Finding a New Church Home in NWA

The way folks select their church home when they move into a new community has changed.

“It’s certainly different than it was years ago,” said Brian Swain, executive director of Central United Methodist Church in Fayetteville. “The vast majority of people now find churches online,” the longtime congregation member said. “We’ve noticed it in the way we do advertising. Years ago, one of the keys was having a good Yellow Pages ad. That was the way people found churches. In the digital age, search engine optimization is a far more important thing.”

Search engine optimization is the way a business, or church, in this case, positions itself online. Brian said his church is very aware of how people are finding his congregation and what they are looking for when searching for a new church home. He wants to make sure his church is at the top of the list when potential congregation members are in the market and searching for a place of worship.

“Once they find we have a very good web site that answers the questions they have, they will come back,” he said. “They want to know when are service times, what kind of services do you have and what have you got for my kids to do.”

Brian said the “meet our staff” page on his web site is the most visited page.

“People want to see who they will be interacting with when it comes to pastors and staff,” he said. “We offer streaming of our services. Some people would rather watch online than come visit for a Sunday to get a feel of what things are like.”

While live streaming of services and providing archived ones is important, many people still walk in, sit down and listen to a service before making a final decision.

“A lot of people who have joined our church have done a little bit of sampling before they found us,” he said. “We want them to feel comfortable and feel like this a place they belong and grow in their faith.”

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