Discover
Consultation → proposal → contract
From initial inquiry to final launch, every step of the web design process for parishes and parish families is tailored to meet your unique needs. Websites for other kinds of clients are similar to this, based on individual needs.
Consultation → proposal → contract
Parish survey → design meetings: theme (branding → survey results → strategic alignment → mock-ups → design proposal → approval) and content (strategy → materials list → collaborative writing → photography and videography)
Sandbox environment → (collect content → new text and graphics → SEO → build → accessibility → responsiveness) repeat until finished
Parish team members review and test → revise → Google Analytics → finalize → documentation → training
Launch → hand off → announce it to your parish and break out the champagne!
Parish website design has taken several approaches over the past 10 years, including the free options made in-house and by large parish management companies. But many of those look cluttered and dated, and users still might not be able to find things on the site.
More importantly, today, parish websites function as the “front doors” for visitors. This has a direct impact upon parish growth. Gen Z judges parishes by their first impressions, which are made in a quick scan of the parish homepage. A dated homepage that does not speak to them can cost you new members.
To do better requires a designer’s eye and skill in working with all of the design options including best practices for parish websites today. A custom WordPress site offers maximum design options.
My custom websites also include content designed to engage Gen Z seekers and bring them in your door. Since I have 30 years of experience in other fields, my services can even go beyond my web design competition to make your website a go-to place for learning the basics of the faith and tradition, and assisting mental health and religious conversions.
It’s great that you care about your online presence. But does your website speak directly to the concerns of potential visitors to your parish? If not, you should have a “front door” website for the parish. It should feature its distinctive identity and treasures which parishioners believe are reasons for joining them.
My recommended solution is for parish families to have one family website for members, which functions as a “bulletin board”, and also invest in individual, smaller, “front door” websites for each parish in the family. I offer discounts for parish families that purchase several websites. I will work with branding and web themes that were recently developed by others if you are happy with them and want to add to them.
To redesign your site, we first assess what’s working and not working and set goals for the update. For most parishes, I build a new one from scratch, according to your needs for parish management and potential to attract young newcomers. Clients have the option to collaborate on the design or to let me take the lead.
We begin with a brief parish survey. We review the survey results and design options until we agree on the design plan.
My photographer / videographer visits one Sunday, ensuring that your new site will look stunning! Based on the design, I will give the parish rep a list of content that they will need to provide within a few weeks so that the project can progress without interruption.
With the new content, I build a new website in a staging area. After a few weeks of my work, the parish representative or team tests the draft site and makes a list of revisions. After revising, I set up Google Analytics, create documentation, and train parish web managers. Finalized, it is ready for launch and a celebration!
Post-launch, I provide monthly hosting, maintenance, theme updates, and evaluation of the impacts of your investment.
Yes, oftentimes, parishes write text for an audience of their members, but a different approach is needed to write for newbies. I guide the parish team to write a lot of the content collaboratively and as homework between design meetings. After they finish, I write the rest of the new content to fill in the gaps. I do the final editing of all of the text.
Since parish websites are the one place where visitors make their first impressions of you, it is important that the images and video look great. The top of the home page needs to be engaging and show you at your best at a glance.
Professional photography and videography make a substantial difference for the quality and impact of a website. We also want to use images of the parishes as they are today, with current members and energy. And so, I strongly recommend professional photography to most clients. The photographer can be either yours or mine.
I offer one option: Stefan Ludwig, who is a professional photographer based in Buffalo, New York. He specializes in candids at weddings, and also real estate and food photography and videography. This offers many opportunities for creative marketing on your new website.
There may be specific needs for photos to fill gaps in the website that we might ask parishioners to provide from their photo archives.
If the need arises for subjects not covered by these resources, I can include high-quality licensed stock images from Alamy and iStockPhotos.
I edit and optimize all of the images, ensuring that they look great and effectively represent your parish life, and load fast.
Photo albums are valuable components of parish websites. If your current photo archive and website are on another platform, we will migrate them to my WordPress host at the start of the project. If you have unedited originals, that is even better. In the design meetings, the team and I will review the images and organization for consistency with the new site design, and make changes that improve the quality of the archive for usability.
The timeline depends upon:
For average, complete parish websites, the design meetings and parish survey take about 2 weeks. The photography and the rest of the site is built within about 3–4 weeks, with 2 weeks for review, revisions, and training, for a total of about 7–9 weeks to deliver a fully finished website.
Smaller websites for parishes within families can be completed within about 3–5 weeks. Larger websites with extra sections of content would need a few additional weeks. These estimates assume that clients meet weekly to start the project and complete their materials list in a timely manner and no delays in the photography and videography.
No, I prefer transparent pricing so you can clearly understand the costs involved in your website investment. I offer fixed prices because my years of experience as a consultant providing project-based technical services allows me to plan for package pricing. This way, you can budget without surprises.
My WordPress websites are intended to be managed and updated by parish staff and volunteer webmasters. The last step before launch is training for your website administrators and editors. After launch, I will be available via email and Zoom to answer questions and provide additional training as needed.