Episcopal Church Foundation Vestry Papers - for leading congregations

When I began to redesign our diocesan website, I had a few clear goals in mind: Improve navigation. Increase user satisfaction. Update the look and feel.

I’ve shared this journey with you on Vital Practices because I think it’s helpful to see a communication plan carried out – from surveying users to building a new site. Our new site has been live for about two months so now’s the time to report on how we’re doing.

Anecdotally, people like the new site, praising its organization and design. (Here’s the link, if you want to peek). But I think it’s also important to have quantitative data. How does this version stack up against its former self? Enter Google Analytics. If you haven’t connected your website to this free tool, go do it right now. Seriously – stop reading, go connect and then return, stat. This tool is that helpful.

I logged in to the analytics section and asked the Google guru to compare usage from seven weeks in 2010 to the same seven weeks in 2011. I expected (and prayed for) at least a little bump. I was obliged.

Visits to the site increased nearly 30 percent – with first-time visitors rising to 21,579, up from from 16,133 (33 percent). Time on the site increased as did the page views.

One statistic jumped out: 30 percent of the clicks into the website are to the “Newcomers” tab.

This reaffirms what we hear time and again, in evangelism workshops and church growth clinics: the first door most newcomers enter isn’t your church’s red door – it’s your web door.

Looking at these stats helps me chart the next steps for the website. I spend a lot of my time posting content for what I’ve considered the core users – members of the diocese. What these figures illustrate is the importance of building a robust newcomers section with dynamic, fresh and engaging content.

So begins the balancing act of serving two audiences. Fortunately the web is flexible enough to do both. Hopefully we are too.