What a Funeral Home Website Needs
Families usually reach a funeral home website at a hard moment. They need to know whom to call, what the options cost, and when and where the service is; friends come for the obituary. A good site answers all of that calmly, on a phone, in a few taps.
The facts quoted here come from primary sources: the Federal Trade Commission's business guide Complying with the Funeral Rule, its Funeral Industry Practices Rule page (16 CFR Part 453), the FTC's 2020 release seeking comment on the Funeral Rule, its consumer article on shopping for funeral services by phone or online, and YouTube Help on video privacy settings, all checked on 14 November 2026. This is general information, not legal advice; state rules on price lists and pre-need sales vary. The rest is our view from building websites for service businesses.
The short answer
A funeral home website needs a phone number that is answered day and night and shown on every page, an obituary section with service times and directions, livestream links shared with the family's OK, a page per kind of service, honest price information, a pre-planning section, and a calm, accessible design.
"A death has occurred": the 24/7 contact
Someone calling at 2 a.m. after a death at home or in a hospice is not going to read your history page. Put the phone number at the top of every page as a tap-to-call link, and add a short page or block titled in plain words, such as "If a death has just occurred", that explains what happens next: who to call first, what you will ask on the phone, and what the family does not need to decide tonight.
A contact form is for questions that can wait until morning. Our guide to which form fields earn their place applies here: name, phone or email, and the question is usually enough.
The FTC's rule also covers how you handle calls. Its business guide says: "You must give consumers who telephone your place of business and ask about your prices or offerings accurate information from your General Price List, Casket Price List, and Outer Burial Container Price List." It adds that you "cannot require callers to give their names, addresses, or phone numbers before you give them the requested information." So a website that says "call us for prices" is fine, as long as the person who answers can give them.
Obituaries and tribute pages
The obituary section is usually the most visited part of a funeral home website, and many visitors are friends and neighbours who have never used your services. Each obituary page should carry:
- The full name, dates, a photo the family chose, and the text as the family approved it.
- Each event (visitation, service, burial or committal, reception) with date, time, place name, full address and a map link.
- The family's wishes on flowers and donations, with a link to the charity they named.
- A livestream or recording link, if the family wants one shared (see the next section).
Give each obituary its own stable address, for example /obituaries/jane-smith-1948-2026/, so it can be shared by text and found by searching the person's name.
If you allow condolence messages or a tribute wall, moderate them before they appear. Spam and the occasional unkind comment on a grieving family's page do real harm. Our guide on stopping form spam covers the basics. Ask the family before you publish personal details such as a home town or the names of young grandchildren; our website privacy basics covers what to collect and how to keep it.
Service details and livestream links
Many families now ask for a service to be streamed for relatives who cannot travel. If you use YouTube, its privacy setting decides who can find the stream. YouTube Help says unlisted videos "can be seen and shared by anyone with the link" and "won't show up in YouTube's search results unless someone adds your unlisted video to a public playlist." Private videos "can only be seen by you and whomever you choose." Unlisted is usually the practical choice for a service: you place the link on the obituary page and the family can pass it on, but strangers browsing YouTube will not come across it.
Post the link only once the family agrees, and say how long a recording stays up. Our church website guide covers livestream pages in more detail, and video on websites explains how to embed a player without slowing the page down.
Prices and the FTC Funeral Rule
In the United States, the FTC's Funeral Rule sets out what funeral providers must tell people about prices. The FTC's rule page summarises it: "The Funeral Rule requires providers of funeral goods and services to give consumers itemized lists of funeral goods and services that not only state price and descriptions, but also contain specific disclosures." The main list is the General Price List (GPL); the FTC says it "must list all prices for funeral goods and services offered by the funeral provider, although separate price lists may be developed for caskets and outer burial containers."
Does the rule require prices on your website? Not as the rule stands today, based on what the FTC has published. The trigger for handing over a GPL is in person: "The triggering event for giving out the GPL is a face-to-face meeting." For phone and mail, the guide says "the Rule does not require you to send callers a General Price List" and "you do not have to send a GPL in response to mail inquiries." It also notes that "Some states require funeral providers to mail a price list upon request," so check your state. In February 2020 the FTC asked for public comment on, among other questions, "whether providers should be required to post their itemized price lists online." On the FTC's rule page, that 2020 request is the most recent Federal Register notice listed, so we found no published change to the rule's text on this point.
Families do look for prices online, though. The FTC's consumer article tells them that "Many funeral homes have websites with information about their services and pictures of their facilities. Some include price information and let you make arrangements online." It also suggests asking a funeral home "to send you an email or text with information about prices, services, and merchandise," and says "If a funeral home won't send you information about prices, services, and merchandise, find a different business."
For the website, that points to a few practical steps (our view):
- Publish your current General Price List as a page or a PDF, with the date it took effect, or at least starting prices for your main options (for example direct cremation and a traditional funeral) with a link to the full list.
- If you show a package, also say that families can choose items separately. The FTC's consumer article says: "The funeral home must let you buy only the services you want and need."
- Make your prices on the website match your printed lists exactly, and update both together. A stale web price is the first thing a family will quote back to you.
- Do not suggest that families must buy a casket or urn from you. The FTC tells consumers "You can buy a casket, cremation container, or urn online — or somewhere else — to use at a funeral home. The funeral home can't charge a fee for using your item."
- Offer to email or text the price list on request, and say so next to the phone number.
For how to lay out a price page so it is easy to scan, see our pricing page guide.
Pre-planning pages
Pre-planning (pre-need) visitors have more time, so this section can explain burial or cremation, what can be paid in advance, and what happens if plans or prices change. The Funeral Rule applies here too; the FTC guide says "The Rule's requirements apply to both pre-need and at-need funeral arrangements." Pre-need contracts and trust rules are mostly set by each state, so keep the legal detail to what your state allows and your lawyer or state board has approved.
Offer a planning worksheet, a way to book an unhurried meeting, and a note on how family can find the plan later.
Tone, photos and accessibility
Write the way your best funeral director talks: plain, warm and specific. Use real photos of your chapel, rooms, parking and step-free entrance rather than stock lilies. Light backgrounds, large text and clear buttons matter here, because many visitors are older or reading on a phone.
Captions on recorded services, alt text, contrast and keyboard and screen-reader support are covered in our website accessibility basics guide, and the US rules in website accessibility laws.
A short checklist (our view)
- A 24/7 phone number on every page as a tap-to-call link, and an "If a death has just occurred" page.
- Obituaries with their own addresses, event times, full addresses and map links, family-approved text, and moderated condolences.
- Livestream links on the obituary page only with the family's OK; unlisted rather than public on YouTube.
- Your General Price List or starting prices, dated, matching your printed lists; an offer to email or text the full list.
- A pre-planning section with a worksheet and a calm way to book a meeting.
- Real photos, a light and readable design, captions and alt text.
Churches you work with may find our church website guide useful, and memorial funds and charities our nonprofit website guide. If you would rather have your funeral home site built for you, our website development service builds custom WordPress and static websites made to load fast, rank well and be easy for your team to edit.
Frequently asked questions
What should a funeral home website include?
A phone number answered day and night on every page, obituaries with service times and directions, livestream links shared with the family's agreement, pages for each kind of service, your price list or starting prices, a pre-planning section, and a calm, accessible design that works on phones.
Do funeral homes have to post prices online?
Not under the FTC Funeral Rule as published today. Providers must hand a General Price List to anyone who asks in person and give price information over the phone. In 2020 the FTC asked for comment on whether price lists should be posted online. Some states have their own rules, so check yours.
Should a funeral livestream be public or unlisted on YouTube?
Usually unlisted. YouTube says unlisted videos can be seen by anyone with the link but do not show up in YouTube search results unless added to a public playlist. Share the link on the obituary page once the family agrees.
Can a funeral home charge a fee if a family buys a casket elsewhere?
No. The FTC tells consumers they can buy a casket, cremation container or urn somewhere else and that the funeral home can't charge a fee for using it.