SEO: A Guide for Churches

Imagine that someone is wanting to find a new church to belong to — what do you think they do first?

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Nine times out of ten, they are searching on Google for something like “churches near me” or “church (insert city name)”.

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And when they search online, does your church show up in the results? And if so, where does it rank in those results?

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Most people will visit your church’s website before ever attending a service in person. That’s why it’s critical to not only have a compelling church website, but a website that is easily discoverable in online search results.

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This leads us to SEO. You’ve probably have heard the term before, but what does it actually mean?

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What is SEO?

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All search engines (most notably, Google) have an algorithm that decides what webpages appear and in what order when someone makes an online search. This algorithm will  “read” websites and determine what is the most relevant and trusted result to show to that user.

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And in return, SEO was born.

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SEO (search engine optimization) is a set of practices designed to improved the ranking of web pages when someone searches online.

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Essentially, you’re reverse engineering the algorithm to do everything you can to get great rankings for web searches.

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Why does SEO matter for churches?

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Just about everyone turns to the internet first when they are looking for a new church. They rarely just show up in person, instead they are searching on Google and then looking at your church website to see if it’s a community they could belong to.

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By utilizing SEO as a church, you’re increasing your church’s visibility when someone is searching for a church near them. It’s your opportunity to bring more awareness to guests and invite them to your church community. On the other hand, if you’re not utilizing it correctly, your church is probably not showing up in search results at all.

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Optimizing Local SEO

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Local SEO is the practice of improving your church's online presence in local search results. The goal is to have your church show up within the top ten results when someone in your local area searches for a church.

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Here’s what you can do to optimize your church’s local SEO:

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1. Set up your Google Business Profile

Google Business is an easy-to-use tool for businesses and organizations to manage their online presence across Google, including Search and Maps.

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Once you create a Business Profile on Google. Make sure to complete your profile by adding in accurate information about your church, like your address, phone number, Website URL, photos, and more.

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‍2. Get listed in other local directories

Although Google Business is the most important one, there are additional local directories that you can use to help promote your church online.

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Here are a few popular options:

• ‍Yelp‍
• Facebook‍
• Yahoo!‍
• Bing

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You may also want to add your church to national and local church directories as well as any denominational listings that your church might be affiliated with.

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3. Ask People to Write Reviews

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It’s critical to have written reviews for your church on Google and other online platforms. This creates social proof — where guests can see real life people share their testimonies about your church community. (next pro tip is to put some of these reviews on your church website as well.)

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You can first start by asking your staff and other leaders in your church to write reviews, but also invite your entire community to do the same.

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PS: Don’t be afraid about receiving critiques or negative reviews. As a church, you should want to know people’s real thoughts about their experiences in your community. This will be a great opportunity to become more self-aware and potentially make some changes based on these reviews.

Optimizing SEO on your Church Website

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Website SEO refers to optimizing your website itself so that it will appear in search engine results.

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1. Optimize On-Page Elements

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Make sure you are following best practices for all on-page elements on your church website. Note, certain web platforms are better than others when it comes to SEO — that’s once reason why we love Webflow.

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These elements include:

• ‍Title Tags: Craft unique, descriptive titles for each page that include primary keywords.‍
• Meta Descriptions: Write compelling meta descriptions with keywords to improve click-through rates.‍
• Header Tags (H1, H2, etc.): Organize content with headers that incorporate keywords naturally.‍
• URL Structure: Use clean, readable URLs with relevant keywords.

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2. Create a Mobile Friendly Website

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As you might guess, more and more people are accessing websites with their mobile devices instead of on desktop computers. In fact, about two thirds of visits on your church website will be on a mobile device. And with these trends, Google prioritizes mobile-responsive sites and ranks them more favorably.

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The most important thing you can do is to design your church website so all elements function and look great on mobile websites. All too often, we come across church websites that have broken elements on their mobile sites (especially in their navigation menus). This is where having a custom developed website is valuable. You’ll have complete control of all these elements no matter what device is being used.

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Secondly, make sure to keep your website fast by compressing images and by minimizing CSS/JavaScript files. When people encounter slow websites, they generally leave your website immediately which negatively effects SEO.

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Check out the load speeds for your church website here.

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Need some inspiration for mobile friendly websites? We've go you:

• Breakaway Ministries
• Anchor Church

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3. Create High-Quality Content

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Google favors websites where users spend more time engaging with the content. Churches can take advantage of this by creating high-quality content such as blog posts and other equipping material. You can also host all your sermon content on your church website which will dramatically increase how long people on your website.

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This content not only will help people in their faith, but also rewards your website in better SEO.

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For this reason, we love incorporating sermon libraries onto church websites. We either can create robust native solutions or utilize sermon embeds through platforms like Subsplash.

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Here are some sermon library examples:

• Menlo Church
• Haborside Church

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4. Technical SEO

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Here are a few technical items that you need to have to optimize SEO on your church website:

• ‍XML Sitemap: Create and submit an XML sitemap to Google Search Console to help search engines index your site.‍
• Robots.txt: Ensure your robots.txt file allows search engines to crawl important pages.‍
• Structured Data: Use schema markup to help search engines understand your content better, which can improve rich snippets.

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5. Utilize Google Analytics & Search Console

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Google offers free tools to help you track your website traffic, search rankings, and other user behavior. It also allows you to analyze keywords and see if their is any broken links or other issues on your website.

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Make sure to create your Google Analytics account so that you can be more aware of how your church website is doing and if there are any problem areas. This isn’t something you should obsess over, but it’s definitely worth checking once a month or quarter to stay up to date. These results will also reveal what sermons or content people are drawn to and might inform future content that your church publishes.

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Set up your Google Analytics account here.

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Learn more about Search Console.

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One Final Note

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We don’t think most churches need to invest heavily into SEO, just follow the best practices and you should see favorable results in no time.

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SEO brings a unique opportunity for churches — Our world is becoming more and more online and now people are more than ever taking their questions about faith online instead of directly to a person.

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What websites will pop up when skeptics and christians alike take their questions about faith to Google? With SEO, we think churches have an opportunity to not only be a physical place for community, but also a digital voice for people who are exploring their faith.

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Consider this your encouragement to start investing in creating online content that will help people in their walk with Jesus. Optimize for SEO so that these people find your content. And then direct these people to connect physically on Sundays and in other ministries so that they can continue their faith journey alongside other people.

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Bring more visitors to church on Sundays

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Here’s the deal. You might have a great church, but your website isn’t convincing people to visit. Your church website is bland, hard to navigate, and likely not SEO optimized.

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We’ve been there. And we’re here to help. With over a decade of experience, we have a proven process that will transform your church website into your number one tool for inviting people into your community.

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Your new church website will look awesome, work great on all devices, and will be optimized for SEO.

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Learn more about our custom church websites.

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