What best means here
Best does not mean the most designed. It means a stranger in the worst week of their life can find what to do first, what it will cost and who to call, without asking anyone and without being sold to.
The funeral director, celebrant, memorial mason and will writing sites that do this share nine traits. None of them is a photograph of a sunset.
1. The first screen answers the first question
Not a mission statement. A line saying who you are and where, a tappable number, the out-of-hours arrangement in words, and a link to what to do when someone dies. Everything else can wait until the visitor has stopped shaking.
2. A first-days page that reads like a person wrote it
Numbered steps, split by where the death happened: at home, in hospital, in a care home, unexpectedly. What to do, who to call, in what order, and how much time there is. The best versions say plainly that there is usually no hurry, because that is the thing nobody tells people.
3. A price list on a page, in the required format
Current, structured, readable on a phone, and edited by staff rather than by a developer. Built to the layout the regulator sets out: in the UK the CMA's standardised price list and additional options list; in the US the Funeral Rule's general price list, casket price list and outer burial container price list, alongside the price information that must be given over the telephone. Requirements differ by country and change, so the good sites treat the format as something they check with their regulator or trade body, not something they inherit from a theme.
Alongside it, a plain paragraph in ordinary words explaining what a simple funeral includes and what usually costs extra. The regulator's format is the floor, not the whole answer.
4. Contact on every page, with the hours stated
Number in the header, number at the foot, a short message form for people who cannot yet speak, and one sentence about what happens when they call at three in the morning. The best sites name the person who answers.
5. Real photographs
The premises, the chapel, the cars, the people, taken properly. No stock imagery, no candles on a black background, no hands being held. A family judges whether you are the kind of firm they want within a few seconds of seeing the photographs, and stock images fail that test instantly.
6. Type that older eyes can read
Larger base size than a normal business site, high contrast, generous spacing, no light grey text, no text laid over images, nothing that animates or moves. This is the most reliable difference between the sites that work and the sites that were designed for a portfolio.
7. A page for each service line
Attended and unattended funerals, cremation and burial, repatriation, pre-paid plans, memorials, celebrancy. For a will writer: wills, mirror wills, lasting powers of attorney, trusts, probate. Each is a separate search made by a person with a separate question, and each deserves a short plain page.
8. A planning-ahead route with a calendar
Pre-need conversations, will writing consultations and memorial design meetings are appointments, and the best sites let people book one at the office, at home or by video. This is the only place a booking calendar belongs on a life events site.
9. Proof that suits the trade
Trade body membership, qualifications, regulation and insurance where they apply, years in the town, and the family names above the door if it is a family firm. Will writers state their regulatory or professional body position and their professional indemnity insurance, because will writing is regulated differently in different countries and clients check. Memorial masons show their registration for fixing memorials and their cemetery experience. Words from families where they have been offered, never solicited on the day.
What they do not share
- A look. Traditional and formal, quiet and modern, warm and local. All work.
- A platform. Good builds appear on several.
- Length. Some of the best are eight pages.
- Cleverness. Nothing on these sites is clever.
Check yours in ten minutes
On a phone, in daylight, at arm's length. Can you call in one tap from the page you landed on. Can you find what to do first, in under fifteen seconds. Is the price list a page, and is it current. Read the first paragraph out loud: would you say it to a widow in your front office. Is any photograph on the site stock. Can someone book a planning-ahead appointment. Can you find your trade body membership or your insurance statement.
Seven passes is a good site. Most in this trade pass three.
Where this sits
These nine traits are the specification behind the funeral and life events websites we build, and the checklist a diagnosis runs an old site against. The look is chosen afterwards, to suit the firm, on a structure that already helps the family who arrives at two in the morning.