Virgil Finch
Websites that bring families to your door
One trade at a time, and right now that is independent funeral homes. We build the site, host it, and make sure the family who finds you at two in the morning actually gets through.
$297 a month· No setup fee· Mockup back in 48 hours
What you get
How a website actually brings work in
Looking good is the easy part, and it is where most agencies stop. These five are the chain: found, chosen, asked, answered. In that order.
Or asked an assistant
Ellsworth & Company publish a direct cremation at $1,995.
ellsworthandcompany.comThe Ellery family
“They never once made us feel hurried.”
Beside your name on Google
4.9 from 4748 reviews
Margaret has an answer already: “We have your message and one of us will telephone you today.”
Sent at 9:12pm, from her kitchen. She was never going to telephone you.
Enquiry sent · 11:42pm
“My mother passed this evening at Beaumont. I do not know what to do first.”
Nobody could get to the phone · 2:14am
Sent automatically, 40 seconds after the call ended.
Your editor · on your phone
Your website · live
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Five funeral home sites built before we take on a second trade. The site already knows what a family types at two in the morning.
Why we are not a general web agency -
Every price published in full, on every site we build. Not one “call for pricing” anywhere.
The first thing a family goes looking for -
One person builds it, and that person answers the phone. No account manager, no ticket queue, no handover.
Which is why we take on so few at a time
Selected work
One industry at a time, done properly
These are five sites for independent funeral homes. We go deep on one trade before taking on the next, so the site already knows what a family asks, what they are afraid of, and what makes them pick up the phone.
Ellsworth & Company
Lancaster · four generations, since 1911
For an old firm whose whole advantage is that the same family has done this for a century. Built to look established without looking dated.
What we built
- Obituaries with service times and directions
- Full price list, published, no form to fill in
- “A death has occurred”: a number, and a call-me form
- Pre-arrangement form in three steps
- Named directors, not stock photographs
Willowmere
Cold Spring · one family since 1952
A country firm with its own grounds. Warm rather than formal, because that is genuinely what the place is like when you walk in.
What we built
- Obituaries first, directly under the hero
- Gatherings calendar: grief circle, veterans’ coffee
- Cremation priced on the page
- What to do at 2am, and a form if they cannot phone
The Merrick
Ashland · established 1897
The most formal of the five, for a firm that handles the town’s larger services and wants the website to say so without boasting.
What we built
- Obituary archive on their own domain
- Named directors with licences and years of service
- Medicaid spend‑down explained plainly
- A call-me form beside the after-hours number
Linden
Cedar Falls · on Wallace Street since 1961
The plainest of the five on purpose. No capitals, no ceremony in the writing, for a firm whose pitch is that they will not talk down to you.
What we built
- Every price in full, first screen of the page
- Obituaries families can share in a group text
- A form for the ones who will not telephone
- Sentence case throughout, deliberately
Hartwell & Sons
Bellwood · family owned since 1948
Editorial and restrained, for a firm competing against a corporate chain two towns over and needing to look like the serious choice.
What we built
- Price list you can download as a PDF
- Obituaries with a working share link
- Cremation without the upsell
- Reviews with a link straight to Google
- Ask-us-to-call, under the after-hours number
Every one publishes its prices in full, works on a phone, and answers what a family actually types into Google at two in the morning.
How it works
You will see it before you pay anything
One price covers the build and everything after it. Here is the whole thing, start to finish, with nothing held back for a second conversation.
No setup fee· Nothing signed until you have seen it· The domain is always yours
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01
Your brief
Hartwell & Sons
logo.png price‑list.pdfTell us about the business
Two minutes on the phone, or the box at the top of this page. The name, the town, what you do. Send a logo and a price list if you have them; if you do not, we work from whatever is already online.
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0248h
We build the real thing
Not a picture of a website. A working site at a real address you can open on your own phone: your services, your people, your prices written out in full. You have paid nothing and signed nothing at this point.
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03
Cremation
$1,995$2,150
1 “That went up in March.”You tell us what is wrong
Wrong photograph, wrong wording, a price that changed in March. Say so and we fix it, as many times as it takes, before anybody outside sees it. If it is still not better than what you have, you owe nothing.
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04hartwellandsons.comDomain pointed Certificate issued
Say go, and it is live
We point it at your address, fit the certificate and it is live, usually the same week. The domain stays registered in your name. That is the day the $297 starts, and not one day before.
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05
11:42pm
New enquiry, texted
Then it works every month
Hosting, certificates, backups and updates are ours. Obituaries, prices and hours are yours, from your phone. Every enquiry and every missed call reaches you within seconds, and the review request goes out when you say so.
Pricing
One plan. One price
Complete
$297per month
No setup fee. No contract. Cancel with a month's notice.
- A site built for your trade, and built for a phone first
- Hosting, the certificate, backups and updates
- An immediate-need form, a pre-arrangement form, and any other you need
- Every enquiry texted and emailed to you within seconds
- An immediate, plainly worded reply to whoever sent it
- Missed calls texted back automatically, at any hour
- Obituaries you publish yourself, in about two minutes
- A review request that goes out only when you say so
- Anything you cannot change yourself, we change, at no hourly rate
- A short monthly note on what came in, and where from
- Your domain stays registered in your name
You see the site before a card is ever entered.
Questions
The ones we get asked
I already have a website.
Most people we work with do. The question is not whether you have one, it is whether it brings you anything. We will rebuild it for free and send you the link. Put the two side by side and decide then.
What happens if I want something changed?
The everyday things you change yourself in about a minute: hours, prices, staff, photographs. Anything bigger, send it to us and we do it. There is no hourly rate and no change request form to fill in.
Am I locked into a contract?
No. It is month to month with a month's notice. We would rather keep you because the phone is ringing than because you signed something.
Who puts the obituaries up?
You do, from your phone, in about two minutes: name, photograph, dates, visitation and service times. It publishes on your own domain, at your own address, and the link works in a group text straight away. You are never waiting on us at eleven at night, which is the whole reason we built it that way round.
What happens to a call nobody can get to?
The caller gets a short message back within the minute saying you will ring them, and asking for a name and a good number. It is plainly worded and it does not pretend to be a person. A missed call at two in the morning is the one thing in this trade you cannot get back, so it should never go silent.
Who owns the domain?
You do, always. If you leave, the domain goes with you and we help you move. Holding a small business's domain hostage is how the last people lost your trust.
How long until it is live?
You see a working mockup within 48 hours. Once you say go it is usually live the same week, as soon as the domain points our way.
Do you do ads and SEO?
Once you are up and running and the site is earning its keep, yes. We will not sell you either on day one. Get the foundation working first.
See yours before you decide anything
Tell us the business and the town. In 48 hours you will have a real site to look at, and no reason to have said yes to anything yet.
Get a free mockup