WhizFish Offers Guide for Catholic Websites

Toledo, OH, March 26, 2013 --(PR.com)-- Parish and school websites have become very commonplace. Most have one and everyone wants one. Like most things in the online world, design and content rules are changing quickly and if the website is to be used as an outreach/evangelization tool, here are the Top 10 must haves identified by Catholic marketing agency WhizFish:

1. Professional Webmaster
Some parishes or schools use a staff computer teacher, parishioner or volunteer to manage the web effort. Despite the help with deferred webmaster costs, this idea is problematic. While you may have an excellent computer teacher on staff that does not always make for a great webmaster. It's like expecting a great chef to also be a great kitchen appliance technician. The two often don't go hand in hand. Volunteers often don't have the ability to provide timely updates, lose interest in the ministry, or lack the current knowledge required to build sites based on modern technology and ever-changing search engine parameters. It is always best to use a professional webmaster to build and maintain the parish or school website.

2. Stay Current
A website is not inanimate, it is alive and needs to be updated and changed
often (weekly in many cases) with parish or school events, Gospel messages,
Twitter and Facebook feeds, blogs, and more

3. Sell
Sell your parish or school. The modern day website isn't a brochure with bland
descriptions, it is an interactive marketing tool to get people interested in coming
to Mass or selecting your school for a Catholic education. Provide plenty of places
for those interested to get in touch. Also make it very easy for your visitors to provide their contact info including an email address.

4. Mobile
The whole world has gone mobile. Information is accessed on laptops, smartphones
and tablets. A parish or school website has to be mobile, period. It is the future and
the future is now.

5. Parish or School Staff
Feature the staff prominently and start with the parish pastor. Churches and schools
are a people business, profiles are a must.

6. Contact
Make contact information prominent on the home and all other pages. People
have come to the site seeking information and they may well want to call or email.
It needs to be easy to get in touch.

7. Content
Write the way people talk. Don't add lengthy sessions of text. Get to the point and
add links if a surfer wants to read more. Make the information useful and update
often. In the middle of Lent, a fair number of parishes still had Advent messages
on the home page. And, a fair number of schools are still featuring events from the
beginning of the school year.

8. Video
Video is a powerful outreach tool. Featuring video of the homily, choir, school and
athletic events is powerful and compelling.

9. Publicize
Having a website is futile if no one visits. Make sure to publicize your website
prominently in bulletins, messages from the pulpit, digital signage, narthex or outside signage, school newsletters, email, CYO, and all other church communication.

10. Analytics
Google provides fantastic analytics free to webmasters. It allows parishes and schools to understand who visits a website, where they are directed from and how they interact.

It is invaluable and you need a webmaster who understands its utilization.

Follow these 10 suggestions and put more people in the pews and involved with the parish.