Rockin’ Web Site Design Questions with Kent Shaffer of Bombay Creative

1. What’s your company’s mission?

To provide design and marketing services that help ministries achieve their purpose.

2. Can you give me some background on how you started doing church web sites?

We have always been very active in ministry. We didn’t start out planning to design lots of church websites, but our ministry affiliations naturally led us in that direction.

3. What products and services do you specialize in?

We offer graphic design, web development, and church consulting services. Web development is, by far, our most popular service.

4. Any products you would like to highlight or mention that would be of specific value to churches?

We have a free monthly newsletter called Church Relevance, and of course, we started a blog with the same name.

5. What are the basic steps to designing a church site?

Our design process varies with each church. Every church has its own unique corporate culture so we try to accommodate them with a process that best fits their culture. However, a general idea of the design path we try to stay on is:

1. Learn what the church needs and wants their website to be.
2. Learn the church’s branding (vision, goals, target audience, what makes it unique).
3. Custom design a home page draft based on their needs, preferences, and branding. This design is tweaked and altered until the church has a design they love, and we feel confident that it will help them achieve their goals for their website.
4. Once a home page draft is approved, we begin design and development of the entire site and involve the church in the process at necessary checkpoints.
5. Once design, development, and testing is complete, we launch the website.
6. Typically, churches prefer us to handle ongoing maintenance of the site to ensure that its seamless quality is maintained.

6. Do you have a creative questionnaire that you would be willing to share? Or some form that clients complete or you talk them through?

We have several questionnaires depending on the information needed. They can be a little lengthy. The next time we overhaul our website, we will probably make them online forms.

7. Realistically, how much should a church expect to pay for a top-quality Web site?

Wow! It’s a tough question to answer because it largely depends on how established and in demand the designer/firm is. Let’s assume that top-quality means a designer skilled in aesthetics, branding, marketability, usability, and technical know-how. The same six page website could cost $180 or $18,000 (maybe more) depending on if the church is working with a prodigy part-time designer only interested in building clientele or a world-renown firm from Silicon Valley that’s in high demand. Realistically, $2,000 to $4,000 is a reasonable deal for six pages of quality (without Flash, e-commerce, or custom PHP coding).

8. What church web sites have you done?

A few are: Church on the Move (Tulsa, OK). Additional COTM sites: www.oneighty.com :: www.drygulchusa.com :: www.lincolnchristianschool.com

Others: Eastgate Church ( Hiawassee, GA ) :: Harvest Church ( Mobile, AL ) :: Woodlawn Church ( Columbia, MS )

9. What advice do you have for smaller churches who may not have the resources to pay for a full-fledge site design?

WordPress is always an option. Of course, many churches have successfully used a MySpace profile as an online hub for their church. However, since MySpace is notorious for its non-Christian content, churches could always create an account on Oaktreeidea.com. It is a social network for Christians that has a special profile type for churches and ministries. It’s a safe alternative to MySpace. If a church has the budget for a basic site, go for it but never compromise quality.

10. What purpose should Web sites accomplish for churches?

Depends on the mission of the church and the people they are called to reach.

11. What trends (for good or bad) do you see in church web site design?

Overall, quality is improving. Fortunately, there are a handful a firms emerging to deliver a much needed quality boost to the concept of church websites.

12. What one (or more) Internet technology do you wish more churches would take advantage of?

CSS (Cascading Style Sheets)

13. What are a few basic search engine optimization techniques you would suggest churches do?

Usually, not enough people search for local churches to justify thousands or even hundreds of dollars of SEO services. For churches, I recommend avoid Flash and find a designer who knows CSS (very SEO friendly) well and can incorporate some basic SEO techniques like appropriate metatags, keywords in your alt tags, H1 headers, etc.

14. How should a church evaluate a prospective web site design firm or designer?

First, can your church work well with the designer? Do they have a credible client list? They can design, but can they communicate (at least return your calls)? Do they know aesthetics, branding, marketability, usability, or technical aspects? How long will development take? Those are a few good starting questions.

15. Any resources, sites, links, magazines, or articles (that you may have written) that you’d point churches to?

I have listed my 75 favorite church websites here. Use it to be inspired by and raise the bar on what your church expects from its website.

[Thanks, Kent!]

[ Go to the Building Rockin' Church Web Sites series story list here ]