Web Analytics & the Church

Churches have the unfortunate reputation of being outdated in many different facets: music, visual arts, technology, and web. Many churches, big and small, struggle to design dynamic websites that can not only catch a visitor’s attention, but also provide action steps that will encourage future interaction. This is a problem that transcends budget size. It requires setting strong goals and developing a strategy to help your organization pursue them. Web analytics allow churches to measure their ongoing performance and optimize strategy accordingly.

 

In 2012, 33% of church attenders said that the Internet was the first place where they learned about their church. The marquee in front of a church building is increasingly less important. People are increasingly headed online to search for the best doctors, restaurants, schools, and yes, even churches. In 2009, 12% of church attenders found their church’s website through a search engine. Just three years later, that number nearly doubled to 23%. Not only are people looking online for more information on churches, but they are attempting to get involved from that location as well. 64% of church goers say the church website is important in facilitating participation in church. Features used the most include (in order, starting with most important):

• Listening and downloading sermons
• Discovering serving opportunities
• Finding service information
• Forwarding content to others
• Reading information specifically for new visitors.

These statistics are essentially telling those of us in church leadership that people are turning to the Internet to become better connected to a church. Whether they are considering giving church a try for the first time ever, wanting to see what the services and people are like, or they just want to become more involved, a church’s website will be the place they turn to accomplish those goals.

Once a church decides what its online goals will be and the website has gone live, how do we measure success? For many church websites, there isn’t much tracking going on. The website is updated with calendared content as needed, but changes to the website’s infrastructure are rarely, if ever, made. This is where web analytics comes in. There are countless metrics, such as total unique visitors, visit duration, bounce rate, and conversion rate, that will identify any holes within a church’s web strategy. 

Perhaps your web metrics will identify incorrect search engine terms that are pointing people to your website, requiring a change in meta tags. Maybe the navigation of your website is creating bottlenecks. A study of how people are navigating around your website, in addition to identifying if they are a first time or recurring visitor, could help point out new opportunities to streamline the site map.

By optimizing the functionality of a church’s website using web analytics, we engage in strong customer service that builds loyalty and bonds. The church is a people, not a place. By organizing a website to provide an exceptional online experience, we create opportunity for people to enter into community. While there are many other areas in church that are equally, if not, more important to generate this community, an optimized website is a good place to start.