Most church websites are built for the people who already attend. The person deciding whether to visit for the first time gets a homepage full of internal news, a menu of ministry names that mean nothing to them, and no clear answer to the only question they have: what will happen if I show up on Sunday? This checklist covers what a church website should include for both audiences, first-time visitors and members, and how to organize it so each group finds what they need in a few taps on a phone.
Start with the visitor’s questions
Before listing features, write down the questions a first-time visitor actually asks. In our experience they are consistent:
- When and where do you meet, and is there parking?
- How long is the service and what is it like?
- What do people wear?
- Is there something for my children, and is it safe?
- Will I be singled out or asked for money?
- Who are you, and what do you believe?
Every one of those should be answered on a single “Plan Your Visit” or “I’m New” page linked from the top of every page. Write it in plain language, as if speaking to a nervous person, and include a photo of the actual entrance so they recognize the building when they arrive.
The essentials for every church website
1. Service times, address and directions
On the homepage, above the fold, not buried in a footer. Link the address to a map. If you have multiple services or campuses, show them all clearly and say how they differ.
2. A “what to expect” page
Dress, length, children’s programs, accessibility, parking, whether communion is open, what happens with the offering. The more specific, the more reassuring.
3. About, beliefs and leadership
A short statement of what you believe, who leads the church, and how it is governed. Photos and short bios of pastors and staff build trust more than any paragraph of vision language.
4. Sermons and messages
An archive organized by series, speaker and date, with embedded video or audio and a short written summary for each message. The summary is what makes the sermon findable in search months later; a page with only an embedded video has almost nothing for a search engine to read. Include a transcript when you can produce one; it helps accessibility and search alike.
5. Livestream
A dedicated page that is one tap from the homepage, shows the stream when it is live, and shows the most recent message and the next service time when it is not. Test it on a phone on a Sunday morning, not only on the office computer.
6. Events and a calendar people trust
A calendar is only useful if it is current. Decide who owns it before launch. Every event should have a date, time, place, a sentence on who it is for, and a registration or contact route when one is needed.
7. Ministries and groups as ways to belong
Describe each ministry by what a person would experience and who to contact, not by its committee name. “Tuesday evening group for parents of young children, meets at the Smiths’ home, contact Maria” is more inviting than “Family Life Ministry”.
8. Online giving
Integrate with the platform you already use and place the Give link where people expect it, usually the main navigation. Explain briefly what gifts support and how recurring giving works. Do not make giving the loudest thing on the homepage; visitors notice.
9. Prayer, care and contact
A simple prayer request form, a clear contact page with a phone number and email that a person actually monitors, and, if you offer it, how to request a visit or pastoral care.
10. Member resources
Forms, directories, volunteer sign-ups, documents and anything that should not be public belong behind a login or on unlisted pages. Keep the public site focused on visitors and the wider community.
Mobile first, and genuinely accessible
Most first visits to a church website happen on a phone. Check that type is large enough to read without zooming, that buttons can be tapped with a thumb, that the menu works, and that the livestream and giving pages function on a phone. Then check accessibility: color contrast, alt text on images, captions on video, headings in a logical order, and a site that can be navigated by keyboard. Congregations include older members, people with low vision and people using screen readers; a church website that fails them fails part of its own community.
Speed matters more than polish
A homepage that takes five seconds to appear on a phone loses visitors before it says a word. Compress images, avoid autoplaying video backgrounds, keep the number of plugins and embedded widgets down, and test the site with a tool such as PageSpeed Insights. Fast and simple beats slow and impressive every time.
Make it maintainable
The best church website is the one someone actually updates. Build on a platform, WordPress for most churches, where a volunteer can change service times, post a sermon and add an event without a developer. Write a one-page guide for the people who will do it. Decide who checks the calendar each week.
A short checklist
- Service times and address on the homepage
- A plain-language “Plan Your Visit” page
- Beliefs, leadership and photos
- Sermon archive with summaries
- Livestream page that works on a phone
- Current events calendar with an owner
- Ministries described as experiences with a contact
- Giving integrated and explained
- Prayer and contact routes to a real person
- Member resources behind a login
- Readable, accessible, fast on mobile
- Editable by your own team
Deehvine Marketing designs and builds websites and digital tools for churches and ministries, including Ephese OS, a church management platform. If your website is due for a rethink, read about our church website design work or start a project.