4 Simple Church SEO Tips that will Increase Your Website Traffic
So, you want your church to show up in popular search results on websites like Google? I got you! In fact, I’m actually really passionate about this topic because I believe it’s something that not a lot of organizations prioritize, but it has the potential to make a massive impact on leading more people to your church from around the world. I’m talking thousands of website visitors every month. Plus, it’s completely free! In this post, I’m going to teach you 4 simple Church SEO tips that will help your church get featured in top search results for popular keywords. I’ll even share a list of SEO keywords for churches to focus on.
How to Get Thousands of People to Your Church Website Using Free SEO Strategy
Check out this graph. This is a real analytics report from a small business that I implemented a SEO (Search Engine Optimization) strategy for.
This graph shows monthly website visits from organic traffic alone (visits from search engines like Google).
In just 2 years, I was able to increase this small business’s website traffic from around 100 visits per month to almost 30,000 website visits per month using the power of SEO strategy!
Let’s dive into how to implement SEO strategy for your church or online ministry!
4 Simple SEO Tips for Churches
1. Determine Your Local SEO Keywords
Local SEO keywords will help you rank for popular keyword searches in your local area or region. Have you ever searched for “restaurants near me” and got a whole list of local restaurants to browse? That’s local SEO. We want to do the same for your church. This is a great way to use digital marketing to grow and retain your in-person church visitors.
First, you’ll want to create a list of local SEO keywords to include in headings and paragraphs throughout your website and blog content. Especially on your homepage and about pages. Typically, these keywords include the name of a local town, city, or region.
Some examples of local SEO keywords for churches include:
Churches near [city/location]
Churches in [city/location]
Best churches for families in [city/location]
Children’s ministry near [city/location]
Vacation Bible School near [city/location]
Bible studies near [city/location]
Community events near [city/location]
The list goes on! Hopefully, you get the idea of what local SEO keywords are and how to use them.
2. Determine Other Popular Long-Tail Keywords
Many churches stop at local SEO keywords. However, you also want your church to help solve related questions and problems that people are actively searching for worldwide. This is a great way to grow your online church services and following for free!
Similar to local SEO, you’ll want to start creating a list of other popular questions or problems that are relevant to your church and walking with Jesus.
Some examples of popular long-tail SEO keywords for churches include:
Who am I?
Who is Jesus?
Bible verses about Joy
Should I get baptized?
Spiritual gifts in the Bible/what are my spiritual gifts?
What is the meaning of life?
Did God create evil?
Why do bad things happen to good people?
3. Create a Blog and/or YouTube Channel
Ahhh the underestimated blog. A powerful secret weapon in the world of SEO (yes, STILL!). In my professional experience, many people (without much digital marketing/SEO experience) think blogs are outdated and that no one reads them anymore. This couldn’t be farther from the truth! In my experience, well written blog posts have a much better chance at showing up in the top 10 search results in Google for popular keywords than regular webpages typically do.
Yes, blogging is a long-term game because it can take months or even a year for certain blog posts to show up in the top 10 results in Google for certain keywords, but the payoff is huge! Commiting to writing 2-4 SEO optimized blog posts a month for a few months can result in 10,000+ blog visits a month. I’ve personally been able to replicate these results for multiple small businesses and even the church I work full time for now. So trust me, you can do the same with the commitment!
You may be wondering the benefit of driving all that traffic to your blog. Well, there’s multiple reasons, but one of the biggest is that after providing a bunch of value in your blog post and established some trust with the reader, they are much more likely to take a small next step to download a free ebook or webinar from you in exchange for their email address. Or, you can even just explain how your ministry (or your online church) can be a great additional resource for them to learn more, grow, and find community alongside other people seeking the same answers. You would then link to your ministry’s main website to get more info.
You can learn more about how to attract and retain new guests effectively online in this blog post.
YouTube is Now a Search Engine
YouTube is another great alternate (or supplemental) option to a blog. YouTube is now considered the most popular social media platform among younger generations. Also, it’s becoming the go-to search engine for many. Just like a blog, you can create a YouTube profile and videos that include both your local and long-tail keywords so that your church or ministry will show up in the top results for relevant, popular searches.
4. Don’t “Keyword Stuff” (Do This Instead)
SEO strategy used to be all about finding a target keyword and then placing it all over certain pages on your website or blog many times so that it would appear high up in Google search results. Not anymore. Google might actually penelize your website for keyword stuffing and views it as trying to “hack the system”.
Now, it’s all about creating great content that answers all your visitor’s burning questions around a given topic. Google’s smart algorithms can now determine the quality of your content and that chances that it will be the article or page that solves a problem or gives clarity to Google searchers for any given search. Google wants the best quality and comprehensive articles to show up first in search results. Focusing on quality over quantity is key when it comes to your website or blog content.
Also, you want to try and include a handful of different relevant, popular keywords in the titles and paragraphs of your content for any given topic. What do I mean?
For example if you’re writing a blog post or website page about “salvation”, you’ll want to include a variety of long tail keywords on the page’s headings and paragraphs like
What is salvation?
What do I need to do for salvation?
Who is salvation for?
How do I know when I’ve recieved salvation?
See the point? You dont want to just say “this is what salvation is” and end it there. You want to include a well rounded page or post that explains all the details around the topic. This way, your single page or blog post has the potential to rank in Google search results for multiple long tail keywords like the salvation questions listed above. Why try and rank for one keyword when you can rank for multiple!
Download my Free SEO Guide for Churches!
Want to learn more about how to start optimizing your website and blog to start appearing in the top 10 results in Google for popular keywords? Learn more in my free ebook, 4 SEO Hacks that Will Multiply Your Church’s Website Traffic. There are a few more tips and tricks in this ebook that weren’t mentioned in this blog post like my recommended tools for finding the best keywords for your church that will drive the most website traffic.
