# Church Website A full public website for your church — beyond a single link-in-bio page: an About section, service times, upcoming events, ministries, a Visit Us section with directions, your latest message, and a "connect with us" form, generated automatically from data you already keep in HolyCRM. ## Turning it on Go to **Outreach → Church Website** and choose a look under **Website**: **Modern**, **Classic**, **Minimal** or **Premium**. Picking one turns the site on at a web address that's ready immediately — no address to set up first. Leaving it blank keeps the site off. ## Choosing a look - **Modern** — a bold, colorful landing page with rounded pill buttons and soft gradients. - **Classic** — a warm, serif-typeset layout that reads as traditional rather than "startup." - **Minimal** — plain type and generous whitespace, no cover photo, letting your message carry the page. - **Premium** — a more design-forward look with frosted-glass panels and subtle scroll animation. All four show the same information — pick whichever fits your church's personality, and switch any time without losing content. ## What shows on the page - **About** — the paragraph from **Website About Text**, plus your **Website Cover Photo** and logo. - **Service times and "Next"** — every weekly [Ministry Activity](#/ministries) you mark **Show on the website** is listed with its day, time and place, and the soonest one shows at the top as "Next", counted in your church's own time zone. If you haven't marked any, "Next" falls back to your next [Event](#/events) or weekly activity. - **Upcoming events** — your next [Events](#/events), with date, time and place. Give an event a **Description on the website** and a **Photo on the website** for a fuller card, and turn on **Sign-ups on the website** to add a **Register** button: people leave their name and an email or phone, and appear in [Event Registrations](#/events) as guests. - **Ministry cards** — once any ministry has a **Description on the website** or a photo, ministries show as cards instead of a simple list. - **Happening now** — while one of your service times is in progress, the cover shows "Happening now" instead of "Next", with a link to watch when you have a video. - **Ministries** — active ministries with their age range, so visitors can see what's available for their family before they even show up. - **Small groups** — every group you mark **Show in the group finder on our website** (in [Small Groups](#/groups)), with its day, time and public description. Visitors tap **I'm interested**, fill in the short form, and arrive in your [Visitors](#/visitors) list with the group noted. The host, the address and the group's notes are never shown. - **Leadership** — the pastors and leaders you add in the **Leadership** card, each with a photo, role and a few words. Only what you type there is shown, nothing from member records. - **What we believe**, **What to expect** (questions first-time visitors ask: parking, kids, how long the service lasts) and **Photos** (up to 12) — filled in on the Church Website screen. - **Visit us** — your **Website Address**, **Website Phone** and **Website Email**, with a Get Directions link. If your church has more than one [Location](#/church-settings) with its own address filled in, every location shows as its own card instead of a single block. - **Latest Message** — paste a YouTube or Vimeo link into **Website Latest Message Video** to embed your most recent message right on the page. Any other kind of link still shows as a plain "Watch" button instead of a broken embed. - **Connect with us** — the same short form as Church Links; whoever fills it in becomes a new [Visitor](#/visitors) in your follow-up list. - Your social links, reused from [Church Links](#/church-links). ## Make it yours Under **Make it yours** you can give your website a look no other church has, on top of whichever style you picked: - **Start from a style** — one tap sets a template, font, corners and background that go well together; **Shuffle** tries a random mix. Nothing changes for visitors until you press Save. - **Church colour** — pick any colour, or tap one of the colours taken from your logo. You'll see a warning if the colour is too light for white button text. - **Preview** — your real website, on a phone or a computer, updates as you change things. - **Font** — six font pairings; each tile shows its letters so you can compare. - **Tagline** — a short line under your church's name on the cover. - **Logo** — round (cropped to a circle), its original shape, or **Wordmark** for a logo that already includes your church's name, so the name isn't written twice. - **Corners** — square, rounded or pill-shaped buttons and cards. - **Background** — warm cream paper, or a light tint of your church colour. Both have a matching dark mode. - **Main button on the cover** — Plan a visit, Watch the latest message, Give or Connect. - **Sections** — change their order, rename a heading (the menu uses your name too), or hide one. A section with nothing to show is left out on its own. **Connect with us** always stays, since it's where visitors leave their details. ## Search & sharing Under **Search & sharing** on the Church Website screen you control how your site appears on Google and when someone shares its link: - **Search & share description** — one or two sentences (up to 160 characters) that Google shows under your church's name and that link previews use. Write it for someone who has never heard of your church: who you are, where you meet, what to expect. If you leave it blank, the start of your About text is used. - **Share image** — the picture shown when someone shares your website link. It's cropped to a wide 1200 × 630 shape, so a photo of your congregation or building works better than a logo. If you leave it blank, your cover photo (or your logo) is used. - **Hide my website from search engines** — asks Google, Bing and other search engines not to list your website. Anyone with the link can still open it. Turn this on if your church needs to stay private, for example where Christians face persecution. **Tip — preview it yourself.** Paste your website or Church Links address into Facebook's [Sharing Debugger](https://developers.facebook.com/tools/debug) (you'll need to sign in with a Facebook account) and click **Debug**. It shows the title, description and picture that Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp read from your page. After changing your description or share image, wait about a minute and click **Scrape Again** so Facebook picks up the new version. For step-by-step help getting your church onto Google and Google Maps, see [Getting Found on Google](#/getting-found). Changes can take a few days to show up on Google, since it only revisits your site from time to time. ## Seeing how it's doing The **Your website** banner on the Church Website screen shows the live URL, a view count, and a QR code for print materials — separate from Church Links' own banner, since they're two different pages people can visit. ## Using your own domain Instead of a holycrm.app address, you can point your church's own domain (like www.yourchurch.org) at your website — or your Church Links page, if you haven't turned on a website yet. 1. Go to **Settings → Custom Domain** (or **Set up custom domain** on the Church Website screen) and enter your domain — usually with a "www." in front. (A bare domain with no "www," like yourchurch.org, needs DNS support most domain providers don't offer for free.) Save. 2. Click **Connect domain**. You'll see a DNS record to add — pass it along to whoever manages your domain (your registrar, or your church's IT volunteer) and have them add it exactly as shown. 3. Click **Check status** until it shows **✓ Connected** — this usually takes a few minutes once the DNS record is live, but can take a few hours depending on your domain provider. 4. For a "www." domain, also add the record under **Make it work without "www"** (an A record for @). It doesn't affect your email. Then yourchurch.org opens www.yourchurch.org too, over a secure (https) connection. Once connected, visiting your own domain shows your website (or Church Links page) directly — no holycrm.app address needed. The links and QR codes on the Church Website, Church Links, Giving Methods and Prayer Requests screens switch to your domain too. ### Custom code Once your own domain is connected, a church **admin** can add code from other tools at the bottom of the Church Website screen, under **Custom code**. For example: - **Analytics**: Google Analytics, Microsoft Clarity, Plausible, a Meta Pixel. - **A chat widget**: Tawk.to, Crisp, a WhatsApp button. - **Verification files**: the small file a service asks you to upload, such as `BingSiteAuth.xml` for Bing Webmaster Tools or `google….html` for Google Search Console. Add the file's name and paste its contents. Paste each tool's code where its setup guide says: most say "in the ``". Chat widgets usually go before ``. Changes show on your website within a minute. Good to know: - It only runs on your own domain. It doesn't run on the holycrm.app address or in the preview, so check it on your domain after saving. - It isn't added to the giving and prayer request pages. - Only admins see this section; coordinators can edit the rest of the website. - Only paste code from services you trust: it can change your website and see what visitors type into it. - You don't need to upload `robots.txt` or `sitemap.xml`; they are made for you.