Church PreMarriage Case Study

Case Study: Gathering Pre-Marriage Couples

How to do this?

This is the part where most pastors (unless you love technology) should glazeover and forward this on to the tech guy. How do you optimize a page for pre-marriageor other terms?

1. Know the Code

Search engines spider traditional HTML/text-based websites to determinewhat the website is about. How you code, the internal links within your siteand many other factors impact your 'search engine optimization'. Websitesneed to know how to use html tags properly, <h1>, <b>, <a>,<i>, <title> and many other tags. Using web standards and othertechniques are also important.

Suggested Reading: DoIt Yourself Search Engine Optimization
Suggested Reading: 26steps to 15,000 Visitors a Day
Always Code Correctly without using 'Black Hat' Techniques: GoogleInformation for Webmasters

2. Know the Structure

Most search engines employ complex mathematical algorithms in an attemptto assess website themes by reading visible and invisible text (includinglink structures). The more focused a site theme, the higher the ranking whena search engine user types specific keywords, their synonyms and related words.A determination of which theme-words are best is an essential starting pointfor any website optimization campaign. The most importanttheme for a church is the city name and church. So a church in SanDiego would optimize the site for 'San Diego Church'. Monk'sresearch and Google Adwords monitoring has determined this is the most commonphrase visitors use. (Also: "<city name> churches".)

3. Build links to your page

Websites with more inbound links from other websites with similar theme receivehigher ranking. Find Church directories, church/christian bloggers, and churchresource pages to list on.

4. Know when to start-over with your website.

Websites with frames, Flash or dynamic page constructionare not search engine friendly. I know, I know, they are sooo pretty.Yes, flash is great but there are significant downsides. Most search enginescannot analyze Flash pages, the only way to overcome this is an enormousamount of inbound links. So, your pastor is a visionary leader, have himwrite a book, start a church planting movement and then your website willrank highly. Mark Driscoll did it for Mars Hill when it was an all Flash site.

5. Wait and then GATHER!

Here is the difficult part. New churches will have to wait 6 months to ayear to see results. (Which is all the more reason you need to be listed onand linked from existing, high rank sites in your area. And be on local directoriessuch as ChurchCloud)But after the wait, you will see a steady stream of visitors from your hardwork.

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