Greetings in Christ!

And welcome to a special edition of the marketing newsletter for people who fight uphill battle with the algos.

The 'For You Page' really does feel like the 'Against You Page' for churches working in the digital space. Churches fight an uphill battle when it comes to getting their content to perform. Social media has professionalized, platforms silo and throttle religious accounts and content, and the very nature of religious content is harder to get eyeballs on than other niches.

It's just one of the ways that churches have to do more with less - or in other words, optimize.

In today's newsletter, we are going to take up the topic of optimization in ministry: how to get more out of the assets your church already has. I'll be sharing some actionable ideas, including the topic of social media.

🗞️Personal and Business News

Personal News

It was a busy summer for me, which is why I haven't reached out with a special edition in over 3 months.

One of the big events was my churches' youth group mission trip. We partnered with Eternal Shepherd Lutheran Church in Seneca, SC. They were excellent hosts.

The mission trip was hypersuccessful but also hyperdemanding. I really beat me body up this time around:

Chris Jackson - SEO Priest | SEO for Churches @revcjackson Day after youth mission trip. 2:42 PM • Jul 16, 2026 0 Retweets 62 Likes Read 9 replies

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I do wonder how long I can keep up with this.

Business News

Since the last email, we've rolled out the following websites:

• ​Alive in Christ Church Lutheran, Marana, AZ. This multi-page site expanded our aesthetic offerings with its 'open' style. Content cards also saw some really nice upgrades for this side. Client had a chat widget they wanted integrated. Pretty cool!
• ​Trinity Lutheran Church, Paola, KS. Another multi-page site. This client has been doing a really great job at utlizing the Content Management System to post resources for their church services. (This is pretty easy with our form-based system.) Check it out.
• ​Holy Cross Lutheran Church, Racine, WI. A one-pager that I'm really excited about. A lot came together to make this site a knockout. First, the pastor provided us with some really artfully done photos. We had the raw materials for an incredible site. Second, my freelance designer/developer has gotten really confident and has been deepening her abilities with the one-page platform we utilize. And, it's performing well in the search results pages. It's number one for the query 'Lutheran churches in Racine, WI."

Review

When it comes to improving your church's digital marketing, it can be hard to know where to start. Blogs and YouTube channels can feel like you're stepping in mid-conversation.

What you really need is clear, direct guidance.

I will do precisely that for you.

👉 Request a free video review and I'll give you actionable steps to take on your church's website and Google Business Profile that will actually move the needle. It takes fewer than 2 minutes, and I won't pressure you into a sales call.

🌐 Around the Web

• Vertical-video doorways are being tested on Indian Facebook and Indian Instagram. The message from Meta seems pretty clear: vertical video isn't just a side. It's the main dish.
• X also upgraded their video tools. Do you see a trend here, and what direction your church needs to be going when it comes to social?
• SEO always boils down to properly formatted content and external validation. For Google Business Profiles, the two forms of external validation have traditionally been citations and reviews. But, Bodhi Gallo points out that Google is giving users additional ways to give it 3rd-party information.

🙏God Stuff

Recompensive justice on the part of God is an idea that Lutheran weren't terribly fond of in the 20th Century. I think their resistance to the idea was a mistake.

​I'll won't reproduce my argument for this idea here. Check out what I wrote about this on Gottesdienst.

Make sure to read the comments at the end - things get interesting.

📈 Do More With Less

Most of us in church work are deeply familiar with needing to do more with less. Churches are underfunded and understaffed. And then there is time: so little of it that Paul specifically talks of the necessity of optimizing use of it - "redeeming the time" as the King James Version put it (Ephesians 5:15-16, Colossians 4:5).

Here are a few ideas about how to optimize your church life.

Do More with Your Social Media

When it comes to social media, there are two things every church needs to know:

1) As we discussed above, vertical video isn't just a part of the game. It IS the game. (The one exception to this is X, which still has good performance of text-based posts.)

2) Churches are fighting an uphill battle due to algorithmic throttling of religious content.

However, there is a way to get your social media to perform well for your church over time: localization and search optimization.

I made an entire video on this. Check it out:

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Do More with Your Sermons

Your church is already creating content every single week with your sermons. Repurpose those sermons so they keep on blessing people. Post them to your website, syndicate them through podcast feeds, clip the video into shorts, and use them to generate text based social posts.

Do More with Automation

Even that sermon repurposing can take so much time. But, it doesn't have to anymore. Many repetetive online tasks can be done via automation tools like n8n, Zapier, or Make. Even products that don't have integrations with those apps are now becoming eligible for automation via agentic AI bots like Grok Bot, Dot, and Muse. A $30/month Grok Bot subscription is well worth it compared to what it would cost for your or your secretary's time.

Do More with Your Finances

I'm convinced that now is the time for churches to get their financial house in order. We have a 20 year window before the Baby Boomers all go to the Lord, and that is likely to be a major hit financially. I have some ideas on what churches need to do in order to optimize their finances:

Chris Jackson - SEO Priest | SEO for Churches @revcjackson Here's what I think churches need to be doing financially to remain viable once this demographic cliff comes: 1) Get out of debt. Now. You may not have the income to cover your debt payments within 20 years. And if you can't cover your debt payments, everything falls apart. 2) https://twitter.com/ryanburge/status/2016856599130681439 Ryan Burge 📊 @ryanburge A lot of folks assume that many Protestant denominations will just slowly decline over the next few decades. That's not what is going to happen. The Boomers are propping most of them up right now. When they age out, it's gonna get bad. Really fast. No one is ready. 9:00 AM • Jan 29, 2026 3 Retweets 31 Likes Read 5 replies

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Do More With Your Meetings

Many of us serve in a traditional committee governance. Keeping up with all of those committees can be exhausting, and early in my ministry I found it difficult to maintain a consistent leadership approach among all of them.

One of the greatest blessings has been transitioning to a 'one-night meeting night' in which all the committees gather. I then will jump from meeting to meeting, spending the most amount of time with our spiritual oversight board (elders). It's helped me spend more time with my family, helped me maintain consistent leadership across committees, and it's blessed our leaders, since there is now no pressure to serve on more than one committee.

Do More With Your Youth Group

Given our congregational resources, we can't hire a youth worker, and so that falls to me. Given all the demands on my time, I can't dedicate huge amounts of time to the youth group. Here are a few ways I manage this:

• Regular meetings are held after Catechism Class on Wednesday nights. I'm already out of the house working, so it's easy to just keep working.
• Meetings are short. We play a game, talk some business, and have a devotional time all within an hour.
• The youth group is a joint ministry between the two churches I serve.
• Most of our summer trips are run on a shoestring budget. This means less fundraising.

It's a lean setup, but our numbers don't suffer for it.

Do More with Subscriptions

Early in my ministry, I was subscription averse. That's changed quite a bit, and I've found that subscriptions can often be force multipliers that enable me to have greater effectiveness with less time. Here are a few of the subscriptions we use:

• n8N for automations
• Zoom for synchronous online meetings
• Loom for asynchronous meetings
• Reach for mass texting (No need for anybody to opt-in! Cheap! Probably illegal, but I don't care.)
• Expensify for expense reporting (Sadly woke, but the product is just that good that I put up with it.)

What About You?

What are some optimizations you're utilizing? Hit

God's blessings, Pastor Chris Jackson "SEO Priest" ​[email protected]​ Get a Free Review I'll record a free video review of your church's website and SEO situation. Get your review. (No sales calls.) Subscribe Now for Free Not subscribed to this newsletter? Subscribe now. Get All My Free Resources ​This Google Sheet has all my free resources.

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