Church SEO Shapeup Workout 39: Social Media SEO Hello Reader, Seems like you just can't get away from the Gram these days. Even at a decent restaurant. Guess what - that applies even on Google. Google is increasingly serving social media posts in the search results pages. Search for a church in a particular location, and there is a good chance that Google will serve social media posts. It's like worlds colliding: social and search. This is a great opportunity for churches, for two reasons: 1)...
14 days agoΒ β’Β 1 min read
Church SEO Shapeup Workout 33: On-Page Ranking Factors Greetings in Christ, Reader, On-page optimizations are some of the most powerful ranking factors for your church websites. Having the right text in the right places can make the difference between showing up on page 4 of Google and showing up at the top of the results. These are cheap, easy things to do to help your church's SEO. Workout 22 is designed to help you optimize the pages on your church's website so that they show up well for...
14 days agoΒ β’Β 1 min read
Church SEO Shapeup Workout 33: Rag Hustler Hello Reader, People don't use the word "rag hustler" much anymore. That's too bad. It's a pretty great word. One of those things that's gone by the wayside now that we don't do newspapers anymore. Better days. Newspapers are old school, and so are press releases. Still, press releases remain one of my absolute favorite church marketing plays. You can use them to get featured in local media. But, they are also a powerful way to get backlinks AND to...
14 days agoΒ β’Β 1 min read
Welcome back to the newsletter for those who have been fighting rabbits (in other words, the secularization of Easter) since the Middle Ages. And you thought YOU were having a tough day. Iβm actually not the kind of guy that gets super mad about the Easter Bunny. He brings baskets and hides eggs every year at our house. But, I am the kind of guy that loves books. But, with books, comes another issue: searchability. How do you find the books that you need? How do you find what you need within...
25 days agoΒ β’Β 11 min read
Greetings in Christ, Reader, And welcome back to the marketing newsletter for people whose brains are fried on Easter π. Mine was so fried, I thought I saw footage of President Trump talking about bombing Iran while the Easter Bunny looked on!!!!!! I need some rest, man. There's another kind of hallucination among church workers, and it doesn't come from being sleep-deprived. It comes from being so big, you forget the basics of digital marketing. That's our theme for today: π SEO Delusions of...
about 1 month agoΒ β’Β 6 min read
Greetings in Christ, Reader, And welcome back to the marketing newsletter for those even more optimistic than a Latin American dictator facing charges for narcotrafficking: Heeeeeyyyyy . . . A new year is a time for optimism, and as Christians we have more reason than anybody to be optimistic. We know how the whole story unfolds in the end! Church work depends on optimism. It's a lot of casting bread upon the waters, hoping for a return. One form that optimism takes is running marketing...
4 months agoΒ β’Β 6 min read
Greetings in Christ, Reader, And welcome back to the marketing letter for those facing down next week's tidal waveπ of activity. I'm much calmer about this than when I started out 20 years ago. Speaking of waves, this week I had a reader reach out looking for help getting the digital marketing ship sailing for a mission plant. I laid out a strategy to get the basics in place. But, you know what? Most churches probably have a few leaky holes in the hull of their digital marketing. π’ So, that's...
5 months agoΒ β’Β 8 min read
Greetings in Christ, Reader, And welcome back to the marketing letter for those who burned up their other options to go into church work. A picture of me majoring in Philosophy and Classical Languages in college. Of course, I wouldn't have it any other way. Burn, other options in life, burn. I'm sure you, dear reader, feel the same way. But, there are other things church workers end up burning through that they shouldn't: their time and mental effort in posting on social media. π Your church...
5 months agoΒ β’Β 8 min read
Greetings in Christ, Reader, And welcome back to the Church SEO Shapeup Newsletter, the marketing newsletter for people who take naps in the narthex. Only the Lord can judge me. We're building on last week's email about making a landing page for your Christmas observances by taking you step-by-step through a plan to effectively promote your church services and events for free. I like to keep a happy piggy (bank) π. Here's what we're taking up in this special edition of the Church SEO Shapeup:...
6 months agoΒ β’Β 8 min read