Field study, November 2026

Most church websites tell a guest when to come. Few tell them what to expect.

We drew 150 church websites at random from 1,042 around Los Angeles and Dallas, then read each one at phone size, the way a first-time guest would. 146 counted. We build church websites for a living, so the method and the data are below for you to check.

The church in the phone is made up, built from what we saw. The town beside it is real: each little church is a website we read.

It's 9:41 on a Sunday.

You've never been to this church. Service is at 10:30, the kids are in the back seat, and all you have is your phone.

What time does it start?

It's the first thing a guest checks. 63 sites answer on the first screen. On the other 83, you start scrolling.

Keep scrolling.

By the third screen, 116 have told you. 30 still haven't.

Now, where is it?

You need it for the map. Back at the top, 15 sites show a street address on the first screen.

Three screens in.

57 sites have shown you the address. You're past the mission statement and the latest sermon.

There it is, at the very bottom.

On 72 more sites the address sits lower, about 5 screens down. So it's on the site. But in one eyetracking study, people spent 74% of their viewing time on the top two screens, so plenty of guests never get here.

Is any of this for someone new?

54 sites show a button like Plan a visit in the first three screens. On the rest, you get something like Learn more, and you're guessing which menu item means you.

Can I tell them we're coming?

On 19 sites you can. On the rest, nobody knows you're on your way, so nobody's watching for you at the door.

Where do my kids go?

31 sites say what happens with kids on a first visit.

Where do I park?

16 sites say.

What do people wear?

17 sites say.

How long is it?

14 sites say.

Can my dad's wheelchair get in?

4 sites say.

All five?

None of them. So you find out in the parking lot, with the kids in the back seat, or you stay home.

It doesn't take a new church.

Here's the same made-up site. The time and address are at the top. One button says Plan a visit. All five answers are on one page.

Each church is one real website we read. Its windows light up when it answers.

Three fixes any church can make

  1. Put the Sunday time and the street address together at the top of the home page, as text.
  2. Add one button near the top that says Plan a visit, and let it end in a short form.
  3. Answer all five questions on one page, in open text a guest doesn't have to tap to read.

The numbers

Share of church sites that do each one on a phone. Higher is better for a guest.
MeasureShare95% range
Service time on the home page93%88–96%
Service time in the first 3 screens79%72–85%
A page written for first-time guests48%40–56%
Service time on the first screen43%35–51%
Street address in the first 3 screens39%32–47%
A first-time button in the first 3 screens37%30–45%
A way to say you're coming13%8–19%
Street address on the first screen10%6–16%
Answers all 5 first-visit questions0%0–3%

The 74% is from Nielsen Norman Group's 2018 study. Guests checking times first is from Grey Matter Research's 2012 survey, where 43% checked service times and 28% looked for directions.

Sources: Nielsen Norman Group, Scrolling and Attention; Grey Matter Research, via Christianity Today

How we did it

  1. We listed Christian churches within 25 miles of USC and of downtown Dallas from OpenStreetMap and Google Maps, in October 2026.
  2. We kept 1,297 websites we estimated at 250 to 1,500 people a week, then 1,042 that loaded, stayed in that range on a re-check and showed signs of an operating church on November 3.
  3. We drew 150 at random with a fixed seed and captured them on November 5 at 390 by 844, with an iPhone user agent.
  4. Three AI reviewers (Claude) coded each site from the screenshots and page text, using a written codebook and without seeing our earlier audit.
  5. We dropped 4: 3 weren't church sites, and 1 failed on a security certificate error.

What this can't tell you

  • No person has checked these codes yet. All three reviewers coded the same 15 sites as a test. They agreed on every time and address call, but on 86% of first-time buttons, 81% of newcomer pages and 76% of forms, so those last three are softer.
  • It covers two metro areas, so it says nothing about rural churches or the country as a whole.
  • The 250 to 1,500 range is our estimate from service times and staff pages. Nobody measured attendance.
  • With 146 sites, each share can be off by up to 8 points either way. The table gives the range for each.
  • The five questions count only what shows without opening anything, so a collapsed FAQ counts as unanswered. Our audit script also reads hidden text, and across all 1,042 sites it found 6 answering all five and 603 answering none. So none runs from 58% to 74% depending on the method.
  • We followed one newcomer link per site, so we can miss a page buried deeper.
  • The attention study and the survey aren't ours. Nielsen Norman Group measured people on large desktop screens, and we found no equal study of phones. The survey is from 2012 and covers people's reasons for visiting church sites in general.

The data

Every row is one site, with church names and addresses removed. Use it however you like, and tell us if you find an error.

Download the data (CSV)Read the codebook

Cite as: Firm Foundation Technologies, Church Website Study, November 2026, firmfoundation.tech/research/church-websites

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