Flyers and word-of-mouth aren’t enough anymore. Today, more people check online for the information they need. If they look for your church, what will they find?

38% of people will stop interacting with a website if it’s unattractive. 39% will leave if the site takes too long to load.

By learning how to build a church website, you can build your congregation and communicate with the masses.

Without an up-to-date website, however, people might not realize your church even exists.

Ready to create a new website for your church? Keep reading our ultimate guide to learn how!

How to Build a Church Website

Whether your budget is big or small, you can use these five easy steps to become a church website builder in just a few hours!

1. Choose a Host & Domain

Before you can build a church website, you’ll need to purchase church website hosting. There are a few hosts you can choose from, including:

• WordPress
• Squarespace
• GoDaddy
• HostGator

Some of these hosting sites package their website builder, hosting, and domain into a single monthly service. However, which host you choose depends on your budget and preference.

Next, you’ll need a domain name for your church website.

Your domain is the URL your congregation will type into the URL bar. Make sure it’s easy to remember and not too long.

2. Find a Builder

Next, look for the best church website builder online. If you’re inexperienced with building websites, you’ll want a church website builder that is easy to use. The right builder will help you save time and money.

Using a builder instead of working from scratch means you won’t need technical know-how to build a church website.

Make sure the builder is mobile-friendly as well. Otherwise, your congregation will have a difficult time using your site from their smartphones.

Make sure the church website builder allows you to customize the styles, color palettes, images, page layouts, and more.

3. Choose a Theme & Customize

Once you have your builder, you can start customizing!

Make sure to create core pages. As you build a church website, these pages should include:

• The homepage
• A calendar page
• About Us/Mission/Vision page
• A welcome page for new visitors
• Meet the Staff page
• Contact page

You might also consider a blog page to keep your congregation informed about news and events.

You can also add plugins for your calendar, blog, podcast, or other features you might want to add.

Once your pages are created, start publishing fresh content! Content marketing is an effective strategy for attracting people to your church website.

4. Promote Your Site

More than 50% of website traffic occurs through a search engine. With that in mind, it’s important to make sure your site is search engine optimization (SEO). SEO will help people find your church website on search engines like Google.

You can also connect your website to your social media accounts. Linking your site to your social media will make it easier for people to interact with your church online.

Gather Your Online Flock: The 4 Steps You Need to Build a Church Website

With these four steps, you can build a church website on your own!

Once your website is up, you can continue building your flock and spreading your message.

Looking for more ways to reach your congregation? Explore our Religion Library today for more research tools.