Thanks to my friend Angela, who linked to this interesting chart. It shows Google search trends over the past decade for the term "catholic church". Notice the regular pattern of spikes, usually three, but sometimes two? Those correspond to Christmas, Ash Wednesday and Easter.
It tells us that around those three days Google searches for "catholic church" go through the roof. Now try this: Search Google for "catholic church" and the name of your town. How does your parish do? If your Catholic parish isn't one of the first two or three entries you have some search engine optimization to do.
Other Interesting Tidbits on "catholic church" Searches
By the way, that page also some other interesting data, such as the states with the most searches for "catholic church" (Top 3 are Louisiana, Florida, and Texas) and that the top related query that isn't a variation on "church" is "catholic mass".
Search engine optimization can sometimes be a bit of a "black art", but there are many tools out there to help you. If your site is built on the WordPress engine, I recommend the Yoast SEO plugin, which guides you through the steps to optimize each post. If you search for articles on SEO for churches, you'll find lots of help as well. But we need to be doing a better job of helping people find our churches when they're actually looking for us.
