Creating a Church Web site Tutorial
Getting Started

By Tiffany Vail
Associate for Communication

Did you know that every day, more than 2 million people search the Internet seeking spiritual or religious information? That's 2,000,000 people. Every day. Chances are one or two of them will be from your church's neighborhood. The question is, will they find your congregation? And what impression will they get if they do?

Whether your church is just beginning to think about building a presence on the World Wide Web, or if you are looking to improve a Web site already online, this online tutorial can help! It is designed to give you information on various aspects of developing a Web site, including thoughts on content, organization and design as well as technical information on web software and hosting options. At the end, you will find a bibliography with sources for additional information. You can follow the tutorial along in sequence, or skip around using the table of contents at the right of each page.

Throughout the tutorial, watch for the , which indicates links to good church site examples.

Before getting started on your own church's Web site, it is highly recommended that you take a tour of a number of other church sites. This gives you an opportunity to get a feel for what other churches include on their sites, what is effective and what is not and what would work for your congregation. You can find links to Massachusetts Conference churches on our Church Directory and to other UCC churches at ucc.org/links/index2.shtml.

Ready? Let's start with the very first step: determining your audience.

Next: Chapter 2: Determining Your Audience