What a church website needs
Most people visit a church website to answer one question: when and where is the service, and what will it be like if I come? After that come the sermon they missed, this week's events and a way to give. A good church website answers all of it quickly on a phone, keeps its details in step with Google, and treats members' and children's information with care.
The facts here come from primary sources: Google's Business Profile guidelines, Google Search Central's video SEO best practices and event structured data docs, YouTube Help on getting started with live streaming, the W3C's page on captions and the IRS page on written acknowledgments for contributions. Tax and privacy rules differ by country and state; this guide is not legal or tax advice.
The short answer
A church website needs service times and the address on the home page, matching your Google Business Profile; a "plan your visit" page for first-time guests; a livestream page and one page per sermon video; a calendar of upcoming events that is kept current; a giving page that hands payment to a trusted processor; captions and the other accessibility basics; and clear limits on what you publish about members and children.
Service times and location
Put the service times, the address and a map link where nobody has to look for them: on the home page, near the top, and again in the footer. Add a "plan your visit" page that answers what a newcomer worries about: where to park, which door to use, how long the service lasts, what happens with children, and whether there is anything to know about dress or music. Our view: that page does more for new visitors than any other page on the site.
Keep the website and your Google Business Profile in step. Google's guidelines ask that a profile "Represent your business as it's consistently represented and recognized in the real world across signage, stationery, and other branding", and that the name reflect the real-world name "as used consistently on your storefront, website, stationery, and as known to customers." When service times change for summer, Christmas or Easter, change them on the site and on the profile on the same day. Our guide to local business schema shows how to describe the same name, address and hours in structured data.
Livestream and sermon pages
Most churches stream on YouTube or another video platform and embed the player on their own site. YouTube's help says that to live stream "you need to have no live streaming restrictions in the past 90 days and you need to verify your channel", so set the channel up and test a stream well before the first Sunday it matters. Our guide to a YouTube channel for an organization covers the channel side; video on websites covers embedding without slowing the page.
On the website, give each sermon its own page rather than one page with every video on it. Google says that to be eligible for video features, you should "create a dedicated watch page for each video", and that "Just because the watch page is indexed doesn't mean that the video will also be indexed." It also asks that "each watch page has a page title and description that are unique to that video". A sermon page with the title, the speaker, the date, the Bible passage and a short summary does that naturally, and it gives members something to share. Google can show key moments in a video; you can mark chapters with Clip structured data or let Google try to detect them. If a sermon video does not appear in search, our guide to the Search Console video indexing report explains the reasons Google gives.
Events and calendar
An events page earns trust only if it is current. A list where last month's bake sale is still "upcoming" tells visitors nobody looks after the site. Show the next few weeks, give each larger event (a concert, a conference, a holiday service) its own page with the date, time, place, cost if any and a sign-up link, and take past events off the list.
Event pages can carry structured data. Google's event documentation covers what to do when plans change: set eventStatus to a value such as EventCancelled or EventRescheduled, and do not delete the date. Google warns: "When the event status changes, DON'T remove the startDate." Our view: change the page text as well, so people who land on it see the change at once.
Online giving
Give the giving page its own link in the main menu, and let a payment processor or giving platform take the card or bank details, so they never pass through or sit on your own server. Our nonprofit website guide covers the donate flow itself: a short form, preset amounts, recurring gifts and the thank-you page.
In the United States, receipts matter. The IRS says a written acknowledgment for a contribution of $250 or more must include, among other things, a statement that no goods or services were provided, if that is the case, or a statement that anything provided "consisted entirely of intangible religious benefits". Check that your giving tool's receipts and year-end statements say what your accountant needs.
Accessibility
Churches welcome people of every age and ability, and the website should too: readable text sizes, good contrast, real headings, labelled forms and buttons that work with a keyboard. Our website accessibility basics guide covers each one.
Video needs captions. The W3C explains that captions "provide content to people who are Deaf and hard-of-hearing", and warns that "Automatically-generated captions do not meet user needs or accessibility requirements, unless they are confirmed to be fully accurate." Automatic captions are a start for a recorded sermon; correct the names, places and Bible references before you publish. For live services, the W3C notes that "Live captions are usually done by professional real-time captioners" or CART providers. A transcript or sermon notes on the page also help people who prefer to read.
Privacy for members and children
Our view, not a legal rule: keep the member directory, prayer requests and pastoral notes behind a login, never on public pages. Ask before you publish a prayer request with a name in it. Do not publish names or photos of children without a parent's consent, and avoid putting a child's name next to their photo even with it. Turn off comments and live chat on children's ministry videos, or do not stream them at all. If you post a photo-consent notice at services and events, say on the site where photos and video may appear.
Collect only what a form needs, explain in a privacy policy what you do with it, and limit who on staff can see it. Our website privacy basics guide covers privacy policies, cookies and forms in more detail.
A short checklist (our view)
- Service times and address on the home page, matching your Google Business Profile.
- A "plan your visit" page for first-time guests.
- A verified, tested streaming channel and a livestream page on your own site.
- One page per sermon, with its own title, summary and date.
- An events list showing only what is coming up, with a page for each larger event.
- A giving page in the main menu, with payments handled by a processor and receipts checked.
- Corrected captions on videos, and the accessibility basics done.
- Member information behind a login and no children's names or photos without a parent's consent.
Nonprofits, restaurants, photographers and daycares have matching guides in what a nonprofit website needs, what a restaurant website needs, what a photography website needs and what a daycare website needs, and the website content checklist covers the pages every site needs. If you would rather have it built for you, our website development service builds custom WordPress and static websites made to load fast, rank well and be easy for your team to edit.
Frequently asked questions
Should a church website show service times on the home page?
Yes. Service times and the address are what most visitors look for first. Put them near the top of the home page and keep them the same as on your Google Business Profile, including holiday changes.
Do we need a separate page for each sermon?
It helps. Google says a video needs a dedicated watch page, with a title and description unique to that video, to be eligible for its video features. One page per sermon gives each one that chance.
Are YouTube's automatic captions good enough?
Not on their own. The W3C says automatically generated captions do not meet accessibility needs unless they are confirmed to be fully accurate. Edit them, especially names and Bible references, before publishing.
Can we post photos of children from church events?
Our view: only with a parent's consent, and without the child's name next to the photo. Keep children's ministry details off public pages and check the rules that apply where you are.