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We\u2019re continuing our series 30 Stories from 30 Years with an updated story about Crosspointe Church which we first published in 2012\u2026<\/p>\n
Making sure people can find your church in the search engines is important for any church, but it can be difficult if your church isn\u2019t located close to the center of town, you have a new website, or the church just created it\u2019s listings in Google and Bing.<\/p>\n
So, how do you overcome such\u00a0obstacles?<\/p>\n
Crosspointe is a Christian church in Sanger, California\u00a0with its campus located in the grapevines of\u00a0Fresno County. \u00a0Their mission is \u201cConnecting people to God and to each other\u201d. \u00a0The members of Crosspointe seek to accomplish this mission both through personal ministry and by having a strong online presence.<\/p>\n
We\u2019ve been honored to be able to work with Dr. Crocker and Crosspointe to live out their mission online.<\/p>\n
I asked Dr. Greg Crocker, pastor of Crosspointe Church, to share with us why they decided to do search engine optimization (SEO) for their church\u2019s website and what their experience has been with it. Here\u2019s what he had to say:<\/p>\n
It is difficult to find a quality SEO team for churches. You can find people that do SEO, and people that understand church, but very rarely a thorough knowledge of both.\u00a0<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n Click to share this image on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest or Instagram <\/p>\n Very few secular companies understand the terminology of the Christian world \u2013 you can end up with all kinds of weird and even malicious link building, on-page SEO, and more. We were so glad to find Kurt and the team at OurChurch.com\u00a0because we\u2019ve had numerous bad experiences with other\u00a0companies (some of which were quite large).<\/em><\/p>\n One SEO company actually worsened our positions in the search\u00a0engines \u2013 we think it may have been sabotage, but were at\u00a0least able to cut loose from them, and I believe Kurt and the\u00a0team at OurChurch.com repaired the damage they had done,\u00a0and we are now back on track.<\/em><\/p>\n OCC\u2019s quality SEO technicians have a thorough understanding of the\u00a0area they are working in \u2013 in this case, churches. OurChurch.com\u00a0is run by solid Christian people that not only attend various\u00a0churches in the area, but also work with many churches around\u00a0the U.S. They understand exactly what churches need to do with\u00a0their SEO.<\/em><\/p>\n The internet has replaced the phone book (remember those?) as the place people start looking for a new church.\u00a0 SEO can get you on the first page of local results \u2013 kind of like getting a better ad spot in the phone book. The top three spots on in the search results get the most clicks, and it takes good SEO to get there.<\/p>\n Crosspointe has members who live in Fresno, CA and they wanted to reach out to Frenso, but the church is located in Sanger, CA, a city adjacent to lager city of Fresno. \u00a0One of the ways Crosspointe chose to overcome the obstacle of not being at the center of one of the cities they wanted to reach was through citations.<\/p>\n Citations (sometimes called local listings) are listings or mentions of the church with their contact information.<\/p>\n Citations often provide links and they serve to reinforce for the search engines that the church exists at that location and that the church is relatively popular (it\u2019s being mentioned a lot around the web).<\/p>\n By getting citations for Crosspointe Church we were able to regain search rankings they had lost previously and start to rank in the top 10 for Fresno related keywords, like \u201cChurches in Fresno\u201d and \u201cFresno churches\u201d.<\/p>\n The folks at Crosspointe are a bold Christian congregation. \u00a0While the church has a long and rich heritage, they decided they could better achieve their mission of connecting people to God and to each other by making some changes in the church, including changing their name. \u00a0This kind of change usually carries with it some challenges within the congregation and the community, but there was one other challenge they soon discovered\u2026online.<\/p>\n Around the web there were dozens and dozens listings and references to the church under it\u2019s old name. \u00a0This was not only confusing for people searching for a church, but actually hurt the church in the search engines. \u00a0So, one of the tasks we took on was updating the listings the church had under their old name to the new name.<\/p>\n This was a team effort. \u00a0OurChurch.com was able to find and change many of the listings and Greg and his congregation were able to find some and were very helpful in verifying the church information for the sites.<\/p>\n This is something many organizations don\u2019t realize \u2013 your contact information maybe listed on many websites even if you didn\u2019t specifically put it on those websites. \u00a0So, if you change your name, location, phone number, or web address, you need to go around and find the various places online that are listing the old contact info and get it changed to the new information.<\/p>\n If you happen to be in the area, be sure to visit Crosspointe Church in Sanger, CA.<\/p>\n This article was originally published back in 2012. OurChurch.com and Crosspointe continued to work together after more than a decade to help Crosspointe reach people in the Sanger, CA area.<\/p>\n Eventually, Dr. Crocker retired from Crosspointe and the new leadership discontinued their SEO service, but we continue to share the story of how God worked through Crosspointe and OCC to reach people in Sanger and Fresno with the good news.<\/p>\n If you and your church would like help with your citations and church SEO, we would love to chat more with you about that.<\/p>\n Fill out the form below (mobile) or to the right (desktop) to schedule a complimentary discovery call.<\/strong><\/p>\n Read more of our 30 Stories from 30 Years<\/p>\n OurChurch.Com Director of Marketing Services<\/strong><\/p>\n Kurt serves as OurChurch.Com\u2019s Director of Marketing Services, bringing over 20 years of expertise in search marketing, and has developed numerous marketing services and served hundreds of churches, schools, ministries, and businesses.<\/span><\/p>\n He has authored more than 500 articles on the subject, contributing to platforms like the Christian SEO Guys blog and Church Marketing University, and is an active participant on <\/span>LocalSearchForum.com<\/span>.<\/span><\/p>\n In addition to his professional accomplishments, Kurt is an ordained minister, serving as pastor at <\/span>Faith Lutheran Church in Wesley Chapel, FL<\/span>, demonstrating his commitment to both faith and community. He holds a Bachelor\u2019s Degree and a Master\u2019s Degree from Georgia Southern University. He also holds a Specific Ministry Pastor Certificate and a General Pastor Certificate from Concordia Seminary. <\/span><\/p>\nWhy do churches need SEO?<\/strong><\/h4>\n
Targeting Fresno<\/strong><\/h4>\n
What\u2019s in a Name?<\/strong><\/h4>\n
Seasons Change\u2026<\/strong><\/h4>\n
Your Church SEO Outreach Partner<\/h4>\n
Comment and Discuss<\/h4>\n
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