Long download times

Websites filled with graphics may look appealing when you view them on your own computer, but when users access them they can take ages to download. Although more and more people are getting fast (broadband) Internet connections many people still use slow modems. Remember, most people won’t hang around on a slow website.

So, if you want people to find out more about your church then make sure that the website runs quickly. The best way to do this is to avoid too many graphics. Photos are fine, and they help to show who you are, but if you have lots then place them on a special “pictures” page so that people can choose whether or not to view them.

Special effects

Some ‘cool’ features of websites, such as day-glow flashing text, ‘hilarious’ whizzy animations or innovative menu systems, are just irritating. It has been shown that most visitors ignore all these special effects, and will leave your site if they can’t find what they want quickly.

Ugly site design

There is a common misconception that a ‘techie computer person’ or someone with a degree in computer science is the ideal person to make a church website. This is so often far from the truth. Making a good website requires a range of skills including artistic design, communications and technical abilities. In truth few people have all these, which is why there are so many truly ugly church websites. If you don’t have someone with a flair for artistic design to work alongside your technical people then you may come unstuck. Ugly site design can be solved by using a template-driven site development system (as long as they have a good range of templates and one suitable for your church).

Homebrew navigation systems

For some reason technical people often think it would be really clever to do something no one else has ever done before. Every once in a blue moon this new idea is fantastic, but more than likely the reason that it hasn’t been done is actually because it doesn’t work well.

Why make things complicated for your visitors by forcing them to work out how to use some unique menu system? A simple menu  is the best standard.