Top 6 Reasons to Use Google Sites for Your Church Website
Before they walk into your building, your church’s website is the first thing the average newcomer will encounter.
Your website needs to look great, work well, and be easy to maintain.
After all, there’s nothing that makes a person click away faster than a website that looks like it’s stuck in 1997.Google Sites is not exactly the first website builder that crosses most people’s minds when they look at updating their church website. But it’s got a number of great advantages going for it.
I’ve built many websites on WordPress (self-hosted), a few on Wix, and some on Weebly. I’m not the most experienced, and I’m not the most creative. But I know how to get a site up and running quickly and easily.
As easily as I can do publish a website on those platforms though, I’ve chosen to move a number of my sites to Google Sites instead.
Here are 6 reasons why:
1. Google Sites are free.
Paying for website hosting can be quite reasonable, but it still generally adds up to hundreds of dollars each year, at the low end.
Google Sites includes free hosting. Off the bat, you’ve got a few hundred dollars to spend in other ministry areas – definitely a win! Log in with a Google account, and you can create as many sites as you like – all at no cost.
You’ll still need to pay for your domain name, of course. But you’d need to pay for that with a self-hosted website too, and they usually only run about $10-$20/year anyway.
2. Google Sites are simple.
It’s easy to fall into the trap of thinking you need ALL of the functionality. I know I did. Getting the latest plugins to showcase group listings, contact forms, online giving and whatever other things are out there is great, but adds cost and complexity to your site. Constantly updating plugins or investigating conflicts can be a pain … and a waste of time.
Google Sites has far fewer options than other website builders. You’ll likely find you don’t need those other options anyway. If you’re like me, you’ll find hacks for getting the same results as those other options.
Because there are fewer options with Google Sites, posting & updating things is actually much easier and faster.
For example, I don’t have a sermon post type to display our sermons in beautiful galleries. But I also don’t have 20 different fields that I need to fill in for each sermon either. For the end user, it’s actually very little difference. For me, it saves me hours each month!
3. Google Sites are customizable.
You may wonder about the limited number of themes that are available for Google Sites. And you’d be right — coming from a world of thousands of options for themes, styles, and layouts, Google Site themes are a let down.
That said, it takes hours and hours to populate, adapt, and tweak a WordPress theme to suit the exact look you’re going for.
It takes time to customize the layout and colours of a Google Site, of course, but it takes much less time to get something up that looks great and flows nicely, than it would in other website builders.
4. Google Sites are responsive.
One of the biggest factors in choosing a WordPress theme is looking for the word “responsive” in the description.
People view your website on screens that range from a tiny screen, all the way up to wall-sized TVs. You need to make sure that your website will look great on every size screen.
Your site must be responsive, which means it will adapt to whatever screen it’s being viewed on. In fact, Google prioritizes websites that are responsive, and penalizes sites that aren’t. Google Sites are completely responsive.
5. Google Sites are easy to update.
If I had died while maintaining our WordPress website, even my computer tech husband would not have known how to add the next sermon to it.
An extreme example, but it makes the point.
What would happen if you were suddenly called away, or couldn’t work for some reason? Would someone else know how to update your church’s website?
Google Sites are incredibly intuitive and easy to understand.
The Undo button is always present and waiting for when you make mistakes. Creating a backup of an entire website is as simple as clicking the Make a Copy button.
Adding text blocks, photos, and pages is simple, and there are a ton of great online tutorials to help you through any tricky parts.
6. Embedded content looks great on Google Sites.
Google Sites play nicely with all other Google products: Youtube, Google Forms, Google Calendar, Google Docs, Google Drive … the list goes on.
Because of this, you can embed a multitude of different forms, media, and resources in your Google Site, and it’ll look great.
If you’re wondering about integrating a giving platform, have no fear! If the platform provides an embed codes (or allows for iframes), you’re all set. We use Square for our online payment processing, and it integrates and works seamlessly.
Hands down, Google Sites is a quick, easy way to have a great looking website for free.
If you currently have a website, what website builder are you using? What do you like most about it?
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