Reduce Friction on Your Church Website

Can potential first time church visitors find out the information they need on your church website landing page?

What do you think are some of the most common questions of your website visitor?

Here is what I think (though I don’t have data to prove it):

• Where is the church?
• What does the building look like so I can recognize it?
• Would I fit in with these people?
• Who is the pastor?

Website Friction kills effectiveness.

Let me use the term friction in a way you might not be used to.

Friction would be the unintentional clutter that hinders your home page from answering the question in the mind of the user.

Of course, you can’t know what that question is, but you can certainly do a good job guessing.

A commercial example of website friction

Today, I had a need.

An urgent need.

Via google, I visited two on-line stores to solve that urgent need.

Store number 1

I visited their website, couldn’t figure out the product offer.

How can that company meet my need?

I found the free trial button, but wasn’t sure what I was trying, or if I could solve my need right away.

I signed up for the free trial and got a screen and then an email that said:

A customer service person will be in touch with you shortly.

Result: I still had an urgent need, and they got my email address.

Store number 2

I visited their website, and they had a simple 3 word slogan that showed how they could meet my need.

I easily found the free trial button.

I signed up and got to do what I needed to do right away.

This company had my money for their service, and my need was solved.

Result: Done in 5 minutes, and I happily paid the reasonable fee for service.

Back to store Number 1.

An hour later, a sales person from Store number 1 was still emailing me questions about what types of additional services did I need, what size company I was, and all sorts of census information.

Two hours later, they were still asking me their “custom questions” to “design the right program” for my need.

My advice to them: solve my need and then I’ll tell you more about me so you can upsell.

What does this have to do with your church?

Let’s say your potential visitor comes to your website and wants to know

Where are you?

How many clicks must they take to find a map to your church?

Some websites put their contact information 3 page levels down.

For example, it’s buried in their menu structure

Contact Us  –> Mailing Address –> Answer.

Sometimes that page doesn’t even have a map, or even a link to a map.

Instead, put your mailing address at the footer of every page, along with a internal link to the webpage that has an embedded map and driving directions and picture to your building.

Another example

Let’s say your potential visitor comes to your website wants to know

When are your services?

How many clicks must they take to find your service times?

Make sure you put that on your home page in a very visible area.

While I’m not a complete expert in church webpage design, there are some instant usability adjustments you can make to hep reduce friction for your visitor who may be looking at your website as part of their decision making about attending your church.

How many clicks?

Consider your current church website.  How many clicks does it take for a first time visitor to find out answers to these questions?

• Where is the church?
• What does the building look like so I can recognize it?
• Would I fit in with these people?
• Who is the pastor?