Celebration UMC

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About this page's design

This page is a two-table one.  The top one-column table holds the web site title and the main menu bar.  The lower two-column table holds the main content.  The right-most of the two columns contains a separate one-cell table with a colored cell border and a white table border.  That's why it looks thin. If you use a colored table border and automatic cell borders, the colored border is thicker. If you use a shaded (colored) cell, as the one at right, make sure to keep the shading very light. You need good contrast between foreground (text) and background.

Take search engines into account

Remember that search engines "read" your web page from top, down, left-to-right. So the top left table cell gets read first.  If it's empty, as here, the search engine will probably then read the text at the right (which is what you want) before going down to the menu in the left column. This text area is in Row 1, Column 2.  The menu text at the left is in Row 2, Column 1.

Subhead font size

Also remember to make font sizes mean something.  If you use subheads, they should be stand out from ordinary body text, but they should also be obviously smaller than the page title head font. You may want to make them look more like small headlines by using the same font for all Headline style elements on your web pages.

Alternate uses of the right-column area

An alternative for the current right-column "menu area" is to have links to special topics, Religion news, syndicated news items, or other material not directly related to the page. 

Another option is to use that right box area to hold links to a sub-web -- a whole series of pages sub-indexed by left-column links on your "About our church" page, for example ... You could include location info, staff names and office email addresses, your church's history (with a few nice old pictures), and your pastor's bio.

A third option is to include the next week of your church calendar of events.

Another really cool option is to put a free Google "site-flavored search" block on a lower part of a web page -- perhaps the home page.  For a sample, see http://a963333.sites.myregisteredsite.com/help.htm

What would your church members and potential web site visitors want to see on the page in question?

Footers

Each web page on your site should have a footer.  The items most commonly placed there are:

• Full name and address of the church

• A link to a web page with your disclaimer and privacy policy (Do you collect cookies? Does your web host keep statistics of any type about your visitors? Do you "harvest" people's email addresses?  If someone emails the church, do you then keep  their address on a  list for future contacts? )

• "This page last updated [Month day, year]"

• An email address for the Webmaster in case of site-related questions (and/or put the email address on the contact page).

Questions about this page?  |  Disclaimer & Privacy Policy

Celebration United Methodist Church, 1234 Disciple Ave.,
Stone Mountain, GA 30000
770-111-2222, FAX 770-111-2244

This page last updated January 6, 2005