Is Your Parish Website Mobile-Friendly? Here’s Why It Should Be.

The majority of visitors to your parish’s website now come from their mobile devices. It’s true! Phone and tablet website navigation now out-paces computer use. This is super important to consider when it comes to your parish’s engagement strategy because, if people can’t easily navigate your site on their smartphone, they may miss Mass times, event information, or bulletins. To continue attracting visitors and welcoming newcomers, your website must be optimized for mobile so you can meet people where they are!

If you’re already scratching your head and thinking, “Oh no, I have to learn something new again!” don’t worry! Optimizing your site for mobile doesn’t have to be difficult or confusing — especially with WeConnect, our parish website builder.

Let’s get into it!

What is Mobile Optimization and How to Check Your Parish’s Site

“Mobile optimization” simply means that your website looks and works well not only on a computer screen, but also on a smartphone and tablet screen. Every website today needs to be optimized for mobile use.

To do a quick check to see if your parish website works well on a smartphone, simply grab your own phone, open your internet browser, and type in your web address. Once your parish’s website is open, view it with a discerning eye. Consider the following:

• Is the menu easy to find and navigate?
• Are the menu buttons big enough to easily click with your fingers without accidentally clicking the wrong ones?
• Have your text boxes and images scaled correctly on your pages to look good on your mobile view, or are they disjointed and out of place, or, in the case of images, too large?
• Do any of your webpage’s elements look out of place or cut off?
• Are there any other problems that make your site look “off”?

Take note of what the problems are and then repeat this exercise using a tablet. It’s a good idea to try it on a few different types of phones and tablets, too. For example, you might look at your site on an Apple product and then again on an Android product.

Once you have done this, you will have a better idea of what needs to change in your original design in order to optimize your site properly for mobile visitors.

Why Mobile Optimization for Your Website Matters

If your website looks polished on a computer but disjointed or messy on a phone or tablet, you may miss out on reaching a significant demographic of people with your message. In fact, you can also miss out on computer searches by having a website that isn’t optimized for mobile, because search engines like Google often prioritize mobile-friendly sites in their rankings — no matter where the search is being made from!

Consider this: when Catholics travel or move to a new home, they often start with an internet search to find a local parish. It’s common for a faithful Catholic to pull out their phone and search, “Catholic parishes near me,” or simply search for Catholic churches on a map application. Either way, their next step would likely be to click on the parish’s website. If your site isn’t ready for mobile visitors, the sad truth is that these folks might move on to the next church whose website is easier to navigate on mobile.

Don’t forget: mobile-friendly sites help ensure quick and easy access to:

• Mass times
• Event details
• Contact info
• Online giving or bulletin links
• Directions to your parish
• Ministry & sacramental info
• Resources someone might need
  
  

The Pitfalls of Desktop-Only Design

Some common issues that come up for people trying to navigate a website that isn’t optimized for mobile are:

• Images that scroll off-screen or are in the wrong location
• Tiny fonts or overlapping text
• Buttons and links out of place or hard to tap with a finger
• Menus that don’t show all options or are hard to find/navigate
• Tables within a website (sometimes used for Mass schedules, etc.) that are difficult to see or don’t scale correctly
• Embedded animations designed for a horizontal screen that may not look the same on a vertical one

To avoid these problems, every one of your website’s pages must be intentionally designed to serve both desktop and mobile visitors.

How WeConnect Makes It Easy

Church staff who use WeConnect to build and maintain their websites know that LPi’s powerful website-building platform automatically adjusts content they put on their pages to work for different screen sizes. WeConnect also includes tools like easy drag-and-drop design, multilingual options, mobile previews for both phone and tablet views, and templates that accommodate all of the above!

WeConnects powerful features make it easy to have a completely customized and mobile-friendly website that invites and supports your parish community without advanced coding skills. On top of that, a live WeConnect customer support team that is always ready to help as needed!

Tips for Mobile Website Success

To be totally sure that your website is ready for its mobile moment in the spotlight, consider the following:

• Keep your content to the point. Short paragraphs and bullet points work best for home pages and landing pages.
• Use fonts and font sizes that are easy to read on a mobile screen.
• Test your tables, images, and buttons on a phone before publishing.
• Include important links (Mass times, bulletins, online giving) before diving into paragraphs of text.
• Make buttons big enough to tap!
• Be sure your menu is collapsible and easy to reopen. This is best shown by 3 stacked horizontal lines in either the top left or top right of your mobile site.



If you haven’t reviewed your own website on your mobile phone and tablet, that’s the best place to start. Take note of what looks great and what needs to be fixed. If your website platform doesn’t offer a mobile preview option, consider switching to the powerful, easy-to-use WeConnect. Attend one of our free online demos to see how easy it is to create a mobile-friendly website for your parish.