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    The #1 Reason Church Websites Fail

    Paul SteinbrueckBy Updated:2 Comments3 Mins Read

    The OurChurch.Com team provides free website reviews to anyone who requests one.

    It’s one of the ways we live out our mission – to help Christian organizations live out their mission online.

    We check for the 10 most common website problems. If a website passes all 10 points, it receives an award. If it fails any of the 10 points, we send a list of recommendations.

    It saddens me to say that…

    Only 14% of websites reviewed passed all 10 points of the website review.

    We analyzed the data from our website reviews to determine the percentage of websites that fail each of the 10 points. One problem stood out well beyond all the others. To put this into perspective, 30% of sites failed on the second most common problem. But a whopping 70% of websites failed on this one specific problem.

    The #1 reason church websites fail website reviews is because of problems with images.

    Click to share this image on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest or Instagram

    We’re talking about:

    • Missing images (URL of the image is incorrect)
    • Blurry images (photo taken out of focus)
    • Tiny images (that don’t fill the width of the content area)
    • Distorted images (caused by stretching or squashing an image into a space that has different proportions than the image)

    We live in a very visual culture. If your website has any of these image problems, people instantly think either you don’t know what you’re doing or you don’t care.

    To combat this problem, July is Church Website Photography Month at OurChurch.com.

    We’re going to do everything we possibly can to help you improve the images on your website so that instead of distracting people from your mission they help you achieve your mission!

    But before we get to that, I want to make sure we’re providing the resources that are most helpful to you.

    So, my question to you is this:

    When it comes to your website images, what is your single biggest struggle or frustration?

    Click this link, and post your response in this month’s Listening Post.

    Then go ahead and post your response in a comment below to get the conversation going here.

    More articles about Church Website Photography

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    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. 

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    1. Paul David Powers on

      February 19, Lettra Press released TELLY TALES-Best of Telly Owl and Friends in Honor of the 15th Anniversary of the Series! Years ago we had a ministry website with Our Church.Com and it worked well.

      Literary Agents have said, they have read Telly Tales and that its the Best Faith Based Children’s Book they have read in a long time! Their opinion is that it could go viral within a year. We need a website, one that would have its own email address. with music, moving pictures as well as a link where people can order the book! Currently it is on Amazon and BarnesAndNobles.Com and 38,000 online book outlets. Unfortunately we cannot pay for such a site seeing as the book is still in its infancy! Got any suggestions? Paul David Powers, Author-Telly Tales!

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