Episcopal Church Foundation Vestry Papers - for leading congregations

I asked the same question recently about our diocesan website to a group of leaders. Their guess: mostly parishioners.

They were wrong. With the fantastic – and free – tool of Google Analytics, I’m able to view statistics about who uses our website. I was astonished to learn that two-thirds of our visitors each month are first-timers. 

I’m pretty plugged into the statistics about how increasing numbers of people are turning to the Internet as part of their seeker experience. But I was still surprised by our high percentage of first-time users. 

I spend most of my time on the diocesan website making it more user-friendly for members of the diocese. What the analytics tell me is that I also need to make sure I have compelling content for visitors on the homepage. 

Every parish and diocesan website should be employing some analytics tool. I like Google because it’s free, but there are lots of options out there. The key is to make sure that you’re doing more than posting content and praying someone reads it. By using an analytics tool, you can calibrate your content to your audience. 

You can dig deep into the analytics – reviewing your use of tag words for search engine optimization, looking at how people are finding you (what links are bringing them to your site), and where they’re going once they enter your site. 

You also may spot interesting trends: for instance, month after month, Wednesdays are the peak day for traffic on our diocesan site. We don’t post new content any more often on Wednesday than any other day of the week. I can’t find a specific reason why Wednesdays are high traffic days. So I’ve developed a theory: seekers are checking out our church directory, perhaps considering where they might worship on the upcoming Sunday. 

This type of on-the-ground research isn’t new to corporations. They have long realized the value of measuring and monitoring the marketplace. 

It’s time we in the church took advantage of these same tools. After all, we have a pretty amazing "product."