Free Funeral Website Report
December 31, 2008
Let me ask you a question… Does your web company have your best interests in heart?
As you know, I have been in the funeral home website game for a long time – over 10 years. And in the last few years I have stepped back from the sales side and focused on teaching you about how to build your web presence beyond your website – like with YouTube, Facebook, etc. – mainly because the web site companies weren’t helping their clients beyond the confines of their product offerings (your current website).
Lately I have received some questions from funeral professionals like you asking me about their websites. They think that they are getting ripped-offed… and after looking in to it, I agree!
So lets do a quick test…ok? And we will see if your web site company has your best interests at heart?
Here’s the Quick Test:
On your site…on your homepage (or worse – all pages), is there a link back to their website? It’s usually at the bottom of the page.
If you have answered: YES – then they fail the test!
Your benefit to having links to their site: NOTHING – do your clients really need to know who you do business with? Actually these backlinks could be HURTING you!
Your Web Co’s benefit: backlinks are one of the most important factors that Google uses to rank websites. So what this means is that not only are they getting free advertising on your site, but you are giving them a boost in the search results – off of your back – that’s not cool!
Ideally, those links at the bottom of the page should point to pages within your site.
If you want to learn the truth about funeral home websites and find out the 4 other secrets funeral home website companies don’t want you to know, plus other myths, scams, and misconceptions…
Download the Special Industry Report: The Funeral Home Manager’s Guide to Websites: Myths, Misconceptions and Secrets at: Funeral Website Secrets
I wrote this for funeral professionals like you so that you would finally know the truth about funeral home websites.
I have had one funeral director ask me why am I giving this information out now?
Well, some of the website companies in our industry are beginning to act like old, stodgy, non-proactive funeral directors (not progressive funeral professionals like you) – so I felt it necessary to clear the air.
Then he said, “Are you trying to get back into selling funeral home websites?”
Well, the truth be known – I never left – I just kept a low profile working with some private clients, and now I am going to make that part of my offerings more public…but it’s not going to be for everyone.
You see, I look at websites from a marketing and relationship building perspective – not solely from the technology side. These sites are not for everyone – if a funeral home owner is looking for a cheap website – don’t ask me, there are a lot of low-end offerings out there – or free ones from casket companies.
My sites are going to be focused on 3 things:
- communicating with your community (building relationships / loyalty)
- your firm becoming an “Authority” in Google’s eyes
- and eventually your website becoming a profit center for your firm
Anyway, enough about my websites, there will be many examples in the future, and plus I am still going to continue to share my strategies and case studies on my website. So make sure that you read the Special Industry Report on Funeral Websites at Funeral Website Secrets
I would love your thoughts on the report, so if you could do me a small favor and leave your comments below – thanks!
All of the best for 2009!
…Hepp
PS: Check out the complete report card in the Report and see if your website company is doing everything they can for you! Download the Funeral Home Web Site Guide here
Hi Robin,
I disagree with your quick test…and it isn’t because I’m a funeral home website provider! While I’ve never met you in person I feel that, from talking to others, and reading your thoughts, that you are a very open minded person.
While I’ve disagreed with you before I think this quick test that you posted is not even close to a good test. I feel that it provides a flawed logic to funeral directors who read it.
Every professional website designer puts their fingerprint (linkback) somewhere on the site. Whether on the front page, or every page, there is a fingerprint.
Yes the website provider profits (maybe, maybe not) from the link….but does that matter? If you do a job, and a good job, others are going to want to know who did it.. Boxes of crackers have the name brand, computers have the logo, milk has the name printed on the jug…that is how the company is/was built.
Every website using FuneralOne, FuneralNet or Wordpress has a linkback to the designer. This isn’t going to hurt the website’s google rank, nor is it going to turn away clients because the funeral home uses one firm over another. What a family is going to look for in a website is the infomation that provide the peace they need in choosing that firm to care for their loved one.
What would be a good test you ask? I would suggest to look for the company that offers good support, and is helpful not only in the setup process, but in the everyday operation.
You can have a site with no links to the designer, a great sitemap, and the whole 9-yards…but if the support is somewhere on a camel, then the company has issues. If a company has good support, and is willing to work with a funeral director to build their site the way they so wish, then that my friend, is a good website company.
You have been in the funeral industry longer than I…but the more I talk with funeral directors the more I hear that “support” is what they are looking for. They want the “peace” in knowing that if they have a problem…it will be taken care of in a timely manor.
Robin—
I hope you don’t take my disagreeing wrong—I guess I’ll find out when my LinkedIn profile updates and tells me if I’m still your friend! I’ve read your blog and even implemented some ideas into my business, but this time I disagree, not because I haven’t had my coffee today, but because I feel that the funeral directors need better information.
Have a great day!
Spencer Guiley
PS—I wish you the best of luck on your venture to further your website company. I look forward to not working against you, but working towards the same goal, of providing funeral directors the website that they want, and need.
Spencer…
Thanks for your comments. First off, I always encourage further discussion and when people are exposed to different points of view – everyone learns more.
About the backlinks to Website Developer sites:
Just because everyone does it, doesn’t mean that it is right. Before Google came around it didn’t really matter as much even though I still believe it is not necessary to leave a “finger print” on work.
I see websites as marketing machines and that they need every advantage possible. If you hire a professional marketing firm to create a brochure for you they don’t (or shouldn’t) put their company name on that brochure. The same is true for a website – Do nothing to distract the focus of the visitor!
Spencer, there are some exceptions and maybe your firm is one of them. If someone purchases a really inexpensive website or even free then part of that deal should be back links. And I would do the same if someone uses one of my themes – then I would have backlinks too. But if a company is paying over $1,000 to $2000 or more then that site should be clean.
I have actually seen website proposals that backlinks in the footer are part of the contract – and even worse, they have detailed the specific “Anchor Text” as well – that is just WRONG!
For the funeral home owners reading:
What is Anchor Text?
From Wikipedia: The anchor text or link label is the visible, clickable text in a hyperlink. The words contained in the Anchor text can determine the ranking that the page will receive by search engines.
Example where the entire phrase is hyperlinked: Funeral Home Web Sites by Funeral Futurist Websites - This is a blatant link building strategy at the expense of customer.
Recommendations in order in what’s best for the funeral home owner:
- No mention at all of the website design company
If they insist in the recognition (and ask them “Why” if the do insist):
- request Text Only attribution with no links
If they demand to have a link:
- request that they use the “NoFollow” attribute
From Wikipedia: nofollow is an HTML attribute value used to instruct some search engines that a hyperlink should not influence the link target’s ranking in the search engine’s index. It is intended to reduce the effectiveness of certain types of search engine spam, thereby improving the quality of search engine results and preventing spamdexing from occurring.
If they balk at the nofollow request – they definitely do not have your best interests at heart.
Spencer also mention PageRank.
From Wikipedia: PageRank is a link analysis algorithm used by the Google Internet search engine that assigns a numerical weighting to each element of a hyperlinked set of documents, such as the World Wide Web, with the purpose of “measuring” its relative importance within the set. The algorithm may be applied to any collection of entities with reciprocal quotations and references. The numerical weight that it assigns to any given element E is also called the PageRank of E and denoted by PR(E).
What this means for funeral homes is that your homepage usually has the highest page rank in your site – so the most powerful page, and the last link on the page is going to the website developer – I suggest that it goes to a page within your site that you want to promote. When this strategy is done, I have seen that that page ranks #2 in the Google results right below the home page – so that is proof that there is power in those links!
I hope that this has cleared the air a little and if you have my company create an online marketing machine for you – there will be not a single mention or link to our sites.
Spencer, again, thanks for your comments – this has helped everyone who reads it.
Also, I do absolutely agree that support is very important – and I would stress to everyone to make sure that your website company gives you the support and education to help you use your website as a marketing machine!
…Hepp
What are your thoughts? Please share them below!
Hey Robin,
Thanks for the answers—it does clear up some issues that I felt when I read your first post. I will post again on this topic as soon as I get some time.
Spencer
Robin,
First off I want to talk about the link-backs again…
I hate to beat the horse, but I think your readers should see both sides of this issue.
I agree 100% with you that it should NOT distract from the focus of the site, or the visitor at all. You can easily change the color of the text to either be a faint color, or even the same color of the background so it doesn’t show.
Here is why I like link-backs.
Joe is my client—he has me design a website, and I do. It looks really sharp and Joe is glad that he had me provide him with the service. Bob is another funeral director. He is looking around for someone to do a website for his firm. He comes to Joe’s website and LOVES it. He goes to the footer looking for a link (he knows what is standard for most websites) …..then he looks on the links page….how is he going to find me.
He either has to pick up the phone and call Joe, or he has to know enough about websites and the tools that are online, to find the host of the website, and even then, he might or might not find me.
The next thing is where you have the problem and that is a page rank. Yes…I’ll admit it…..I would like to be higher in Google! If I do a good job and get Joe the website that HE wants, then he should in turn have no problem with me getting a linkback. It doesn’t hurt his page rank, and to be 100% truthful, we are both working for the same thing…higher page rank.
I think both yourself and I would agree that with a funeral home website one of the biggest jobs we have is to get THEIR website a high rank, and get THEIR name out there via. their website.
Yes—maybe my company is different. While all of our sites are custom built, we don’t charge near the amounts you quoted.
I find the NoFollow tag interesting.
I guess what I don’t understand, is why we, the designer, can’t get a higher page rank, when that is our goal for our clients….
Should funeral homes put a NoFollow tag on their links that they get as well…..I think we would both say NO!
I hope that through all of this that any director who doubts that I don’t have their best interest at heart will give me a call and let me show them our services. Growing up in a Preacher’s home, I’ve been to funeral homes all of my life. I respect what you all do, and feel that at the very least what I can offer is the best service this market knows. I’m proud to say that every day our goal is to further our service so that you and your friends, can provide you and their clients with the much needed information online.
Robin—
The best to you—if you ever come to the Kentucky Convention I would love to meet you—
Spencer Guiley
Spencer…
You are not going to change my mind on backlinks. If you can convince clients that it is better for them to have a link to your site than not having it – great – but my position remains the same. Also, if Joe’s site is so good, the other FD will pick up the phone and call him and those verbal referrals are better than any backlinks.
Then you note that not only do you want the “click-thru” opportunity, but you also want to increase your PageRank off of your client’s back by not using the NoFollow tag.
I’m sure that you provide great service and I am not debating that. My position is that websites should be marketing machines, Google monsters, and the websites that I create are really for funeral professionals who see their website being more than just a web site. I am not trying to be all things to all people, but for the few who meet the criteria, they will have found something unique at http://www.FuneralFuturistWebsites.com!
Spencer, I appreciate the dialogue and I hope that it has proved beneficial to all who have read it. And, yes, I am speaking at the Kentucky convention, so I look forward to meeting you in June.
…Hepp