Get found by the families already looking, and turn that into enquiries.
I am a funeral director. Alongside that I look after the whole digital side for independent firms: the website, being found on Google, the CMA price list rules. That leaves you free to get on with the job you actually do.
Before you decide anything, the plain facts
Which of these is you?
Most firms ring me about one of four things. Pick the closest and I’ll tell you what I’d actually do about it.
The family has your name. Then they look you up.
A website doesn’t replace word of mouth. It’s where word of mouth goes to check. If what they find is dated, or awkward on a phone at eleven at night, it plants a doubt that shouldn’t be there.
You won’t have to write a word of it. We have one conversation, I take the notes, I draft the lot, and you tell me what’s wrong.
Start with the free check. It tells you what a family sees before it tells you what it costs.
What I’d do
- Design built for your firm, not adapted from a template
- Every word written for you from one conversation
- Price lists placed exactly as the Order requires
- Fast on a phone, and quiet. No pop-ups or chat windows
Forty years in the town, and page two of Google.
In most towns the direct cremation advert is now doing a better job of explaining funerals than the firm that has been there four generations. That isn’t a reflection of the work. It’s a reflection of who bothered with their Google listing.
This is steady, unglamorous work: your listing kept right, a page for each town you serve, reviews asked for properly. It compounds.
I won’t take on local search for two firms serving the same town. If a neighbour is already a client, I’ll tell you before you commit.
What I’d do
- Your Google Business Profile set up and managed properly
- A page for each town you cover, written to be found
- Reviews requested without it feeling like marketing
- A plain-English note each month on what moved
Most firms aren’t, and it’s almost never anyone’s fault.
The rules changed in September 2021, after most of these websites were built. The Standardised Price List has to be titled a certain way, placed a certain way, and kept current. A list that was right in January is quietly wrong by May when the crematorium puts its fees up, and nothing tells you.
No funeral director has been fined under the Order. What the CMA has done is publish letters naming firms on gov.uk, where anyone searching the name can find them. That’s the honest reason to sort it.
Send me your web address. I’ll go through all fourteen points and tell you plainly where you stand. Free, and no obligation.
What I’d do
- Both price lists built and correctly titled
- Published on your site, or handed to whoever runs it
- Third-party fees checked against what crematoria actually charge
- Re-checked every quarter, with a dated note for your records
You’re on call. This can’t be another job on your desk.
This is the reason most firms put it off for years, and it’s fair. So the arrangement is simple: it becomes my problem, not yours. You ring or email when something needs changing and it’s done, usually the same working day.
Crematorium fees up? Price list updated. Order amended? You get told in plain English and it’s handled. A funeral notice to go up at short notice? Send it over.
One month’s notice, always. See what looking after it costs.
What I’d do
- Hosting, security and backups, so there is nothing for you to remember
- Unlimited small changes within a working day
- Compliance reviewed every quarter, in writing
- One person to ring, who knows your firm
If it’s digital and it touches your firm, it’s mine to sort.
It started with websites. It didn’t stay there, because the questions kept coming, and there was nobody in this trade to send people to.
Your website
Designed for your firm, written for you, built so a family in the first hours of a bereavement finds what they need.
Being found locally
Google Business Profile, local search for every town you serve, and the pages that get you in front of families who don’t yet know your name.
CMA price lists
Standardised and Additional Options lists, correctly titled, correctly placed, and kept current as fees move.
Reviews and reputation
Asking families for a review without it feeling like marketing, and keeping an eye on what shows up against your name.
Funeral notices
Notices you can post yourself in two minutes, on your own site, instead of paying a third party for the privilege.
Email and domains
A proper address on your own name rather than a Hotmail account, your domain registered to you, renewals that don’t lapse.
Enquiries that arrive properly
Forms that reach you, are handled lawfully, and don’t sit in a junk folder for two days.
Google Ads, if it’s warranted
Only where a group has opened nearby and is buying its way to the top of your own town. I’ll tell you if it isn’t worth it.
Tribute pages
Kindred Tributes. A place for families to leave memories and donations, under your firm’s name rather than a national platform’s.
Two complete example sites, built the way a real one would be.
Neither firm exists. Both are there so you can see what you’d actually get, and see that a single-branch firm and a three-branch group don’t get handed the same template.
Ashvale Family Funeral Directors
One office on a market square in Wiltshire. Compliance notes can be switched on, showing which part of the Order each element satisfies and why it sits where it does.
See the site Three branchesWhitcombe & Sons
Four generations across three villages. Each branch found in its own town with its own number and hours, and every kind of funeral given a page of its own.
See the siteBoth are demonstration sites and say so on every page. No real firm’s prices, names or photographs are used.
Plainly, and in writing, before anything starts.
You have to publish your prices. It would be a bit rich of me not to publish mine. Agnew Digital isn’t registered for VAT, so these are what you pay. There’s nothing to add.
The free check
Fourteen points on your website and your Google listing, reviewed by hand. You get a written note telling you where you stand, whether you ever use me or not. If nothing’s wrong, I’ll tell you that too.
Get the checkThe Watch
For firms whose website somebody else looks after. Both price lists built and correctly titled, then checked every three months against what the crematoria and councils are actually charging, with a dated note each quarter for your records. Cancel the monthly whenever you like.
Talk it throughThe Website
Single branch. Every word written for you from one conversation, and both price lists placed as the Order requires, so there’s nothing extra to pay for compliance. Yours outright once it’s paid for, domain in your name. More than one branch, ring me and I’ll price it properly.
Talk it throughCare & Found
Most firms end up here. Hosting, unlimited small changes inside two working days, your Google listing set up and kept right, and the structured data that lets search engines and AI assistants read your firm properly rather than guess. The Watch is included. Every quarter you get a plain note on how you’re showing up and what I’d do next. One month’s notice, always.
Talk it throughHalf to start, half when it goes live. I take on three builds a quarter. Not to create a rush, but because more than that would mean rushing yours.
Hosting comes with Care & Found. If you’d rather not take it, the website is still yours outright and I’ll hand over every file and help whoever hosts it for you.
I won’t do the being-found side for two funeral directors serving the same town. I couldn’t honestly work on it for both. If a firm near you is already a client, I’ll tell you before you commit rather than after.
If you don’t like it, you don’t pay for it.
Two rounds of changes to get it right. If after that you still aren’t happy, tell me within a week and your deposit comes back in full. No argument, and nothing to sign to get it back.
Who you’d be dealing with
My name is Cameron. I am a funeral director in Wiltshire, arranging funerals, sitting with families, filling in the same paperwork you do. I complete standardised price lists because the law requires it, not because I read about it.
Agnew Digital is my own business, built in the evenings alongside full-time work. So I also know what it is to be the person who does everything and answers for all of it. There’s no agency behind me and nobody to pass you to, which means I can’t afford to do a poor job for anyone.
I’m an ex‑funeral director who helps independent funeral directors get found online, and turn that visibility into more enquiries.
Cameron Agnew, Agnew Digital, Wiltshire
The things people ask me
We get our families by word of mouth. Do we really need a website?+
How much of my time will a new website take?+
What happens if I want to leave?+
We already have someone who does our website. Is the free check still worth having?+
Can funeral directors be fined for breaching the CMA price list rules?+
Why £299 a month for Care & Found when hosting is £45?+
Can you get us to the top of Google?+
How much does a funeral director website cost in the UK?+
How do I make a funeral director’s website CMA compliant?+
You say “anything digital”. Where does that actually stop?+
One conversation. No chasing afterwards.
Tell me a little about your firm and I’ll tell you honestly what I think you need, including if that’s nothing at all.