Appearance
What should a church website look like? Welcoming... attractive... tasteful... with a front page that draws people in... it should complement the church magazine, but shouldn't try to be a coffee-table publication.
So don't fill your front page with enormous pictures. Use some of the space to explain who and what you are. And don't, whatever else you do, have some preface screen with "Enter this site" on it. You're a church, not an advertising agency.
You will base your site around one or two template layouts. Consistency is important.
Don't be sidetracked into aesthetic 'innovations' at the expense of conveying information. Look at our Good Examples. Be imaginative within a conventional framework: unusual page layouts will just confuse people.
Use common fonts which are easy to read - unusual ones won't be available on most people's computers so will default to something else anyway. (Alternative font choices can be controlled.)
Use page layouts which prevent over-long lines of text - they can be very hard to scan and take in.
Last updated: July 2008