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The future of finding information online is AI assistants, not search engines. ChatGPT and its copycat rivals are taking over the Internet.
Remember, many years ago, when you first heard someone say “I Googled it”? That’s now happening with ChatGPT as a phrase within the general population.
And it doesn't stop there. As I keep mentioning on these blog posts, Google itself is deliberating changing from a search engine to an AI assistant in order to stay relevant. We really have entered a new era of how people find information on the Internet.
So what can you do about it as a funeral director? How can you position yourself to benefit from this existential shift of online behaviour from search engines to AI assistants?
Well, given we’re talking about AI assistants and how they’re taking over, why not ask ChatGPT itself?
Here’s what it had to say on the matter:
“To appear more in ChatGPT, focus on creating high-quality, authoritative content, optimizing your website with structured data and strong traditional SEO, ensuring your business information is consistent and cited across the web, and getting listed in reputable directories. Building brand authority through thought leadership and earning mentions from trusted sources also significantly boosts visibility in AI responses.”
Ok, that’s pretty long and a bit wordy. Let’s flesh out the important bits:
“Focus on creating high-quality, authoritative content” - to be honest, this is no different from what search engines have always required, so no new action is required.
“Optimizing your website with structured data” - emphasis on the word ‘structured’. This is talking about making your website easy for the AI bots to read and compartmentalise information. This is very important. Speak to your Web people as this is a one-off job, shouldn’t cost too much, and is a no-brainer in the age of AI.
“And strong traditional SEO” - this refers to on-site or technical SEO, which you should already have in place for search engines. What it’s not referring to is hiring marketing firms to rank your website in Google. That is now a complete waste of time and money.
“Getting listed in reputable directories” - much, much more important with AI assistants compared to search engines. Unlike search engines, AI thinks (yes, like a human) each time you ask it a question, so it’s heavily influenced by trust signals it can rely on when calculating its answer. Hint: Funeral Guide is the most popular funeral directory on the Internet.
“Earning mentions from trusted sources also significantly boosts visibility in AI responses” - a follow-on from the point above, but worth mentioning given ChatGPT emphasises just how significant earning citations from trusted sources is for appearing in AI results. ‘Trusted sources’ can mean many things - I don’t think there’s anything that new or interesting here.
To summarise in terms of a plan of action for funeral directors:
i) make sure all of your information and data on your website is structured for AI bots.
ii) get listed on reputable directories like Funeral Guide.
That’s two wins you can do quickly, won’t cost an arm and a leg, and will get you ahead of the competition.
This isn’t something you should be thinking about doing someday in the future.
AI assistants are already here, they’re growing in popularity every day, and people are using them right now to find funeral directors.
