This is a pretty big move from page 15 where it was two days ago.  There is a strong possibility that it will move back or disappear.  Another interesting thing is that the site has already recieved a little traffic.  Here is a picture of the statcounter results:

How did these people find the site?  One of them came as a result of a comment I made on another blog.  The other two came because they did a Google search for “christian blogs” and this site showed up on Page 2 in position 11:

How is this information useful?  To build some intitial traffic to the site I will continue to leave comments on other blogs that are on topic with our new blog.  I will also add the keyword “Christian Blogs” in several spots on the home page of the site.  Anytime we see a keyword phrase that people are using that pulls up the site, we will try and capitalize on that by increasing our use of the leyword phrase where we can.

Church Blog has made a quick showing at the bottom of page 4 in position 39:

This initial result will probably change dramatically for the worse over the next season of time.  It would not be unusual for the new site to actually quit showing up at all on Google for a few months or more.  Once the site is a little older it will generally become more steady as a result and we can focus on moving the site up to page 1.

Christian Blog is quite a bit farther back.  We found it on page15 in position 144:

The question for some might be, “How do you get the site to page 1?”.  Good question.  There are three major factors when it comes to search engine optimization; time, links, and content.  Time will take care of itself.  Content comes in the form of imformative articles written on the site.  Links have to be developed from other sites.  The links are the most difficult part of the equation and we will discuss the process of developing links in the weeks ahead.  We will be working on the content part over the next couple of weeks.  Our task will be to write five original articles for each site.  After that we will take another look and see how the sites are doing.

We have set up the blogs in very similar ways and we have pointed a couple of links at the blogs so that we could get them indexed by Google.  They are now indexed and we have added five articles on each site.  These articles are about some of our other blogs and have been placed on the sites just to offer something for people who find the sites early to read.  These articles are duplicates (Duplicate content is generally a no-no on blogs, and we would never copy other people’s content, but this is our own original content and is being used as a place holder more than anything.  While duplicate content doesn’t count with Google, it is not counting against us and so it is a way to put something on a new site), and we have also added some RSS feeds for the same reason.

The next phase of this project will be writing 5 original articles on each of the sites.  These articles will be on topic and will be about 300 words each.  We will also be commenting on sites that are similar to the ones we are starting.  This is a good way to try and develop some initial traffic.  It is our hope that by following this series of articles, you will be able to learn a lot about getting your own sites noticed.

Our Key West Vineyard Community Church site is now very close to being complete.  We have added some of the finishing touches that make a site functional.  All of the important information about the church is available on the front page.  This includes the times of the services, phone number, address, and a map to the church.    We have added some pictures do that people who visit the church after visiting the website will have an immediate connection.  We have started a church blog.  We have also linked to some other websites by RSS which provide constant fresh content to the site.  Here are a couple of screen shots of the site today:

The site has also been indexed by Google and is showing up on the search engines.  It is currently in position 2 of page 1:

In our next phase of development of the site we will begin to utilize the blog to get the site to show up on more general Google searches.  We will try to get the site to show up as a result for “Key West Churches” and “Churches in Key West”.  This process is called Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and it is an important part of being a church webmaster.

• A copy of your bulletin
• A list of your service times and days
• Address and phone number
• Information about your staff
• Your vision and or mission statement
• Statement of Faith
• A logo if you have one

If you were talking to someone about your church, how would you answer the following questions?

• What is your church like?
• What is the music like?
• What is the atmosphere like?
• Is your church casual or formal?
• Do you have children and youth programs?

Add any other information you would like people to know about your church. Would you like to start a blog for your church? This is a great way to help your website get traffic from the Internet. You can write the occasional article (two or three times a month) and ask people that are on your staff, or volunteer, or attend  to write the occasional 200- 300 word article about your church. If you are interested in a blog, we have a couple of different solutions both of which are no extra charge. One solution is that we we will start a free blogger.com blog for you and teach you how to use it. The other option is that you email us your articles and we add them to your site.

We also need some pictures of your church (inside, outside, staff, congregation, worship team, choir, etc). If you have a digital camera and are comfortable with getting the pictures on to your computer and emailing them then do that. If that is going to slow down the process, go to your local drug store and buy a disposal flash camera with 27 exposures. Take the pictures and then return the camera to your 1 hour film developer. Have them put the pictures on a CD. The camera will cost you about $5. The CD will cost about $5. This is often the quickest and most convenient way to get us pictures.

Our hope is to keep the process as simple as we can for you. The thing that often slows the processs down is gathering the necessary information. You should be able to run through this list in under an hour. Do the best you can to get us the information quickly. You can email us this information at churchwebmasteronline@gmail.com  or mail it to us (Church Webmaster, 100 County Road, Big Pine Key, FL 33043). We look forward to being your church webmaster online! If you have any questions use the Contact page to let us know.

As your ideas evolve you can make changes to your site to implement the new ideas.  For example, some time ago we started a site called “Evangelism Software”.  The original idea was to try and capitalize on a keyword that has pretty good traffic and see if we could use that traffic to generate some Google Adsense revenue.  The reality was, however, that even after getting the site up to position 1 on page 1, it never got any significant Google Adsense participation.  We decided to just let the site sit for a while. This is how it looked at the time.

It turns out, that besides Evangelism Software, a secondary keyword we had on the site began to get some traffic.  That keyword set is “Start a Christian Blog”.  Having people start blogs and websites to  impact the Kingdom of God is the foundation of what we do on the Church Webmaster Network of sites.  So while our initial idea wasn’t so hot, the site now has a newer and more noble purpose.  We have gone back and given the site a face lift and are now actively targeting the “Start a Christian Blog” traffic.  The goal is no longer a monetary one, it has more of a ministry focus.  The new site looks like this:

The site is currently in position 3 for “start a Christian blog” and position 2 for “evangelism software”.  We will continue to develop the site so that it beomes position 1 for both keyword sets.  The site will then not only function in its new ministry roll, it will also help people to other sites in our network.

This result is a double which is good for anyone who searches past page one.  The farther your site is from showing up in position one on page one, the less traffic you will get.  This result is for a keyword search of Fresno California Churches.  The site also shows up for a variety of other keyword searches.  One of the SEO tactics you need to use involves analyzing your keyword statisitics.  By developing the keywords that are already drawing traffic to your site, you will increase your traffic.   We will update you on this site and on our other sites in the weeks to come.

We have statcounter installed and over the last couple of days there was an increase of activity on the site.  In doing new searches we found out that the site is showing up again as a search engine result.  For a keyword search of Fresno California Churches we are getting the following result:

Position 12 on page 2.  The site seems to have come out of the sandbox.  We are also showing up well for a variety of other similar keyword searches.  What we have to watch now is to see if this is a trend or a fluke.  If it is a trend we should see the site make its way back to page 1 over the next several weeks or months.  If it is a fluke, the site will disappear from the search engines again.  Once we feel settled in the fact that the site will continue to show up as a solid search engine result, we will begin to market the site for our featured churches positions.