If you must DIY your website…

I’ll be frank… if you’re the pastor, principal, or leader of your non-profit, this is a gigantic waste of your time. 🤷‍♀️

Additionally, you don’t know what you don’t know about web design and user experience (two fields you can get whole masters degrees in). It would be like me trying to write a sermon.

That being said, I totally get it. Sometimes it’s necessary for budgetary or staffing reasons. And, knowing the person reading this right now, you’re going to put in whatever effort necessary to make a great final product.

If you’re in this situation, let’s talk about some steps you can take to make the most of your gracious willingness to take on this task.

1) Take these preliminary steps:

1a) Email your staff or a collection of trusted members. Ask them to do the following activity:

“Put yourself in the shoes of someone just like you who is brand new to (church/school name). Write out questions, worries, or concerns that may be on their mind before they visit for the first time or within a week of their first visit.”

1b) Once you have their responses, open a blank document or sit down with a notebook. Work through their thoughts and try to find common threads. Use this information to write down:

-Items for the main menu/navigation (keep it under 6 items)

-A list of pages you want on the site

-A list of FAQs for an “I’m new” or visitor-focused page… and how you’d answer them.

1c) Decide on a singular call-to-action. For a church, this could be “Join our email list” OR “watch a sermon online.” For a school, this is almost always, “Book a tour.” It’s your goal to get this on every page of your site.

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2) Use a template-based platform like SquareSpace or Wix.

Since you’ve done the legwork in advance, this step isn’t too bad. Depending on your comfort level with web-based design softwares, this can get a little fiddly. Push through and use 1b and 1c to guide your decisions.

Make sure you include lots of pictures of smiling faces.

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3) Fine tooth comb.

Once you’re done with your site, go through each point on this final sweep checklist:

-Check every click-able item to make sure there are no broken links.

-Make sure each page has a Title and Meta Description that includes, among other things, your city and state. (Guide for SquareSpace) (Guide for Wix)

-Make sure all images have been compressed.

-Scroll every page in mobile view to look for funky formatting. Make edits as needed.

-Ensure that your singular call-to-action appears on every page.

I hope that was helpful! The tricky part now is getting your domain hooked up so your site is actually present on the internet. Feel free to contact me if you need tech help with that step.