Backlinks and Mentions: Increasing Awareness of Your Funeral Home

Word of mouth.

What do you think of when you read that phrase?

If you think something like, “That’s a powerful marketing tool,” you’re 100% correct. Positive word of mouth is one of the best ways to drive brand awareness and get new clientele, especially in an industry such as deathcare, where consumer experience and quality service is so important.

But we don’t live in a society where people gather regularly over dinners and events and chat about service providers and products. Especially in the post-COVID world, many people communicate more online than they do in person outside of close family and friend units. So, does that mean word of mouth is no longer as powerful?

Not at all. It just means that word of mouth has gone digital.

What are backlinks?
These are simply links from third-party sites that lead to your pages. If a news channel mentions you in their story and links to your site, that’s a backlink. If a grateful family member posts about you on his Twitter page and includes a link, that’s also a backlink.

Backlinks are digital word of mouth because they act as referrals. In most cases, when someone bothers to link to your page, it’s a sign to others that your site is worth visiting. It’s akin to saying, “Check out these high-quality, trustworthy deathcare pros.”

What are mentions?
These occur when someone talks about your firm online. It might be in the guise of an official mention on social media, including the @ and your firm’s call sign on that platform. But mentions can also be your name in a blog post or review—anything that makes others somewhat aware of your firm.

Mentions have some of the weight of backlinks as far as being a recommendation for your business, depending on the context. Obviously, a negative review isn’t a recommendation.

But mentions also help build brand awareness in general. The more people read your firm’s name online, the more they’re likely to remember it during a time of need.

How can you increase backlinks and mentions for your funeral home?
Historically, companies engaged in a lot of black hat SEO tactics to boost backlinks and mentions. Black hat means a bit sketchy and potentially unethical, so we don’t want to champion those methods today—especially since plenty of ethical ways for increasing mentions and links exist. Here are a few:

• Publish content people want to share. Relevant, informative, quality blog posts and long-form content about preplanning and other deathcare topics can help increase links and shares.
• Engage with the general community. Share the posts of other businesses and get involved in events and charities. People may feel compelled to share your content in return or you could earn links on their pages.
• Ask for reviews. Ask clientele to leave reviews on Google or to share your services with friends and family if they were satisfied.