Parish Websites

Getting Started

There are four main elements to a successful website. The technical design, graphic design and maintenance are critical; it must be easy to navigate around, clean and attractive and, crucially, kept up to date. Equally important, however, is that the purpose(s) for the website must be identified in advance and must guide the development process.

Many parishes in London are fortunate to have parishioners with the skills to produce a traditional website for them. Where possible this is probably the easiest solution, though it is best if the site is registered in the name of the PCC.

However, new technology allows almost anyone to build a website without the need for specialist training.

At the time of writing, the Diocese has identified one free ‘website builder’ and three other low-cost providers which appear to offer a useful service:

Community Builder

www.communitykit.co.uk
Free for charities (including churches) to build their own site. Also offers a website building service from £300 + VAT or custom-designed sites from £250 + VAT.

Webeden

www.webeden.co.uk
Build your own site with unlimited pages. Packages from £2.99 a month

Moonfruit

http://www.moonfruit.co.uk
Build your own site with unlimited pages. Packages from £2.99 a month
Note that this appears to be the same offering as Webeden.

Webeden and Moonfruit also offer a free facility but the quid pro quo is that you carry advertisements on your finished site. We do not recommend these are used as they detract from the impact of your website.

Keeping Control

The address at which your website is registered is very important, and is known as your domain name. This should reflect the real name of the organisation and should normally end in org.uk, the domain for non profit-making organisations in the UK. Most other domain endings, such as co.uk and com, are not appropriate for most church organisations, and may give site visitors an erroneous impression about the sort of organisation that you are.

Once you have established a successful website, the last thing that you will wish to do is to change your website address. For this reason it is best practice to register your own domain name, such as www.actonchurch.org.uk, rather than using a sub-domain of your supplier, such as www.actonchurch.webeden.co.uk, since the latter will not be transferable if for any reason you want to use a different supplier. Of the offerings above, only 1and1 offers an individual domain registering service, although it is possible to register a domain through your ISP and point it to a site created with other packages. When registering a domain name, always ensure that there will be no penalties for transferring it.

It is a good idea to register the domain with the PCC rather than an individual. Transferring a domain from an individual (whether the name of the previous incumbent or a parishioner) can be problematic, and the regulating bodies can refuse a transfer.

What to Include

• Service times.
• How to find the church. If you do not have a map try www.multimap.com or Ordnance Survey at www.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/oswebsite/getamap.
• Contact details for the clergy and any staff.
• Forthcoming events diary.
• Groups in the church e.g. home groups, carer and toddler groups etc.
• News – if you can guarantee to keep it up to date. Either a regular letter from the Vicar or parish magazine-type articles.
• Something about the Christian faith. You can link to a very comprehensive site such as www.rejesus.co.uk or write something yourself.
• History of the church.
• Links to other relevant sites. Please link to the diocesan site at www.london.anglican.org.

Dos and Don’ts

• Do keep the site up to date. As your virtual ‘shop window’ having an out of date site sends unfavourable messages about what the church is like.
• Do mention on the front page that you are a Church of England parish.
• Do keep pages uncluttered.
• Do stick to one typeface, throughout.
• Don’t put so much copy on a page that it can only be read by scrolling down.
• Don’t use moving images.
• Don’t have a front page with a ‘click here to enter’ tab. It just annoys people.
• Do use pictures to demonstrate the character of your community. Keep picture sizes small otherwise pages will take a long time to load and visitors will give up. Use pictures in .jpg format.
• Don’t use pictures of children without their parents’ express permission. *When you do use pictures of children, do not add their names. This is for reasons of child protection.
• Do use dark (preferably black) text on a light (preferably white) background since other combinations are difficult for visitors who have visual impairment.
• Don’t put music on your site.

Publicising your website

• Launch it to your own congregation first and obtain feedback from them.

Add the website address to all your documents and publications: the pewsheet, headed paper, the noticeboard etc.

• Add it to the Diocesan website page for your parish.
• Register with the main search engines on the internet: Yahoo, Google, AltaVista, Lycos. Make sure that the main words which someone would search for when looking for your parish are included in the text on your homepage.