SEO, Search Engine Optimization - "LET YOUR LIGHT SO SHINE" - How to increase web exposure for your ministry

SEVEN STEPS TO INCREASE YOUR CHRISTIAN MINISTRY'S INTERNET TRAFFIC

Tomorrow I am preaching on Matthew 5:16 "Let your light (so) shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in Heaven."  How does this apply to Web Evangelism or Christian Internet Ministry?

You may have a wonderful ministry or message but if no one knows about it, your influence is limited.
We can make decisions and put a plan in place to increase our exposure of our ministry or message for the glory of God!

HOW TO HAVE MORE PEOPLE FIND YOUR CHURCH OR MINISTRY WEBSITE OR

SEVEN STEPS TO INCREASE YOUR INTERNET TRAFFIC:

1) Review and implement the basics of Search Engine Optimization

A great place to start is Google's Search Engine Optimization Starter Guide found HERE

This covers the SEO basics in a concise way so I will not repeat all the basics here but please do download the guide and apply it. This is the most important of my seven steps for Christian SEO. You can also do a simple Google search and find hundreds of helpful articles. I also suggest going to YOUTUBE and subscribe to Google Webmasters video subscription and also search their videos - I find the visual format easier to learn from.

2) Stay current in the constantly changing world of Internet

I suggest that you subscribe to OurChurch.com's email list. I don't know them personally but I have followed them for years and believe they are an outstanding resource.  Below is a video by Kurt Steinbrueck, Director of marketing services with OurChurch.Com with a Seo update.

May SEO Update: Google Makes Big Changes!

3) Focus on your niche as you plan and update your pages. 

Instead of trying to be the number one Christian Website in the world, focus on your niche. Keep it narrow. Consider what search terms will people use and include them on your website.  Use Google's keyword planner and also include other pertinent search terms on your website. Don't forget to include your locality if this is important for you. As an example a church or a local ministry needs to show up in local searches such as "Church + city" or "Type of Ministry + city". It is more important to be found by those looking for your services in your particular location so list your city several times. I.E. people will search "Baptist Church" + Chicago as opposed to just "Baptist Church".

4) Get help but make sure they are not cheating! 

Many services will offer SEO help or guarantee page views but it is important that they do this through legitimate means. Google will penalize a website that takes shortcuts to get artificial links or artificial page views. Google has also increased their ability to figure this out. If you don't have technical knowledge it is worth the investment to get some help.

5) Make sure you add Social Media features to your website. 

Make it easy for people to share on Facebook etc.  Also keep the material on your website fresh - if it stays the same there is no reason for people to come back. The easiest way to do this is to include a Ministry Blog. You can assign different people to write articles or to give updates. It is also now fairly easy to include videos without a lot of technical knowledge. Remember a quality video can usually better connect to the heart of an individual than just words...

6) Consider advertising. 

Google Ads are a great way to get the word out to your targeted audience.

7) BONUS - ADDITIONAL WAYS TO ACHIEVE HIGH SEARCH ENGINE RANKINGS.

I have been very blessed to achieve high search engine rankings in spite of the fact that I have two glaring weaknesses that are very important to search engines. I do not have a massive amount of traffic and I also have not been updating my websites as often as I should. In spite of this, if you do a web search for the following terms you will see that I am at the top of the results that include millions of websites: "Internet Ministry", "Christian Internet Ministry", "Web Evangelism", etc.  also "Internet minister" and "web evangelist".

I have been an urban missionary for over thirty years. I have long thought that the Internet is an exciting vehicle with awesome potential to empower Christians to share their faith and also a powerful way to share the GOOD NEWS! I feel the Lord has given me some good ideas, experience, gifts, and skills to eventually have a powerful web ministry for the kingdom. In order for this to happen, the Lord will have to provide funding for me and these endeavors. The Lord has not done this yet so I don't believe I should try to force things but wait on his timing.  In the mean time, while I am waiting for the Lord to provide, I am using wisdom to prepare for that time. I figured when I am ready and have the volunteers or staff in place to recruit volunteers I would want a high ranking when someone searches "Internet Ministry", "Christian Internet Ministry", or "Web Evangelism". I also know that in the future I would want to be known as a "Web Evangelist" or an "Internet Minister". (This does not necessarily mean I would leave urban ministry but that I would be adding Internet Ministry to our ministry endeavors. Currently I am able to invest very little time in this and would appreciate your prayers for this to change, if it is HIS Will).

Anyway, I set up some websites with these specific goals in mind. One thing that I figured, even though I don't think I read it anywhere, is that the search engines are probably not playing entirely fair, but probably favor their own company in the search engine results. So I decided to use Yahoo as my hosting company (knowing that Yahoo would notice my site in their search engine results) and then I started this blog on Blogger (a Google company, knowing that Google would probably favor their site) I then cross promoted these two sites and was blessed with very high ranking websites.

I paid particular attention to the back side of my website. Naming the pages, files, and pictures names that pertained to my desired niches. This also included the alt tags with descriptive information on my niches. I also secured these particular terms on major websites: ie my youtube channel is internetminister. My email on google is: webevangelist, on microsoft (hotmail) it is internetminister. On facebook, my page is internetminister etc. and then cross promote (I provide my own high quality cross links). Often when I write an article or a webpage I do it with SEO in mind even though some concepts might be repeated in different ways...  Now sites like ChristianInternetMinistry.com, InternetMinister.org (terribly outdated), webevangelist.blogspot.com, and Christ Cares' Internet Ministry page  all have very high search engine results in Internet Ministry results.

A PRACTICAL STEP I PLAN ON TAKING, rethinking my above thoughts and also reinforced by OurChurch.com's Blog as well as by a wonderful seminar by Tony Chen of movement121.com that I attended earlier this week is to USE GOOGLE CIRCLES because it is having increasing influence on Google's search engine's results.

Anyway, I hope this is a help, drop me a line if it is...

Now, pause, & pray for wisdom and then invest some time in making changes on your website so you can better share the GOOD NEWS!

Best Wishes,

Web Evangelist and Internet Minister Scott Reese

Web Evangelist Report from Moody Bible Institute's 125th Anniversary Celebration

On Saturday, October 1, 2011 I had the privilege of attending Moody Bible Institute's 125th Anniversary Celebration.

This event not only celebrated Moody's rich spiritual heritage, but Moody's President, J. Paul Niquist, also took a strategic look to the future. Rev. Nyquist identified FOUR MEGA TRENDS THAT DEFINE OUR RAPIDLY CHANGING WORLD.

The first trend mentioned was GLOBALIZATION.

• "The world is flat & increasingly interconnected through a wireless mobile web."
• One fourth of the world's population is online - 1.7 Billion People!
• Two thirds of the 4 billion mobile phone contracts are in the emerging world. - if half of these soon become web enabled, it would add another 1 billion people to the web.

Other trends mentioned were URBANIZATION and SECULARIZATION. The world is flocking to cities -soon there will be 33 mega cities with a population of over 10 million. The fastest growing "religious" group in America are those who have no religious beliefs.

I was thrilled to hear a respected Evangelical leader list the world's growing Internet population as the first consideration for strategic future ministry. Not that long ago it seemed like few leaders had this foresight. 

As Christian Leaders and Pastors begin to see the awesome potential of  Web Evangelism  and Christian Internet Ministry   I hope they will be willing to invest financial resources into Internet Ministry endeavors. 

The harvest is plenteous, but the laborers are few. Let's pray that the Lord of the harvest will send laborers into His harvest field. The harvest field is unimaginably  large and I believe there is great potential to recruit laypeople who would be willing to share their faith online if they were instructed and empowered on how to do it. 

A strategic missing piece of the puzzle are Web Evangelists and Internet Ministers to invest their time and talent tackling this problem. Too often the large churches and Christian non profits have the expansion of their ministry as the priority of their web endeavors. Important goals of Web Evangelism should be 1) sharing the GOOD NEWS of the gospel to the lost, 2) mobilizing & inspiring the multitude of Christians who spend many hours a day on Facebook to reach out in love to the world. Please see http://christianinternetministry.com ( a ministry of ChristCares.org) for more information or to make a financial donation.

I believe a third strategic goal for Internet Ministry is to encourage other believers - praying for them and collaborating on ministry projects see ChristianInternetMinistry.com for more info.

Rev. Nyquist also shared that there is tremendous growth in the Christian Church around the world. In 1917 there was only an estimated 11,000 (evangelical) Christians in all of South America, now there is 90 million! Africa now has 182 million Christians and Kenya has a 45% Evangelical Christian population. There is great revival in Korea and China now has 125 million Christians. With the possible exception of the Chinese, there are ways that the American Church can reach out in love and encouragement through the Internet to these fellow Christians. I believe the Lord has given me vision and ideas how this could be done to some degree. At this point I am praying and asking God to provide the funding if he wants me to invest more time into Internet Ministry. I'd appreciate your prayer and comments - Web Evangelist Scott Reese - WebEvangelist@gmail.com 

Web Evangelist update - New Internet Ministry opportunities for missions

The Internet is fast becoming more accessible to the world's poorest 3 billion.

This presents many obvious opportunities for missions.

Also, many people wish they could go back in time to develop key social networking, local activities and informational websites. Being first to set something in place gives you a key advantage. Christians now have a wonderful opportunity to develop key bridgesites (see bridgesites.org) in the emerging markets of Africa, Asia, and South America. Visit http://christianinternetministry.com/ to donate, collaborate, or to get ideas for Web Evangelism and Internet Ministry.

Please view CNN's video report on the O3B Initiative:



Contact Web Evangelist and Internet Minister Scott Reese at WebEvangelist@gmail.com

Another helpful Christian website with information on a soon to be developed Christian Social Network and along with a witnessing bridgesite social networking site can be found: HERE

Why support a Web Evangelist?

Why support a Web Evangelist? Lesson 1

From: InternetMinister, 5 hours ago

Christian Internet Ministry

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A preview of http://christianinternetministry.com/

Lesson 1. Why Christian Internet Ministry is important. By Internet Minister Scott Reese. Web Evangelism presentation.


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A tax deductible monthly donation of only $5 a month can make a difference and empower Reconciliation Resource Ministries (ChristCares.org), a Christian 501c3 non profit organization, to develop its Web Evangelism endeavors.

Please see, ChristianInternetMinistry.com for more information.

Search terms to help people find this Web Evangelism Blog by Web Evangelist Scott Reese: web evangelist, web ministry, web evangelism, internet evangelism, Internet Ministry, Christian Internet Ministry, Online Ministry, Scott Reese, Christian blogging, missions, internet minister, Internet missionary.

Web Evangelist Scott Reese update

I want to thank the many people who have prayed for me. I hope many of my "old readers" put me in their Christian RSS list since I have not written in a long time.

I praise God for his goodness and his mercy! I posted on my website a brief summary of the miraculous way God has been merciful to me: HERE

I still have a great interest and passion for Web Evangelism and see how the Internet could be used in powerful ways for the kingdom.

I have not been able to share this vision well or perhaps it is not God's timing yet because I have not been able to secure funding for these endeavors.

On a weekly basis I spend an evening at the Roseland Christian Ministries homeless shelter for ladies and their children. I have a wonderful time sharing Gods love to 25 to 85 children (and I strongly recommend this ministry). Anyway, if I share this or other of my urban ministry endeavors with Christians, there seems to be understanding, interest, and a desire to help.

That is contrasted to blank stares or a chuckle when when I share that Internet Ministry can be used in a powerful and inexpensive way to get the gospel to the lost. I also think it's greatest potential could be to build "community" within a congregation and also as a tool for Christians with similar passions to colaberate for the kingdom. Also think of how the Internet and camera phones can connect us with our missionaries...

It dawned on me that part of the reason I have been "a voice crying in the wilderness" for the past 7 years or so is because I really haven't shared the vision in a clear way. It is crystal clear in my own mind, but when I talk about the need for Web Evangelists most people are thinking in terms of their church website ... and I agree that usually is not something to get too excited about!

I decided the best way to share this vision was to put it in DVD form. I got off to a good start but now my DVD drive is not working properly, my computer has slowed along with an error message that my "hard drive is about to fail". Soooooooo I definately would appreciate your prayers for me as I try to finish up this project.

I also would be interested in any input on how to best cast a vision for web evangelism / ministry in a way that would be understood, especially by the over 40 crowd.

You can contact me, Rev. Scott Reese at: webevangelist@gmail.com