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This article comes more from my work on the PR Committee for the District than as your Evangelism Executive. But it is a necessary topic to cover. The first step of outreach is awareness. In other words, the first step in having someone come to church is that person knowing you exist.
Growing up as a Geriatric Millennial (sometimes called a Xennial, the brief overlap of Gen X and Millennials), I saw the internet come into the home, first as dial up and then as broadband. Back then the internet was a much different place. When dial-up was king, websites had to be much more text based otherwise they would take a long time to load. Broadband changed the game. Graphics and pictures became king. And with this change came a rush in philosophy on how to position church websites to be seen on the internet.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) became a thing with Ask Jeeves, Yahoo, and Google. These search engines wanted to see lots of pictures on the website. But everyone had the same question, “how to describe the church?” So, everyone started plagiarizing everyone else. Every church was warm, inviting, vibrant, friendly, etc. Every pastor delivered “powerful, life-changing sermons, that were down to earth and relevant for your life” and had bios rivaling the greatest leaders of all time. The “three- click” rule became a thing, as did scroll depth (things long left in the past but people still hold as gospel sometimes). Websites stood out more for design than actual wording – that was the game that was given to be played. These were the rules told to churches from 2005-ish through 2023. Everyone looked and sounded like everyone else. Christianity became generic. But things have changed.
The advent of Large Language Models (LLM) (often referred to as AI) has changed the game, especially the website and SEO game. In fact, a new thing has been invented: Answer Engine Optimization (AEO). What is old has become new again, what was bad is now good. SEO/AEO want text. There still needs to be some pictures, but LLM’s do not read pictures (unless you fill out the alt-text, and if you are really on top of the game, change the file name).
What AEO and LLM assisted search engines found out is that if all churches sound similar it is hard to distinguish them. That said, reviews still play an important part in SEO and AEO, so the more reviews you can get the better. But even then, most reviews are pretty generic: “meaningful worship,” “great Bible study,” “friendly people.” All good things for reviews, but also very common.
So what to do? This is where who Lutherans are and what Lutherans do separates us from most of the churches we are surrounded with in Oklahoma. The buzzwords that used to make SEO gurus cry just a few years ago give LCMS churches an edge and a niche into which to lean.
Stop, let’s do a quick exercise to show the point. Open Google and in the search bar type, “tell me about [your church name here] in [your town], OK”. Was Google able to give any sort of summary of the church? Did it give any sort of dropdown menu with questions? Now, type in another prompt in Google, “evaluate [url of church’s website] SEO.” You might have to scroll down just a bit to find the answer. What did it say? Is it strong or weak? Are there many things to fix or a few? (Bonus query, ask “is Jesus
Christ (and the forgiveness of sins) is clearly portrayed on my church’s website?”).
Check out an example, in a new Google tab type in, “tell me about Christ Lutheran Church in Mustang, OK”. You are most likely to get a lot of information. At least I hope you are. I have been overhauling the website for over 18 months. If you want, in another Google tab type “evaluate christlutheranmustang.org SEO”.
Now, here is some good news: YOU do not need to spend 18 months learning about SEO and overhauling your website. Christ, Mustang sits in a suburb of Oklahoma City. In Mustang are at least two recognized mega churches (I would argue there are three), one of them being a Life Church site. Overhauling Christ’s website to stand out amongst the hundreds of churches in the OKC metro and the three mega churches next door needed a lot of refinement and learning. Also, part of why it took 18 months was following along with the weekly SEO workout put out by Rev. Christopher Jackson, aka the SEO Priest, for a year (sign up for his workouts if you want to really deep dive into this stuff). Chances are that if you are not living in the Tulsa or OKC metroplexes, a lot less work can go into your website.
And better news, you can do the shortcut route. Go back to the tab in which you had Google evaluate your website’s SEO and click on “Dive deeper with AI mode.” Once that pulls up start asking it, “how do I improve the SEO.” This is a good use of AI for the church, this is a responsible use of a tool. It should give you a list of things to start implementing and changing. You can ask it for a list of keywords to include, you might say something like, “we are an LCMS congregation that is liturgical, sings hymns, has a contemporary/modern service… what keywords would you suggest?” Ask it to help you build out an FAQ page or section (“What are questions people ask about churches?”). I found out that a common one people have around here is, “Are Lutherans Christian?” That question and answer became the first one on Christ’s FAQ! LLM’s and Google’s AI mode are great for this because people use them to ask about churches, so they will tell you what people are asking.
Do not feel like you must get it all changed in one go either. If your website has multiple pages, pick a page a day or every couple of days. Do the same thing for every page, “evaluate the SEO of christlutheranmustang.org/whatwebelieve” (only use your webpage). And on your Belief’s pages, get specific (or as Rev. Jackson puts it, “get weird!”). Putting a whole Creed on the Belief page was considered cringe just a few years ago (cringe means bad, out of touch, lame, etc.). Now, it sets you apart and highlights that Lutherans are connected to traditions spanning hundreds and thousands of years. I highly recommend using the Nicene Creed. Avoid generic heading label like “Baptism” but think about answering a question. Try using something like, “Our Teachings on Holy Baptism; Who Can Be Baptized.” Want to know what has great SEO/AEO because it is written in a clear and basic question and answer format? Luther’s Small Catechism! You can copy and paste whole sections of it from bookofconcord.cph.org and use it in your sections on Holy Baptism and Holy Communion.
Once you have updated a page have Google index the page (https://search.google.com/search-console). You must be the owner of your website. If you have not claimed your Google Business Profile, this might take a few days. Once you have it and can request indexing of your webpages, it is a powerful tool. Results show up usually within 24 hours of the request. This is probably the most technical part
of all this.
How to set it up:
1. Sign in to Google Search Console using a Google account.
2. Click Add property in the sidebar and choose either Domain (requires DNS
verification) or URL-Prefix (allows HTML file upload, HTML tag, or Google
Analytics).
3. Follow the on-screen instructions to add the verification token to your website's
backend or your domain host.
4. Click Verify to finalize your owner status.
If you have questions, Google can walk you through it.
If you have problems trying to implement a suggestion on improving the SEO/AEO, telling the Google AI what platform you use can usually help as well. For example, my congregation’s website uses SquareSpace. SquareSpace and Google do not always get along. In one case, Google was picking up wrong schema information and did not like it (schema is how information is organized on a website or webpage, usually written not to appear to the user but for search engines). I asked how to change it, but it took a couple of tries and suggestions from Google to get it nailed down. If Google does not
know how to fix it, reach out to the company that runs your website platform, they should be able to walk you through it.
Why is this important? Remember near the start of this article I mentioned I am a Geriatric Millennial? Like most of the people reading this article I remember the Yellow Pages coming to the house every six months to a year. If you needed to find a business, church, organization, etc. you pulled out that book. Now, I cannot remember the last time the Yellow Pages came to my house. Search engines (Google, Bing, Yahoo, etc.) are the places people go to find something. And increasingly LLM’s (ChatGPT, Claude,
Grok, etc.) are as well. If search engines and LLM’s cannot easily decipher your church’s page, it will not show up in search results. And if it looks like all the other churches because everyone is using the same script from 10 years ago, it fades even more into the background.
Sometimes I am asked, “isn’t having a website enough? All this other stuff seems like needless and extra work.” The internet is now your front door. If your physical campus looked overgrown, abandoned, and the lights were never on, would you expect somebody to stop by or come to a Divine Service?
Another part of this is to ask members to give reviews on Google. Ask them to use keywords (are you liturgical, offer in-depth Bible studies, have things for all ages, have things for families and kids, etc.). A sample review might go, “I’ve been a member of Our Savior Lutheran Church for 50 years. I love the reverent yet relaxed liturgical services. My grandchildren love VBS and Sunday School. Come join us!”
The SEO/AEO combined with a few reviews shows search engines and LLM’s that your doors are not only wide open with the lights on, but an active community is happening. And, if you are not in a major metroplex, you are not competing with a mega church, meaning your reviews have much more weight.
The start of school is right around the corner. Getting your church’s SEO/AEO up to snuff and getting some reviews will position your church perfectly for even later in the year when people are looking for Christmas events near them.
In short: Generic Christianity (Online) is dead. BE YOU! Let that LCMS Lutheran flag fly! Do not be afraid to stand out from the crowd. Chances are, in under a couple weeks’ time, your congregation could have the number one SEO/AEO result in your community. Which means when people look for a church, yours will be the first one suggested.
In Christ,
Rev. Daniel Ross
Evangelism Executive
