Web Christian Blog

This is one of those questions that interests me, especially as a Christian web master. What influence does the Internet have? I read somewhere that what we read has a great influence on the way we think. This was put down to spending more time thinking about something when we read it that we would spend if we saw it on T.V. for instance.

The Obama political campaign to get elected used the Internet extensively and many credit this use with his election.

In fact it is hard to find any research that would refute the Influence of the Internet to change the way people think.

Given this simple fact I think we then have to ask: who is providing the material for the Internet?

In general such people are technically savvy and keen to try new things. They tend to be the people who want to spend nearly all of their time in front of a computer. I guess if we are using generalisations then we might say they were Geeks.

From what I understand there is a slightly higher level of liberal beliefs and atheism within this group of people. Don’t misunderstand anything I’m saying as being political here.

But Christians should take note that the people who contribute most to the Internet (and therefore are able to have a greater influence through it) are not going to be promoting (in general) things that are positive about Christian beliefs and values.

Where does that leave us? Well, I think it must be a challenge to Christians. We must not set ourselves up with our only little online spaces and never venture outside them. It is very important that Christians engage with others online and in the kind of places that people more generally congregate.

admin Thoughts

Do you ever visit web sites only to find that the page you wanted is missing? It happens when web masters (web slaves – or whatever you want to call them) either move a page so the site is less cluttered or because a page is now so out of date that a new one is required. If you change from a static site to a dynamic site (html to php or something) then you will inevitably mess up every link that existed prior to the change. Sometimes, of course, the link was never right in the first place.

So there are a couple of things it is wise to do to avoid such problems:

1) Be careful with your links and do your best to make sure they work – perhaps have a rolling program of checking your links (there is software that will do this and if you sign up for Google webmaster tools you get a report on duff links but my experience is that they are never perfect).

2) Set up a special 404 page. You can see the one I have made for this web site here (opens in new window). It is just a very simple page and you could put in a lot more detail (make sure you use absolute URLs though – e.g. full web address to any images etc. There are various ways of setting your site to use these pages and most good hosting companies will have a way to enable this to happen. Here is a way to do it if you are looking for the technical stuff (opens in new window).

So, there are ways around the problem and it pays to put in that little bit of extra effort to help your visitors.

admin Thoughts church website, Custom 404, internet ministry, online ministry, web ministry, website

What are your plans for your web site over the coming year?

This is a very important question to ask and you should think carefully about your answers. It is the nature of the Internet that things change quickly and often, however the basics of what makes a good web site remain the same: good content, clean design, easy navigation.

Why not take some time to think about what you intend to do with your site and make a plan for doing it. If nothing else I would recommend committing yourself to doing some work on your content.

admin Thoughts church website

If you run a church web site then one of the important things to do is to get the Christmas information up on it. The problem then, though, is how do you get the information up early enough so it will get listed by the search engines? Here are some of my tips:

1. Leave the page on the site all the time.

It is tempting to think that Christmas is over and so we want to get rid of the Christmas web page. I suggest that instead of removing it you simply change it to reflect the fact that we are between Christmas at the moment. So have a Christmas page that is obviously about Christmas but take off the old details. This will encourage the search engines (who to be honest don’t care if it’s Christmas or not) to index the page.

2. Get some good keywords on the Christmas page.

Include things like your location (town or city) on the page and headings for what kinds of things you do over Christmas. Good keywords might include: carols, children’s party, party, crib service, carol service, etc.

3. Update the page

As soon as we start getting closer to Christmas start to change the content of the page. There don’t need to be big changes but just make some changes. Search engines like pages that change and so if your’s is then it will help.

Christmas is arguably the biggest event available to churches to encourage people to think about the Christian faith. Although we might think easter is more important when it comes to Christmas we have a brilliant opportunity to tell people about Jesus.

If any business in the world had their product being talked about in the way that Christians do at Christmas they would throw everything they have at it. Why do we do any less?

admin Online Evangelism Christmas

People like websites that are professional looking. You can get away with a little of an amateur look but people will judge your church/organisation/ministry but the way the website looks. If you want new members then they are unlikely to be attracted by something that looks like the cat scratched it together in it’s litter tray. Of course they are also not going to be attracted by something that looks like its been done by a marketing company but that’s a post for another day.

When I say that it needs to look professional I don’t mean it has to look like you paid for it but that it needs to look like you know a little of what you are doing.

Professional sites should:

• Be neat and attractive
• Not have too much going on
• Not use centred text save in extreme circumstances
• Should have colour that match
• Have easy to find contact details
• Should be on point and not off point

However there is also professional behaviour required in running the website. For instance, you should not complain about the amount of spam you get on your website and you should always seek to answer emails within 24 to 48 hours.

I’ve had cause to email nearly all of the main denominations in the UK from time to time and they seldom answer emails at all. I think in this modern age this is REALLY bad. It’s almost as bad as when you email someone and they respond saying that you should telephone them sometime. I emailed because that is the form of contact I want to make, if I wanted to telephone I would have done that instead. Email is the preferred form of communication for many professionals these days (you get a record of the communication and you can give considered responses) so to ask someone who emails to call you is to my mind just bad manners. Of course sometimes it is appropriate but in most cases answer by email.

admin web building

One of the comments I often hear from all kinds of people is: “Your site should be more visual”. Apart from the obvious response that it is entirely visual because you use your eyes to see it not your fingers to feel it or your nose to smell it, people are saying that you need more graphic elements (usually bigger pictures and more of them).

Whilst it is true that pictures are an important part of a website it is too easy to get carried away.

If you use the Internet often you will soon see that many web designers are starting to use large images on the front page of a website. The idea is that people will find the images attractive and be drawn into the website. I’m sure that this is true to an extent. The images are great but you will need some words so that the images make sense. Unless you are an artist you will probably struggle with seeing the message of an image in the kind of time you are giving to look at a website.

The point is this:

It’s not the image, its the message that draws people in

We all like pretty images and often they do catch our attention but on a website you want more than catching attention. People come to websites to find information, not to be entertained (unless you are a video or music site of course). Big images on front pages only work when they also help people answer questions.

I’m also often surprised by the length of time some systems for displaying images take to load. Given that most people come to a site and decide within one second if they want to explore the site if your image system takes longer than half a second to load then you will lose all but the most persistent.

Also I’ve come across many sites that use rotating image systems (images load one after the other). This is great if people are wanting to see your big images but most people are looking for answers which means they will not bother to wait for your banners to rotate.

If you do use images as links etc on your site then make sure you have the same links in text form for those who either can’t be bothered to wait or who have images or plugins turned off.

I’ve also found that many of the requests for more visual stuff often come from designers who mainly work outside the web or marketing people. It is always wise to listen to such people but always remember that the site works best when it is delivering its content easily and not as entertainment.

Also the impact of these images is diminishing as more and more sites have them. When just a few sites had large images on the front page it was kind of exciting but now its common place it’s ability to draw people in is diminished.

I’ve worked in architecture and graphic design so I know that design of a site can help people navigate and enjoy a site (design is not all about text) but I also know that some people are just not practical in their approach to these things. I once knew an architect who thought signs in a building were not needed because a good design should guide people to where they need to go. This was fine but when you are a stranger to a large building looking for a toilet (or any other room for that matter) this approach can be very frustrating.

By all means use a more visual approach but don’t let it get in the way of practical matters.

admin web building

When you start designing websites you will discover that everyone is an expert. You will even find your in-laws have read an article on web design in the local newspaper and they will be happy to tell you about their findings over dinner. Even the bloke who walks his dog past your house everyday will have some snippet of wisdom on web design to pass on to you if you ask him. Don’t ask me how everyone got to be an expert.

Of course what you will also discover is that they know squat about web design and what really happened was that they managed to put a picture up on facebook and so now consider themselves an expert.

All these experts will be complaining about your websites (of course no one ever complains about any of mine, ahem!).

However there are some things that people will never complain about and here are a few of them:

• Your site is too easy to navigate
• Your site is too quick to load
• It’s too easy to find information on your site
• Your design doesn’t get in the way of the content enough
• You don’t have enough flashing images on your site
• I was hoping I would have to download the latest plugin to view your site.
• Your contact details were too easy to find
• I really miss that revolving globe/flying dove/3d cross/etc you used to have on your site

So to avoid complaints take note from these compliments that you will never receive.

What other complaints do you think no one is ever going to make?

admin web building design, website

Came across this blog post the other day. It’s a little off subject but with many people using phones to browse the web these days I thought it might be interesting for some of my readers. I don’t own an iphone myself, preferring a hand held computer, but I have used a few of these apps on my handheld and can confirm that they are quite useful. I think the best tool to have on any hand held computer/phone/etc is a bible. It’s really useful when you find yourself waiting somewhere.

Anyway here is the link:

http://christianuniversities.org/20-incredible-iphone-apps-for-christian-evangelists/

admin Software

When it comes to webdesign – Christian or otherwise – there are no rules. Everything you read on this website will be for guidance only and you should remember that about anything you read.

Of course some guidelines are very strong guidlines but you will always be free to break them.

One of the great joys of the Internet is that it is a place you can experiment. There are no web police making sure you follow the rules of good design and if you have a good reason for doing something then you can just go ahead and do it.

The only thing I would say though is that if you decide to follow your own rules you have to be prepared for others not to like it – and to quite possibly comment on it. If people don’t like it then they will be very tempted to just click and go somewhere else. Most people’s temptation threshold on the Internet is very low indeed.

So follow your own rules but don’t neglect to understand the guidelines.

admin Thoughts web design guidelines, web design rules

I’ve seen a move away from links pages over the years. One time it was pretty rare to find a website without some kind of links page but now it seems to be getting more rare to find one that has. I think the business world has traditionally frowned on them because they can take people away from a business to other businesses. Then also the search engines seemed to get it in their heads that loads of links away from a website showed that the website was not so important.

I never quite got that argument and I fear it may just be something made up somewhere on the Internet that became true without any real basis. Of course I do know that some folks tried to cheat the system by building sites that did nothing but list lots of links that were of a reciprocal nature. This would boost the links site to the top of the search engines. So search engines found ways around the system by being suspicious of reciprocal links.

Then there is the age old problem that if others find out you have a links page you might get spammers trying you to get to link to them. All this meant that fewer sites wanted to bother with links pages. However the Internet is all about links. The great benefit of the way the Internet works is because you can follow links to gain the information you want.

The main source of finding information should not be through search engines but through links on important sites. Google understands this and is on a quest to find ways of boosting authority sites to the top of their rankings (then the rest of us spend our time trying to work out what Google means by an authority website so we can get a top ranking).

So I come to the point of my post.

Christian websites can help promote the Christian faith through their links pages. So Christian sites should have links pages and they should actively seek sites that they can add.

By linking Christian sites we both provide a way for people to find the sites we link to and we boost the search engine ranking of the site we link to. Of course it works best if you are an authority site yourself and you provide a one way link (e.g. not reciprocal) to the site. Reciprocal links tend to cancel each other out by all accounts.

Then when people search for issues relevant to Christianity it is the Christian stuff that will come out on top. I’m not advocating trying to trick the system but just that this is a way of doing mission online. However please try to ensure that you link to quality sites and not just any old site just because it is Christian.

admin Online Evangelism link mission