Your church website is having conversations you’ll never hear about. Right now, someone might be clicking through your pages, trying to figure out if your church could be their church. They’re looking for service times, checking out your beliefs, maybe even watching part of a sermon. And depending on what they find, they’ll either plan a visit or keep looking elsewhere.
Here’s what makes this so important: 80% of people visit a church’s website before attending in-person. Your website isn’t just a digital brochure—it’s often the first conversation someone has with your church. And if that conversation goes poorly, there might not be a second one.
After working with hundreds of church websites, we’ve seen the same mistakes over and over. The good news? They’re all fixable. Here are the five biggest website mistakes that send visitors running—and what to do about them.
Making People Hunt for Service Times
Picture this: it’s Saturday night, and someone’s finally worked up the courage to visit a church. They pull up your website on their phone, and… where are your service times? They’re clicking through page after page, getting more frustrated by the minute.
General estimates show that 20-30% of website traffic is just looking for contact information, and service times are the most basic piece of that puzzle. Yet we’ve audited church websites where you had to click through four different pages to find when Sunday morning worship starts.
This might just be me, but if I can’t find your service times within 10 seconds, I’m assuming you don’t really want visitors. And I’m not the only one thinking that way.
The Fix: Put your service times in your website header, footer, or prominently on your homepage. Make sure they’re visible without scrolling on mobile devices. And please, keep them updated—nothing says “we don’t pay attention to details” like Easter service times still showing in October.
Broken or Confusing Online Giving
Here’s a statistic that should get every pastor’s attention: churches that accept tithing online see a 32% increase in overall donations. But having online giving isn’t enough if it doesn’t actually work.
One church we worked with couldn’t figure out why their online donations had dropped to nearly zero. Turns out, their giving form had been broken for three months. People were trying to give, hitting a technical wall, and just… giving up. Three months of lost generosity because no one was testing the system.
Even worse are the giving processes that work technically but feel like navigating a maze. If someone needs to create an account, verify their email, choose from 17 different fund options, and then re-enter their information twice, you’ve just created more friction than most people will tolerate.
The Fix: Test your giving process monthly on different devices. Keep it simple—name, amount, payment method, done. And for the love of ministry effectiveness, make sure your SSL certificate is up to date so people don’t get scary security warnings when they’re trying to be generous.
Outdated Content That Screams “We Don’t Care”
Nothing kills credibility faster than a website frozen in time. When visitors see last year’s VBS photos, staff members who left months ago, or events from 2019 still prominently displayed, they’re getting a clear message: this church doesn’t pay attention to important things.
46% say a website’s design is their number one criterion for determining the credibility of an organization, according to Stanford’s Web Credibility Research. But design isn’t just about colors and fonts—it’s about showing you care enough to keep things current.
The worst example we’ve seen? A church website that still had their former pastor’s bio up two years after he’d moved to another state. Visitors were literally showing up asking to meet with someone who wasn’t there anymore.
The Fix: Assign someone to audit your website monthly. Create a simple checklist: Are staff photos current? Do event dates make sense? Are sermon series updated? Is the “latest news” actually latest? Fresh content signals that your church is alive and active.
Mobile Experience That Doesn’t Work
Here’s the reality: more than 60% of all website traffic comes from mobile devices, and for some churches, that number is even higher. Yet we still encounter church websites that look like they were designed in 2008 and never updated for smartphones.
The mobile experience problem shows up in painful ways: text so tiny you need a magnifying glass, buttons too small to tap accurately, forms that don’t work on touch screens, and images that take forever to load on cellular data. When someone’s trying to find your church while sitting in a parking lot on Sunday morning (and yes, this happens more than you think), a broken mobile site means they’ll drive away.
But it’s not just about technical functionality. Mobile users are often multitasking, interrupted, or making quick decisions. They need information fast and easy to digest.
The Fix: Check your website on your actual phone—not just a desktop browser made smaller. Ask friends with different devices to test it too. If your mobile experience is frustrating, prioritize fixing it. Most modern church website platforms include responsive design, but you still need to test how it actually works in practice.
No Clear “Next Steps” for Visitors
Someone just spent 15 minutes exploring your website. They watched part of a sermon, read about your ministries, and they’re genuinely interested in visiting. But now what? How do they actually connect?
Too many church websites treat visitors like they should just figure it out. There’s no clear “Plan a Visit” page, no information about what to expect on Sunday morning, no simple way to ask questions. We’re essentially saying, “We want you to visit, but we’re not going to help you do it.”
Studies show 61% of website visitors leave if they don’t find what they’re looking for in 5 seconds. If someone wants to take the next step but can’t figure out how, they’ll find a church that makes it easier.
The Fix: Create obvious pathways for different types of visitors. A prominent “New Here?” or “Plan a Visit” button should be visible on every page. Include practical details: Where do I park? What should I wear? What happens with my kids? Is there coffee? These seem like small details, but they remove barriers that keep people from actually showing up.
The Visitor Perspective Test
Here’s a simple exercise that’ll open your eyes: ask someone who’s never visited your church to spend five minutes on your website, then tell you what they learned about visiting. Don’t give them any coaching—just watch what they do and listen to their questions.
You’ll probably discover that what seems obvious to you (because you’ve been looking at this website for years) isn’t obvious to outsiders. The navigation that makes perfect sense to staff might be completely confusing to visitors.
Why This Matters More Than Ever
Your church website is working 24/7, even when your building is locked and your staff is home. 17 million non-regular churchgoers check out church websites every year, according to Grey Matter Research. That’s 17 million opportunities to make a great first impression—or to accidentally push people away.
The churches that are growing aren’t necessarily the ones with the biggest budgets or the fanciest graphics. They’re the ones that make it easy for visitors to connect. They understand that removing friction from the visitor experience is actually a form of hospitality.
Moving Forward
None of these mistakes are permanent, and fixing them doesn’t require a complete website overhaul. Start with service times and mobile experience—those have the biggest immediate impact. Then work through the list systematically.
Remember, your website isn’t competing against other church websites. It’s competing against every other website your visitors use—Amazon, Netflix, their banking app. The standard for user experience keeps rising, and church websites need to keep pace.
Most importantly, remember that behind every website visit is a real person, often taking a significant step in their spiritual journey. Making that step as welcoming and clear as possible? That’s not just good web design—it’s good ministry.
