrueck

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. 

steinbrueck.org

The post Should a Christian organization hire a Christian SEO Company? appeared first on Christian Web Trends Blog: Church Websites, Design, SEO.

Do you know what it means, and which SEO tactics are considered black hat?

In this Search Engine Optimization Frequently Asked Questions (SEO FAQs) video blog, I address the question, What is black hat SEO? and explain 4 black had SEO tactics to avoid.

(The article below is a summary of the video, but you’ll get more details and examples if you watch the video.)

What is “black hat” SEO?

Let’s dive into the world of SEO and uncover the dark side of it.

The term “black hat” harks back to the old Western movies where the good guys wore white hats and the bad guys sported black ones. This distinction made it easy to identify the heroes and villains.

In the late ’90s and early 2000s, the world of SEO was like the Wild West, and people were experimenting with various techniques – some ethical, and some not so ethical – to boost their search engine rankings. Those unethical tactics that search engines frowned upon became known as black hat SEO.

It’s important to understand the concept of black hat SEO because when you hire an SEO company, you want to make sure they’re not using these techniques. Black hat methods can lead to penalties and even the banning of your website from search engines. So, let’s dig deeper into

4 Black Hat SEO Techniques to Avoid

1. Keyword Stuffing

On-page optimization is essential for enhancing a webpage’s relevance for specific keywords. However, keyword stuffing takes this to an extreme, where keywords are used excessively throughout a page, often in awkward and unnatural ways.

Some people have gone so far as to not even try to even disguise their keyword stuffing and simply list dozens of keywords at the bottom of the page.

Keyword stuffing is no longer effective, as search engines can identify it. So, avoid this practice at all costs.

2. Cloaking

Cloaking is a practice where one version of a webpage is displayed to search engines, while a different version is shown to human visitors. The idea is to present an overly optimized version to search engines, sacrificing user-friendliness. This technique is explicitly banned and should be avoided.

3. Link Buying

Link building is a difficult, time-consuming aspect of SEO. It’s tough to convince other websites to link to your site. So, some SEO companies take the shortcut by buying links on other websites.

However, this practice is explicitly prohibited by search engines. If detected, these purchased links won’t help your site’s authority or rankings; in fact, they might lead to penalties. Avoid buying links at all costs.

4. Link Schemes

Since buying links is against the rules, some SEO companies have come up with other “creative” link-building schemes. The two most common are:

• Reciprocal linking – This is where two websites agree to each link to the other.
• Private blog networks (PBNs) – This is where multiple blogs are created for the specific purpose of interlinking with client sites.

It’s crucial to ensure that your SEO company is not using these questionable techniques. Ask them about their SEO link-building strategies so you can be sure they’re not using any black hat tactics.

The bottom line is…

Don’t come to the dark side of SEO… or Google will strangle your search traffic. -Paul Steinbrueck

Partner with an ethical SEO company

Of course, OurChurch.com is committed to using only legitimate, ethical, “white hat” SEO techniques to help our clients improve their search rankings, increase their website traffic, and live out their mission online.

If you’d like to discuss church SEO or Christian SEO for your business, school or ministry, with one of our SEO experts, fill out the consultation request form below (mobile) or to the right (desktop).

Comment and Discuss…

• What questions or comments do you have about black hat SEO?

Read or watch more SEO FAQ articles and videos!

Paul Steinbrueck

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. 

steinbrueck.org

The post What is black hat SEO? appeared first on Christian Web Trends Blog: Church Websites, Design, SEO.

The way to find out is by asking the right questions.

In this Search Engine Optimization Frequently Asked Questions (SEO FAQs) video blog, I address the question, What questions should I ask an SEO before hiring them?

(The article below is a summary of the video, but you’ll get more details and examples if you watch the video.)

8 Questions to Ask an SEO Company Before Hiring

Let’s delve into the eight essential questions you should ask any SEO company to help you determine if they are the right fit for your organization.

1. What’s your mission?

The very first thing you should know is whether the SEO company’s mission and values align with yours. At OurChurch.com, our mission is to help Christian organizations live out their mission online. If you’re a part of a Christian church, school, ministry, or Christian-owned business, this alignment can be crucial.

2. How long have you been doing SEO professionally?

Experience matters. In the SEO world, there are professionals, volunteers, and hobbyists. You want to ensure you hire someone with professional experience – someone who has worked with clients and has a proven track record.

3. How many employees do you have?

Consider the size of the company you’re hiring. If it’s a solo operation, that can be risky. What if that person goes on vacation, gets sick or goes out of business? It’s wise to work with an SEO company that employs a team, ensuring there are backup plans in place if anything happens to their employees.

4. Tell me about your work and references in my particular industry.

This is especially relevant for churches. It’s essential to have an SEO company that understands Christian terminology and the specifics of your denomination. Experience in your field ensures they can do the right keyword research and optimize your content effectively.

5. What specific SEO tasks will you do for us?

SEO is a multifaceted discipline, comprising various tasks like technical SEO, keyword research, on-page optimization, link building, local SEO, content marketing, and ongoing reporting. It’s important to understand which of these tasks the SEO company would be doing for your organization.

6. What’s your SEO timeline?

Your SEO should have well-defined processes which they can share with you. Knowing how long each phase of the SEO service will take is vital. It helps you set expectations and have a clear picture of what to anticipate as you work with them.

7. Do you offer a guarantee?

Most SEO companies do not guarantee their work (we explain why here). At OurChurch.com, we guarantee our services, promising a certain number of Top 10 rankings with each service. Make sure you ask about this before hiring an SEO company.

8. What reporting, monitoring, and adjustments are included?

We discussed earlier that SEO is not a one-time sprint but an ongoing marathon. You want to measure results, keep an eye on your website’s performance, and adjust your SEO strategy when necessary. Ask about the reporting, monitoring, and adjustments included in your SEO service.

Asking these 8 questions to any SEO company you’re considering hiring help give you the discernment you need to hire the best SEO company for your organization!

Make sure the SEO company you hire has experience working with your specific type of organization. -Kurt Steinbrueck

Ask us these 8 SEO questions

If you’re interested in church SEO or Christian SEO for your business, school or ministry, we’d love to talk with you and answer these 8 SEO questions as long as any others you have.

Fill out the consultation request form below (mobile) or to the right (desktop) to schedule a call.

We encourage you to ask us these challenging questions and see how we respond.

Comment and Discuss…

• What questions would you ask an SEO company before hiring them?

Read or watch more SEO FAQ articles and videos!

Paul Steinbrueck

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. 

steinbrueck.org

The post Before Hiring an SEO Company, Ask These 8 Questions appeared first on Christian Web Trends Blog: Church Websites, Design, SEO.