As a church or catholic parish, you have a lot on your plate to keep your community running. It’s likely, then, that one of the last things on your mind is your website.
For many organizations and businesses, especially ones that don’t rely on their virtual presence for online sales, once your website is up and running you hope that there is very little you have to do except make occasional schedule or event updates.
While you can get away with that thinking for some time (years even), there comes a time when you need to re-evaluate your website to make sure it’s doing what you really want (and need) it to.
Why Redesigning Your Website is Essential
Because churches and parishes are living, breathing organisms, they’re constantly changing. And, with those changes, comes a need to make sure that what you said or believed about your community several years ago is aligned with your current state of thinking.
From current events to fresh visions, not updating your website regularly to keep up is a sure way to feel outdated to your online visitors (and even your current church members).
When thinking about your current website, you should really ask yourself and your church community three basic questions:
- Is it an effective way to spread your message?
- Does it address all of the needs of your parish members and future members?
- Does it look attractive and up-to-date?
If you can answer yes to all of these questions without hesitation, then your website is still in a good spot and no major changes are needed.
But, if you are feeling unsure about your website and the way it looks and functions, then it’s likely that hitting the proverbial refresh button is in your best interest.
The Advantage of Newer Websites
If you’re considering reworking or completely overhauling your catholic parish website design, here are three benefits of making this smart investment:
- It Will Make Your Website More Mobile Friendly. Technology is always changing, and so is the ability of websites to be optimized for mobile devices. Even if your website is just a few years old and is mobile optimized, it could look and function better if you choose to update. And, because so many people are now going online with their mobile devices, this alone could be reason enough to revise your website.
- It Will Improve Your Google Rank. Like technology (only faster), Google is constantly updating its algorithms. In order to keep up with the latest way Google ranks websites, you need to use the most up-to-date website designs. It seems like, for most websites, if Google thinks your website isn’t optimized according to today’s standards, it won’t rank it nearly as high as newer designs on the latest platforms.
- It Will Make Your Website Faster. Older websites just can’t keep up when it comes to speed. Not only do slow websites make for a poor user experience, but they also hurt your ranking with major search engines, including Google.
While creating a new, faster, more optimized website isn’t required, it’s one of the smartest moves you can make to keep your church and parish community healthy, vibrant, and capable of competing.
