Part 3 – Obituaries - The New Commodity in Funeral Service?
In the last two blog posts, I depicted what is happening on the internet with online obituaries and the competition for the traffic generated through the posting of obituaries on the web. I also highlighted a partial list of companies that are vying for the online obituary and related traffic. This blog post will concentrate on web strategies that funeral homes should be deploying.
As previously noted, the way in which more and more people are finding obituaries is by doing direct search engine entries via Google, Yahoo, Bing, etc. – typing in the name of the deceased and maybe a city and or state. They will then more than likely click on the highest ranked match that looks like the obituary they are seeking.
The question is: how do they know they have found, and clicked on, the correct online obituary? If they choose to leave a condolence or tribute, will the family even know it’s there? Whose responsibility is it to collect all of the possible condolences and tributes being left on various sites and ensuring that families receive them? How can your funeral home prevent or at least reduce brand hi-jacking on the internet, especially in conjunction with obituaries that are being posted online?
For the past several years – funeral homes have been directed to focus on search engine optimization for their funeral home’s website. For example, when someone types in “funeral homes in Anytown, IA” – the goal is for your funeral home to show up prominently in all the search engines, on Google Maps (check Google Maps results with this link: http://www.google.com/local/add/g?hl=en-US&gl=US#phonelookup) , etc., preferably with links back to your funeral home’s website. That is and will continue to be very important.
What has been vastly overlooked; however, is the Search Engine Optimization for the obituaries you are publishing on behalf of families served. This is relatively easy to test – all you have to do is search 10 to 15 of the most current obituaries you have published – enter in the first and last name of the deceased into Google or your favorite search engine – and then see how your funeral home’s published version of the obituary ranks as compared to all of the other competing versions that may appear with any of your respective obituaries. Important note is to look at the domain address not the search result headlines to see where the link is actually going.
The reason this exercise is so important – is because 70% or more of your web traffic is obituary based. Why wouldn't you want to make sure as much of that traffic as possible is coming and staying within your funeral home's website? If your funeral home’s hosted version of the obituaries are not showing up prominently in search engine results, then it is likely that a lot of your obituary traffic is being collected by, or redirected to, other versions and hosts of the published obituaries.
So what can your funeral home do to help prevent the siphoning away of your obituary traffic and the potential postings of condolences and tributes that grieving families may never receive? Here is a partial list of web strategies that will help:
Most funeral homes have simply not been made aware of all this online competition for the obituary & condolence traffic. Once educated on these dangers and pitfalls – there really is no choice but to make significant changes to your web strategies. There is not a bullet-proof solution that is going to guarantee Search Engine Optimization with the highest rankings for your funeral home and each and every obituary your funeral home is publishing. However, a comprehensive web strategy can and will dramatically improve your funeral home’s results - to the benefit of your online brand and for the protection of the families your firm has the privilege to serve.
There are many other tactics a funeral home may deploy on the path towards having a sound & well-orchestrated web strategy. S.E.O. performance tests & Internet Risk Assessments should be performed routinely to ensure your plan is continually improving your results. Please feel free to email or call Got Funeral? for additional insights that may help guide your funeral home down the road of brand and obituary protection on the world wide web.
In the last two blog posts, I depicted what is happening on the internet with online obituaries and the competition for the traffic generated through the posting of obituaries on the web. I also highlighted a partial list of companies that are vying for the online obituary and related traffic. This blog post will concentrate on web strategies that funeral homes should be deploying.
As previously noted, the way in which more and more people are finding obituaries is by doing direct search engine entries via Google, Yahoo, Bing, etc. – typing in the name of the deceased and maybe a city and or state. They will then more than likely click on the highest ranked match that looks like the obituary they are seeking.
The question is: how do they know they have found, and clicked on, the correct online obituary? If they choose to leave a condolence or tribute, will the family even know it’s there? Whose responsibility is it to collect all of the possible condolences and tributes being left on various sites and ensuring that families receive them? How can your funeral home prevent or at least reduce brand hi-jacking on the internet, especially in conjunction with obituaries that are being posted online?
For the past several years – funeral homes have been directed to focus on search engine optimization for their funeral home’s website. For example, when someone types in “funeral homes in Anytown, IA” – the goal is for your funeral home to show up prominently in all the search engines, on Google Maps (check Google Maps results with this link: http://www.google.com/local/add/g?hl=en-US&gl=US#phonelookup) , etc., preferably with links back to your funeral home’s website. That is and will continue to be very important.
What has been vastly overlooked; however, is the Search Engine Optimization for the obituaries you are publishing on behalf of families served. This is relatively easy to test – all you have to do is search 10 to 15 of the most current obituaries you have published – enter in the first and last name of the deceased into Google or your favorite search engine – and then see how your funeral home’s published version of the obituary ranks as compared to all of the other competing versions that may appear with any of your respective obituaries. Important note is to look at the domain address not the search result headlines to see where the link is actually going.
The reason this exercise is so important – is because 70% or more of your web traffic is obituary based. Why wouldn't you want to make sure as much of that traffic as possible is coming and staying within your funeral home's website? If your funeral home’s hosted version of the obituaries are not showing up prominently in search engine results, then it is likely that a lot of your obituary traffic is being collected by, or redirected to, other versions and hosts of the published obituaries.
So what can your funeral home do to help prevent the siphoning away of your obituary traffic and the potential postings of condolences and tributes that grieving families may never receive? Here is a partial list of web strategies that will help:
- Retain sole publishing rights of the online version of the obituary.
- Continually check your search engine results for the obituaries your funeral home is publishing online – there are web designers & hosts that are more effective than others – don’t be afraid to look around and make changes if necessary.
- Broaden your internet footprint – set up a Facebook fan page, Twitter account and Obit Alert subscription email network - which will all send out notices of the obituaries you are publishing on your website and will direct all of those leads directly back to the published version of the obituary on & within your funeral home’s website.
- Cross-link & network with local businesses, such as, florists & restaurants/caterers. By populating your obituary sympathy & comfort gifts section with local flowers, plants, meals, and other bereavement gifts - your funeral home is helping those you need support from day in and day out.
- Link to most recent obituaries from your homepage, since Google will crawl your homepage more often than any other, and will discover your new obituary pages from there.
- Submit a sitemap to Google, Bing, and Yahoo each time you publish a new obituary, letting them know about the new page: http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=156184
- Ensure the deceased individual's name and location plus the word "obituary" are in the URL and title of their obituary page.
Most funeral homes have simply not been made aware of all this online competition for the obituary & condolence traffic. Once educated on these dangers and pitfalls – there really is no choice but to make significant changes to your web strategies. There is not a bullet-proof solution that is going to guarantee Search Engine Optimization with the highest rankings for your funeral home and each and every obituary your funeral home is publishing. However, a comprehensive web strategy can and will dramatically improve your funeral home’s results - to the benefit of your online brand and for the protection of the families your firm has the privilege to serve.
There are many other tactics a funeral home may deploy on the path towards having a sound & well-orchestrated web strategy. S.E.O. performance tests & Internet Risk Assessments should be performed routinely to ensure your plan is continually improving your results. Please feel free to email or call Got Funeral? for additional insights that may help guide your funeral home down the road of brand and obituary protection on the world wide web.
RSS Feed