When I’m working with funeral businesses on website projects, one of the questions I often get asked is:
"Can I just use ChatGPT or AI to create website content?"
Yes, but not entirely. Tools like ChatGPT can help you to get started and create content faster, but what they totally lack is your experience and expertise.
In this article, I’ll look at how you can use AI content as a starting point but put your own stamp on it to ensure it authoritative and trustworthy. I'll also explain what can happen if you don’t do that.
In our article on Five tips for driving traffic to your website we explained the importance of content marketing: meaning content added to your website which attracts and engages potential clients.
All good content can help drive traffic to your website.
Content should be informative and compassionate and provide useful resources for people who are organising or attending funerals or financially planning for their own funeral. You are experts in your field, so create content that demonstrates this to visitors.
Partnering with MuchLoved also provides a simple and effective way to generate valuable content. Every new tribute create, or review posted, means new good and relevant content added to your website.
AI tools like ChatGPT, Jasper and Copy.ai are trained on enormous data sets. They are very good at outlining topics, summarising facts, and writing initial drafts of articles. You could use them to help you come up with ideas or structure content before writing the article yourself.
For instance, if you want to have an article on what to do when a loved one passes away, or you wanted to create a guide to green funerals in your area, you can inject your own point of view and experience into the bullet points that AI generates.
AI tools can help with different types of copywriting, from bullet points to full paragraphs, or to finesse sections you can’t seem to get quite right. They can also be invaluable for devising punchy headlines or enticing ‘calls to action’, or to ensure your content is optimised for SEO.
Remember that AI-generated content is not perfect. In fact, if you use it without input from real people, it could seriously harm your reputation.
Remember - AI content isn’t “real”, but you are. The best way to make your content authentic is by showing who wrote it. You have listened to your families and the questions they have – make sure you are always answering any potential questions in your website content.
Add clear bylines with author biographies that showcase your experience. This will improve your credibility signals for visitors and search engines.
Follow Google’s “EEAT” model to ensure that your content is good quality content:
My final thoughts
AI is a helpful tool for generating content quickly, but it shouldn’t replace real experiences and insights. Without your personal input, you’ll miss the quality and trustworthiness needed to attract potential clients.
If you want your business to feature in search results and stand out amongst the competition, you need to make it clear that there are wonderful people behind your content. People with real experience and compassion who care for the families in their community.
Kate Walker - Kate has 15 years’ experience in creating search-engine optimised websites and has worked with the Funeral profession for over five years. She has a long-established background in IT Training and Technical Project Management and enjoys sharing her knowledge with Funeral Directors and Funeral Arrangers and our MuchLoved team.
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