An analysis of 13,753 church websites across 16 states, examining digital readiness, SEO fundamentals, and online presence by denomination.
“When someone shares your church on Facebook, 93% of the time it shows a generic link with no preview image.”
Of the 13,753 churches we analyzed across 16 states, only 7.4% have Open Graph tags configured. That means when a congregant shares a link to your church's Easter service on Facebook, there's no preview image, no title, no description — just a bare URL.
In an era where social sharing is the primary way new visitors discover churches, this is a massive blind spot. Every shared link without a preview is a missed first impression.
The LDS Church runs a centralized web platform — every ward worldwide gets the same optimized template on churchofjesuschrist.org. The result: 88% schema markup adoption, 95.6% sitemaps, 98% SSL, and 97.2% mobile responsiveness.
Compare that to Pentecostal churches, which are often independently run: just 25.2% schema, 39.6% sitemaps, 55.2% SSL. The lesson isn't about theology — it's about infrastructure. Centralized web management wins.
Nearly 22% of church websites have no SSL certificate. When visitors navigate to these sites, their browser displays a "Not Secure" warning in the address bar.
For an organization built on trust and community, that warning undermines your message before a visitor reads a single word. It tells newcomers — the people you most want to reach — that your digital front door isn't safe.
Utah leads the nation in church website health with 63.4% schema adoption, driven by the LDS digital infrastructure based there. Idaho follows at 55.4%. At the other end, Nebraska (33.8%) and Kansas (35.9%) lag significantly.
The Mountain West tech culture appears to bleed into church web standards — even non-LDS churches in Utah and Idaho tend to have better websites than their Plains state counterparts.
Catholic churches lead Open Graph adoption at 20.4% — likely because diocesan web standards include social sharing requirements. Episcopal churches hit 55.8% schema adoption and 86.4% mobile responsiveness. Lutheran churches come in at 43% schema with 86.3% SSL.
The common thread across high performers: denominational structure that provides web standards and shared resources. Independent churches are left to figure it out alone.
How each denomination stacks up across all technical metrics.
| Category | Total | Schema % | Sitemap % | OG Tags % |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nondenominational | 3130 | 42.5% | 61.9% | 6.2% |
| Baptist | 2537 | 36.5% | 58.2% | 6.7% |
| Catholic | 1423 | 34.1% | 67.7% | 20.4% |
| Pentecostal | 1294 | 25.2% | 39.6% | 6% |
| Lutheran | 1221 | 43% | 64.9% | 7.6% |
| LDS | 1089 | 88% | 95.6% | 0.1% |
| Other | 856 | 33.8% | 39.6% | 5.1% |
| Methodist | 682 | 41.1% | 56.2% | 6.6% |
| Church of Christ | 494 | 31.2% | 48% | 6.9% |
| Presbyterian | 477 | 44.2% | 60.4% | 8.8% |
| Evangelical | 308 | 34.1% | 58.4% | 4.5% |
| Episcopal | 242 | 55.8% | 73.1% | 6.6% |
Website health metrics for churches across all 16 states in our dataset.
| State | Total | Schema % | Sitemap % | Viewport % | SSL % | OG Tags % |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| CO | 1584 | 42.9% | 62.4% | 74.1% | 79% | 7% |
| AZ | 1489 | 39.4% | 58% | 72.3% | 76.4% | 7.9% |
| WA | 1254 | 40.4% | 64% | 75.6% | 80.9% | 7.8% |
| KS | 1185 | 35.9% | 51.8% | 66.7% | 72.6% | 7.2% |
| UT | 921 | 63.4% | 75.8% | 83% | 87.6% | 4.5% |
| OR | 895 | 41.5% | 62.7% | 72.6% | 79% | 8.4% |
| MN | 874 | 42.8% | 63.5% | 78.1% | 86.2% | 10.6% |
| NE | 826 | 33.8% | 48.7% | 66.1% | 71.3% | 6.1% |
| IA | 729 | 34.4% | 53.4% | 68.7% | 73.3% | 7.3% |
| NV | 690 | 43.8% | 58.6% | 72.2% | 77.1% | 6.5% |
| NM | 658 | 36.5% | 57.3% | 69.3% | 73.1% | 8.2% |
| MT | 646 | 39.9% | 59.3% | 72.8% | 76.6% | 7.1% |
| ID | 610 | 55.4% | 74.6% | 84.9% | 88.4% | 7.2% |
| WY | 577 | 36.9% | 54.2% | 69.2% | 72.1% | 7.6% |
| SD | 451 | 41.7% | 64.5% | 76.1% | 81.4% | 8.6% |
| ND | 364 | 35.4% | 63.2% | 74.5% | 78.6% | 7.1% |
We analyzed 13,753 church websites across 16 US states sourced from Google Business Profiles. Each website was audited for SSL certificates, XML sitemaps, robots.txt files, viewport meta tags, Open Graph tags, and Schema.org structured data markup. 11214 sites had full technical audits completed. Denomination data derived from Google Business category classifications. Data collected January–February 2026.
“Fort Collins HVAC companies are nearly twice as likely to be found on Google as their Pueblo counterparts.”
“Businesses with 500+ Google reviews are 24% more likely to have schema markup than businesses with under 25 reviews — but OG tags remain near-zero across all tiers.”
“Boise contractors average 454 Google reviews but only 31 are listed — while Meridian has 145 contractors averaging just 275 reviews each.”
“45% of local businesses are invisible to Google's rich results — the enhanced listings with stars, hours, and contact info that get 58% more clicks.”
“LDS church websites have 89% schema markup adoption — more than triple the rate of Baptist churches in the same four states.”
“Wyoming roofers average just 19 Google reviews while Nebraska roofers average 121 — a 6x gap that directly impacts who shows up in local search.”
“Salt Lake City contractors average 1,115 Google reviews — 16x more than West Valley City businesses just 15 minutes away.”
“Across 8 western states and 6,673 trade businesses, only 3.5% are prepared for social media sharing.”
“One-third of Wyoming contractors are invisible to Google's rich results, and nearly half don't have SSL.”
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