Church site template providers with content management - build church sites without technical knowledge

It is increasingly important that all churches should have a web presence. If you believe it is necessary to have a public noticeboard on the outside of your church building, it is equally valuable to communicate online with people in your area.

Church websites outnumber other types of Christian website by perhaps 5 to 1. They therefore have great potential for online outreach. Sadly however, surveys show that most church sites have been written purely for their members. They often use insider language, and cannot effectively communicate with non-Christian visitors at all. The X-Spectrum is a useful tool to analyze what range of people a website is actually targeting.

There are many ways to create church websites which are actually user-friendly for non-Christians: [More].

Template Providers

Not every church will have, among its membership, someone with the time or gifts to create an effective well-designed church site. Happily, there is a realistic alternative: template providers.

These companies offer a technical solution which uses 'content management' and ready-made site templates. The user signs up for the service, chooses a ready-made template design for their site, and then adds content through a password-protected web-page interface. Very effective sites can be created using many of these systems. Some will also create non-church websites – either to describe a Christian ministry, or even to build an evangelistic website. For instance, a Bridge Strategy site, for instance about a hobby, could be easily built this way.

How to choose

There are many questions to ask when choosing a site provider. Until recently, some companies did not offer practical solutions to all these questions. Hopefully, the situation is now improving.

Cost. Almost all providers need to charge for their services, obviously. One or two work on a freewill offering basis - for instance ForMinistry (available in North America only).
When comparing costs with the do-it-yourself alternative, remember that you will normally have to pay a minimum of 5-10 US dollars or equivalent monthly to a hosting company, and more for add-ons such as calendars, bulletin boards, mailing lists, etc. Often these things are included within an integrated church-site package. Remember too that these services offer a vast time-saving in comparison with self design. And the cost is often no more than it would be to place a regular advert in your local paper – another under-used strategy.
What is the minimum time commitment, and method of payment?
Samples and trial period. Does the site link to a range of churches using the system. This will help you to assess some of the questions below. Are there any testimonials from satisfied users?
Is there a trial period, so you can test the system first before making a commitment.
Features. Research carefully the features offered by different providers. Do you need all these now? Will you perhaps want them in the future?
Multiple users. Is it possible for several people to maintain different areas of the site, with password access to their own specific sections only? This allows different departments of the church to maintain and update their own sections.
Domain name. Does the provider offer you the option of your own domain name for the URL of your church site? Or is the URL in a 'subdomain' style such as http://yourchurchname.theirname.com? If they offer domain names and registration, in whose name is the domain registered? (If a company were to cease trading, it might be hard for you to obtain the rights to your domain, if it was registered in their name.)
If your own domain name is offered, does it remain in the browser location bar when viewing the site, or does it merely forward to an URL containing the provider's domain name?
Search engine problems. Are the inner pages of the site generated 'dynamically' and therefore possess long URLs which contain ? and = characters? Not all search engines can spider these dynamic URLs. If you wish inner dynamic pages of the site to be listed on search engines, find out if the main search engines (Google, Yahoo, and MSN) can spider and list them.
Title and description tags. A further essential requirement for a good search engine listing is a meaningful title tag within the header section of a webpage (this is an invisible area of the page that contains various elements of coding).
Does the provider offer a means to create an individual unique title tag, not only for the homepage, but also for subsequent pages? In addition (because a few search engines still use them) a meta description tag is still worth adding too – is this possible? Check the source code on showcased sites, and see if titles and meta descriptions are supported. Note whether there is a single standardized title tag across all the church pages (not ideal), or whether each individual page has its own unique title tag – the best option. (Find the answers to these questions by looking at the source code of sample church sites using each system.)
Navigation. What sort of navigation menu does the provider offer? Is this intuitive and logical to site visitors? How much control do you have over its design and description of links? Does the menu change color (like the menu on this page), or offer some other form of highlighting, pointer, or indent, to indicate to people 'you are here'? It is very important to give people this sense of where they are, where they have been, and where they can go – the golden rule of easy navigation.
Are 'frames' used in the construction of the site? These possess a number of negative issues, particularly in terms of search engine listing, bookmarking, etc.
Email and contact methods. Does the system offer multiple email accounts to churches? How many? If so, is this real POP3 email, or browser-based (like Hotmail)? Is there a contact form system, so that email addresses do not need to be displayed publicly on the site, where they can be easily harvested by spam software? If email is included, is there 24/7 technical coverage, to remedy downtime quickly?
Photos. Is it possible, or easy, to upload photos to the site?
Other features. Does the system offer calendars, bulletin boards, chat rooms, email lists, and other features which may be needed. Is it possible to create a 'blog-style' regularly updated news item on the homepage? Does it offer password-protected members-only content (e.g. an address list)?
Statistics. Are site visitor statistics offered? Do these include unique visitor numbers for each page on the site, and also show from what outside sites those visitors came, and (if via search engines) what search terms they used?
Syndicated material. Does the provider offer any ready-made content that can be syndicated directly into your church site: cartoons, devotional material, or a clear and appropriate explanation of the Gospel for non-Christian visitors?
Non-English languages. Does the system offer support for accented characters, or even non-European fonts?
The organisation. Does its own site inspire confidence? Is it attractively designed with easy navigation? Their template pages are unlikely to be better than their own site! Is the template system clearly explained? Are there any FAQs? Is it easy to contact them?

Which companies offer this service

Here is a range of groups offering church site template systems. This list is not exhaustive – there are no doubt many others. There are also secular groups offering a similar site-build service which could be used for churches – one is included here (matrix49.com). Note that inclusion on this list does not imply any recommendation or assessment of the quality or value of service. Please send others that could be included. There are also several groups not listed here which offer church site hosting cheaply or even free, though without offering a template-build service.

Church template providers

An alternative way to create a church website

Template Providers

How to choose

Which companies offer this service