SEO Church Marketing

Recently, I had the opportunity to discuss the future of church websites over a video conference with Cleve Persinger and the team at The Chapel (Libertyville, IL). I spent some time sharing my thoughts on effective SEO church marketing, and Cleve was kind enough to archive the talk for your enjoyment.
[pardon the rocky audio]


To sum it up, optimize your church website content by using the keywords that are most often searched by the people your are called to reach. You can research these keywords with Google AdWords Keyword Tool.

For Discussion:
- What is your church marketing SEO strategy?

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Flickering Pixels by Shane Hipps

One of the most intriguing and challenging books for me in recent years is Shane Hipps’ Flickering Pixels. It takes a fascinating look at how media affect content and faith. It is a bit of a big concept, so I will use some of Shane’s words to give you a glimpse of what is all about.

It is commonly assumed that as long as we protect the unchanging message of the gospel, the method of communicating doesn’t much matter.

The logic is pretty straightforward. Unfortunately, that doesn’t make it true.

If the first truth is that our methods necessarily change, the second truth is whenever our methods change, the message automatically changes along with them. You can’t change methods without changing your methods - they’re inseparable.

Throughout the book, Shane discusses the complexities of how the medium affects the content and the audience. For example, Shane writes:

Images focus our attention on the realm of cosmetics. Often, it is for the sake of showcasing beauty and talent.

The radio returned our culture to the experience of the tribal campfire with its shared stories, songs, and banter.

The Internet has a natural bias towards exhibitionism and thus the erosion of real intimacy.

Printing put the left hemisphere of the brain on steroids.

If you communicate with people through any medium, you need to understand the pros and cons of that medium and how it influences your communication. You are just as much responsible for the medium you choose as you are for the words you use (or whatever content you communicate).

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How to Blog 101 - The Ultimate Beginner’s Blogging Tutorial

I regularly get asked questions about how to start and maintain a successful blog. Here is my beginner’s blogging tutorial - How to Blog 101.

#1 :: CHOOSE A BLOGGING PLATFORM
I recommend self-hosting your blog and using WordPress. It the most popular platform among Technorati’s top 100 blogs and among Church Relevance’s top church blogs.

Self-Hosted Blogging Software:

Blogging Services (hosting provided):

#2 :: CHOOSE A DOMAIN (if allowed)
As long as it is relevant, the shorter the domain is the better. A short domain is quick and easy to type, which will save you time in the long run and reduce the probability of you and your visitors mistyping it.

  • Domize - immediately checks a domain’s availability as you type it into the query box
  • DomainsBot - suggests domains based on your search keywords
  • Domain Pigeon - lists available domain names which you can use for your websites
  • MakeWords - generates domain ideas based on your suggestions, linguistics, and semantic databases

#3 :: DESIGN YOUR BLOG
Being a web designer or hiring one is not necessary for having a good looking blog, but it definitely helps. WordPress has thousands of template designs for sale and for free that are not too complicated to implement.

For Inspiration:

For Templates:

#4 :: USE TOOLS
WordPress is a great platform, but there are tools and plugins that can make it even better. I recommend at least using the following tools:

Other Tools:

Tool Lists:

#5 :: HAVE QUALITY CONTENT
An aesthetically well-designed blog may entice visitors to linger for the first visit, but quality content is what will get those visitors to keep coming back. If you need topics, visit these resources:

  • Alltop - an “online magazine rack” of popular topics
  • Delicious - the tastiest bookmarks on the web
  • Digg - discover and share content from anywhere on the web
  • Reddit - users decide the top stories
  • StumbleUpon - discovers web sites based on your interests

#6 :: STUDY BLOGGING
If you want people to read your quality content, study the science of successful blogging and copywriting. Writing for a blog is different than writing for a book or magazine. My advice:

Unless you are blogging for personal reasons, focus on optimizing the reader experience. Offer only quality content. And make it scannable by using short paragraphs, bold text, and bullet points. Use as few words as possible without compromising quality (needless words wasted readers’ time). And if possible, post consistently often.

Blogging Tips:

#7 :: MARKET YOURSELF
With blogging, two of your most powerful marketing opportunities are Search Engine Optimization and leveraging social media. Last year, 48% of ChurchRelevance.com’s traffic came from search engines. You should be using these resources:

WHAT ELSE?
Remember this is just the beginner’s blogging tutorial. But if you read all of these links, you will be on your way to becoming a blogging expert.

If you are already blogging, what would you add to this list?
What are your favorite tools?
What is your best advice?

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Alltop for Church Insights

In 2008, Guy Kawasaki created a website called Alltop that aggregates the latest content from the world’s top websites and organizes them by topic.

It is a good idea turned great idea. In fact, Alltop’s church page has grown into a phenomenal resource that lists about 100 church related blogs worth reading.

Since Alltop lists the 5 most recent posts for each website, the church page gives you about 500 posts from a wide scope of church leaders, influencers, and practitioners. And if that is not enough, you could also start reading the Christianity page, the religion page, or another one of Alltop’s hundreds of topics.

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ChurchCrunch Asks Some Questions

John Saddington of ChurchCrunch recently asked me some good questions and posted my answers on his blog. If you want to read my opinion on the future of church marketing and on how technology and social media change and challenge traditional avenues, be sure to visit ChurchCrunch.com.

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Blinded by Tech Novelty (Part 2 of 2)

Last week, I used Adobe Photoshop to illustrate how people can be blinded by tech novelty. To recap, tech novelty is a self-coined phrase I use to describe:

Tech Novelty is:
Being blinded by the novelty of an exciting new technology and consequently misusing the technology for novelty’s sake. Misuse of technology may be caused by lack of training and/or from the inability to focus on anything except the novelty.

We are all susceptible to tech novelty. But perhaps the area of the church that is most prone to tech novelty is church worship. With so many innovations in audio, video, lights, music, and other resources, it is easy to become overwhelmed and blinded by the excitement of it all.

WORSHIP ENVIRONMENTS - A CHURCH EXAMPLE

Some describe the responsibility of a worship leader as:

Leading worship is the art of removing distractions.

Today’s worship leaders can choose from a wide variety of tools. And in the tools’ defense, most do offer some type of benefit if used correctly. Often by themselves, the tools are beneficial, but when gluttonously used all at once, they can overstimulate worshippers’ senses and distract them.

You need to understand the pros and cons of the individual tools you use, as well as, what happens when you mix a bunch of tools together. In The Hidden Power of Electronic Culture, Shane Hipps offers this warning:

An extensive use of video clips and short films in worship turns the congregation into an audience expecting to be entertained. When electronic media are taken to extremes, we become spectators of the gospel rather than participants in the kingdom of God.

When used correctly, I think modern worship environments can spark wonder and awe in the beauty of God’s creation much like the architecture of Gothic and Renaissance cathedrals did. Or when used correctly, worship environments can help, often through simplicity, guide worshipers’ attention to what truly matters - God. When used improperly, worship environments distract worshippers from God and even at times focus their “worship” on the worship leader, another church “celebrity,” or even technology itself.

Whether you like it or not, we are biologically wired to be influenced by our environment. What this means is your worship environment is a factor (not the factor) that influences if a person “feels” like worshipping. If you disagree, study color psychology and atmospherics and read Gladwell’s The Tipping Point, Underhill’s Why We Buy, and Rushkoff’s Coercion. The problem is many worship leaders do not realize how each worship element influences their environment.

Unfortunately, sometimes worship leaders become blinded by tech novelty. They use technology for novelty’s sake. Symptoms include stages overwhelmed with elaborate sets, strobe lights, ellipsoidals, subwoofers, high decibels, fog, guitar solos, jumbotrons, and projection screens with lyrics on top of fast paced video loops. I think there are exceptions, but in most cases, using all of these is more than the congregation can handle.

On a personal note…

Speaking personally, my best moments of worship are when I am alone driving. In the simplicity of the car, I find it easy to focus and own the words I am singing. In a church setting, I have also experienced incredible worship in almost every type of worship environment imaginable. But typically, the ideal environments are the ones that remove distractions while subtly using technology to create an intimate, relevant (in alignment with the tone/theme of worship songs), and often beautiful environment.

The key is to keep the worship environment subtle enough that it is not a distraction. Determine the sensory threshold of the congregation within the context of the songs being sung. For example, combining fast lights with fast video could be a dangerous mix.

As with Adobe Photoshop, do not get caught up in the excitement of what technology can do. Instead, focus on what will remove distractions and enhance the experience. Usually, it requires subtle finesse.

FOR DISCUSSION:
- These are my rough and imperfect thoughts. I want to hear what you think about tech novelty and worship.

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The Future of Children’s Ministry Curriculum

There are still many areas of technology left for children’s ministry to explore. One technology that I am sure will eventually find its way into Sunday school classrooms is interactive tables.

Scheduled for a spring 2009 release, SMART Technologies has created a SMART Table for primary education that is similar to Microsoft Surface. Its initial cost is expected to be $8,000.

The table allows kids to collaborate together using a variety of tools such as sketching, moving, and scaling objects. It also appears the platform is open for developers to create new applications for the SMART Table.

Such innovations in children’s ministry curriculum are not expected anytime soon, but it is fun to dream of what could be.

[via Engadget & Engadget]

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Blinded by Tech Novelty (Part 1 of 2)

What is tech novelty? It is a self-coined phrase I use to describe:

Tech Novelty is:
Being blinded by the novelty of an exciting new technology and consequently misusing the technology for novelty’s sake. Misuse of technology may be caused by lack of training and/or from the inability to focus on anything except the novelty.

Tech novelty is something that we all must guard against. Just because a cool technology exists does not mean we should use it for cool’s sake. And just because everybody uses technology a certain way, does not mean you should copy them. Here is why…

ADOBE PHOTOSHOP - A NON-CHURCH EXAMPLE

A great example of tech novelty is the history of Adobe Photoshop. In the 1990s, Photoshop was unquestionably new, unusual, and innovative. It was novel. And it did not take long for tech novelty to take effect.

Professionals and amateurs alike both used Photoshop tools and plug-ins to bevel, drop shadow, and create thousands of other novel designs. Everybody loved them then. But today, many designers find them repulsive, tacky, and ineffective.

Why the change?

As the novelty wore off, it became easier to recognize how to use principles of design and marketing to master Photoshop. Instead of aggressively using Photoshop’s powerful features to create brash, cluttered designs, artists used subtle finesse to create more appealing and effective designs.

At first with tech novelty, people actually enjoy seeing the technology being misused and abused because they want to see everything that it is capable of doing. But once the novelty wears off, most people just want to see the technology used properly.

POWERPOINT - ANOTHER EXAMPLE

PowerPoint slide transitions are another example of tech novelty. When first available, most people were eager to see all the ways a PowerPoint slide could fade in, spin out, and flip around. But once the novelty wore off, many people found them tacky and annoying. Now people prefer subtle transitions that enhance the presentation rather than distract from it.

A CHURCH EXAMPLE…
I will post a church example very soon.

For Discussion:
- What is an example of tech novelty that you have noticed or experienced?

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