FAQs About Cemetery Website Creation: What You Need to Know

Trustees and cemetery managers ask us the same twelve questions. Here are the answers, without the sales layer.

How much does a cemetery website cost?

Ours are fixed. Essential sits at $970 and suits small rural and trust run cemeteries that need the essential information online. Premium is $1,700 for medium sized grounds wanting a fuller site. All Inclusive is $2,900 for larger cemeteries that want to rank on Google and look the part. Each package includes brand identity, photography, copywriting, SEO and Google Business Profile setup.

Elsewhere in the market, watch for three things quoted as one number. Design and build, records work, and anything ongoing. Agencies that give you a single figure often have a monthly fee folded inside it.

The variable nobody quotes for is your records. Clean data in a spreadsheet costs a fraction of what a shoebox of index cards costs to bring online.

Do we have to pay monthly?

You pay for hosting and a domain, which runs at coffee money per month from any reputable provider. You do not pay us a retainer to keep your own site online. Fixed price, full handover, no subscription, because a volunteer committee should never lose its website over a lapsed direct debit.

How long does it take?

Six to ten weeks for most cemetery sites. Design and build takes two to three weeks of our time. The rest is you gathering content, which is where every project slows down. Committees that appoint one person to collect photographs, fees and hours finish twice as fast as committees that share the job.

Can we put our burial records online?

Yes, and most cemeteries should. A searchable register cuts enquiry calls, serves genealogists and makes the grounds findable. What matters is where the data lives. Records belong in cemetery management software, with the website providing search and display. Read our guide to digitising old paper burial records if your register is still on paper.

Is it legal to publish burial records?

Burial registers are public records in most jurisdictions across Australia, the UK and the United States, though the detail you may publish varies. Names, dates and plot locations for historical burials are rarely a problem. Recent deaths, next of kin details and cause of death need care. Check with your council or your board's legal advisor before you publish, and give families a route to request removal.

Who updates the site afterwards?

You do, for the things that change. We build hours, fees, news and contact details so a committee member with basic computer confidence can edit them. Structural changes come back to us. Nobody should need a developer to correct a phone number.

What if our committee has no technical skills?

Most of our clients are volunteers in their sixties and seventies. We plan for that. Fewer editable areas, plain labels, a one page written guide and a video walkthrough for the two or three tasks you will actually do.

Do we need a map of the grounds?

A section map does more for visitor experience than almost anything else. It does not need to be a fancy interactive plan. A clear image with labelled sections, viewable on a phone, solves the problem for a small cemetery. Larger grounds justify a proper mapping integration.

Can families leave tributes online?

They can, with moderation. Every tribute should wait for approval before it appears. Open comment fields on memorial pages collect spam and occasionally family arguments.

Will anyone find the site?

Cemetery searches are local and specific, which works in your favour. A site with your name, your town, your hours and your burial records will rank for the searches that matter within a few months. Competition for "cemetery in [town]" is thin compared with almost any other industry.

What happens to the site if our web designer disappears?

Ask this of anyone you hire. You should own the domain, the hosting account and the site files. Ask for the login details in writing at handover. If a designer will not give you those, walk away.

Do you work with cemeteries outside your country?

We do. Studio September works from 5 South Charlotte Street in Edinburgh, with one branch that does nothing but cemetery work, and we have built for cemeteries across Australia, the UK and the United States. Time zones matter less than you would think when most of the work happens over email and shared documents.