By Welton Hong, founder and CEO of Ring Ring Marketing
For years, the playbook for getting a funeral home found online was straightforward: Show up in Google, build a strong Google Business Profile, collect reviews, optimize the website and try to rank as highly as possible for the searches families are making.
That playbook still works.
But something important has changed: Increasingly, families are asking artificial intelligence platforms the questions they once typed directly into Google.
Instead of searching for “funeral homes near me” and scrolling through a page of results, someone might ask ChatGPT, Gemini or another AI platform questions like:
- What are the best funeral homes in Phoenix?
- Who offers affordable cremation services in Springfield?”
- What should I expect to pay for a cremation?
The answers may include several funeral homes — and if yours isn’t among them, the prospective customer may never know you exist.
That doesn’t mean Google is going away. Far from it. Google still generates vastly more website traffic than ChatGPT, and people who use AI to narrow their choices often turn back to Google to examine maps, star ratings, reviews and websites before deciding who to give their business.
What is changing is the role of AI, which I recently addressed in detail on this webinar.
AI increasingly acts as a filter between consumers and the businesses they ultimately consider. And that means funeral homes need to think not only about how they rank in search engines, but also about whether they provide the information and credibility signals that AI systems can understand and trust.
The good news is that much of what works for traditional search engine optimization — SEO — also works for what is sometimes called generative engine optimization, or GEO.
You don’t necessarily need an entirely new marketing strategy.
You need to execute the fundamentals better.
AI Is Asking the Same Questions Families Ask
When someone asks friends for a funeral home recommendation, the conversation usually boils down to three basic questions.
- First: Is this business real?
- Second: Is it good?
- Third: Do other people vouch for it?
AI systems are increasingly trying to answer those same questions.
Consider the first one. If an AI platform is going to recommend a funeral home to a grieving family, it needs to have some confidence that the funeral home is legitimate and operates in the market it claims to serve.
That means consistency matters.
Your business name, address and phone number should match across the major online directories. Your Google Business Profile should be complete and accurate. Your website should clearly identify who you are, where you are located and what services you provide.
Other directories and platforms can reinforce that identity. Depending on the market, those may include Bing, Apple Maps, Yelp, the Better Business Bureau and other established business directories.
Why does this matter?
Because there are plenty of fake businesses attempting to manipulate search results. Some create questionable addresses or use locations where they don’t operate. Search engines and AI systems have an incentive to distinguish legitimate businesses from those trying to game the system.
A real funeral home should have a clear, consistent digital identity.
That consistency also helps humans. If a family finds one address on your website, another on a directory and a third on a social media profile, it creates doubt at precisely the wrong time.
Reviews Are More Than a Five-Star Number
The second question — “Are you good?” — brings us to reviews.
Funeral homes know about the importance of Google reviews, but simply having a large number of five-star reviews isn’t the whole story.
Recency matters.
Consistency matters.
And responding to reviews matters.
A funeral home with hundreds of reviews but no recent activity can look very different from a funeral home that steadily receives reviews from families and responds thoughtfully to them.
AI systems also don’t rely exclusively on Google. ChatGPT doesn’t have its own consumer review system that functions like Google Reviews. Instead, it can look across major online sources to help assess a business’s reputation, including sites such as Yelp.
That’s particularly relevant in deathcare because Yelp has historically received less attention from funeral homes than Google.
There is an important distinction here: Funeral homes shouldn’t attempt to manufacture reviews or aggressively solicit them on platforms that prohibit solicitation. Yelp, for example, has policies governing how businesses may ask for reviews.
The broader lesson is to build a genuine reputation across the web rather than trying to engineer a particular score on a single platform.
And whether a review is positive or negative, it deserves a response.
Social Media Is Becoming More Important to AI
For traditional Google rankings, an active social media presence hasn’t necessarily been a major direct ranking factor.
AI changes the equation.
When AI systems are trying to determine whether a business is legitimate and actively serving customers, they can look at social media activity as another piece of evidence.
Are you posting?
Are people engaging with the posts?
Are people commenting and sharing?
Does the account look like an active business or an abandoned page that hasn’t been touched in three years?
This is another example of AI behaving much like a human.
If a friend recommended a funeral home to you, you’d probably look it up. You’d check the website. You’d look at the reviews. You might look at Facebook or Instagram to see whether the business appears active and professional.
AI can perform a similar investigation — only much faster and across many more sources.
Your Website Is No Longer Just a Brochure
Perhaps the biggest change funeral homes should make is to rethink what their website is supposed to accomplish.
Historically, many funeral home websites functioned primarily as digital brochures. They listed the firm’s history, location, staff, contact information and services.
That information remains important. But today’s website also needs to answer questions.
Think about the questions a family might ask:
- How much does cremation cost in Springfield?
- Do you offer direct cremation?
- What is included in a traditional funeral?
- Do you offer preplanning?
- Can I arrange a funeral online?
- Do you serve families outside the city where your funeral home is located?
- What happens when someone dies at home?
The answers should be readily available on your website, written in clear, natural language.
This is increasingly important because searches themselves are becoming more conversational. People aren’t always entering two or three keywords into Google anymore. They are asking complete questions — and Google’s AI-generated answers and other AI platforms are designed to understand those questions.
A page that clearly answers the question gives both the search engine and the AI something useful to work with.
There’s a simple question you should ask yourself: Can a stranger understand what you do and where you do it within five seconds of landing on your homepage?
If the answer is no, you’ve got a problem.
Your homepage should clearly communicate your identity, location and core services. Your service pages should explain those services in meaningful detail. And your website should include answers to the questions families ask.
Think About the Cities You Serve
Location-specific content is another important piece of the puzzle.
If your funeral home serves five major communities, it can make sense to have dedicated pages for those communities rather than simply listing five city names somewhere on your homepage.
Suppose someone searches, “Who offers the best cremation services in Phoenix?”
A generic services page isn’t necessarily going to provide the strongest answer.
A well-developed Phoenix cremation page, on the other hand, can explain your cremation services, the communities you serve, what families can expect, pricing considerations, frequently asked questions and what makes your funeral home different.
The same principle applies to other cities and services.
The goal isn’t to stuff pages with keywords. In fact, that approach is increasingly counterproductive.
The goal is to create genuinely useful resources for people who need your services.
Write naturally. Use conversational language. Answer questions directly.
Those are not radically different from traditional SEO best practices. They’re simply becoming more important as search evolves.
Your Google Business Profile Remains Critical
With all the attention being paid to ChatGPT and other AI platforms, it’s easy to overlook the most important digital asset many funeral homes have: their Google Business Profile.
Don’t.
Make sure the listing is completely filled out. Your business name, address, phone number and hours should be accurate. Your primary and secondary categories should make sense. Your services should be listed. Your photos should be current.
And keep the profile active.
Adding photos and posts isn’t something you should do once when the profile is created and then forget about. Your online presence should demonstrate that you’re actively operating your business.
Don’t Confuse SEO and GEO
There’s been a rush in the marketing industry to create new terminology around AI search.
One of the most common terms is GEO — generative engine optimization.
While the concept is real, I recommend being cautious about marketing companies that want to charge a completely separate monthly fee for “AI optimization” without being able to explain what they’re actually doing.
Much of the work that makes a website understandable and authoritative to Google also makes it useful to AI systems.
If your already paying for SEO and your strategy includes accurate business information, high-quality content, service pages, location pages, frequently asked questions, strong reviews, reputable citations and an active Google Business Profile, you’re already doing much of the work.
If an agency says it offers a separate AI-search service, ask a simple question: What are you doing for AI search that isn’t already included in our SEO work?
There may be legitimate additional services. But there should be a clear answer.
At Ring Ring Marketing, we consider this work part of SEO rather than creating an artificial distinction simply because “AI” is currently a hot marketing term.
Don’t Forget the Ads
Organic visibility is only part of the picture.
Google is increasingly incorporating advertising into AI-generated search experiences, while ChatGPT has also begun introducing advertising to some users and queries.
The mechanics and availability of these programs continue to evolve, so funeral homes shouldn’t build their entire strategy around them. But they are worth understanding.
The important distinction is that advertising and organic visibility serve different purposes.
An advertisement can buy visibility. It cannot buy an organic recommendation from an AI system.
If someone asks an AI platform to recommend funeral homes and your business is organically identified as a legitimate, reputable option, that’s valuable. If that same person also sees your advertisement, even better.
But the advertisement doesn’t replace the underlying work.
The organic foundation still matters.
How Do You Know Whether You’re Being Found?
One of the biggest challenges with AI search is measurement.
Traditional digital marketing gives us relatively clear data. Someone searches Google, clicks a result and arrives at your website. Analytics can track much of that journey.
AI makes the journey less visible.
Someone might ask ChatGPT for funeral home recommendations, see your business mentioned, and then call you directly. There may be no website visit to attribute to AI at all.
Or they might see your name in an AI response, search for you separately on Google, look at your reviews and then contact you.
The original AI interaction can disappear from the measurable portion of the funnel.
That’s why businesses shouldn’t judge AI visibility exclusively by website referral traffic.
The consumer journey is changing, but the fundamental funnel hasn’t disappeared. AI may simply be moving the consumer further down the funnel before the funeral home’s website ever gets involved.
Your Homework: Ask AI About Your Own Market
There’s an easy way to begin understanding where you stand.
Open ChatGPT and ask: What are the best funeral homes in [your city]?
Then look carefully at the answer to see if you are mentioned, who else is mentioned and the information that AI provides. Including the websites it cites and the directories or review sites that appear to be influencing its answer.
Then try more specific questions, such as:
- Who offers cremation services in [city]?
- What are the best funeral homes for preplanning in [city]?
- Which funeral homes serve [city or county]?
If you’re not being mentioned, don’t immediately assume you need a new AI marketing program. First look at the fundamentals, including:
- Is your business information consistent across the web?
- Is your Google Business Profile complete?
- Are you regularly receiving reviews?
- Are you responding to them?
- Does your website clearly explain what you do?
- Does your website answer the questions families are asking?
- Do you have useful pages for the communities you serve?
- Are people engaging with your social media?
- When you search your own business name, do you like what you see?
Those questions get to the heart of what AI systems are trying to determine.
Ten Questions Every Funeral Home Should Ask
Here’s a simple self-assessment. Give yourself one point for every “yes.”
- Does my website clearly say what I do and where I serve within the first few lines?
- Do I have useful pages for the major communities I serve?
- Does every important service page answer a real question near the top?
- Is my Google Business Profile complete and using the appropriate categories?
- Have I added a photo or post to my Google Business Profile recently?
- Do I have at least as many Google reviews as my closest competitor?
- Have I received a new review within the past 30 days?
- Do I respond to every review?
- Is my name, address and phone number consistent across major online directories?
- When I search for my own business, do I like what I see?
Eight or more “yes” answers mean you’re in reasonably good shape.
The Future Is Less About Rankings and More About Being the Answer
Search is changing quickly, but the fundamental objective hasn’t changed.
You want to be the funeral home a family can find, understand and trust.
Google isn’t dead. In fact, it remains enormously important. But consumers now have another layer between themselves and traditional search: artificial intelligence.
AI can filter the market before a family ever sees a Google results page.
That makes your digital reputation and presence more important, not less.
Welton Hong is the founder & CEO of Ring Ring Marketing, which has helped over 600 small businesses grow their revenue through online marketing strategies. He is also the author of “Making Your Phone Ring with Internet Marketing for Funeral Homes.” Visit ringringmarketing.com and follow the company on Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram and X.
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