Church SEO: Terms, Implementation, and Growing Your Online Presence
You're tasked with handling your church's digital marketing, but you don't have the knowledge to know where to start.
You know you need an excellent social media presence. You know you have to have a good website. And what about advertising?
When it comes to digital marketing, my favorite place to tell church marketers is to begin with Search Engine Optimization (SEO). You've probably heard of the term and know a little about it. But do you know enough to make a meaningful impact on your church?
Read below to get equipped with the knowledge you need to reach page 1 of Google.
What is SEO for Churches?
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is understanding how Google ranks a website. When it comes to churches, SEO is crucial for improving your online presence. You want to show up when someone searches "Church Near Me" or "Church in {City}."
Having excellent SEO on your website means you are expanding your digital net. You're making it easier for people to see Jesus. You're making it easier to find and make disciples.
Think of SEO like the parable of the seed sower. Some actions you take may not turn into anything. Some may become temporarily helpful but eventually die. Some might just transform your church and make it grow entirely.
If you want to improve your understanding of SEO, you'll need to know some basic SEO terminology.
9 Church SEO Terms
There are many technical terms within church SEO. If you are ready to take SEO seriously, commit to learning these. It'll make reading other SEO content easier to understand.
Search Engine Results Page (SERP)
The SERP appears after you submit a search. So your goal is to appear on the page 1 SERP. This could be the traditional blue hyperlink text. It could be the questions also asked area or the maps.
Meta Title/Description
The Meta Title is the blue hyperlink text in the SERP. The Meta Description is the text underneath that. Optimizing these helps Google understand your site better. It also makes it easier for people to decide whether to click on your website.
Keywords
Keywords are specific words or phrases you want to rank for. For example, "Church near me" or "Church in {City}" is an example of a short keyword. A long-tail keyword could be "Can Christians wear Yoga pants?" or "How to create a daily bible study habit."
Content
Content is anything on the web page itself. It includes the text (or copy). It includes photos and videos. Content is what Google literally reads when deciding where to put your website. This is where you can easily make the most significant improvement to your church's SEO.
EEAT
Experience, Expertise, Authority, and Trustworthiness (or EEAT) is an acronym used to understand how Google ranks websites.
Experience is first-hand, original experience. Think of someone sharing their testimony.
Expertise is having an expert speak, which is why you want original quotes from your pastor in your blog content.
Authority is similar to expertise, but it has more to do with the content related to your field. In your church's case, faith, Christianity, and related topics.
Trustworthiness is often determined by the number of quality backlinks your church has.
Backlinks (Link Building)
This is an advanced SEO tactic. Backlinks are other websites that link to your website. The more quality and trustworthy a website that links to you, the more credibility you have with Google. And the more credibility you have with Google, the more likely you are to rank higher.
Link building is the term for attaining backlinks.
Interlinking
Interlinking is like backlinks, except it's all within your website. It allows for a better user experience (UX) and helps Google understand your website better. Think of interlinking like footnotes in your Bible showing how a verse relates to another.
UX/UI
User Experience (UX) and User Interface (UI) are essential ranking credentials.
UX is more about the overall experience of being on the website. This includes website speed, navigation, linking, etc.
UI is more of the elements that make UX good – images, buttons, etc.
Think of your Sunday services. You have the overall experience you plan for. The UI is like the banners, signage, etc.
Analytics
Analytics is the data behind SEO. The first tool you should have set up is Google Search Console (GSC). Next, if you want a lot of data, is Google Analytics.
After that, you'll want to invest in paid tools like SEMrush or Ahrefs. SEMrush does have a free plan, but it's limited. I used it for quite a while before I upgraded to a paid plan, so it'll be good for you to start with.
There are many other tools, but for now, focus on those three to get started. You can only have effective SEO with proper analytics set up.
Local SEO for Churches
The first place your church should focus on when it comes to SEO is local search. This is exactly like I've mentioned above – searches like "Church near me" or "church in {city}."
Local SEO is also having your Google Business Profile (GBP) set up. That is the little blurb on the right-hand side when you google your church's name. Or it's what appears on Google Maps after someone clicks on a result.
Setting up your GBP is easy and only takes a couple minutes. Keeping it updated also helps.
Ways to Rank Well in Local SEO (in order of importance)
- Set up and claim your Google Business Profile
- Set up Analytics in Google Search Console (GSC) and then Google Analytics. (Just GSC is fine, too.)
- Go into your website editor and change the Home page Meta Title to something like "{Church Name} Church in {City}." Best practice is to keep this under 65 characters.
- Add that exact phrase to the Meta Description section of the Home page. So it could be something like, "{Church Name} is a local church in {city} that exists to make disciples. Join us Sundays at {service time(s)}." Best practice is to keep this under 150 characters.
- You could put that phrase somewhere on the web page itself. It should help rank higher. However, I advise against this personally because it makes your website sound like you only are making it for Google and not for actual people.
- Submit a sitemap in GSC. Leave the changes and review after one month.
National SEO
National SEO (for the sake of this article) is ranking for broader phrases. You do this is by creating blog posts. It could be repurposed sermon content. It could be original pieces the staff or volunteers write. It could be that your church has many campuses across the country.
Regardless, this is a way to help people online. You could write an article that could be the difference in someone's eternity. There are millions of self-help-related searches every day. No better organization can help than your church.
Ways to Rank Well in National SEO
The best way to do this is by creating blog content. Here's a quick outline of how this looks, assuming you've done everything for local SEO.
- Create a content strategy and system for creating AND distributing
- TIP: Start with sermon repurposing before going into entirely original pieces
- Spend 30 minutes looking up keywords related to the sermon you're repurposing.
- See what results appear on the SERP
- Create an outline based on the above points
- Take quotes from the sermon and include them in the blog post
- Create a small library of 3-5 articles before you start posting so you can get posts regularly
How to Leverage SEO to Grow Your Church
You've had a lot of information thrown at you. The best part about SEO (and digital marketing in general) is this: the "ink" is never dry. You can make a change, monitor the data, and then change it later. So, don't stress too much when starting with SEO.
You can leverage SEO to grow your church by optimizing for local search. That alone is enough to see more first-time guests (hopefully repeat ones). It's enough to build your credibility and authority.
Then, if you have the staff or volunteers to do it, start creating content. Repurpose sermons. Creating a blog version of someone's testimony. Or have original thought pieces. Creating content will expand your church's influence and ability to share the Gospel and make disciples.
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