Guide
How to build a church website, step by step
Seven steps, in the order that actually matters. Plus an honest read on when to do it yourself and when to hire out.
Building a church website is less about design software and more about a few decisions made in the right order. Get the order right and the whole thing goes smoothly, whether you build it yourself or hire it out. Here are the seven steps, starting with the one most people skip.
Step 1: Decide who will keep it updated
This is the most important decision, and it comes before design, platform, or budget. A church website is not a project you finish; it is a small living thing that needs its service times, events, and sermons kept current. Name the actual person or role who will own that before you build anything. Every later choice, from platform to page count, should serve that answer. A site nobody maintains is worse than no site at all, because a frozen events page reads as a closed church.
Step 2: Get a domain and email
Buy a domain name you own, ideally your church's name, for roughly $12 to $20 a year. Set up a matching email address (like [email protected]) at the same time. Keep the login for both in the church's hands, not a single volunteer's personal account. This is the foundation everything else sits on, and you want the church to own it permanently.
Step 3: Choose your path
There are three honest routes. None is wrong; they fit different churches.
| Path | Strengths | Trade-offs |
|---|---|---|
| Do it yourself on a builder | Cheapest; you control the timeline. | Real time cost; quality and upkeep ride on one volunteer. |
| Church platform (all-in-one) | Giving and sermons built in; church-aware. | Can be slow, generic, and hard to leave later. |
| Hire a professional | Fast, accessible, findable, built to be staff-editable. | Higher up-front cost; you need to pick the right person. |
If cost is the deciding factor, the guide on what a church website costs lays out the numbers for each of these routes.
Step 4: Gather your content
This is the step that actually takes the longest, so start it early, in parallel with everything else. Collect the raw material before you worry about how it looks:
- Exact service times and address, plus parking or subway notes
- A short, human paragraph about who you are and what you believe
- A few good photos of real people and your actual space
- Your giving link and any livestream or sermon links
- A contact email and the name of who answers it
Writing plainly is harder than it sounds. Say what a nervous first-time visitor needs to hear, in the voice a real person would use. Skip the insider language. Warmth and clarity beat polish.
Step 5: Build the essential pages
Now assemble the pages, essentials first: home with service times up top, about and beliefs, a giving link, and contact. Add sermons and events only if you will keep them current. The full rundown, plus a checklist you can copy, is in what a church website should include. Resist the urge to build pages you will never maintain.
Step 6: Set up Google so people can find you
A website nobody can find does not help. Two free steps do most of the work: claim your Google Business Profile so your church shows up in Maps and local search with the right service times, and add your site to Google Search Console so Google indexes it. For New York City churches there is more to it, borough by borough, in the local guide.
Step 7: Launch, then keep it alive
Launching is the middle of the story, not the end. Put a standing reminder on whoever owns the site to check service times before holidays, post events as they are set, and add sermons on a rhythm that is realistic for you. A site that stays current, even a small one, quietly tells every visitor that the church is alive and expecting them.
When to do it yourself, and when to hire out
Do it yourself if you have a capable volunteer who will stay committed and your needs are simple. Hire a professional if you want it fast, accessible, and genuinely easy for the whole office to keep current, especially if you need bilingual content or real integrations. That is the work I do: fixed-price church websites built to be edited by staff, not developers. If that is where you are landing, tell me about your church and I will reply personally.
Common questions
- Can I build a church website myself?
- Yes, if you have a volunteer who is comfortable with technology and will stay committed to keeping it current. Modern builders make the first version approachable. The honest risk is not the launch; it is month six, when the volunteer gets busy and the site quietly freezes. If you are not sure that person exists, a professionally built site your whole office can edit is usually the safer path.
- What is the best platform for a church website?
- There is no single best one. Drag-and-drop builders like Squarespace are the simplest for a volunteer. Church-specific platforms bundle giving and sermons but can be slow and hard to leave. A custom site is fastest and most flexible but needs a developer to set up. The right answer depends on who will maintain it, so decide that first and let it choose the platform.