By Welton Hong, founder and CEO of Ring Ring Marketing
Not long ago, a third-generation funeral home in the Midwest was struggling to attract new families through local search.
His website looked polished, and the community had done business with his funeral home for decades. But when a family typed “funeral home near me” into Google, a competitor down the street consistently showed up in the Local 3-Pack — the map with the top three businesses right under the search bar.
His funeral home? Buried at the bottom of page two of Google’s search results.
He thought the problem was lack of advertising — until I asked a simple question: “Have you truly optimized your Google Business Profile?”
Since he didn’t seem so sure, I offered to conduct a review, and I found some troubling results.
Even though this funeral home had served its community for more than 40 years, its Google listing was woefully incomplete. The business wasn’t listed in strategic categories, and it had not made collecting reviews a priority. Plus, there were almost no photos of the funeral home, which was a shame because it had just been renovated.
Within 90 days of applying a structured optimization strategy, the funeral home was ranking in the 3-Pack for multiple key search terms and started receiving more calls directly from Google Search and Maps.
This transformation didn’t happen by accident. It happened by mastering the local SEO fundamentals that determine how Google decides who is seen first, which is what I’ll focus on in this article.
Why the Google Business Profile Matters for Funeral Homes
For funeral homes, ranking in the Google Local 3-Pack is critical — that’s where most families click when they’re searching for immediate, trusted local services. A well-managed Google Business Profile acts like a trust anchor: it signals to Google what you do, where you are, and how well you serve your community. It also provides families immediate answers — phone number, hours, location, services, reviews — right when they need them most.
Local search rankings are influenced by relevance, prominence, and proximity. You can’t control how far someone is from your business. While it’s impossible to change where you are located, you can take some simple steps to boost your relevance and prominence in Google’s results.
- Choose the Right Primary Category
Your primary category tells Google exactly what you are — and Google uses this signal heavily in local ranking. For a funeral home, your primary category should reflect the core service you want to be found for (e.g., Funeral Home). Secondary categories such as Funeral Director, Cremation Service, or Celebrant Service can help capture additional relevant searches.
- Business Name — Transparency First
Legally, your Google Business Profile name should match your real business name.
It helps, however, if your business name includes keywords such as “funeral home,” “cremation,” or “celebration of life” – terms that indicate what it is you do.
If your business uses an abstract brand name (e.g., “ABC”), it can be much harder to rank for service-related terms. This is an industry reality — but it does not mean you can violate naming policies and start adding descriptive terms to your name if they are fake.
If your name does not include such keywords, it’s even more important to clearly explain what you do in the description, services and category fields.
- Regular, Consistent Reviews
Reviews are one of the strongest local ranking and trust signals. Quantity, quality and recency all matter. Encourage families (when appropriate) to leave reviews — and ask them to mention specific services (e.g., “compassionate cremation services” or “grief support”) rather than generic praise.
When it comes to reviews, it’s not just about numbers – if you suddenly get a spurt of reviews all at once, it will appear suspicious to Google.
The key is to collect reviews steadily and make doing so a priority all the time. This will keep your profile relevant and ensure that when families check out your listing, they see recent feedback.
- Services and Products
Complete your services list and, where applicable, add products with detailed descriptions. This section is scanned for relevance and helps Google understand the full scope of what you do. For funeral homes, services like traditional funeral ceremonies, cremation packages, preplanning services, grief counseling support, and memorial events should each be listed with clear, descriptive language.
- Business Hours Matter
Google sometimes ranks businesses that are currently open higher for queries with local intent. This makes accurate hours — including holiday hours, which is another subtle but impactful ranking factor.
If your funeral home is not listed as being open 24 hours, you’re making a mistake.
- Photos and Videos — Keep Them Fresh
Visual content is extremely important. Listings with photos receive more clicks and directions requests, and uploading photos regularly signals an active business to Google. Include exterior shots, interiors, staff, service spaces, and short introductory videos to help families feel more comfortable before they call.
While further down on the priority list, there are some other steps to take to make sure your Google presence is robust and gets exposure, including:
- Google Posts
Regular posts keep your profile fresh and can highlight timely offerings (e.g., holiday remembrance ceremonies), service announcements, and community events. While posts may not directly boost rank, they increase engagement and often help with keyword rankings.
- Social Links and External Engagement
Adding links to your social profiles increases trust and provides additional ways for families to connect. These have a minor SEO impact but improve conversion.
In addition to doing all the above, there are some things you want to avoid, such as stuffing your business description or posts with keywords, which can hurt credibility. Instead, use natural, descriptive language.
Also, it should go without saying that you never want to post fake reviews or incentivize people for writing positive reviews. Not only does that violate Google policies, it’s also dishonest and simply the wrong thing to do.
Final Takeaway
Optimizing your Google Business Profile is not a one-time task. It’s an ongoing process of:
- Choosing the right primary and secondary categories to tell Google what you do.
- Maintaining a steady flow of authentic, relevant reviews.
- Completing every relevant field — from services to photos to business hours.
- Engaging with your profile regularly.
Done well, this strategy boosts your chances of appearing in the Local 3-Pack — and that’s where most calls and inquiries come from when families are searching for immediate care and compassionate support. An ancillary benefit is that all these steps will also boost your ranking results in organic search, as well.
When your Google Business Profile reflects both your services and your values, you don’t just increase visibility — you strengthen community trust at the moment it matters most.
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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