Designing a Web Site for Your Congregation

Maintain Your Site

A well-maintained Web site is a pleasure to visit. Let your users know you care about them by making your Web site work for as many browser, platform, and access configurations as possible, by paying attention to details such as spelling and grammar; and by keeping your Web site tidy and up-to-date.

Test Your Web Site
Before you make a Web site available to the public, be sure you test it. Testing should be done with a variety of browsers on various platforms. Try accessing your site with a text-only browser or with image loading turned off. If you use a lot of graphics, try accessing it over a slow link, such as through a 14400 baud modem.

Copy Edit Your Pages
Be sure to spell-check and proofread your Web pages carefully. Better yet, have someone else proofread them.

Don't Overuse "Under Construction" Signs
Virtually all of the Web is under construction. If you must use "under construction" notes or graphics, use them sparingly.

Check for Broken Links
Make sure you test your links to other sites frequently. You can do this manually or use one of several software utilities available that do this automatically.

Update Your Web Site Regularly
Regular updates will keep people coming back to your Web site. If you know that you will be updating a portion or all of your Web site at regular intervals (for example, weekly or monthly), you could mention that and invite visitors to check out the next update after a specific date. You might also use a What's New link on your home page to provide quick access to added or modified information.

Keep Information Timely
When using your Web page to announce events or activities, make sure you remove the information after the event has passed.

Provide Access to Archived Information
If you are updating your Web site regularly, you might also want to keep information that is not time critical, such as articles or essays, available to new visitors. Put these in a list on a separate page and provide a Back Issues link.

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Prepared for Making Christ Known Conference November 22, 1997
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