We recently redeveloped the homepage of the Airdrie Baptist Church website. This was last reviewed a couple of years ago so was due an update.
We wanted to make the page a useful one-stop shop, putting the most viewed information front and centre.
Review of existing content
We reviewed two years worth of data from Google Analytics, specifically looking at the most popular pages. After the homepage these were:
- What’s on
- Who we are
- Meet the pastor
- Sermon audio
- Preachers
Building the homepage
We used the Page Builder plugin and collection of widgets to structure the homepage. At the top we retained the introduction used previously and reduced the size of the welcome video.
Underneath this we included a split row with their sermon audio on the left (using an embedded Soundcloud player) and the latest news items featured on the right. We also added a subscribe option for news and events in this space.
Below this we included a tabbed section with weekly events listed (including services, meetings and clubs), a calendar of upcoming preachers, information on the leadership team and contact information.
Assessing the new homepage
We used Hotjar to track homepage activity on a heatmap. Heatmaps are used to show what users click on, where their mouse moves (the pointer generally moves to where the human eye is looking) and how far down the pages they scroll.
Initial data shows that people are interacting well with the content, watching videos and listening to sermons.
Analytics data shows that since it’s launch on 26 February 2018 the homepage has been viewed 204 times, an increase of 63.2% on the previous period. Much of this can be accredited to a post inviting people to see what had changed on Facebook.
While the bounce rate (the number of single page visits) has gone up, so has the average time spent on the page which suggests users are finding more of the information they want.
Further analysis of behaviour using Google Analytics and Hotjar will continue to drive development of the page.
Work with us
Want to know how people are using your site? Or considering a redesign and want to know what you should include on your homepage. Why not drop us a line to see how we can help you make the right decisions for your users.