Project Web Statistics: Demonstrating Success

We frequently tell churches that our methods work, that the effort put in by churches will be worthwhile once the visitors start pouring into their site. With now over 1 million 'visits' to all our combined websites, we have reached a milestone that has, in part, been down to the online marketing undertaken, as much as by what is written on the pages of each website. This page offers a sample of visitor statistics from a number of our websites, demonstrating the increases month on month that your website will expect to see once it has been developed.

To achieve all of this we employ a range of search engine optimisation techniques, but before we can do that the content has to be right - this is where we come in, with our tried and tested support that will help make your site visible to a wider audience.

Selby Abbey, Yorkshire - launched November 2008

The old website of Selby Abbey was very much in need of modernisation and complete redevelopment. Work began with a series of visits to the Abbey during the spring of 2008, focusing initially on the photography project that would underpin the new website. The new site was to attempt something new, something the old site had not achieved: to become a focus for Tourist Ministry.

The stats graph below highlights the visitor statistics for 2009. The old site was achieving a visitor flow of around 230-300 per month. Now, with the redrafted pages, all of which were carefully targeted using search engine optimisation techniques, the site started to receive an average of 1,600 visits per month.

Selby Abbey Visitor Stats, 2009

 

All Saints' Church, King's Lynn - Launched November 2007

The All Saints' website has had the greatest success story of all our websites. One of the main reasons for this is the use of community-based forums and audio/visual material that keep people intrigued. The site enjoyed a modest visitor number of approximately 700 in the first month; however as soon as we had published the RSS feeds behind the audio podcasts and blog, the site started to receive over 3,000 visitors.

The graph below demonstrates the sharp increase from the website's launch in October through to 1520 in just a number of months. The second graph shows the visitor statistics for 2008, peaking close to 5,000 visitors per month. For a small parish church this was an incredible achievement - demonstrating a simple concept behind web development: the size of the church does not have to reflect the scope and size of the website.

All Saints' 2007 Visitor Stats

All Saints' 2008 Visitor Stats

 

St Barnabas Church, Swansea - Launched June 2007

The St Barnabas Church website is constantly growing. A good website has the capacity to develop new and interesting material and keep visitors coming back for more. Below you will find a screen snapshot of the online statistics page for the St Barnabas Church website. You will notice the steady climb from double digits in the early months to well over 400 by the end of the year. The stats continue to increase in 2008 with some months closing towards 1,900 visits. For 2010 the average number of visits has reached 2,300.

With approximately 21,000 visitors to the site across the two reporting years below, and over 51,500 pages viewed, the St Barnabas website has established a strong base from which to develop and grow. A range of 'organic' marketing and internet advertising was undertaken in the early days of June and July 2007, continuing through until August. This had a positive effect on visitor numbers from the local and global communities.

St Barnabas 2007 Visitor Stats

St Barnabas 2008 Visitor Stats

 

Lord's Prayer: Teach Us to Pray - Launched August 2007

The Lord's Prayer website uses podcasting to reach out to people in a new way, using text for the search engines to find but also through publishing recorded audio material. With audio material being highly popular with the internet audience, it is no surprise that the site went from double digit visitor stats for its first month online to well over 6,000 visitors per month in 2010. The graph below shows the beginning of this steep curve in visitor trends.

This was achieved through publishing the RSS feed behind the audio podcasting to hundreds of audio publishing websites, giving the site a far wider net from which to gather people who would be interested in the teaching material.

Lord's Prayer Website 2007 Visitor Stats

 

E-mail: info@churchwebsitedesign.org.uk