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.

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!

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.