A new year is a natural time to take stock.
We make resolutions about things we’d like to improve, habits we’d like to change and things we’ve been meaning to get around to. So why not take a fresh look at your synagogue website, too?
You don’t necessarily need a complete redesign. Sometimes a few thoughtful changes can make a significant difference in how useful your website is to current members and how effectively it introduces your congregation to people who don’t know you yet.
Here are five synagogue website resolutions worth making — no matter what year it happens to be.
Resolution #1: Take an Honest Look at Your Website
It’s easy to stop noticing your own website.
Staff members see it every day. You know where everything is. You know which pages are outdated, which button you’re supposed to click and which information is technically wrong but “everyone knows” the correct answer.
A visitor doesn’t have any of that context.
Spend some time looking at your website as though you’ve never seen it before.
Does it still accurately represent your congregation? Does the design feel current? Is the navigation easy to understand? Does the homepage communicate who you are, or has it gradually become a collection of announcements?
Most importantly, if someone were considering joining your synagogue, would the website give them an authentic sense of the community they’d find when they walked through your doors?
A website doesn’t need to be redesigned simply because it reaches a certain age. But if it no longer reflects your congregation or serves the people using it, that’s a good reason to consider what needs to change.
Resolution #2: Keep Your Website Current
An outdated website doesn’t just look neglected. It becomes less useful.
If visitors repeatedly encounter old events, incorrect service times or information that is clearly no longer relevant, they learn that they can’t rely on the website.
And once current members stop trusting it as a source of information, getting them to come back can be difficult.
The solution isn’t necessarily to update the website constantly. It’s to have a plan for keeping the information that does change current.
Who is responsible for removing an event after it happens? Who updates service schedules? Who changes staff information when someone joins or leaves? Who makes sure a holiday that’s three months past is no longer being promoted on the homepage?
Sometimes the most important website improvement a synagogue can make isn’t technical at all.
It’s deciding who is responsible for it.
Resolution #3: Learn How People Are Actually Using Your Website
It’s easy to make assumptions about what people do on your website.
Analytics can help you replace some of those assumptions with actual information.
Which pages receive the most traffic? How are people finding your website? Are visitors primarily using phones or computers? Which pages do people visit first? Are there important pages that hardly anyone seems to find?
The numbers don’t tell you everything, and they shouldn’t dictate every website decision. A page can be important even if it doesn’t receive enormous traffic.
But analytics can reveal patterns worth paying attention to.
If your clergy pages are among the most visited pages on the site, for example, take another look at them. Are they doing a good job introducing your clergy and their personalities?
If an important membership page receives very little traffic, perhaps the problem isn’t the content. Maybe visitors simply aren’t being given enough opportunities to find it.
Use website data as another tool for understanding what your visitors need.
Resolution #4: Take Better Photographs of Your Community
Few things have as much impact on a synagogue website as good photography.
Your website can say that your congregation is warm, welcoming and filled with meaningful relationships.
A great photograph can show it.
Whenever possible, use authentic photographs of your own community: people talking after services, children learning, adults studying together, families celebrating, clergy interacting with congregants and volunteers working side by side.
The photographs don’t need to show enormous crowds or perfectly staged moments. In fact, smaller interactions often communicate a stronger sense of community.
Quality matters, too. Dark, blurry or badly cropped photographs can undermine an otherwise beautiful website.
Make it a goal to regularly capture strong images throughout the year. Don’t wait until you need a new homepage photograph to discover that no one has taken one.
Your congregation is creating moments worth showing all the time. Make sure someone is documenting them.
Resolution #5: Remember That Your Synagogue Is More Than Its Calendar
Synagogues are busy places.
There’s always another service, class, committee meeting, social event, fundraiser, speaker or holiday program to promote. It’s understandable that upcoming events gradually take over a synagogue website.
But your congregation is more than the next ten things on the calendar.
Someone who already belongs to the synagogue may primarily visit the website looking for practical information: What time is Shabbat? What’s happening this weekend? Where do I register?
Someone discovering your congregation for the first time is asking different questions.
Who are these people? What do they care about? What does it feel like to be part of this community? Would I belong here?
Your website needs to serve both audiences.
Continue promoting what’s happening. But make sure there’s also room for your clergy, your values, your approach to Jewish life, your learning opportunities and the relationships that make your congregation a community.
Your website shouldn’t just tell people what’s happening at your synagogue.
It should help them understand why they might want to be part of it.
A Fresh Look Doesn’t Have to Mean Starting Over
Improving your synagogue website doesn’t have to become an enormous project.
Maybe this is the year you finally organize the navigation. Maybe you replace outdated photographs. Maybe you clean up pages that haven’t been touched in years. Maybe you start paying attention to your analytics. Maybe you rethink a homepage that has slowly turned into a bulletin board.
Or maybe, after taking that honest look, you decide it really is time for something new.
The important thing is to look at your website intentionally.
Ask whether it still represents the congregation you are today, whether it makes life easier for the people who already belong and whether it gives someone discovering you for the first time a reason to want to know more.
That’s a resolution worth keeping every year.