Media Outreach

First Impressions is facilitated through Guest Reflections. People are asked to pick a website from a church in their area at random and review it. These sites may or may not be powered by faithHighway.

Church Location: New Stanton, PA

User Profile:

• Male
• 50 to 59 years old
• Caucasian
• Area Resident 6 to 10 years
• Attends Church 2 or more times per month

Final Grade: While the site had great functionality, it was lacking complete navigation and current content.

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While the visitor found contact information and directions readily available, he had a difficult time locating information on the church leadership and the church beliefs.
The visitor found that all the pages loaded quickly and encountered no error messages.
“The contact information was complete and thorough. Three different ways of contacting the church were provided. I was disappointed to see that the current and future events pages were outdated. I was also not pleased with the website directing a visitor to [an external] website to be able to find out what the church’s beliefs were.”
“The overall vibe was upbeat and not harsh or judgmental. The active graphics in the page header made the page not stagnant and the headlines banner provided information on upcoming events.” Despite this, the visitor found that the look and feel of the site was not geared towards attracting visitors.

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What is your overall first impression of this site?

“The very first thing that struck me was the [revival] announcement that was on the website. It was centered in the center of the page, colorful and eye-catching. My first impression of the website was a pleasing one mainly because of this announcement and the overall appearance when the site first popped up on the screen.”

What would make this site better?

“I think that the site could be made better if there was a section there on what I could expect as a new visitor. There is a place to place prayer requests, but I did not see a place where I could look at all the prayer requests that had been submitted. A complete list of the different ministries or groups that are in the church would make it easier for a potential new member to see what was in place that interested them.”

Would you visit this church based on the site?

“Probably.”

faithHighway Tips for improvement…
…from a design expert:

“The color and style of this website seem very corporate and a little dated. A warmer color pallet and more meaningful images may encourage visitors to explore the site more.”

…from a programming expert:

“The client is using images for all their content areas.  This really hurts their site when it comes to SEO.  It is best to primarily use text and a few graphics in content areas.”

…from a web outreach expert:

“From the homepage to the inside page, the style of design goes from a thin column format to a full page spread. This lack of continuity makes the site seem very unprofessional.”

Photo By: TooFarNorth