What Layout Works Best for a Church Website on WordPress?
A website is a digital greeting card that can be used to spread the good news and to communicate with prospective customers and members. Websites can range from being totally free to having a costly monthly fee, but regardless of the price, they always come with a handful of features that make them more suitable for certain purposes than others.
One feature that can be used to effectively communicate the mission and message of the church is the layout of the site. Depending on how you want your church to be perceived, you can make a decision between a few different options that work well for a church website on WordPress. Below, you’ll discover 4 different types of layouts that are proven to be effective and popular among WordPress users.
The Classic Layout
This is the most popular layout among WordPress users. It is based on the idea that large sites often contain more content than can comfortably fit on a single page. To tackle this, the classic layout interweaves content from multiple pages onto a single web page. When a user visits any one of the pages in the site, they will see a continuous string of content.
The downside to this arrangement is that it can make the site difficult to navigate. If a user is viewing a blog post, for example, and wants to quickly jump to the contact details or to another part of the site, they will have to skip a couple of posts to do so. This breaks the otherwise smooth flow of reading through the content in a linear fashion.
The Mega Menu Layout
This mode of organization is designed to give the user a lot of choice when it comes to accessing the information on the site. It is similar to the traditional layout, but instead of one long page, it uses a series of interlinked pages. Each individual page is a mini-site in its own right, and when a user visits the mega-menu, they will see a drop-down menu that displays all the pages, as well as the posts, videos, and other types of content that appear on that page. This means that as soon as a user visits the homepage, they will see a prominent menu offering them easy access to the rest of the site.
The downside to this mode of organization is that it takes up more space than the traditional or the blog layouts. If you decide to go with this option, make sure that you have the requisite number of pages to keep track of all the content that is accessible via the mega-menu. This could be an issue if you are tight on storage because the more pages you have, the faster your server will struggle to serve them all. If this is the case, you might want to consider alternative layouts below.
The Slider Layout
This mode of organization makes it easier for the user to quickly skim through the content on the site. Similar to the blog layout, each individual page in a slider website is a self-contained mini-site, but instead of just posts, the slider page contains a massive amount of content, including videos, infographics, and other types of content that can be used to inform or entertain the user. When a user visits the page, the content will automatically play, as if they were watching a YouTube video.
This mode of organization has the advantage of being quick and easy to set-up and maintain, as well as being highly flexible. You can use the slider to display all the posts from one of your blogs or you can use it to showcase related products and services offered by your church. You can also use it to display upcoming events, or to showcase content that is more suitable for a particular demographic.
The downside to this mode of organization is that you will have to ensure that all the content within the slider is appropriate for the general public. If you are going to be using the site to inform potential customers of your church, you will have to walk the line between entertaining and educating them. You’ll also have to make sure that you don’t overuse the format, as it can quickly become tacky if you do so.
The Tower Layout
This option gives the user the feeling that they are entering a sacred space. It is named after the famous leaning tower of Pisa, Italy, constructed in the early 12th century. This distinctive shape is considered an archetype of the media shrine, and it was first applied to websites in the late 1990s.
The tower layout places the focus squarely on the content that is being displayed. It uses a small circle as the basis of the design, placing emphasis on strong typography, bold colors, and a minimal navigation bar. In addition to the content, the circle also contains an area for capturing and storing digital signatures as a way of proving authenticity. The area might also contain a QR code or a button that can be used to link to the website of your church or a related organization.
This layout is appropriate for churches that want to be seen as prominent and authoritative figures in their respective field. It is also ideal for those churches that want to set themselves apart from other organizations and institutions in their field. If you decide that this is the type of look that you want for your church’s website, be sure to enlist the help of a professional web designer.
The downside to this layout is that it takes up a lot of space, and it is not meant to be mobile-friendly. If you are tight on storage space, the tower layout might not be for you.
With the various layouts that WordPress offers, you can make a decision on which one is the best suited for your church’s website. The most suitable option will depend on the amount of content that you have, as well as the nature of the content itself. If you have a fairly small number of pages, the classic layout will be the simplest to set-up and most flexible to use. The downside is that if you have a lot of content, it might be easier to build the slider or the tower because they are more efficient use of storage space. The price to pay for this efficiency, however, is that the classic layout might become more difficult to navigate if you have a lot of content.
Choosing a WordPress layout is not an exact science, and it largely depends on the nature of the content and the size of the church. If you would like to learn more, you can browse through the numerous tutorials and walkthroughs that are available online.