Steps to an Evangelizing Homepage Makeover

When we do an evangelizing makeover (as opposed to a complete re-design) for a parish website, it involves not only the homepage, but also the supporting interior pages.  In updating the Our Lady of Angels (OLA) homepage as described in last week’s blog I did three things: plan, implement and work with website support.

Plan

I am a planner by nature and have found in every circumstance the better prepared I am for the task the easier it will be.

Here is what I thought about in the OLA homepage makeover:

1. Audiences
2. Messages
3. Images
4. Design
5. The interior pages supporting the messages

The first four items are covered in my previous article at https://catholicwebsolutions.com/parish-home-page-makeover/

Implement

In implementing the plan, I started with updating the interior pages with two things in mind: reinforcing the welcome message and answering the questions of visitors as clearly and simply as possible. For OLA that meant:

Adding a Few New Pages

A Parish Staff page with contact information (we will add photos later)

A page for Returning Catholics

A sacrament overview page

Updating Some Pages

RCIA

New Parishioner Registration

Finally

Once the interior pages were updated, the content (messages, images and design) for the homepage were ready, I contacted the parish website design company DIOCESAN (https://diocesan.com/diocesan-design/) to arrange for the design update.  The web support at DIOCESAN was excellent and the makeover went very quickly.

If you are thinking about doing a homepage makeover, I hope this information is helpful to you. Please share your questions and comments below.