Links and Resources for Church Webmasters Links to Web Resources
This page will introduce you to some basics of web page creation. Like any page of its
kind, the information is subjective. This page was created by the Rev. Frank Logue, and
you may not agree with my likes and dislikes. If you want to see the website for King of
Peace itself, click on the logo at the top of this page, or the cross at the bottom of the
page.
How to
Create a Church Website
This tutorial is offered by the fine folks at Anglicans
Online. They include a list of the things
every church website should have.
Web Art for Episcopal Church Websites
I have placed some artwork on a page for anyone to grab and use on their own site. Some of
the art I created, some I got from other sites. I believe that all of the material is
copyright free and available for your use.
Links to Church Websites
Anglican Online's USA Links
This page at Anglicans Online has links to websites of Episcopal dioceses and churches
throughout the U.S. It is a great way to find out what other churches are doing.
Good Sites
Church of the Beloved,
Charlotte, North Carolina
This cutting edge church is also out on the cutting edge of web design with a very effective
website.
St. Philip's in the Hills in Tuscon,
Arizona
This site loads relatively quickly. It uses an attractive mix of colors and a consistent
design style featuring the church's logo. Their guided tour is particularly well done.
St. Gregory of Nyssa in San Fransisco,
California
This distinctive website sets the church apart from other churches. You can tell by
visiting the site that they have a strong emphasis on the arts (including music) and
liturgy.
Bad Church Site Ideas
Auto-loading sound files
Many parishes include
sound files on their home page. Music will not jazz up a lackluster
page. Most songs found on the web are not indicative of the quality of
music found in the church and so they do not give a good indication of
what worship is like, while serving as an annoyance. If you do want to
have sound files, it is best to make them optional.
A site with no artwork
Websites can bog down with lots of big photos or artwork that take time to load. However,
it is best not to err in the opposite direction. A church site with no
photos or other artwork, misses an opportunity to give website visitors
an idea of what the life and worship of the congregation are like. Large
blocks of text will not usually be read. Here's a page with
good information on
writing for the web.
Photos of an empty building
While we might theologically agree that the church is the people rather
than the building, many church website photo consist only of pictures of
the building without people. A website is a great opportunity to show a
vibrant parish life.
Online tools for checking your web
pages
AnyBrowser.com Screen Size Tester
Have you ever been to a Web site and not been able to scroll to the bottom
of the page? Usiung this Screen Size Tester, you can test your Web pages
in different screen resolutions to see what your visitors will see.
Doctor HTML
Select "Single Page," and the free service will analyze your Web page
based on document structure, image syntax, table analysis, browser
support, verify hyperlinks, and much more.
Dr. Watson
This free web tool will check your web page for bad links, poor html
syntax, search engine compatibility and more.
GifBot by NetMechanic
GifBot compresses your GIF, JPEG, and even animated GIF images—decreasing
file size without sacrificing the quality of the image. This toll can get
your pages loading faster.
Marketleap Search Engine Marketing Tools
This site offers three great tools for checking out your website. They are
the Link Popularity-Check,
which allows you to enter your URL and up to three comparison URLs, and
the site will let you know what your link popularity is in AllTheWeb,
AltaVista, Google, Inktomi, and MSN. The
Search Engine
Saturation tool determines how many pages a given search engine has in
its index for your Web site. Finally, the
Keyword
Verification Tool checks to see if your page is in the top three pages
of a search engine's results for a certain keyword or keyword phrase.
Search Engine
Optimization Tools
Using the Search Engine Spider Simulator, you'll see what a a search
engine's spider would see when it visits your page. There are some other
helpful pieces of web design advice at this site.
webreference.com
If you want to delve into the technical side of creating web pages, this is a great place
to begin. There is a lot of good information here and they've got links to more. For
example, when your page is done, you can check whether you have all your html code correct
at the W3C html validator.
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