Comments on: Why Your Fancy Web Site Sucks http://www.churchmarketingsucks.com/2007/07/why-your-fancy-web-site-sucks/ Frustrate. Educate. Motivate. Thu, 09 Feb 2012 20:01:49 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: Ernest http://www.churchmarketingsucks.com/2007/07/why-your-fancy-web-site-sucks/comment-page-1/#comment-23265 Ernest Thu, 28 Jul 2011 23:23:44 +0000 http://cms.bigbadcollab.com/?p=933#comment-23265 Nice Tim! Simplicity and sharing great content is key! Nice Tim! Simplicity and sharing great content is key!

]]> By: affordable church web site design http://www.churchmarketingsucks.com/2007/07/why-your-fancy-web-site-sucks/comment-page-1/#comment-5899 affordable church web site design Wed, 25 Nov 2009 01:15:44 +0000 http://cms.bigbadcollab.com/?p=933#comment-5899 I try to tell people almost every day that the flashy banners and eye candy is no good. I had a church the other day ask me to look at their site. They were so proud of their opening page (a flash movie with a bunch of catch words) that they forgot to pay attention to anything else. The site really sucked! I try to tell people almost every day that the flashy banners and eye candy is no good. I had a church the other day ask me to look at their site. They were so proud of their opening page (a flash movie with a bunch of catch words) that they forgot to pay attention to anything else. The site really sucked!

]]> By: free church website templates http://www.churchmarketingsucks.com/2007/07/why-your-fancy-web-site-sucks/comment-page-1/#comment-5898 free church website templates Mon, 17 Aug 2009 15:11:19 +0000 http://cms.bigbadcollab.com/?p=933#comment-5898 I learned long ago the kiss way of doing things. "Keep it simple stupid". Websites that have lots of crazy stuff and no content are quick to be left. It makes me sad when I see churches with fancy website designs and nothing to offer! I learned long ago the kiss way of doing things. “Keep it simple stupid”. Websites that have lots of crazy stuff and no content are quick to be left. It makes me sad when I see churches with fancy website designs and nothing to offer!

]]> By: Chris http://www.churchmarketingsucks.com/2007/07/why-your-fancy-web-site-sucks/comment-page-1/#comment-5897 Chris Wed, 31 Oct 2007 21:43:08 +0000 http://cms.bigbadcollab.com/?p=933#comment-5897 First off, Tim great post. I couldn't agree more. I have spent a lot of time speaking and trying to educate churches on why fancy is not better not to mention the tacky factor. As an SEO/PPC Specialist I cringe when I get a request for a search engine evaluation and they have an all flash site because there is nothing I can do to optimize the site. I keep hoping that churches will get the fact that visitors are going to go to their site before they actually visit and if they seem some gaudy and or flash website they will carry that impression with them whether they actually attend or not. Keep up the good work! "I don't know why flash content is hard for people to understand. It's really simple" Here is my response both technical and opinion. First – Opinion: If you have a church website that is built in flash the chances of someone outside your congregation finding your site in a search engine becomes slim to none as the search engines are equipped to read Flash. What good is a site if no one can find it? Second – Fact: Here is Google’s Opinion on Flash "You may want to consider creating HTML copies of these Flash pages for our crawler. If you create HTML copies, please be sure to include a robots.txt file that disallows the Flash pages in order to ensure that our crawler doesn't recognize these pages as duplicate content." http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=35267 "Flash is inherently a visual medium, and Googlebot doesn't have eyes. Googlebot can typically read Flash files and extract the text and links in them, but the structure and context are missing. Moreover, textual contents are sometimes stored in Flash as graphics, and since Googlebot doesn't currently have the algorithmic eyes needed to read these graphics, these important keywords can be missed entirely. All of this means that even if your Flash content is in our index, it might be missing some text, content, or links. Worse, while Googlebot can understand some Flash files, not all Internet spiders can” http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com/2007/07/best-uses-of-flash.html First off, Tim great post. I couldn’t agree more.
I have spent a lot of time speaking and trying to educate churches on why fancy is not better not to mention the tacky factor. As an SEO/PPC Specialist I cringe when I get a request for a search engine evaluation and they have an all flash site because there is nothing I can do to optimize the site. I keep hoping that churches will get the fact that visitors are going to go to their site before they actually visit and if they seem some gaudy and or flash website they will carry that impression with them whether they actually attend or not. Keep up the good work!
“I don’t know why flash content is hard for people to understand. It’s really simple” Here is my response both technical and opinion.
First – Opinion: If you have a church website that is built in flash the chances of someone outside your congregation finding your site in a search engine becomes slim to none as the search engines are equipped to read Flash. What good is a site if no one can find it?
Second – Fact: Here is Google’s Opinion on Flash
“You may want to consider creating HTML copies of these Flash pages for our crawler. If you create HTML copies, please be sure to include a robots.txt file that disallows the Flash pages in order to ensure that our crawler doesn’t recognize these pages as duplicate content.”
http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=35267
“Flash is inherently a visual medium, and Googlebot doesn’t have eyes. Googlebot can typically read Flash files and extract the text and links in them, but the structure and context are missing. Moreover, textual contents are sometimes stored in Flash as graphics, and since Googlebot doesn’t currently have the algorithmic eyes needed to read these graphics, these important keywords can be missed entirely. All of this means that even if your Flash content is in our index, it might be missing some text, content, or links. Worse, while Googlebot can understand some Flash files, not all Internet spiders can”
http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com/2007/07/best-uses-of-flash.html

]]> By: radrob http://www.churchmarketingsucks.com/2007/07/why-your-fancy-web-site-sucks/comment-page-1/#comment-5896 radrob Tue, 25 Sep 2007 15:42:38 +0000 http://cms.bigbadcollab.com/?p=933#comment-5896 I really don't understand why having a nice looking website is such a problem. I happen to like creative, artistic sites that are original. Maybe I'm in the minority, but I find many church websites to be very unimaginative. What's wrong with creating a site that is artistically expressive. If non-christians see us as bland and uncreative, what kind of message does that send. I don't know why flash content is hard for people to understand. It's really simple. There is a button. You click it. You are definately entitled to your opionion, but if you don't like fancy websites then don't design them. Try and respect other peoples artistic talents and creativity instead of grumbling and complaining. Our world sees to much of this from the church. There are lot's of websites out there that I don't like but I don't write blogs complaining about them. To each his own. My youth group happens to enjoy our website that has flash, video, and God forbid "an MP3 player" It has plenty of information on it about what we do. If people choose not to watch video and listen to music, then they can just "read". It's not rocket science. Final Thought: If your church can afford a full-time web master who can enter content every hour on the hour then more power to you. But don't criticize others because they don't. And you might want to find a new more loving way to share your opinion. I don't remember Jesus telling anyone that they sucked! Even if we do suck, which we all do I might add, he is the only one who has the right to tell us, since He definately didn't suck. I'm definately guilty of using the word "suck" to refer to things, but I'm very careful about who I say it to. And maybe I shouldn't say it at all. I really don’t understand why having a nice looking website is such a problem. I happen to like creative, artistic sites that are original. Maybe I’m in the minority, but I find many church websites to be very unimaginative. What’s wrong with creating a site that is artistically expressive. If non-christians see us as bland and uncreative, what kind of message does that send.
I don’t know why flash content is hard for people to understand. It’s really simple. There is a button. You click it. You are definately entitled to your opionion, but if you don’t like fancy websites then don’t design them. Try and respect other peoples artistic talents and creativity instead of grumbling and complaining. Our world sees to much of this from the church. There are lot’s of websites out there that I don’t like but I don’t write blogs complaining about them. To each his own.
My youth group happens to enjoy our website that has flash, video, and God forbid “an MP3 player” It has plenty of information on it about what we do. If people choose not to watch video and listen to music, then they can just “read”. It’s not rocket science.
Final Thought:
If your church can afford a full-time web master who can enter content every hour on the hour then more power to you. But don’t criticize others because they don’t.
And you might want to find a new more loving way to share your opinion. I don’t remember Jesus telling anyone that they sucked! Even if we do suck, which we all do I might add, he is the only one who has the right to tell us, since He definately didn’t suck. I’m definately guilty of using the word “suck” to refer to things, but I’m very careful about who I say it to. And maybe I shouldn’t say it at all.

]]> By: john parker http://www.churchmarketingsucks.com/2007/07/why-your-fancy-web-site-sucks/comment-page-1/#comment-5895 john parker Wed, 12 Sep 2007 10:43:39 +0000 http://cms.bigbadcollab.com/?p=933#comment-5895 I agree but I'm stumped at how to set up a daily blog that isn't in my space. I know a website has to be simple. I'm sure my folks don't go back very often because a. they don't have a computer b. in our country town dail-up is still happening thus staying online doens't. 3. no new content...help on the simple blog with feed back & rss (I know no what I do!) John I agree but I’m stumped at how to set up a daily blog that isn’t in my space. I know a website has to be simple. I’m sure my folks don’t go back very often because a. they don’t have a computer b. in our country town dail-up is still happening thus staying online doens’t. 3. no new content…help on the simple blog with feed back & rss (I know no what I do!) John

]]> By: Blake http://www.churchmarketingsucks.com/2007/07/why-your-fancy-web-site-sucks/comment-page-1/#comment-5894 Blake Wed, 12 Sep 2007 09:12:59 +0000 http://cms.bigbadcollab.com/?p=933#comment-5894 I'll just throw my church website out there for consideration: <a href="http://www.fbcgt.org" rel="nofollow">FBCgT.org</a>. It's run on Wordpress. I've got multiple people learning how to update it. I'm getting the pastors on board with blogging (<a href="http://www.fbcgt.org/dale" rel="nofollow">Worship Pastor's Bible Study</a> and <a href="http://www.fbcgt.org/kirk" rel="nofollow">Executive Pastor's Leadership Blog</a>). I instituted a <a href="http://www.fbcgt.org/thehub" rel="nofollow">members-only forum</a> very recently. We've got some nifty <a href="http://www.fbcgt.org/about/sermonvideo" rel="nofollow">video+presentation stuff</a> I just added via <a href="http://www.vcasmo.com" rel="nofollow">vcasmo.com</a>. In some ways this content-heavy structure was out of necessity because I'm not a graphic designer. But in other ways I want the church body to know what's going on as well as to have an online community that will extend their relationships past Sunday mornings. I think I'll be redesigning in December and trying to figure out what's necessary to keep. I want to go simpler, but I still want everything there. I’ll just throw my church website out there for consideration: FBCgT.org. It’s run on WordPress. I’ve got multiple people learning how to update it. I’m getting the pastors on board with blogging (Worship Pastor’s Bible Study and Executive Pastor’s Leadership Blog). I instituted a members-only forum very recently. We’ve got some nifty video+presentation stuff I just added via vcasmo.com.
In some ways this content-heavy structure was out of necessity because I’m not a graphic designer. But in other ways I want the church body to know what’s going on as well as to have an online community that will extend their relationships past Sunday mornings.
I think I’ll be redesigning in December and trying to figure out what’s necessary to keep. I want to go simpler, but I still want everything there.

]]> By: WileMark http://www.churchmarketingsucks.com/2007/07/why-your-fancy-web-site-sucks/comment-page-1/#comment-5893 WileMark Tue, 11 Sep 2007 23:39:34 +0000 http://cms.bigbadcollab.com/?p=933#comment-5893 My, my, my..... isn't FREEDOM a wonderful thing. Perhaps, if we try... we'll all eventually learn how to use it exceptionally well! Although, we may eventually learn that in order to use ours efficiently,... we may have to let some of ours extend to the use of 'others'? My, my, my….. isn’t FREEDOM a wonderful thing. Perhaps, if we try… we’ll all eventually learn how to use it exceptionally well! Although, we may eventually learn that in order to use ours efficiently,… we may have to let some of ours extend to the use of ‘others’?

]]> By: Ministry Management Guy http://www.churchmarketingsucks.com/2007/07/why-your-fancy-web-site-sucks/comment-page-1/#comment-5892 Ministry Management Guy Tue, 11 Sep 2007 19:58:18 +0000 http://cms.bigbadcollab.com/?p=933#comment-5892 Most churches simply want their website to serve as a brochure. That's their idea of being "out there". They need to dream bigger, this post will help. Thank you for it. Most churches simply want their website to serve as a brochure. That’s their idea of being “out there”. They need to dream bigger, this post will help. Thank you for it.

]]> By: Ruben http://www.churchmarketingsucks.com/2007/07/why-your-fancy-web-site-sucks/comment-page-1/#comment-5891 Ruben Mon, 10 Sep 2007 19:50:22 +0000 http://cms.bigbadcollab.com/?p=933#comment-5891 I think the church website should be like the church bathroom: Clean, well stocked, and functional! In short, they exist to serve the Body. There are plenty of other things to focus our attention on, like people. So when we overemphasize the website I think we've done a dis-service.<br /><br />People ultimately need interaction/relationships. I think the church website should be like the church bathroom: Clean, well stocked, and functional! In short, they exist to serve the Body. There are plenty of other things to focus our attention on, like people. So when we overemphasize the website I think we’ve done a dis-service.

People ultimately need interaction/relationships.

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