Having finalized the menu structure for my church’s new website (see Church Web Design Part 10: A Website Organization Exercise), only two major tasks remained before we could launch the site. We needed to finish adding content to the site, and we needed to review the entire site to make sure everything was functioning properly. Could we get those final tasks done and launch the new website in time to help promote our fall “open house” outreach?
Completing the Content
As explained in Part 7, OurChurch.Com’s philosophy is to install and configure the content management system and then to train and empower each client to add and manage their own content. The typical custom design contract includes OCC placing only a small amount of content on each client’s site, so the client can see what is possible. That helps to keep down the cost of web development projects. And with the client fully capable of adding content, doing it themselves gives the client the opportunity to format pages and tweak the text.
To Pay or Not To Pay
Cypress Meadows’ previous website had about 30 pages of content. OurChurch.Com created 4 pages on the new site during the content phase. That left about 26 pages of content for us to add. Tim, the church’s executive pastor, and I debated whether to pay OCC to add the rest of the content. Paying OCC to add the rest of the content would get it into the site more quickly, especially since it could be copied from the old site. However, many of the pages on the old site hadn’t changed in over a year and had old information. We decided that if we were going to launch a new site, we ought to launch it with accurate, up-to-date information. So, the decision was made to add the rest of the pages ourselves.
For other organizations, though, it might make more sense to have the developer add the content.
The Final Countdown
As we began adding content to the site it became clear that the two remaining tasks – adding content and final testing of the site – were not really two separate tasks but could be accomplished at the same time. As content was added to the sites, we were careful to document any issues we came across. We were also intentional about adding content to all the components and modules to ensure that they were thoroughly tested.
But like most projects, not everything went according to plan. Adding content took longer than expected, some ministry leaders did not send their content to us on time, and Tim and I both have work and lives outside of this website. Time was running short. We simply could not get all the content on the site and meet the launch deadline.
So, we did what I would call…
Deadline Triage
We asked ourselves, “What absolutely has to be on the website to launch it?” And “What content can go up after the launch?”
Content deemed absolutely essential included visitor information, information about the current Sunday series, information about the open house outreach and upcoming sermon series, and pages in the “Community” section that provide information about children’s ministry, student ministry, small groups, etc.
Content that we could launch the site without included resources for spiritual growth and information about volunteer opportunities. We had wanted to include new images on a lot of the community pages, but also decided that was not critical for launch.
We Have Liftoff
We added the critically important content to the website and got it launched in time to help communicate our fall “open house” outreach.
The launch of the new website took place 52 days after my initial vision meeting with the church staff and 32 days after OurChurch.Com began working on the site.
But, that’s not the end of the story. The development of a new church website doesn’t end at launch any more than the space shuttle’s mission ends when it lifts off. In fact, what happens immediately after the launch is just as critical as what happens before that milestone.
Next time we’ll begin looking at what we did after the launch of the site to help it gain altitude and reach a sustainable orbit.
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3 Comments
I would like to say Thank you to the each and every member of our church.com website, as they have provided a chance to creat our church website.
our church.com is a wonderful and very useful website, we are praying that Almighty God may bless them more and more, so that they may serve His church on this earth more easily.
IT is very helpful for our church.com.
THANK YOU! GOD BLESS.
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