Christmastime is here, and shoppers are just about to wrap up their gift buying. Many of them will have done it from the comfort of their own home, via the Web. But shopping isn't the only thing folks do from home any more. With the wonder of the Web, they can also pay bills, buy stamps, make reservations — or even do devotions, support missionaries and keep up with what's happening at their church.

Some 82 million Americans are supplementing their church activities by surfing the Internet for spiritual or religious purposes. According to a study released by the Pew Internet & American Life Project this year, 38 percent of the nation's 128 million users sent and received e-mail with spiritual content. Seventeen percent searched the Web for a place to attend church, and 7 percent requested prayer and donated money at religious sites.

As Internet interest continues to increase, churches are also becoming more aware of the potential of cyberspace as a ministerial outpost. But what many have discovered is that simply staking a claim on the Web doesn't necessarily generate site traffic.

“A lot of churches have just put up a very simple Web page and don't know what to do with it from that point,” said John Bagwell, marketing and advertising executive at ChurchMax.com.

Bagwell works with churches to develop marketing strategies similar to those businesses use to ensure their Web sites attract visitors. He recommends two things that churches can do to increase traffic to their sites.

First, Bagwell encourages churches to optimize their Web sites for search engines. This process helps a Web site climb as high as possible on search engine lists. “If you have a Web site and no one can find it, it doesn't do much good,” Bagwell said.

Secondly, Bagwell instructs churches on content they should post to reach surfers, be it service times, directions to the church, dates and times of group activities or a brief plan of salvation. “I think there's a tremendous amount of people searching for information from churches,” said Bagwell.

Karen Carlson, church secretary at Kihei Lutheran Church in Maui, Hawaii, is counting on that.

“There are a lot of people from the mainland visiting and looking for a church,” she said, pointing out that the main purpose of her church's site is to provide tourists information about the church before they get to the island vacation spot.

“I think it started with our visitors saying, ‘Oh, I wish I knew when things were and I wish we had a map to find you,' and things like that. That was one of the things that got us started on having a Web site,” she said.

Bagwell said that interest in the community is crucial in a Web presence. “Obviously churches are continually looking for new and better ways to get the word out. This is just one more way to reach out to the community and touch them.”