Winning Ways: They’re Searching, So Help Them Find Us

When someone uses the Internet to search for a church, we want Hillcrest at the top of the search results. You can help.

A web search is the main way people end up at Hillcrest these days. So, it’s important that Hillcrest get to the top of everyone’s search results. I’ve got a couple of ways that you can make that happen.

Write a Review

 First, write a positive review of your Hillcrest experience on our “Google Places” page. Go to http://ow.ly/8ryBz (I shortened the link). Click on the red button that says “Write a Review.” Several of you have already written very kind things about your Hillcrest experience!

Whether you’re a long-time member or you’ve just started visiting, you can help us reach people by reporting on your Hillcrest experience. Even if you have visited Austin from out of town, you can still write a review.

This helps us in 3 ways. First, when someone is doing a web search for a church, it’s impressive to see a large number of reviews about a church. Second, when they start reading about specific things you appreciate about Hillcrest, it raises the likelihood they’ll come check us out. And, third, sometimes certain things you say in your review raise the position that Hillcrest ends up on the search results page. If they’re looking for the same things you mentioned in your review it increases the likelihood that Google will send them to our website.

You may have other places to leave a review, such as Yelp or the “Recommendations” section of our church’s Facebook page.  Every time you make a positive mention online, it helps us!

Link Your Social Media to Our Website

Here’s a second homework assignment: Link your social media to our website. If you’re on Facebook, “like” our church’s Facebook page. If you’re part of Google+ you should “+1” our website when you find it in the search results. When we’re promoting an event on our website that you’re excited about, share the link on Facebook or Google+. If you have a blog, add www.HillcrestAustin.org to your recommended links.

Help Them Seek and They Will Find

Since we placed a little ad with Google, the ad has been viewed about a thousand times a day, and five people per day have clicked through the ad to our website. If you’ll take a few minutes right now and complete this “homework assignment,” you’ll make it easier for these people who are looking for a church home to find us!

______________________________
Each Wednesday I post my article from "Winning Ways," an e-newsletter that goes out to 1200 subscribers. If you want to subscribe to "Winning Ways," sign up here.