Lutheran Church Charities Assessment

This FREE website assessment is for Lutheran Church Charities at http://www.lutheranchurchcharities.org/. It was completed by Luthernet Website Services in order to help those who run the program see what can be done to spread their message more effectively using the internet.

Framework

Lutheran Church Charities is running a Joomla website. That's good. It's an older Joomla website. That can be bad. The administration page is accessible, but there's some kind of alternate login. The copyright is 2016, but the site is obviously older. Joomla has allowed for proper archiving of older articles, but it's also doomed it to being forever behind the times if the core components are not updated. 

Mobile-Friendly

This website is not mobile-friendly. It's also a skinny website that really wants to be a wide website with three columns, which makes it seem even more squeezed (and virtually impossible on mobile). Here's what Google has to say about Lutheran Church Charities:

• Content wider than screen
• Clickable elements too close together
• Text too small to read
• Viewport not set

If you use a phone on this website, you will agree with Google. Here's Google's view: https://search.google.com/search-console/mobile-friendly?id=ID79300d5RG4yVtf47dh3w

Other Issues

Holy Mega Menus! These menus reflect the era in which they were built, back when giant SUVs roamed mall parking lots. Actually, I like a mega menu if it makes sense. In fact, I think this website is better suited to having mega menus than most. And you don't want ten main menu items. But a website redesign is a good time to reconsider the menus.

Email addresses listed on what I assume is a fairly popular website will result in tons of spam email. The owners of the email addresses can likely confirm this. I usually go with contact forms--just make sure to test them out periodically. 

Not much besides that. If you are paying a web developer for hosting, then demand a better template for free. At least a basic mobile-friendly design. If you are hosting yourself or just want to get away from a web designer who left you at least five years behind the times, then call someone else, like Luthernet. 

Also see Brave New Church Web Design
Read my book A Simplified Guide to Church Websites: Purpose, Planning, and Presentation