which they feel like they spend more time on the
tech then they’re benefiting from it. Technology
should make your life better, demonstrate clear
benefits and be easy to implement and maintain.
[...] “Good technology should make you feel smart,
empowered, more efficient.” [...]
“Required”
Garbow began his discussion with websites. What
is required on any website is a good content-
management system, which is the platform
that holds the technology behind the website.
The website is the result of that tech.
When
you’re
talking
about
the
content-
management system for a website, the first thing
is that it must be easy to update. [...] “If you’re not
doing it yourself, the way to tell it’s easy is if your
provider does the updates quickly. We’re moving
fast now in this profession and you’ve got to have
your website move fast and adapt along with you,”
stated Garbow.
Next, a website must be customizable. Can you
make changes and have it reflect your brand
identity? Asked Garbow: “Does it really feel like it’s
projecting who you are as a firm?”
A content-management system also needs to
be flexible. By that, Garbow means having the
ability to add new content to the site, such as
new landing pages with resources for families,
a blog, a testimonials page and another for
reviews. [...] Lastly, Garbow pointed to search
engine optimization (SEO), which can get you listed
properly in Google results so that you can capture
all the organic search traffic.
“Wired”
Once you’ve got a good platform in place, Garbow
said, switch from “required” to “wired” as it’s time
to focus on things like SEO so that when someone
searches for something related to funeral homes
or obituaries or planning ahead, you show up. And
you show up near the top, where almost all the
clicks occur, not buried on the third page of results
where no one’s ever going to find you.
As Garbow explained, SEO is a bit of a tricky area.
“This is a part of the profession where some would
say ‘predatory selling’ occurs,” he said. “SEO is
a little bit mysterious and magical – you don’t
necessarily see what’s going into it. It might take
a while for the results to show up.”
Some firms that claim to be SEO specialists will
come in and say, “Hey, here are the 1,500 things I’m
going to do for you to help you rank better.” Most
people, thinking it all sounds a bit complicated,
would defer to the SEO specialist. “Not good, stay
away from those people,” Garbow warned. Other
SEO people may say they’ll get you to number one
for all key search phrases. “They can’t promise
you that,” Garbow said. “Only Google knows what
Google’s algorithm is and nobody within Google
actually knows what the algorithm is. They can’t
possibly promise particular results.”
When it comes to SEO, Garbow said, consider the
basics, focusing on the few things that actually
matter: original content, engagement, site
structure, page speed and Google My Business.
Most, if not all, of the results will come from these
areas, he said. [...] There are a few things funeral
directors might want to consider when it comes
to site structure. “This is where a lot of that SEO
benefit comes from,” said Garbow. Make sure
obituaries, which for much of a funeral home’s
search traffic, are on your domain so visitors
don’t leave your site to find the obituaries. If they
do, you’re not getting any of the SEO benefits.
Garbow also suggested making sure that the
deceased’s name is in the URL for the obituary,
which will make sure it ranks higher and that you
get that SEO benefit. [...] A slow website is a deal
breaker for many consumers. Nobody wants to
search for something, click on it and then have to
wait too long to actually see what the site is. [...]
Continuing the discussion on Google, Garbow
talked
about
My
Business
[...],
integrated digital marketing by having forms
on your website that feed back to your customer
relationship manager (CRM) [...] and integrated
landing pages so that when somebody is
interested in a resource, they can get it or
sign up for it. Garbow also advised retargeting
Technology should make you
more efficient. It should create
new capabilities and offerings
you can provide to families to
make the funeral service more
special. It should open up
new revenue and simplify and
automate your business.
THANOS MAGAZINE | No. 102 – SUMMER 2023
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