Moving from ‘Self Promotion’ to ‘Outreach’ Online (Church Outreach 2.0 – 3 of 3)

Posted December 14th, 2009 by Jenn Sierra

UPDATE 12/15/09: Click HERE to Download the .pdf of Church 2.0 – Online Outreach (All Three Parts)

The following is part of a series on Web 2.0 for Christians, and Christian Leaders. See Church 2.0 for a list of the posts to-date.

While online profile management, or promoting the name of your church and the name(s) of your church leaders online is important, this is your “defense” game. Outreach is your “offense,” and this requires promoting your content. But how is this done?

As I promised yesterday, in discussing The Internet as a Mission Field – Is Anyone Searching for Your Ministry, here is a list of suggestions that can be relatively easily and inexpensively implemented on an existing church website to help your church start using “SEO” (Search Engine Optimization), and “SMO” (Social Media Optimization) more effectively. These are specifically targeted for churches which already have websites up and running, but want to become more outreach oriented in their web presence.

What is Page Rank?!

In the suggestions below, you’ll see the term “Page Rank,” used several times. Page Rank determines which page of the search engine your website will appear on when someone searches for your website or your content on a search engine. Websites with higher page rank are more likely to show up more often on the first or second page of the search results. Websites with almost no page rank might show up on page 1,332,634. If you have ever searched for anything on Google, Bing, Yahoo, etc., you know it’s unusual for anyone to look at more than 1-3 pages of search results, so higher page rank is important.

Google is currently the most popular search engine, so it is typically held as the “standard.” To find out what your Google page rank (and that of other websites you visit) is, go HERE. Note that Google’s exact calculation (“algorithm”) is super secret, and changes pretty often. Websites that depend on extremely high levels of web traffic from the search engines are extremely competitive, and constantly trying to “game” it, and entire careers are devoted to trying to manipulate it. Some of the techniques promoted by some of these businesses are questionable from a moral, ethical, and even legal perspective – These are called “black hat” tactics. However, for basic church outreach, this level of competitiveness is not necessary. A few basic principles and industry best-practices (a.k.a. “white hat” tactics) will get you on the right road to success quickly.

Use Strong Titles

Choosing the correct title for your blog posts, broadcasts, sections, and pages is very important, as the search engines read these as “key words.” For example, if you post a video of your Sunday Morning service, it should be titled with the topic of the sermon, (e.g. “Do Dogs Go to Heaven”), instead of the date of your service (e.g. “Sunday Morning, 12/12/12,”). This isn’t the time to use the catchy, attention-getting sermon titles that preachers sometimes use in the bulletins or on the billboards in front of the church (e.g. “Don’t put a question mark where God put a period.” Not very many people are going to search Google for that.). For the search engines, you want to be very literal.

Use Tags

Good use of tags is also important. Whenever you have an opportunity to include “tags,” on your own site, on the site that hosts your videos, and on the social networks, be sure to do so, and use the terms people would be using to search for the content you are posting. Be sure your own webmaster is aware that the good use of titles and tags, has recently replaced the “keywords,” and “meta-tags,” previously included in the site headings.

Use Facebook and Twitter

YouTube.com and Twitter.com are very high-traffic sites that currently are still relatively “friendly” to Christians, and Biblical content.

Notice I said “use” Facebook and Twitter. Having an account on these networks is not enough. They’re called “social” networks for a reason. They exist for the purpose of interaction. “Follow” and “friend” people back, and respond to questions, comments, and messages they send you.

Also, the search engines are now crawling Facebook and Twitter and these links rank very high in the search engines. What this means for you is that posting links to the content on your website will help your content rank higher on the search engines. This is important.

Use YouTube

Even if you host your videos on another site, remember, YouTube.com has extremely high web traffic, and this is a great place to reach people. YouTube also ranks very high on the search engines. Posting 5-7 minute “highlight” clips (no more than 10 minutes) on that site with links back to your website is a great way to expand your outreach.

A note of caution about YouTube: The site administrators tend to take down anything that is reported as “hate speech,” by self-appointed political-correctness devotees. They also tend to take down anything that contains copyrighted music.

Use a Blog

If you don’t have a blog, start one, and keep it updated frequently. Make sure you blog is a part of your website (that it is listed under the same domain). Blog posts are generally informal, and don’t need to be very long (no more than 500 words is ideal). This is a good way to keep your website current (search engines LOVE current posts). If you don’t have time, as a pastor or church leader to keep a blog updated, consider enlisting help or accepting “guest blog” posts.

Use Links

One of the best ways to increase your page rank is through the good use of “links.” You need three kinds of links: internal, external, and back-links:

  1. Internal: Wherever appropriate, include links from your blog and websites to and from the other parts of your project.
  2. External: Be sure to link to other websites and blogs, preferably those with higher page rank than yours whenever possible.
  3. Back-Links: These are incoming links from other websites and blogs. Whenever possible, encourage other websites and blogs to link to your content. The more good content you have, the more back-links you’re likely to get.

A note of caution about links: A few years ago, some bloggers wanted to quickly get page rank, and they came up with a system called “blog rolls,” in which bloggers would exchange long lists of blogs all linking to each others’ home pages. These are now “frowned upon” (i.e. scored lower) by the search engines, as they are seen as an artificial way to gain links. It’s a good idea not to do this – instead, link to individual website content.

I hope this gives you some ideas for getting started, or for continuing to move from self-promotion online to outreach online. If you need more ideas, or have questions about how to expand the outreach of your online web ministry, please visit FortHardKnox.com and help yourself to the ever-expanding list of free Web 2.0 resources, or e-mail Jenn, FortHardKnox@gmail.com for an appointment (the first appointment and consultation is always free).

 

 

pdfdownloadWelcome to the new Church 2.0 category on Ft. Hard Knox. Here, you will find great resources for any Christian wanting to become more effective in online activism, especially in Church outreach.

If you haven’t already, be sure to download our free .pdf file on Church 2.0.

Finally, if you use a feed reader, you’ll want to add FHK’s Church 2.0 feed to your reading list!

 

 

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