Monthly Website Checklist
A great website is dynamic — it’s always changing, with new content being added regularly. A great website is relevant, with no outdated information, and quickly tells the viewer what they want to know. At Gospel Powered, we want your church to have a great website, but a great website isn’t “set and forget”. A great website needs regular monitoring, updating and editing to make sure it remains engaging, accurate, and relevant to the people viewing it.
Once a month, it’s a good idea to “audit” your church website. Skim through each page, navigate your site through the eyes of a first-time user, and make sure everything on your site should still be there.
But rather than being overwhelmed by the task of reworking a website each month, we’ve put together this “Monthly Checklist” you can work through. This isn’t a comprehensive task flow to take you through designing a website from scratch — this checklist is written to be used on an already-existing, complete website, for the purpose of fine-tuning the content you already have on your site.
Monthly Website Checklist:
Meeting Place & Time
Many churches (like mine) meet in a hired facility each week, and every so often we need to move our location to accommodate prior bookings. If you know of any upcoming venue changes, give people pre-warning by mentioning it on your site as a small side-note underneath your normal time/location section.
Events Page
If your church has events listed on the website, make sure all events are up-to-date. Delete any outdated events, and if your “Upcoming Events” list is empty, check your church calendar to see if any need to be added.
Sermon Series
If your current sermon series is advertised on your site, make sure what’s being advertised actually is your current series!
Staff Page
If there have been any changes to your staff/ministry team, make sure those changes are reflected on your website. How long ago were all the staff photos taken? Could they do with an upgrade? Good things to think about every so often.
Holiday Changes
If school holidays are approaching, be sure to indicate any changes to your children or youth programs on the relevant web pages.
Blog
When was the last time one of your pastors posted a blog? If it’s been more than a month, now is a great time to get one written!
Photos and Images
There’s no need to update photos every single month, but take an objective view at the photos on your website, and think about whether it’s time for some fresh photos. If it’s been more than 12–18 months since you’ve updated your photos, think about getting some taken in the next few months.
It’s best to keep on top of your website and make changes as they come up, but sometimes things fall through the cracks, so going through this monthly checklist will cover anything that may have been missed in regular, ongoing church website maintenance.
