Funeral home websites aren’t always the most modern pieces of media on the web. In fact, if you look at some funeral home websites, you’ll notice that it seems like they were made in the mid-2000s. And trying to access them on mobile – you’ll be dead before that page ever loads.
Does this sound familiar to you? If it does – don’t worry. We’re going to go over the most common mistakes funeral homes are prone to making on their websites, so you’ll know exactly what you need to do to fix them.
Correct these mistakes, and you’ll be getting more traffic in no time!
You’re using inaccurate/outdated/pilfered copy
You’d think we wouldn’t have to list this, but you’d be amazed at how many funeral homes literally copy and paste text from other funeral homes.
That’s bad for a number of reasons. We’ve seen funeral homes in Canada referring to legislation in the United States – completely irrelevant. By using outdated, inaccurate, or stolen copy, you can end up misleading your clients.
You can also end up in legal hot water – and your funeral home will probably do poorly on search engines like Google.
The solution? Review all of your copy, write it all in-house, and double-check that the information you have listed is still accurate – at least once a quarter.
Your contact information is buried 6 feet under
Many of the people who visit your website are doing so because a loved one just passed away. They need help immediately. You should have your phone number displayed prominently – the top right corner of the page is a great place for it. You can even include a bit of copy – something like “We’re available 24/7, 7 days a week” so that readers know they can contact you immediately.
Your site is impossible to navigate
This brings us to another common mistake – some funeral home websites are an absolute pain to navigate. You should have a navigation bar available on every single page, with drop down menus for your main services and your contact information.
Your forms are longer than a funeral procession
The longer the form, the less likely your clients are to fill it out. This is especially true on mobile – which we’ll talk about next.
Keep forms as short as possible. Whenever possible, ask only for an email address – though a name and email address isn’t too bad. Don’t force people to fill out fifty fields just to get in touch with you. Pre-planning forms are notoriously bad for this. First, get the client on board. The forms can wait until they’re convinced that working with you will be worth their time and energy.
You haven’t optimized for mobile
More than half of search engine queries come from mobile devices. Those stats are pulled from the States, but mobile trends tend to be similar in Canada. That means if you’re not optimized for mobile, you could be missing out on more than half of the people searching for funeral homes.
Your pages should load quickly and be easy to navigate on mobile devices. That means responsive web design, techniques to load pages more quickly depending on network speeds, and more. It’s hard work, but it’s more than worth it for the payoff.
Your website isn’t secure
Trust may be the most important part of your relationship with your clients. One way you can establish that trust up front is by ensuring your website is secure. It’s incredibly easy in this day and age to get an SSL certificate. And if you’re going the ecommerce route (which we’ll discuss next), you need to put the effort in to ensure client payment information and account information is kept secure.
You’re sending too many people away from your site
Many funeral homes will send their clients off-site for guest books, obituaries, and for items that can be purchased for the funeral (like flowers).
Don’t do this. Keep everything you can on your website. That can help you perform better on search engines and increase your revenue. Ecommerce solutions are getting easier to implement every day – we recommend you look into them.
You aren’t updating frequently
You should be updating your website frequently – an update a week is a good idea. These updates can include blog posts (which make for excellent resources), photos, obituaries, and any other relevant media you can conjure up.
By updating frequently, you create more pages that your clients can find through search engines, and you signal search engines that your business is active.
These are just a few of the many mistakes we see funeral homes making. It’s a lot to take in – and a lot to fix – but you don’t have to go it alone. We offer online funeral home marketing – we’ll take care of your website, so you can focus on caring for your clients.