Navigation Tips for Church Websites

Web designs are created to attract visitors and keep them in the site as long as possible. It is important that your church website’s home page has short text content to prevent the visitors from getting bored and from leaving the site early.

Other information about different aspects can be put on separate pages that visitors can access by using the site’s navigation system. The navigation links or buttons should be put in the main page of your site so visitors could see them right away. A home page with a short content and easy-to-use navigation format will be invite and encourage visitors to search different areas of your site.

The navigation design should be consistent and has the same patterns throughout the whole website. This will make the searching process faster and easier for your visitors. They should also link visitors directly to their desired information. For church websites, you could put a link to history, location, time of services, beliefs and doctrines page, church administration, and gallery.

You can choose from many different types of navigation designs that you want to use for your website. Text links are commonly used in websites. They are usually blue underlined words that can take visitors directly to a specific area of your site. Even visitors who are new to the World Wide Web know how text links work. The design of your text links could vary in font size and format depending on your personal preference. But it is important that your links can be easily distinguished from the rest of your site’s content. If you decide to use the color blue for your links, it would be best if you will not use that color for the rest of the contents.

If you think using text links for navigation is boring, you can use graphic images as your navigation buttons. These images could give distinct character to your church website. They could also add some life and color to your site. Images could easily catch people’s attention. These images could draw more people into your website because of their attractive appearance. You just have to make sure that you will only choose graphic images and colors that are appropriate for a church website.

You could also use drop-down menus for some aspects that have many areas. For a church website, if your church has many branches in different parts of the country or the world, you could just put the word “location” on the navigation button located at the site’s main page. Then you could use the drop-down menu to select the country or state to help visitors go straight to their desired area and find your nearest church in their location. You could also use drop-down menu for church administration. Put each church official’s name in the drop-down menu that will take visitors to their profiles.

Put navigation buttons like “home”, “next”, “previous”, or “top” on each page for added convenience. These will help visitors return to the main page easily should they wish to search another area of your site. Visitors usually stay longer in sites that have easy-to-use navigation designs.

Talk to your web designer so he could give you some options regarding your navigation design. He could also suggest a specific design that will suit your website.