3 Ways to Leverage Searcher Intent for More Effective Funeral Home Content Marketing

Google’s June 2019 core algorithm update left many sites spinning as their traffic numbers plummeted. Whether or not you were impacted by the update, the lesson learned is that quality content matters. For funeral home content marketers, the takeaway is twofold: Create good content and ensure it aligns appropriately with searcher intent.

What Is Searcher Intent?
Searcher intent refers to the reason someone enters a search engine query in the first place. Obviously, they’re looking for a relevant link, but intent is more than topical. It’s not enough to provide funeral home marketing content; you have to provide content that matches various points in the buying journey.

Searcher intent is typically broken into the following categories:

• Informational: the person wants to know something, such as matters related to cremation or how preplanning works
• Transactional: the person wants to do something, such as preplan final arrangements
• Navigational: the person wants to go somewhere, such as to your funeral home

3 Tips for Matching Funeral Home Content Marketing to Searcher Intent

Google wants to deliver links that match searcher intent because that increases user experience on Google. Here are three tips for funeral home online marketing that keeps searcher intent in mind and boosts your performance in SERPs.

1. Create educational content that speaks to your audience.
Ask yourself: What types of questions are your clientele most likely to ask? Then, conduct keyword research to find out how people are looking for those answers online. Write content that provides user-friendly, in-depth, expert answers on these topics and include the keywords in titles, subheadings, and a few places in the body of the copy.

2. Make it easy for individuals to become clientele.
Signal to search engines and users that your site supports transactional interactions. Yes, funeral homes often find success by using educational content to create an authentic and expert brand, but that doesn’t mean real marketing copy is entirely off the table. Create landing pages that talk about services you offer and include calls-to-action (CTAs) or buttons that make it easy for visitors to contact you online or via phone.

3. Leverage citations and Google My Business.
Remember that not all funeral home marketing efforts happen on your own pages. Navigational searches may be answered by Google Maps or GMB pages without people ever clicking through to a site. Make sure your address is easy to find and increase the chance your business appears in map results by ensuring your NAP data (business name, address, and phone number) is consistent everywhere it appears online. That includes on your own pages and GMB profile, your social profiles and any industry or review sites where your business is listed.

Keeping searcher intent in mind when planning online marketing efforts ensures you’re swinging at a target you can see rather than blinding flailing at a pinata and hoping for a hit that spills the candy. And that means more efficient online marketing that drives metrics such as ROI, traffic, and conversions.