Hope in Rogue River Website Project
Hope experienced a number of difficulties keeping its website updated and safe. The rebuild needed to fix the site on mobile and make ongoing updates easier.
- Client
- Hope Presbyterian Church
- Region
- Rogue River, Oregon
- Project
- Church website rebuild
- Key work
- Mobile, calendar, giving + DNS
Rebuilding a church website that had become difficult to maintain
Hope in Rogue River is a small church in Rogue River, Oregon. Hope experienced a number of difficulties keeping its site updated and safe. While having its WordPress site hosted on Bluehost, it experienced a cyberattack that broke the site and required a costly fix. Additionally, the individual who set up the website moved away, and regular updates became difficult and rare.
A website that worked better and could stay current
My job included creating a new website that wasn’t broken on mobile and building a website that functioned better on desktop.
The site also needed to be built in a way that allowed church staff to make changes to things like the calendar, announcements, and events, all while keeping the church emails operating and safe during the transition.
Changing the website without breaking what already worked
I first copied all of the information and pages that were on the old site and designed them in a more modern and user-friendly way. The tools used allowed both mobile and desktop to function well and gave visitors access to all of the pages through the menus.
I also needed to build a system for keeping an updated calendar through Google Calendar.
In order to make the transition, I accessed the Bluehost account, retained the current email setup, and redirected the domain to be used on the new website. Since the design and hosting were changing, but the domain and email weren’t, I had to change only what was needed.
Restored functionality, online giving, and information the church can keep updated
With the new site completed, the functionality was completely fixed. A new giving system was made and set up. Pictures of the actual church building were uploaded on various pages. And the calendar was implemented in a way that gives visitors and members a way to keep tabs on upcoming events.
Handling the DNS transition carefully
The most challenging aspect was understanding the DNS situation. Domains are a difficult area to navigate. One wrong change could cause emails to stop working or break the website. It required careful research and action to make sure the new system was supported and set up while the features that we wanted were kept.
Giving the church independence without taking away support
The new site has security built into it to reduce the risk of the same kind of attack happening again.
The issues related to not being able to keep up on timely edits were fixed in two ways. The office staff can log in and make any changes they need, but if they don’t have the time or know how, I can easily and quickly log on and make the changes for them.
It gives the church the freedom to not be entirely dependent on a third party while giving them the expert support they may need from time to time.
A combination of design, technical work, and practical solutions
I am satisfied with the combination of the solutions.
The clean design for the site retains all the information that was on the old site without looking outdated. The coding and technical skills used to embed the calendar and manage new DNS records for the domain, along with the functionality the website provides the staff, are all solutions to problems that I am proud of.
This project is an example of the kinds of problems I can solve. I can work with churches that have domains attached to outdated or unmaintained websites. I can help set up new online giving platforms, and I can do it in a way that gives them more control over how the site is used in the future.