Google’s Helping Hand for Funeral Businesses – The Helpful Content Update
Google regularly updates its search algorithms to make sure people get the best organic results in Google search.
The latest update, introduced on December 5th, 2022 and known as the ‘helpful content update’, is good news for funeral businesses.
The update places a higher emphasis on providing users with authoritative and credible information, along with content that is useful, informative, and well-structured. Authority and credibility of the author in the funeral sector being a key factor in this case.
Your website will become a valuable business asset
This change is relevant for funeral directors because online visibility is important in reaching potential customers. By providing website visitors with high-quality, informative content, funeral directors can establish themselves as a trusted and reliable sources in their industry. This information on your website will become a valuable business asset that goes on working for your business for years to come with a cumulative effect.
Artificial Intelligence (AI)
We’ve heard a lot about artificial intelligence lately and this is one example of how it can positively affect us. Google is using machine learning algorithms to analyse various factors that determine the quality of information on a website. These factors include the relevance and accuracy of the content, the authority of the source, the structure of the page, and the user experience. By reducing the presence of low-quality content in search results, Google is working to improve the user experience by ranking experts higher to ensure that users find accurate and trustworthy information first.
Increase the likelihood of attracting new customers
Funeral directors can take advantage of this update by focusing on creating informative and credible content for their website. This could include information about upcoming funerals, planning a funeral, pre-paid funeral plans, grief support resources, and anything else that may be relevant to potential customers. Additionally, by ensuring that the web designer has built a user-friendly and easy to navigate website, funeral directors can improve the user experience and further increase the likelihood of attracting new customers.
Become the authoritative source
It’s important for funeral directors to establish themselves as authoritative sources in their industry. This can be done by sharing informative content through blog posts, social media, and other online channels, as well as by building backlinks from reputable websites in the funeral services industry. In short, be found as the ‘go to’ expert for both search engines and your community.
Helpful content case studies
In 2022 I was fortunate to attend the SAIF regional meeting held at Durham cricket ground. One of the main topics of concern to the funeral directors in attendance was the the advertising of direct cremation by Pure Cremation and similar companies, many felt powerless to compete with the huge marketing budgets. Of genuine concern, was the fact that families in their communities were exposed to this advertising and were unaware of the impersonal nature of such services. How could they let people know that as their local independent funeral director they could provide a better option?
I pointed out that a significant tool in the independents armoury was an asset that they already owned, namely their company website. By explaining with helpful content about direct cremation they could be found in online searches and pose genuine competition to those national advertising campaigns.
To be clear, while professional search engine optimisation of helpful content demonstrated by our examples will pay dividend’s, DIY or self generated articles on your companies blog are a worthwhile and viable starting point.
If you have any questions about this article or if you would like help with your website please feel free to get in touch with Gerry King at Funeral Director Websites.
Find out more about the helpful content update.
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