December 2020

Page A26 DECEMBER 2020 FUNERAL HOME & CEMETERY NEWS Se c t i on A With more than 40 years of experience, Inman ShippingWorldwide is the nation’s largest, oldest and most reliable shipping provider. We offer: • International & domestic ship-in services • Unsurpassed attention to detail • State-of-the-art tracking software • 24/7 call center staffed by Inman employees FIRST-CLASS SHIPPING SERVICE. Unmatched Expertise. Contact us to learn about our superior shipping services. (800) 321-0566 ShipInman.com ©adfinity ® SIMPLE REVENUE BOOST ® Wilbert’s simpliFi burial vault presentation program has helped increase sales of lined burial vaults over unlined grave boxes. More burial vault sales can also lead to more graveside services. It’s as simple as that. Call your Wilbert provider for more details. wilbert.com/simplifi/webinars Obit Launches Social Platform Giving Families and Funeral Homes A Better Place to Remember source for information about local businesses is the internet. If you’re not online or are hard to find online, that makes it more difficult for consumers to find out about your fu- neral home or cemetery—making it less likely they learn about your products when they’re ready to enter a buying journey or experiencing an at-need situation. Local SEO refers to the efforts you take to position your site and business to be found online by these users. It in- cludes both onsite and offsite SEO tactics, and it has a high conversion rate. On average, up to 80 percent of people who visit a site based on a local search end up making a purchase eventually. Those conversion rates are across all industries, so they take into account mobile users checking out online menus when they’re craving a pizza or hamburger. Ob- viously, those searches will convert at a higher rate. But funeral homes with strong local SEO can still expect con- version rates that are higher than those connected with general SEO—in part because you’re targeting the audi- ence who can actually use your services. One of the first steps to targeting local searchers is us- ing the right keywords. You’ll need to conduct some key- word research using tools such as Google’s Keyword Plan- ner, SEMrush, Marketing Muse, or Ubersuggest—or pay someone to do keyword research for you. Look for locally relevant keywords such as “funeral homes in Miami” or “Florida funeral homes.” Choose a relevant phrase with local intent as your primary keyword. Next, consider semantic keywords. These are phrases peo- ple would naturally use when discussing the topic you’re covering. For example, if you’re writing content about a cemetery in Miami, relevant phrases might include burial, gravesite, headstone, Miami, and south Florida. But peo- ple talking about that cemetery would also likely include the name of the streets it’s on or the neighborhood it’s in, and those are good phrases to include in your copy too. The right keywords and semantic phrases help clue the search engines in that you’re talking about topics relevant to local searchers, and that can help you appear higher in SERPs. But you also want to provide quality, relevant copy that engages and informs those searchers. That’s what keeps them on your page longer, helps ensure they come back lat- er for more information, or compels them to click through on your links to learn more or make an appointment. A good tip for providing this type of high-quality con- tent is speaking to the specific needs, concerns, and inter- ests of local consumers. Write about the cultural funeral traditions of the area, address location concerns, or talk about weather patterns unique to the region. For exam- ple, in Miami, people might be interested to know how funeral homes or crematories keep the remains of loved ones safe if a hurricane threatens to derail services. Once you handle on-page SEO, turn to off-page SEO ef- forts. Google reviews are an often overlooked SEO tool. The search engine says that the number of reviews can impact where your pages fall in SERPs. And if you have a decent star rating and a high number of reviews, someone is likely to click your link even if it falls second or third—especially if the higher-ranking pages have fewer reviews or lower star ratings. Let client families know that Google reviews are impor- tant to your business. If families express gratitude or sat- Local SEO: The What, Why, and How for Funeral Homes By Welton Hong Welton Hong About 90 percent of inter- net-using adults in the United States turn to search engines to start their buying journey. Whether they want a pizza, a pair of shoes, or prepaid cre- mation services, most people start by asking Google or an- other search engine for more information on the topic. That’s even truer when it comes to local goods and ser- vices. More than 95 percent of consumers say their top re- NEW YORK,NY— Obit emerges as the modern obituary platform serving both the funeral home industry and families in mourning. Obit found- er Brant Fischer has firsthand expe- rience with the funeral industry and was determined to create a better way for remembering loved ones. “I lost a close friend about ten years ago and realized we do a poor job re- membering people. Memories, con- dolences and fundraisers are scattered across Facebook, Instagram, and Go- FundMe, all overshadowed by ads and branded content. Remembrance had no home,” said Fischer. Fischer recognized that the tradi- tional method of remembering and celebrating the lives of loved ones could be re-engineered for the bene- fit of funeral home customers. Rath- er than sharing service details in one place, collecting donations in another and posting condolences somewhere else, Fischer has brought all these components together on one easy-to- use free social platform – Obit. Besides the benefits the platform provides their customers, Obit is built with funeral homes in mind. Funeral directors can create free pro- files and business pages to expand their online presence. On Obit, fu- neral homes can collect direct dona- tions to fund funeral costs, partici- pate in competitively priced revenue share through flower sales and broad- cast memorial services and eulogies live and on-demand through Obit’s mobile app – Obit Live. “Obit puts families first,” said Fisch- er. COVID19 makes Obit Live an even more compelling feature. Hun- dreds if not thousands of families have not been able to travel to be with loved ones as the result of the pan- demic. Obit Live helps to fill that void by bringing community together online. Families that choose to post- pone memorial services can use Obit to keep family and friends up to date with future arrangements. Kathleen Doughty of Donahue Funeral Home in Doylestown, PA is one funeral director who has adopted a hybrid approach to using Obit con- ducting in-person and online funer- al services. “I post obituaries on Obit and stream several funerals using Obit Live with such positive feedback from the families. Obit is a more intimate experience and far superior to the pre- vious generation of obituary services, and it will help increase my margins through crowdfunding. Every funeral director should be using Obit, with- out question,” said Doughty. To learn more, visit joinobit.com, follow @Obit on Twitter, @JoinO- bit on Instagram and Facebook. Continued on Page A28