A church website has one job above all others: help someone who has never set foot in your building decide to show up on Sunday. That means the basics matter more than anything flashy — your service times, your address with a map, and a clear sense of what to expect need to be visible within seconds of landing on the page.
Start with a homepage that answers three questions immediately: who are you, when do you meet, and where. From there, an About page builds trust by sharing your story and beliefs, a Ministries page shows newcomers where they might plug in, and a Contact page with a real way to reach a real person closes the loop.
Don't underestimate photos. Real pictures of your actual building, congregation, and events do more to reduce first-visit anxiety than any written description. Stock photos of unfamiliar people can quietly work against you.
Finally, plan for mobile. Most people find a church website through a phone search on a Saturday night, not a desktop browser during business hours — if your site is hard to read or navigate on a small screen, you lose them before they ever see your service times.