4. Keep it Going
Daily updates
Your new website is only as good as its content, and your content is only as good as how often you write it. Each article does not have to be a work of art, but it will take some work. You need to be willing to put that time in or else the money for redesigning your site will have been wasted.
Relevant topics with research
The topics for your content should include current events, current people (like new members), and current multimedia (like photos or sermons). Writers need to know what they're writing about, which might mean asking someone else. It's called research, and it might be a bit foreign to those who text, blog, and copy and paste, but it makes site better.
One person or a team
A team of people working on the site seems to make the most efficient way of keeping the site current. However, teams tend to wait for someone else to take the lead, especially if it's a team of volunteers. I'd say give the team a try at first. Ask for volunteers and ask for a weekly commitment from each. When that doesn't work, then you can force someone who works there already to deal with it, or you could pay someone else. Hopefully, you will get a team of volunteers who love mundane activities, a list does not normally include pastors, teachers, or others who actually work at your organization.
Make it evergreen, even with borrowed content
I've been writing content for online publishing for a long time, but I'd never really considered whether or not the content I wrote was evergreen, or something that would last for years as a relevant online piece. For example, this article could have been written five years ago and it will be fairly relevant several years into the future. Therefore, I won't have to update it much for it to continue to be read. Ministry descriptions, biographies, histories, and many other pages work. Just be sure to pay attention to when someone quits or passes away.
If you must borrow content, do it. I’m not talking about stealing. The Free Library is nice because it updates daily and looks professional, but you can find other free content out there, too. You can repost Wikipedia content if you add a link, so you don’t necessarily have to hire research assistants to get some content on the site.
Use links
It used to be external links were very important in determining the importance of a site. While this may not hold true the same as it once did, relevant links are still very important. The idea is that you try to get a site with more traffic to link to you if you promise the same in return. For example, if you can get the local library or your church's synod to link to you, you benefit because more people may use those sites or at least have the perception that the governing bodies endorse you.