SEO for Churches: How One Lutheran Congregation Is Growing Online

SEO for churches might sound like a foreign language to most pastors — but it could be one of the most powerful discipleship tools available today.

What Is “Cornerstoning” and Why Does It Matter?

In a recent episode of The Edward Show, host Edward Sturm interviewed David Quaid, founder of Primary Position and widely known as the “King of SEO.” Quaid shared a strategy he calls “cornerstoning” — building a content foundation that earns search traffic and topical authority before expanding outward.

The approach is deceptively simple: search your topic on Google and take a screenshot of the “People Also Ask” questions that appear. Those questions become your FAQ page. Each short answer lives under an h2 heading that links out to a dedicated sub-page with deeper coverage. Over time, search engines recognize your site as a credible, comprehensive source on the topic.

The clever part was that a screenshot of the FAQs was used and fed into Perplexity to build the draft content of the FAQs. Quaid stated that he often will use this technique in his content strategy, usually with very little content, to see what pages will rise to the top. Instead of having his staff develop 30 pages, he can narrow down what subjects will rank and then he can efficently use his budget and expand those ranking pages.

For churches, this means starting with the questions your community is already asking — What is Lutheran theology? What happens at a Lutheran baptism? — and building honest, accessible answers that serve real people. Then take action to publish and expand as needed.

Christ: The Original Cornerstone

There is something deeply fitting about this approach for a Christian congregation. Ephesians 2:19-22 describes believers as a building “built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone. In him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord.”

The same principle applies online. You can chase trends or stuff pages with keywords, but a website built on genuine, helpful content — content that serves real questions from real people — earns lasting trust and visibility. David Quaid may be called the King of SEO, but Christ will always be King.

Results at Triumphant Cross

Triumphant Cross recently launched a Lutheran FAQ and an updated Sitemap as the first stones in this foundation. Growth since has been beyond expectation. The congregation is now being discovered not only through Google searches but also through AI-generated answers in tools like ChatGPT and Perplexity.

But where Quaid differs is that he states all the generated answers are from query fanouts, or a set of parallel search querys, to formulate the answer. The point being is AI is using Search Engines such as Google and Bing to gather data and you need practice SEO to get AI citations.

If your church is wondering whether SEO is worth the effort, the answer is yes — and the starting point is simpler than you think. Begin with the questions your neighbors are already asking. Build answers rooted in Scripture and community. Let Christ be your cornerstone, and let the structure rise from there.