Navigating the Cemetery Website Creation Process: A Step-by-Step Guide

Most cemetery website projects stall in the same place. Not design, not budget. Content. The committee approves a plan in March and the photographs still have not arrived in August.

This guide sets out the eight stages we run, what each one asks of you, and how long it takes when nobody drops the ball.

Stage 1, Decide what the site must do

Write down the three tasks a visitor must be able to complete. For most cemeteries these are finding a grave, finding opening hours and directions, and reaching a person about a burial. Everything else ranks below those.

Agree this at committee level before you speak to a designer. Projects with an unclear purpose grow features until the budget runs out.

Time, one meeting.

Stage 2, Gather your content

This stage decides your timeline. Appoint one person to collect:

• Opening hours, including seasonal and holiday variations
• Current fee schedule with an effective date
• Rules on memorials, plantings and visiting
• Contact details and who covers which enquiry
• A section map, even a hand drawn one
• Twenty photographs of the grounds across different weather
• Your burial records in whatever state they exist

Time, two to six weeks. Longer if you spread it across a committee.

Stage 3, Sort out the records

Records take the longest and matter the most. Paper registers need photographing first as insurance, then transcribing into a consistent spreadsheet. Agree column headings before anyone types a row, because merging four volunteers' formats afterwards costs more than the typing did.

Cemeteries already running management software can skip most of this and export instead.

Time, one winter for 4,000 paper entries with a handful of volunteers.

Stage 4, Structure and wireframe

We map the pages and how a visitor moves between them before any design work starts. You see a plain layout of each key page showing what sits where. Argue about it at this stage, when changes cost nothing.

Time, one week including your feedback.

Stage 5, Write the words

Cemetery copy needs plain language and no euphemism. Prices stated clearly. Rules stated without legal padding. A visitor in the worst week of their life should understand every sentence on first reading.

We draft, you correct the facts. Committees that try to write from scratch usually produce something twice as long and half as clear.

Time, one to two weeks.

Stage 6, Design and build

Design comes after structure and words, which is the reverse of how most agencies work. Colours and typography chosen to fit real content beat a template filled with placeholder text.

Build covers the mobile behaviour, the grave search, the map, forms and speed work.

Time, two to three weeks.

Stage 7, Review and test

Get three people outside the committee to try the site on their own phones. Ask each to find a specific grave, find your holiday hours and send an enquiry. Watch without helping. Their hesitations tell you more than any checklist.

Check every fee against the current schedule. Wrong prices online cause arguments at the office counter.

Time, one week.

Stage 8, Launch and hand over

At launch you should receive, in writing:

• Domain registrar login, in the cemetery's name
• Hosting account login
• Website admin login
• A one page guide to the tasks you will do yourself
• Confirmation of what you own outright

Submit the site to Google, update your Business Profile with the new address, and tell your local funeral directors it exists.

Time, one day.

Total realistic timeline

Scenario	Duration
Brochure site, content ready	4 to 5 weeks
Site with existing digital records	6 to 8 weeks
Site with paper records to transcribe	4 to 8 months

The variance sits almost entirely on your side of the line. Agencies that promise two weeks are quoting for their own work and ignoring yours.