Posted on September 1st, 2010
by Lisa Gutknecht
In answer to a growing need for Christian School websites, we rolled out a new scholarship database and tool in your Faithwebsites application. Now you can take your scholarship information and have it displayed on a specific page (or pages) of your website.
Following the same intuitive and flexible process as our other database tools, the scholarship database begins with building the database, organizing into categories if desired, adding the specific scholarship information and then using a Main Body tool to place the scholarship information on the desired page on your website.
This gives you the ability to have one central database where the scholarship details are entered, with the option of where you want to have the listing available on your website. For example, if a school wanted to create one page – such as a guidance or resource section of their site – for all scholarships, they would select all the categories to be displayed. Or, if a school wanted to organize their scholarship opportunities by category, they could have the athletic scholarships displayed on one page, while the music scholarships were displayed within the music page/section of the website.
The Scholarship Database feature is free to all FWS customers. To activate it, go into your Administrators and turn on the permission to see the Scholarship Database. There is a tutorial video on the new database that can be found in your Help Manual. You can also review some sample data and setup on our demo site. Questions can be directed to our support team via your Support Center ticket system.
Tags: database, Enhancement, new
Posted in New Features & Releases | No Comments »
Posted on August 29th, 2010
by Lisa Gutknecht
Ever do a search for a type of business or organization by a common category name and location? For example, “grocery stores in Milwaukee, WI?” Google’s return page displays a set of local business results at the top of the page, and then the rest of the results below, based on keyword and other search engine optimization factors. For example, see the screen shot below of our search for churches.
Churches, schools and organizations with a physical street address can benefit from an instant Search Engine Optimization tool – for free! Get your church or Christian school listed in the local business places and help people searching for you find your location and website faster.
To start, you need to have a Google Account. For some clarification on what a Google Account is, see our Help Manual under Advanced Resources. With a Google Account setup, head to google.com/places. Just begin entering your information – you will see how your Google Places page will appear as you enter and edit your information.
The key areas for this listing would be your categories and your keywords, as those fields, along with your street address and city, is what will determine when your listing shows up in a users search. You can continue to edit, add and tweak your Google Places page and Places even gives you an opportunity to add event promotions and more for free. In addition, Places offers some basic statistics about how your listing is doing.
Keep in mind that you want to build your Place page to drive traffic to your website – be sure to add your website address (URL) to your Places listing. Also, Google Places will only work when a user enters a fairly specific geographic and category driven search (such as “christian school boston ma”). However, a large number of people are focusing their search for a church or non-profit organization by a specific geography, making Google Places ideal for most of Faithwebsites customers!
Tags: Google, SEO, Website
Posted in How-To's, Search Engine Optimization (SEO) | No Comments »
Posted on August 17th, 2010
by Lisa Gutknecht
Good news Faithwebsites customers! Starting this month, we have increased our standard storage space from 200 MB to 400 MB! This increase is part of your current service and is free of charge. We’re happy to be able to continue to upgrade, update and enhance our Faithwebsites Complete product for our customers – enjoy the added space!
If you have any questions, contact our Support Team via your Support Center ticket system. Comments can also be posted on this blog or on our Facebook page.
Tags: hosting, new, storage
Posted in New Features & Releases | No Comments »
Posted on July 25th, 2010
by Lisa Gutknecht
We recently rolled out a new feature in our interactive form tool (i-form): the ability to send a custom email message back to user! Now instead of the default (which is to send a copy of the submitted form back to the user as confirmation) you can create your own custom email content. This allows for thank-yous, additional information and directions, special confirmation instructions and much more!
If you are currently using an i-form tool anywhere on your website, head to your Navigation Builder Home, and click the Main Body link where your form is located. Click the “Update I-Form Properties” link and you will now see a text editor where you can compose your email message. Remember that the “send confirmation email” box must be checked in order for any email to be sent back to the user after a form has been submitted.
If you do not want to create a custom email, just leave the text editor blank – the default will still be sent.
If you have any questions about this new enhancement, or building and using the Interactive Form tool on your website, please contact our Support Team by creating a new ticket in your Support Center.
Tags: Enhancement, General, I-Form
Posted in New Features & Releases | No Comments »
Posted on June 30th, 2010
by Lisa Gutknecht
A popular item on many websites is to embed a map in lieu of, or along side driving directions for your visitors. Google Maps makes this especially easy to embed on your site. Here is how to do it:
- Head to http://maps.google.com/. Add your address and ensure the map is displaying the correct address.
- Click the blue “Link” link/button located on the far right side of the screen. In that menu, click “Customize and Preview Embedded Map”.
- In the pop up window, adjust your size and position the map as you would like it displayed on your site.
- Click in the HTML code window and copy all. Keep that pop up window up while you continue your next steps.
- Head to your Navigation Builder Home in your FWS admin site and go to the page you want your map to appear on (or go to edit the page). Click on the Main Body link and either add a Text/Graphic Editor to the page, or edit the editor your map already appears on.
- In the Text Editor, click the “Source” button. (You must always be in “Source” mode when you copy and paste HTML code within an editor.) Paste the HTML code into your editor.
- Click “Update”. Preview your page – your map should be displayed. If you need to adjust, go back to the Google Maps pop up window, make your adjustments, recopy the entire code. Go back to your Text Editor, click on Source and first delete all the code – make sure nothing is in that Source window. Then paste the new HTML code and click Update.
Posted in General, How-To's | No Comments »
Posted on June 24th, 2010
by Lisa Gutknecht
If impressions are made in the first 30 seconds of meeting someone, your website is no different. Except for the fact that your website may have less than 30 seconds to make a good impression. If you are using Google Analytics, you can be more sure of the exact time, but the point for this post is “what kind of impression is your home page making?”
Today, we’ll focus on content. Your home page must contain keywords, phrases and essential information that communicates to search engines, visitors and returning visitors all the initial information about your church or ministry. But, too much content will serve as a negative. Home pages that are covered with text with little to no white space are harsh on users eyes and will be left unread. Home pages that are covered with graphic / graphic links, ads and more are visually overwhelming and the end result is that little to none of the content will be read.
Consider this list for content that should be on your home page:
- Your organization’s name.
- Who and what you are. This can be your mission statement, but often it is best if you create some friendly content that tells new visitors what you are about.
- Service times (churches) or hours of operation.
- Include keywords. For keywords, think about what people might be entering into Google to search for you. Terms like worship, service, church, school, non-profit, welcome, people, care, God, praise, ministry… words that are essential to your core purpose and words that people will seek out when searching for your church, school or organization.
- Organize that content! In the Faithwebsites CMS, you have the ability to use the Left Side, Main Body (center) and Right Side Bar for content. Create balance and white space by moving certain content to one side or the other of your site. A common example of this would include service times or hours of operation moved to either the Under Left Navigation or Right Side (or consider your footer too!).
- Make sure your website’s footer includes your address and other general contact information.
Consider this list of what to minimize or avoid on your home page:
- Minimize graphic buttons, links and ad type of items on your home page. Everything in your school or church may be important, but not everything can be on the home page. If you do keep graphic links (I’m not referring to navigation links) on your home page, try to keep it down to a number – something between 3 and 5, and rotate between ministries, events, classes, etc. so that all departments in your organization get fair “home page coverage”.
- Minimize the calendar of events. Having two weeks of events on the home page can be overwhelming, and so can having the youth pastor’s schedule. Remember that you can control the date parameter of what is displayed for each use of the Calendar of Events tool, and you can select which categories are displayed. Maybe mission trips can be on a Upcoming Events calendar on the Missions page,versus all the dates showing up on your home page.
- Slide shows / photos. Pictures are great, and truly communicate what you are more than words, but too many pictures won’t serve you well. Again, keep the number of pictures displayed in your slide show between 3 and 5. If you have more – swap out the pictures in the slide show every other week or once a month.
For more information about Google Analytics or any of the Faithwebsites tools mentioned above existing customers can visit our Help Manual or contact Support via their Support Center.
Tags: Content, SEO, Website Design
Posted in How-To's, Search Engine Optimization (SEO) | No Comments »
Posted on June 5th, 2010
by Lisa Gutknecht
Running a VBS program at your church this year? Create an online registration form that automatically emails the information to a designated email address. Make the registration process available to your church attenders 24×7 and maybe simplify within the office (or at least streamline some of the registration process…)!
To do this, either add a page, or designate a page on your site that will hold the form. Then, add the Interactive Form tool (or i-form) and begin creating your registration form. It’s probably a good idea to pick an email address to send the submitted i-forms to, but you do not have to. Your submitted forms can be accessed via your FWS administration site. Head to your navigation builder, and find the page where the form is. At the bottom of the i-form tool is a blue link called “Submitted I-Forms”. You’ll be able to view and download all your forms right there.
Now to communicate to your target audience about your registration form. Ideas include:
- Adding a link to the form on your home page
- Add a “VBS Registration Opens” and “VBS Registration Deadline” reminder “event dates” in your main calendar – and including the URL/link for your form in the event – this will then show up in Calendar, Upcoming Events Calendar and/or your Weekly Events Email.
- If you are using the Members Database, use your Mass Email tool and send out information on VBS and including the link for your registration form
- And all your standard communication methods…
Tags: General, I-Form, Members Database
Posted in General, How-To's | No Comments »
Posted on May 30th, 2010
by Lisa Gutknecht
Looking for some quick ways to update your home page? Or, maybe you are looking for a way to change the look of your entire website without the cost of redesigning your site? Our support and sales teams get quite a few requests on how to do some website improvements, from small to large changes. Here are just a handful of updates you can do today that can make a large impact on your ministry’s site.
- Switch to Top Navigation. This is the single largest item you can do to “modernize” your website. Most websites these days are primarily top navigation – or a combination of top navigation with drop down and/or left navigation. Typically, you’ll want to try to organize your site in such a way that your Home page does not have any left side or even drop down navigation.
- Add a Right Side bar (if you are not using it currently). Your Right Side bar can be used for an Upcoming Events calendar, general information like your service dates/times, additional promos or links, and much more!
- Widen your site. If you have had your website with Faithwebsites for a while, chances are your site may be on the “old” standard width. With newer monitors/resolutions, acceptable widths are now up to 960 pixels. How do you do this? Easy – just create a new ticket in your Support Center and ask us to widen. We will do that for you free of charge, and the change is quick!
- Refresh your colors. If you are using a standard color palette template that Faithwebsites offers, consider going into the Settings menu and changing it to custom. From that point, you will have access to adjust the color scheme of your entire website.
- Add a banner, or refresh your current banner. The “banner” is the graphic or color element that sits on top of your navigation bar. This is one of the greatest tools for setting your website apart from others and really communicating your message. You have many options – from designing your own banner, uploading a simple jpg (although it must be a wide image – 958 pixels), or requesting a quote for a static or flash custom designed banner. You can have different home page and interior page banners too, and for our school based customers, keep in mind that each teacher / faculty page can have its own banner too!
Included above are links to our Help Manual for support and video tutorials on how to do these tasks. Remember that your FWS Customer Support Team is ready to assist you or answer any questions.
Tags: Enhancement, Website Design
Posted in How-To's | No Comments »
Posted on May 1st, 2010
by Lisa Gutknecht
Have a Facebook page and wondering how to integrate your Page with your website? Facebook has many badges, boxes and widgets that work quite nicely in your Faithwebsite application. Here are step-by-step instructions for just a few of our favorite integration picks.
1. Facebook Badge
The “badge” comes in a few different formats, with the vertical option fitting well in both the Right Side Columns or Under the Left Nav area. For the footer, change the format to to Horizontal or 2 Column, and for the main body – the likely choice would be the 2 Column.
To embed this badge on your website:
- On your Facebook page, click Edit Page
- On the right hand side, find “Promote with Facebook Badge” and click “Get your badge”
- Click “Edit this badge”
- Select the layout and items you want – you can see the preview changing as you select / unselect items; click “Save”
- Click the “Other” button; a field of code will pop up below
- Click in the code field and Copy; keep that window open
- In your FWS admin site, head to your Navigation Builder Home and go to the page you wish to place this badge on
- In your Main Body/Right Side or Under Left Nav, create a new text/graphic editor
- In the editor, click the Source button; in the Source mode, Paste your Facebook badge code into the editor
- Click Submit; preview your page on the live site to see how your Badge looks!
2. Facebook Like Box
The Like Box is a great combination of offering your visitors a one-click option for “Liking” (previously known as Becoming a Fan) your Facebook page, a way to see some of the feed from Facebook right on your website, and a way to share a bit of your growing community online. Many organizations have seen great success in merging their Facebook pages and their website once they’ve added this box to one or several pages.
To place the Like Box on your site:
- On your Facebook page, click “Edit Page”.
- On the right hand side, click “Promote with a Like Box”.
- In the Like Box menu, the first thing you need is your Page ID. To find this, look up at your address bar in your browser window. The last digits in your address URL is your page ID. See image below:
- Enter your Page ID and tab; once you do so, the example on the Right hand side of the screen should change – and if you grabbed the right ID, it will show your Facebook page.
- Next you have choices to make on how you want your Like Box to look. If you are entering this in a Main Body text editor on your site, you can keep the default width, or consider widening it. The preview will change as you make changes. You can also enter this in the Right side bar but the width can only be 185 pixels, which is quite narrow – but check it out and see if you like it! For a Main Body placement, you can go up to about 500 pixels, with something between 250 and 400 pixels wide being recommended.
- Once you are satisfied with the look, click “Get Code”. In the pop-up box, click to highlight all the “iframe” code and Copy.
- In your FWS admin site, select the page you want to place your Like Box on. Create a new Text/Graphic Editor and click the Source button.
- Click Paste; Click Submit.
- In the admin site, the Facebook Like Box may look like it is just “spinning”, but preview your live site – you should be good to go!
With all widgets, it is always recommended that you place the HTML code into a new, or separate Editor. Be aware of your Right Side, Main Body and Under Left Navigation widths prior to inserting widgets that may inadvertently expand or alter the alignment of your site’s page. If you would like additional information or need support in adding these Facebook widgets to your Faithwebsite, please click on your Support Center link in your admin site and start a new ticket.
If you have found another Facebook promotion box or widget that has been successful for you, please share in the comments of this post!
Tags: Facebook, Social Media
Posted in How-To's, Social Media | No Comments »
Posted on April 17th, 2010
by Lisa Gutknecht
One of Faithwebsites popular features for our church and Christian School customers is our Members Database. Always designed to be much more than just a single purpose database, we recently added an enhancement that now expands the uses for the database even further – and puts more control and options in your hands!
Introducing the “Selected Groups” button in the Members Database Search Form.
Members Database Search Form
With the addition of the “Selected Groups” control, you can now select which group(s) you want displayed, or available to search, on that page of your website. This allows you to use the single Members Database as totally separate databases. For example, if you are a school and want to have one database that has current enrolled families and another database that has your alumni, you can now have all the information entered into your Members Database. On the page you want the enrolled families database/directory displayed, use the Members Database Search Form tool, choose “Selected Group” and select only the group(s) you want. On another page of your site, repeat the process, only this time, select just your alumni group(s).
Churches have found this of use too for separate ministry pages. Now you can add a search tool for just your music ministry, or youth ministry, etc.
Have another use for the newly added Selected Groups feature in the Members Database? Share your ideas in the comments below.
For more detailed information, or step-by-step instructions on the Members Database, visit our Help Manual, or contact customer support via your Support Center ticket system.
Tags: Enhancement, General, Members Database
Posted in How-To's, New Features & Releases | No Comments »
