How to measure success online
A church website is only as effective as its ability to engage visitors. But how do you know if it’s working? Tracking key success metrics helps you understand what’s drawing people in—and what’s driving them away. Start by ensuring you have a solid foundation with Church Website Best Practices, and avoid common pitfalls by reviewing Church Websites: 10 Mistakes We Made. Improve performance with Church Website Performance Optimization and ensure your site is fully Mobile Friendly to accommodate all users. Don’t just track numbers—use Church SEO and Google Business for Church to actively increase your reach. A well-optimized website is the key to bringing your mission to more people.
Measure Church Website Success
“You can’t improve what you don’t measure.”
Just as many church websites are built without SEO (Search Engine Optimization), many more are built with any measurement tools.
Measure Church Website Success | Here is what you need, in sequence.
Welcome to the deep end of the pool !!
1) Google Account
For all the next steps, use the same Google Account (Not Gmail) you will have access to many free and very powerful tools to get found on the internet. Google desires to match the search to the best content, Google wants to answer all questions, do you have any answers?
2) Install Google Analytics
Google Analytics helps you identify trends and patterns of who, what, when, where, and how people are visiting your website. It can tell you what they did on your website, and how long they stay. It will tell you how people came to find you. Of the three options below, we recommend the free Monster Insights plugin.
3) Link to Google Search Console
Google Search Console helps you see your website as search engines do. It will find problems, show you errors, and show you how people found you. This tool will tell you what Google thinks of your website.
4) Google Page Insights
Google sets ideal standards for websites, such as how secure, fast, and accessible they should be. These standards affect the user experience of your website, better experience, and better search results. Google Page Insights link.
5) GT Metrix
This is a free online tool that grades your website and then gives you tools to see what is slowing things down or hurting the user experience. GT Metrix Page Link.
6) What to Look For
Google Analytics can be overwhelming; it has a great deal of data. No worries, we will help you find the information you need promptly and easily. To start, we recommend using MonterInsights.
Measure Church Website Success | So, what do you need to learn?
This is when the curtain parts, and you see what is really happening
How people Interface with your website
Who is visiting your website? Where are they from? How did they find you? What is their age? Having 10,000 people visit your website who are not within traveling distance of your website does not help; 10 visitors who are within 5 miles is a big deal. What track age and demographic data? This helps answer the question, ‘Are you reaching your target audience? ‘. Learn to track these points of data.
(Fixing this is called Search Engine Optimization | SEO)
01. How did they find you? (Google, GMB, Facebook..)
02. What is your most popular page or post
03. How close do they live to you
04. new / returning visitor
05. Bounce Rate
06. Device used (mobile, Desktop etc)
How People Experience Your Website
To Measure Church Website Success: When people come to your website, they have a purpose. They plan to find out something. If something happens that makes the experience frustrating, they will leave. These things will hurt your page experience: slow loading, poor mobile experience, too hard to find the right content, pages that move, and reorienting while loading. Learn to track their point of data.
(Fixing this is called Page Optimization)
07. How big (gigabytes) is your website
08. What is slowing it down
09. What is the mobile experience
10. What is blocking load times
11. What scripts are lagging
12. What can be gotten rid of?
So, How do I address and fix these issues
we have a page just for that
Discover Our Additional Resources Here
