Your church
website is the digital front door to your church. Essentially, from the very
first time someone views your homepage, you’re making an impression. Whether
you like it or not, that impression may dictate whether your viewer continues
to explore your site or quickly hits the “X” button at the top of their
browser. Even if you don’t classify yourself as a “trendy” church, it’s
important that you’re aware of trends in church websites so you can stay
relevant, communicate the mission of your church and the Gospel.
Remember, a
well-designed and visually appealing church website will help to increase
traffic and attract more people to your church.
Here are seven
of the top trends in church websites for 2019:
1.
HAND-DRAWN ILLUSTRATIONS
Hand-drawn
illustrations are a great way to bring both personality and personalization to
your church website. These illustrations can be anything from logos, to icons,
to headings or subheadings.
Find an artist,
calligrapher, or illustrator in your congregation who could sketch your church
building or a symbol that represents your church. This is one church website
trend that you can get creative with!
2. COLOR
BLOCKING
If you pay
attention to design at all, you will see color blocking everywhere! It’s on
everything from t-shirts to kitchenware. Color blocking is simply what it
sounds like, blocks of color that bump up next to each other.
On your church
website, consider adding blocks of different colors to draw attention to an
event or section of your site. If you really want to jump on this trend in
church websites, add in bright color blocking. Especially for the spring and
summer, color blocks are a fun way to brighten up your site and stay on trend.
3.
MODERNIZED MINIMALISM
The minimalism
trend in church websites has been popular over the last few years, and it
continues to grow in popularity. However, more and more we are seeing a more
modern approach to this trend. Instead of keeping everything clean, muted, and
straight, designers are now adding in creative elements.
Consider adding
in a fun video, brighter colors, or an interesting detail. This could be done
through typography, the addition of textures, and basic animations. The
minimalism trend has been great for easy web maintenance, and this
modernization keeps that easy maintenance but adds a level of interest.
4. DESIGN
WITH MOBILE IN MIND
It’s not a new
concept that your church website needs to be mobile-friendly. However, it is a
new concept that you need to design your church website with a mobile-first
mindset. As of March 2019, 49.07% of the worldwide internet traffic was on a
mobile device. This means that nearly half of web traffic comes from a mobile
device.
Think about
this church website trend as you design your site. Ensure that your fonts are
big enough to read on a phone screen and that buttons are far enough apart that
viewers don’t accidentally click on the wrong thing.
5. BASIC
ANIMATIONS
This is one of
our favorite trends in church websites to incorporate into your site this year!
Basic animations are a fun way to add some movement without overwhelming or
confusing your site visitors.
A simple
animation can help to draw the visitor’s attention to a specific place on the
page or help to promote an area of your site. Find or create graphics with
basic movement like a light flashing, coffee brewing, or a page turning.
6. CREATIVE
TYPOGRAPHY
Typography is
one of the best ways to communicate in a creative way. Find typefaces that have
bold looks that will draw people’s attention in. This is also a fun way to
brand specific events at your church. Use a fun, childish type for your kids
camp this summer and a rugged, bold type for your men’s ministry fish fry.
When adding
creative typography to your site, remember less is more. If everything is in a
bold, crazy type, it will just be chaos that drives people away.
7. CHATBOTS
When people
hear about the chatbot trend in church websites, the typical response is “we
don’t need that”. However, think about it like this: a chatbot is always
available. This means that if someone visits your church website at 11:00 pm on
a Saturday night looking for a church to attend in the morning, a chatbot would
be available to help. Adding a chatbox makes your site more interactive and is
a great church website trend to incorporate this year.
NEXT STEPS
Not all 7 of
these trends in church websites need to be incorporated to have a great site.
However, choosing a few to add to your church website can go a long way in
attracting more site visitors.
ABOUT THE
AUTHOR:
Ashley Beaty
uses her expertise in church communications to help churches tell their story,
communicate the vision, and call people to action by participating in the
vision–all online. As a senior web strategist for Ministry Brands, she also
consults with churches on how to set up and launch successful websites that
deliver ministry results, grow their church, and help individuals and families
deeply connect.
Shelby
Systems has decades of experience working with ministries of all sizes, for
more creative ideas and suggestions contact your Shelby Sales Consultant today!