If you’re involved in running a funeral home, you’ve probably already created a website. This is a step in the right direction, but there are other things that need to be done. If no one knows about your website because it does not rank in local search results then your website won’t be drawing in any business.
One of the best ways to ensure that your site gets found, in addition to publicizing the URL in print promotional materials, is to ensure that your site shows up in local searches. You’ll need to focus on local SEO (Search Engine Optimization) strategies, like other entities that are doing business in a specific regional area. There are several steps involved in the process.
Register Your Site With Major Search Engines
Ensuring that your website is registered with major search engines like Google, Bing, and Yahoo is essential to your website SEO strategy. With Google, this is as simple as adding your URL to their database and verifying your listing by phone or postcard. You’ll also need a Google account to do this. Bing’s process is similar; you’ll have the option to add or claim your listing with the search engine, and then you’ll be required to verify your listing by phone or mail. You’ll also need a Windows Live ID to complete the process as well. The process is nearly the same through Yahoo, but you have the option to obtain a basic or enhanced listing with this search engine.
Make Sure Your Business Goes Social
You won’t want to ignore other methods of listing your funeral home business either. You may want to establish listings with Yellow Pages, YP.com, and City Search. You may want to add listings to social media sites such as Facebook and LinkedIn. These profiles can assist you in ensuring that your business has a better chance at obtaining higher rankings in search engines, because in many cases, these profiles will show up first in search engine results.
Get On The Map!
Get Listed With Local Sites
Don’t ignore regional portals when you’re listing our business. Many of these sites are run by various media institutions. Many local newspapers and news stations offer local businesses an opportunity to have a listing on these sites. Obtaining a listing on these sites can definitely increase your search engine rankings significantly.
Consistency is the Key
While you’re creating these listings for your funeral home you’re going to want to make sure that you maintain consistency in your listings. Your business should be listed under the same name each time. You don’t want to list your business as Your Business, LLC in one area and then have it listed as Your Business in another. Additionally, you’ll want to ensure that the same address and contacts are listed under each registration. This is critical in getting recognition from major search engines as a local business entity. Even slight variations can cause your efforts to fizzle and affect your rankings.
Perform Competitive Research on the Competition
When you are researching keywords for your website, you’ll need to look at other local businesses that rank highly with that keyword. Pay attention to the place that these businesses occupy in ranking. Search for these businesses by the names and addresses in the search bar of whichever site you’re previewing and find out what sites these businesses are listed at. This will let you know where your business needs to be listed at in order to get the highest possible rankings. One simple test is to just Google some terms relevant to your services and location to see how your website is ranking and see where you need to be. Type in Funeral Homes or Funeral Providers and the town and state you are located in. Also type Cremation Services or Cremation Providers and learn about where you rank for these key terms as well. For example type cremation services in Arlington Vermont and see where your website comes up. Ideally you want to be in the first top three of search results. If you not on page one your not going to attract much new business.
Review All Your Business Reviews
Assuming that you’ve got your site listed at various places, you’ll want to check out those listings regularly. Check out any reviews about your business. Find out if any of your clients have had frustrating experiences with your business. You’ll also want to find out if your clients have been pleased with your service. You can use this as a springboard for ensuring that your funeral and cremation services are the best in the area. You’ll also get more positive reviews with this type of effort. Additionally, it wouldn’t hurt to check out competing reviews for other businesses. Find out what these entities are doing right, and what customers believe could be better. This kind of insight will help you deliver better service, and positive reviews will obviously increase your rankings.
Audit Your Site’s Usability
This is extremely important. Before you waste time promoting your site, you need to make sure your site is easy to navigate. You’ll also want to ensure that the site looks appropriate in a variety of browsers. It won’t do your business any good to get a high ranking, if leads visit your site and leave because the site is poorly designed. Your visitors should see how to contact your easily. If you maintain guestbooks for clients, these applications should function properly. Don’t forget that mobile usage is increasing, you may want to invest in having a mobile website created so mobile users can navigate your site easily.
Learn More Here
Consumer demands and social innovations are changing the funeral home business. Funeral Home SEO has the technology and know-how to assist you in developing your funeral home business to meet those evolving demands. Contact us today to discover how your funeral home business can benefit from our services and expertise. #877-365-9474 or info@cremationsolutuions.com and I will connect you with the experts!
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