The High Stakes of SEO for the Kingdom of God
By Kurt Steinbrueck
April 5, 2011 
7 Comments
For many Christians, search engine optimization (SEO) is something for businesses (if they’ve even heard of it). It’s a way to make money. Churches and other Christian ministries have no need for SEO. But is that really true?
Absolutely not.
People find churches through the search engines.
According to recent comscore research more people (by far) use search engines than any other means to find local organizations. In fact about 77% of people use the Internet to find local organizations. The data in the comscore report looks specifically at businesses, but the same behavior is true of churches. The Internet, and most often the search engines, are where people look to find a church. So, if your church isn’t coming up in the first few results in the search engines, then you are definitely missing out on visitors to your church.
Ministries save people’s lives through the search engines.
When a young woman searches for :”unplanned pregnancy” in the search engines, do you want your Christian pregnancy center to show up at the top of the search results of planned parenthood? People also search for help in the search engines. This is especially true of things people don’t feel comfortable discussing with other people, like marriage difficulties, addictions, etc. Whether your ministry is financial assistance, grief counseling, or help for gambling addictions, showing up in the search results will put your ministry in contact with more people. If you are addressing an issue that people try to hide, it might be the only way you will connect with the people…or save the life of a child.
People’s eternal salvation may depend on SEO.
It’s a big claim, but take a look at the screenshot to the right. Those are the search results for “church near Colorado City, AZ”. Three out of the top four results (including the top two results) are Mormon or Jehovah’s Witnesses churches. Generally speaking, about 65% of all searches click through the top two search results. So, when someone is looking for a church who doesn’t know one church from the next, what church do you think they will choose in Colorado City? You can see how important it can be for your church to be number 1. It could literally be the difference between a person becoming a Christian or not.
Search Marketing is definitely not just for businesses. It’s not even just a neat idea for big churches with big budgets. It’s necessary for every church, school, business, and ministry, and not just because it can grow your ministry. Being the source that people find first in the search engines can literally save a life or a soul.
Photo by Dazza_13
Has your ministry optimized their website?
Has your ministry gotten visitors from people finding your website in the search engines that have led to people’s lives being impacted? Please share your story.
Hi SEO Guys,
Great news and I am happy to be part of your extended team in Australia if that helps. I am a Christian SEO consultant on the Northern Beaches of Sydney. With Christ for 30 years this 8 of April 2011 (1981) and an SEO consultant for the past 3 years.
Let me know if I can be of assistance to the body down here or wherever you need help.
Hi Greg,
Great to have you as a part of the community. I'll let you know if there are any requests for help in your area.
If you are interesting in writing any posts about Christian SEO, let me know.
A website owner who is motivated by glorifying God and impacting the Kingdom of God most definitely needs the benefit from having an SEO-friendly site. Most clearly, the better the SEO nature of the site, the more impact that ministry can have.
About 18 months ago I posted a few blog entries on the strength we can receive from God. I added a few relevant scriptures.Because I did pretty good job withe the title and meta description and url name and used some appropriate keywords within the post, the top hits I get to the website were on that topic for about 6 months. I wrote in an SEO-effective way about a topic that people wanted/needed to read about and bingo — traffic came to the site.
Praise the Lord!
That's great Dale. SEO can absolutely make a huge difference in the reach a ministry has. Thanks for sharing your experience.
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aloy