Steps To Build Your Website
We are going to walk you through the steps to build your website. It is very important to understand, and perhaps you have some familiarity. Feel free to skip steps, or look at whatever is relevant to you.
1. Setup your website
You need to do these four things:
Choose a web host
The web host is the physical server where you want your website to live on the Internet. Of course, we recommend using WEC but you can certainly choose others.
Setup your domain name
You need to choose the domain name, i.e. www.mychurchsite.org. It has to be unique and you have to purchase it. If you use WEC for hosting, we will walk you through that and take care of all the details.
Setup your DNS
if you use us, we can help you do that. If you use another web hosting company, you can read instructions.
Install the WEC Package
If you use us for hosting, your account will have the WEC package installed. Otherwise, you need to follow the instructions for doing that.
2. Choose Your Style
Choosing your look is an important decision and there are many questions to ask. The look should reflect your church / ministry. Once you and team have decided on the look, you need to select a template or create a template that best matches it. You can follow these steps and explore the questions.
3. Structure Your Pages
The WEC package has an initial layout of pages with a structure. You can see this structure by looking at the menu. What you have to decide is what best fits your church / ministry. You can add additional pages, rename pages or section, or even create or remove sections. The goal is to find what fits you.
4. Add Features
We do provide some excellent features for your website including ministry tools, calendars, news, and of course content. A key decision to be made is which features should you keep and which features would you like to add? Is sermons important for your site launch or something to be added later? Is a prayer board something you would like on your church website or that does not really fit your church? You can look at the steps to decide and do this.
5. Add Content
Content is your text and graphics. It takes some work and planning. If you are a larger organization, you can often parcel this out to key leaders for their given ministries / responsibilities. Then you will need to edit the content and consider adding photos or video to support the content.
6. Refine & Release
Once you have built all the pages, added all the text, graphics and features, you can continue to refine your website. Once you are set to release the website to the world -- make it public -- there are some guidelines and steps that will be helpful.