Search for a funeral home anywhere in Oklahoma City, and half of the first three places go to one national company.

Search like a family

Pick where you are. The list shows the first 10 places Google Maps gave on October 3, in order, and what a phone shows next to each.

Where this comes from: Google Maps on October 3, 14 searches. Results move with the time of day and the phone, so treat one place as a snapshot. Ads are not counted. A listing marked national company is one whose Website button opens the same national company's site as the others marked so.

The first three places

• Whole metro2 of 3
• Downtown2 of 3
• North side1 of 3
• Far north2 of 3
• South side2 of 3
• Far south1 of 3
• East side2 of 3
• Far east2 of 3
• West side1 of 3
• Far west0 of 3
• Northeast2 of 3
• Northwest1 of 3
• Southeast1 of 3
• Southwest2 of 3

• One national company
• Other funeral home or crematory
• Listing outside this report

Only 14 different listings ever reached the first three. The same one was first in 7 of the 14 searches. The other 43 local funeral homes and crematories in this report did not reach the first three anywhere.

Where this comes from: Google Maps on October 3, the first three places of each search, in order. Which listings belong to the national company is read from where their Website button leads, a public page anyone can open.

Closed, says Google. Call any time, says the site.

Deaths don't keep office hours, and the hours on the listing are the first thing a phone shows. Late on a Saturday Google Maps marks these listings Closed in red.

• 7of 49

  funeral homes with hours on Google show Closed on Saturday

• 5of 7

  of those tell families on their own site to call at any hour

• 2

  more show Closed on Sunday while their site says call any day

What the sites say

• We are here, 24/7
• you can call our 24-hour phone number
• call us at any time of the day, any day of the week
• Our staff is available 24 hours a day, every day of the year. We don't use an answering service.

Where this comes from: the hours on each Google listing on October 3 and the sites read on October 5. Two of the Saturday-closed sites could not be read. Funeral homes with no hours on their listing are left out of the count.

What it costs, and who says

Google's own suggestions show what people type after the words funeral home. In 150 lookups of those suggestions, a price word came up 144 times: price list, cost breakdown, costs near me. 5 of the 23 local funeral home sites I could read print any price.

• Cremation, the lowest package one site printsfrom $650
• Direct cremation, another sitefrom $1,150
• Cremation with the $235 state permit included $1,275
• Burial, the lowest package one site printsfrom $2,700

Where this comes from: the price lines on four local sites, as printed, read on October 5. By federal rule every funeral home gives its prices on request, by phone or in person. This counts only what a family can see on the site before calling.

Left on the page

17 of the 20 funeral home sites I read run on the same site builder, sold by companies that make funeral home sites from templates. On 10 of the 27 sites I read page by page, a family can run into something the template or a stranger left behind.

• Funeral home and crematory

  Every page has a top bar with 555-555-5555 and mymail@mailservice.com, above the real number.

• Funeral home

  Two call links on every page dial a Utah number.

• Funeral home

  Google is told cremation starts at $700, the page says $650. A second call link on the contact page dials Florida.

• Funeral home

  Every page is titled HOME | Mysite 1. The Facebook icon opens the site builder's own page.

• Pet crematory

  The description Google gets reads This is the home page's excerpt. Two street addresses and two ZIP codes, neither one the listing's.

• Funeral home

  The home page of one location names another town's team. About Us opens Page not found.

• Funeral home

  About Us, Our Staff and Our Facilities at the bottom of every page open Page not found.

• Funeral home

  The Veteran Services tile on the home page opens Page not found.

• Monument maker

  In October every page still opens with the Labor Day closing notice.

• Funeral home

  Under the list of names on the Visitations page sits a paragraph selling steroids and pills, with a link out.

Where this comes from: the pages themselves, opened on October 5. Each line was seen on the live page, not guessed from code.

The same sentence on different funeral homes

13 funeral home sites in the metro share blocks of text with each other. A family comparing two homes can read the same words twice.

• Whether you choose burial or cremation, a funeral service is an important part of honoring your loved one and starting the healing process.9 of 20
• ...offers distinctive, personal, and affordable services designed to help you honor your loved one in a way that is unique to them and meaningful to you.6 of 20
• A Year of Grief Support. Sign up for one year of weekly grief messages designed to provide strength and comfort during this challenging time.6 of 20

Where this comes from: a script compared the text of every site read on October 3; the lines above were then counted on the 20 funeral home sites read page by page on October 5.

Every listing in this report

78 listings a family meets in these searches: 60 funeral homes and crematories, 9 cemeteries, chapels and monument makers, 4 pet services and 5 suppliers to the trade. A number, not a name.

Where this comes from: Google listings read on October 3 in 42 searches (the 14 above plus a tighter grid over the southwest), sites read on October 3 and again on October 5. A dash means it was not read.

How I checked

Correct or remove a row

Write to igor@sogrox.com with your website. A row is corrected or taken off within two business days, no questions asked, and stays off future reports.