Improving Web Site Maintenance
By: Bob Winslow

One day, someone will invent a car that does its own oil changes and maintenance, but until then, cars, like all technology, come at a price – to keep them running requires regular maintenance and attention to detail.

We once did a survey of church Web sites and found that 80% of the sites contained out-of-date information. While that number has improved, an out-of-date site is a real problem to effectively using the Web as a ministry tool. Think of the impression an outdated Web site gives to someone who just moved to your city and is looking for a church. "This church really does not have its act together. If they can't keep their calendar current, I wonder how well their ministries are organized." How does the converse impress?

* The church is well run.
* The members are active.
* There is a lot happening at the church.
* The activities are open and transparent.
* Communication is good.
* It will be easier for me to become integrated into the church.

This may be overstating the case, but the contrast is clear. A well-run, informative, and current Web site communicates positive values to members and prospective members.

So, how do you keep your Web site in tune? Just like your car, you need to develop a regular schedule of oil changes, minor tune-ups, and major tune-ups. Along with the schedule, you need to decide who does what and the process for approval and publishing. You also need to develop a method of measurement and feedback to see if your process is effective in making your site a valuable communication tool.

Create Your Maintenance Schedule
Your car comes with a maintenance schedule; likewise, your church management team needs to establish a Web site maintenance schedule of what, when, and who is responsible for making Web site updates.

First, break down the activities that need to be done on a daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, and/or yearly basis. Your list might look something like this:

* Answer queries
* Check message boards
* Process store orders
* Update calendar
* Add bulletin announcements
* Add sermon
* Add articles
* Update volunteer lists
* Determine monthly major themes for sermons series and ministries
* Add newsletters
* Check updates on staff, classes, ministry leaders, etc.
* Create Internet communication strategy for major events
* Update picture galleries of events
* Plan Web events
* Review Web traffic
* Review Web strategy
* Survey Web use and usefulness
* Review look and feel
* Update staff and facility pictures
* Plan next year's Web initiatives and expansion

Your list will look different and hopefully more detailed, reflecting how you use the site and what is most important to your audience.

Does your list have to be complete? That's a good question. For example, should you develop items for each of the different types of queries from the Web site? Well, to some extent, yes, if you can categorize them into broad groupings that each has different processes around them (for example, visitor queries, facility reservations, benevolence requests, Web site problems, etc.).  Each of those queries may have a different person responsible for answering them, as well as a different turnaround time and approval chain.

Do you have to have each task thought of ahead of time? Probably not; you can figure out the major task and then document new ones as they arise. However, what you want to avoid is having undocumented maintenance events coming up and repeating the process over and over again. The trick is to recognize that it is a new process and make sure someone has the responsibility to document it.

Defining Your Process
So, anyone can make a list, but here comes the sea change. The processes need to be routine to the other procedures that are used to run the church. Simply put, the Web should not be competing with your other church systems and resources, but, rather, integral to your church system and resources.

Here are a couple of examples.

After the church administrator gathers all of the items for the weekly bulletin, the first step may be to update the Web site so that all of the calendars are accurate and the major announcements are highlighted.

When the youth pastor develops an announcement strategy for the upcoming Discipleship Now weekend, that person includes a calendar of announcements and graphics for the Web site, as well.

When the teaching pastors discuss the next sermon series, they integrate the announcement strategy into the Web site, but also include a diving-deeper resource page and schedule a live Web session to answer questions and start a dialog.

Your Web maintenance includes the step-by-step process and a schedule of the amount of time the events take and who is responsible for what. Just like a car repair guide, the process tells you what order to go in and how long you need for each step. Further, each task needs to be assigned according to the skills needed and the skills of the personnel. A good way to demoralize your creative Web designer is to keep them busy adding calendar events; likewise, you do not want to frustrate the office support staff with assumptions about their ability to build a new e-commerce interface.

Measuring Effectiveness
All processes should include a feedback and assessment loop. That means your process definition needs to include what you are measuring; for example, all facility requests answered within one business day. Then, if you find out you are answering requests in an average of two days, you can review the process. Is one business day the right measure? What in the process is preventing compliance? How can the process be changed to improve compliance? Process measurement is meant to measure the process, not the people; measuring people is a different system.

Even more important than process effectiveness is the need to assess the overall site and how it meets the needs of new visitors and members. Try an online survey of members to test site effectiveness. Use an online survey tool to contact your members and ask them how they use the site and how effective the site is in meeting their needs.

New visitors are a little harder. You might try doing a human interface test. Develop a list of 10 or so information categories that you think a new site visitor might want to know (for example, service times, worship style, sermon style, beliefs, what to expect, contacts for new visitors, ministry opportunities, youth and child programs, adult education, fellowship groups, etc.).

Find several friends or relatives who are unfamiliar with your site and church and ask them to see how hard or easy it is to find the information. Watch them if you can. Then ask them to tell you their overall impression. Is the site easy to navigate? Were they satisfied with the information? What was their overall impression of the site? What could they tell about the church from your site? If you are able to do about five human interface interviews, you will probably identify quite a few areas for improvement.

Churches have found Web sites to be an indispensable tool for attracting new members and maintaining existing members. Unfortunately, these benefits require a regular maintenance schedule and assessment of the site's effectiveness. Churches need to develop good process and feedback loops to maintain their sites and integrate these with their regular management and administrative routines.

Bob Winslow is the head coach at the church Web site hosting company ChurchSquare.com. Prior to founding ChurchSquare, Bob was a director of e-commerce with Gateway Computers and a consultant with McKinsey & Co.

Sidebar
So, You Have a Web Site…What's Next?
By Ryan Kramer and Mark Omran

Your church's Web site has the ability to put forth an amazing first impression, as well as provide regular visitors with valuable information that will help them connect even more with the vision that God has given you and your team. 

So, what can you do to ensure your Web site avoids the common pitfall of static content?  Here are four useful tips to ensure that your Web site investment continues to be a valuable one.

1. Budget time and finances to allow for routine updates.
Schedules, for the most part, are already filled with many different tasks. However, by allotting yourself a certain time within a specified day to make updates and changes to your Web site, you ensure that the smallest details won't be over looked. To the best of your ability, ensure that the time you set apart is dedicated to solely updating information for the Web site. 

If you do not have the time or talent to make changes to the Web site, take the initiative to turn to professionals. Most Web site companies offer Webmaster services that provide a basic level of ongoing maintenance. These services are designed to assist in keeping your Web site fresh and up-to-date. Although there will be a cost involved, pricing tends to be reasonable for these services. By allotting the adequate money required per year to update your Web site by a professional, you eliminate the pressure from you, a staff person, or a volunteer to make monthly updates. Choosing this option also ensures your Web site will continue to be a viable ministry tool and operate at its peak performance. 

2. Change imagery at least every quarter.
Repeat visitors will instantly know if the images they see across the site are fresh or static. It is important to update images at least every quarter. This will help to inform repeat visitors that you do have a real interest in their experience with your Web site. Every three months is a good rule of thumb to update a few images throughout your Web site to keep it looking fresh and current.

3. Update events, sermons, and blogs.
As a ministry leader, one of your major goals is to help others connect with the vision God has given. Communicating this vision can easily be done by the addition of a calendar of events, online media, and staff blogs. These options not only aid in giving visitors a personal look into the mind of ministry leaders, but they also provide a higher level of connectivity. 

To ensure that visitors are getting the adequate interaction they desire from your Web site, keep these common areas of interest up-to-date. Ensure your calendar is up-to-date and outdated events have been removed. Add new events as they are scheduled so your visitors can plan accordingly. Help visitors by identifying certain days new sermon downloads will be released. Finally, schedule a time that visitors can expect to read the next blog you or another staff member may post.
 
4. Think about adding a new feature to your Web site on a yearly basis.
As a ministry team, yearly evaluations have proven to be important to help assess where you have been and what direction you are going. Evaluating your Web site is imperative to ensure the goals for the new ministry year are accomplished. Every day, a new advancement is achieved for adding interactivity to Web sites. In order to help keep your ministry Web site current, think about adding a new feature or two that embraces some of the latest advancements. Possibly, on the onset of your initial Web site development, a monthly newsletter feature that highlighted events or an interesting thought wasn't a necessity. However, as repeat traffic has been added to your Web site, maybe this has become of interest to you. Maybe streaming your ministry services live over the Internet was not a viable option last year; however, other investments have allowed for this to become a reality. 

Challenge yourself to include the Web site in your yearly evaluations and set a timeline that will continue to add to the value of your Web site.

Realizing that your Web site requires continual maintenance is vital to your ability to remain connected with visitors. By making these routine updates, your Web site becomes the communication tool it was designed to be. 

Finally, understand that there is more to an effective Web site than a large budget. In the long run, it's not about paying a lot of money for a Web site that never gets updated. In fact, you can be a better steward of what God has blessed you with by reducing your initial Web site development budget and adding the regular maintenance in order to keep it relevant.

Mark Omran is the founder of Kairosix.com, a Web site development firm that specializes in church and ministry-related Web sites. Ryan Kramer is the director of marketing and sales at Kairosix.