Welcome people before they reach your door
Church website design and care for churches and Christian charities, wherever they meet. Newcomers find your service times, how to get there and what to expect within seconds on their phone. Your volunteers can change any of it without calling anyone.
Websites built for St Mark’s Wyke, St Michael’s Pirbright and Bible Timeline.
“I was a stranger and you invited me in.”
Jesus, Matthew 25:35 (NIV)
Jesus counted a welcome given to a stranger as a welcome given to him. Churches have always taken that seriously at the door, with a smile, a service sheet and someone to sit with.
Today the stranger usually meets you somewhere else first. They search on a phone, often late in the week, often unsure whether they would be welcome at all. Your website is the first person they meet.
198.6m
page views on A Church Near You in 2024, up 55% on 2023. The Church of England says its churches regularly report newcomers who found them there.
The Saturday night test
Picture someone on the sofa on Saturday evening, phone in hand, deciding whether to try church tomorrow. Open your website on your own phone and tick each statement that is true.
Six ticks means a newcomer has what they need. Every missing tick is a question they have to answer by guessing.
0/6
Start ticking. Be honest; nobody else can see this.
It takes about two minutes.
Ask for a free website checkChurch website design and care
Start with a new site or a redesign and keep us on to look after it, or take any single service on its own.
A new church website
We plan the pages with you, write or tidy the words, and build on WordPress with the standard block editor your volunteers can learn in one session.
- A “New here?” page and service times on the homepage
- Google Maps, Business Profile and page titles set up
- ChurchSuite, giving and live stream connected
- Linked to and from A Church Near You
From £[ ]Church website design
[St Mark’s screenshot]
[Phone screenshot]
A redesign of the site you have
For a site that is slow, hard to read on a phone, or locked behind a password nobody remembers. We keep what works and rebuild the rest.
- Your web address stays the same
- Pages and sermons moved across
- Old links redirected so Google keeps up
From £[ ]Website redesign
[After screenshot]
[Before screenshot of the old site]
Website management
Send changes by email and we make them. Behind the scenes we keep WordPress and its plugins patched and check the backups, so the site never quietly goes out of date.
- Changes made from a simple email
- Updates and backups every month
- A short report of what was done
£[ ] a monthWebsite management
Monthly care reportExample
- WordPress core and plugins updatedDone
- Backup restored on a test copyDone
- Harvest supper added to eventsDone
- Christmas services page draftedFor review
- Visitor statistics attachedDone
Content writing
Words written for someone who has never been to church, in your church’s voice. Pages, news posts and the seasonal pages that need to go up on time every year.
- Homepage, “New here?” and About pages
- Christmas, Easter and baptism pages
- You review every piece before it goes live
From £[ ] a pageContent writing
Draft for review
Christmas at our church
Whether you come every week or have not been inside a church since you were at school, you are welcome at any of our Christmas services.
Carols by candlelightSunday 20 December, 6pm
Christmas Day communionFriday 25 December, 10am
Short services, children welcome, mince pies afterwards.
Be found on Google
When someone searches “church near me”, Google usually shows a map with three listings. We work on the things that decide whether yours is one of them: an accurate Business Profile, service times Google can read and pages that match what people search for.
- Google Business Profile set up and checked
- Service times and address consistent everywhere
- No promises of first place. Nobody honest makes them
From £[ ]Church SEO
Your churchChurch · Open Sunday 10.30amDirections Website
Social media
A monthly plan with captions and graphics. We post it for you, or send it ready for your team to post in their own time.
- Service times, events and sermon clips
- Bible verse graphics in your colours
- Posted by us or by you
From £[ ] a monthSocial media
“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.”
Matthew 11:28This SundayHarvest service10.30am, all ages
[Sample post image]
New here?Coffee is on from 10am
Features your church will use
Everything below comes with a new Church Pillar website. None of it needs a developer to keep running.
For visitors
Service times and directions
On the homepage, with an address that opens in the visitor’s map app.
Prayer requests
A private form that goes only to the people you choose.
Events and sign-ups
Pulled from ChurchSuite, so you update them in one place.
Sermons and live stream
Your YouTube live stream and recent sermons on one page.
Online giving
A giving page linked to the platform your church already uses.
Newsletter sign-up
Connected to your mailing list.
Works on every screen
Each page checked on phones, tablets and computers before launch.
For your team
Edit without code
The standard WordPress block editor. If you can use Word, you can change a service time.
Fast-loading pages
Lightweight pages and compressed images, so the site opens quickly even on a weak mobile signal in a car park.
Visitor statistics
Reports showing how many people visited, how they found you and which pages they read.
Ready for Google
Page titles, descriptions and your Google Business Profile set up at launch.
Ongoing support
One person to email when something needs changing or stops working.
Websites we have built
[Screenshot: stmarkswyke.org.uk]
Church website
St Mark’s Church, Wyke
“[A sentence from the vicar or administrator about what changed]”
[Name, role]
[Screenshot: pirbrightchurch.org.uk]
St Michael & All Angels, Pirbright
Church website
[One sentence: what the church needed and what changed]
[Screenshot: genesis-revelation.com]
Bible Timeline
Bible resource
567 events from Genesis to Revelation on one searchable timeline, with an atlas.
[Screenshot: Persian Cross]
Persian Cross
Design tool
A free cross design with a tool that lets visitors download it in their own colours as SVG, PNG or JPG.
[Arch photo of Sushyant]
Sushyant Watkinson, founder
Paul calls the local church “the pillar and foundation of the truth” (1 Timothy 3:15, NIV). The church holds up the truth. We make sure people can find it.
One person from the first call to the years after launch
Church Pillar was founded by Sushyant Watkinson, a Christian web developer based in East Yorkshire who also writes and handles SEO. He works with churches in any country, by video call and email. The person you speak to on the first call is the person who builds your site, writes its words and answers when something breaks.
The website stays yours
The domain is registered to your church and you hold the main admin login. Leaving costs nothing.
Built to WCAG 2.2 AA
The international accessibility standard published by the W3C. Older members use your site too.
Plugins kept patched
Patchstack found 96% of the 7,966 new WordPress vulnerabilities reported in 2024 were in plugins.
Works with your tools
ChurchSuite, online giving, newsletters and your live stream, placed where people expect them.
What it costs
New websitefrom £[ ]
Website care£[ ] a month
Questions churches ask us
Something else on your mind? Call +44 7493 598137 or email info@churchpillar.com.
We already have a free A Church Near You page. Why pay for a website?
Keep the A Church Near You page. It is free and people use it. It is a listing inside a national directory, laid out the same way for every church. Your own website sits at your own address, is designed around your church, and can rank in Google when someone searches for your church by name. Link each to the other so newcomers find you either way.
Will our volunteers be able to update it?
Yes. Everyday changes such as service times and news are made in the normal WordPress editor, and we show your team how in a short session.
Can you work with our existing website?
Yes. We can redesign it, take over its day-to-day management, or improve it for Google without rebuilding it. We start by looking at what you already have.
Do you guarantee first place on Google?
No, and nobody honest can. Google decides rankings. What we can do is fix the things that stop local searches finding your church, such as service times that only appear inside an image, or a Google Business Profile with no opening hours.
How long does a new website take?
[Typical timeline, for example a number of weeks from the first call to launch]
Tell us about your church
Send your current website address if you have one. We look at it before we talk, so the call is about your church rather than general advice.
- We reply within [one working day] to arrange a call.
- We look at your current site and come to the call with specific suggestions.
- You get a written plan and price. Nothing is built until you agree.
Book a free call
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