If your website doesn't show up in search results, that's a bit of a problem... but not to worry! Here are 3 things to check:

(In order from least to most nerdy) 🤓

First of all, let's clarify:

If you go to Google right now and search {Name of your church} in {your city}, you will probably already be the top result. This is not what we're talking about today.

If you go to Google right now and search Church in {your city}, do you show up? How far down the page? This example is our focus today.

We're talking about capturing a curious audience that doesn't already know your organization and your message. That's why this is important.

And, if you're curious, people are absolutely searching these things! I used Google's Keyword Planner to check on a bunch of common keywords. All of the examples I found had seen Year over Year growth.

Here's just one example for "Lutheran church near me."

So, if someone is telling you that people aren't looking for a church home in 2023, they're super duper wrong.

Ok, soapbox over. 😜 Let's dive in:

1) Include more keywords across your site.

Go read a few pages of your site. Does the name of your city actually show up anywhere? What about your services? Your programs? If not, add these things wherever it feels natural.

A "hack" you might not know: You can also create custom file names for your images. Believe it or not, Google sees your file names and uses them to index your site.

Ex: You're adding a picture from VBS to your site. Instead of "IMG100456.jpg", you name the picture, "kids playing game at vacation bible school in madison wi.jpg" before putting it up on your site.

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2) Is your site mobile friendly? AKA: Does it work (and look nice) on a phone? If not, you may be losing up to 30% of potential traffic (click for Forbes article).

If you don't have a mobile-friendly site, ask your web developer what it may look like to change that.

Not sure if your site is mobile-friendly? Take a few seconds and go test it: Google's Mobile Friendly Test. <-- If you take one thing from this email, take this!

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3) The ultimate nerd solution: Get your site hooked into Google Search Console.​

You'll have to verify that you own your domain (ask your developer for help) and wait a few days for Google to gather data. After that process is complete, you'll see a ton of insights that can help you make decisions about your site.

If you happen to have a FinalWeb, Squarespace, or Wix site, I can help you set up #3. Just reply!

Until next Friday.