Manufacturing SEO: 2023 Guide to Boost Leads

SEO for Manufacturers Can Increase Your Leads for Years to Come

Author: John Sammon
Updated on 09/10/2023

In 2010, we opened our doors to help companies grow their business via search engine optimization (SEO) strategies. In fact, some of our very first SEO clients were manufacturing companies. Being located in the Midwest, we are surrounded by a variety of industrial companies operating in many different niches.

To this day, as we enter our 12th year of business, we continue to maintain a robust lineup of manufacturing clients, as we work to drive consistent, qualified leads and show a healthy ROI for companies working primarily in a B2B environment.

So how have we been able to help so many manufacturing companies over the years? Here is what one of our clients had to say for themselves:

Frequently Asked Questions About SEO for Manufacturers

What is Manufacturing SEO?

Manufacturing SEO (search engine optimization) is a digital marketing strategy that is customized towards industrial companies to help them rank better on search engines. For manufacturing companies, the goal is to rank nationally, or even internationally, for products or services you produce and/or sell. A successful SEO campaign is completely customized to your needs and will bring customers to your website searching for your products or services with the goal of getting them to ultimately contact you.

Is SEO important for manufacturing companies?

We believe so, but if you want to see the numbers, here are a few stats that may help:

• 57% of B2B marketers believe SEO generates more leads than any other strategy (Source: Gitnux)
• 75% of people searching the internet never go beyond the first page of search results. (Source: Imforza)
• 79% of manufacturers claim to have an SEO strategy. (Source: Industrial Sage)
• 68% of manufacturing marketers link building is part of their SEO strategy. (Source: Industrial Sage)
• 84% of people searching for services in the manufacturing industry say that they use the internet as their starting point in finding a company, components, and services. (Source: HubSpot)
• On average, B2B buyers do roughly 12 searches while researching before engaging with a brand. (Source: Google)
• As of 2022, organic traffic generates 69% of leads for manufacturing companies. (Source: Industrial Sage)

Is SEO the right fit for my business?

One of the best parts about SEO is that no matter what your niche is, it can offer great opportunities to draw people in that are looking for your products or services. A successful SEO strategy allows your site to become a vital marketing tool for your business, generating high-quality leads for years to come. If you need more convincing, check out some more compelling facts and statistics on SEO.

How do I know what keywords to target?

You’ll want to do some homework on this. The good news is that there are plenty of tools out there to help you assess opportunities. Here are three tools to look at:

1. Google Keyword Planner – Requires signing up for Google Ads but doesn’t mandate spending money or running ads to see general search volume for keywords. If you run a campaign, you’ll get more specific data.
2. SE Ranking – Signing up is a mandate to use this tool; however, they give you a 14-day trial to assess it. It’s worth the commitment, as you can put keyword phrases into their system and also get an idea of where you rank for that specific term (at a minimum). This tool will also allow you to track your keyword progress over time, which is an important aspect of assessing a long-term SEO campaign.
3. Ahrefs – If you have an account, you can use their keyword explorer tool to help get a better idea of what different terms your competition is targeting and what gaps are between your sites.
4. Google Trends – Shows search trends over time and peak times of the year for search volume

Manufacturing Company Keyword Research Tips

In SEO, you’ll want to be very careful about the terms you target. If you try to rank for manufacturing keyword phrases that are too broad, you could wind up either failing to draw the right audience to your website or to rank in general because of the competition level of those terms.

If you start to experiment with the SEO research websites listed above, here are a few things to search for and possibly target:

• [product or service] company
• [product or service] distributor
• [product or service] supplier
• [product or service] manufacturer
• [product or service] for [x] industry
• [product or service] for [x] products

The search terms can be singular or plural, too. Adding descriptive words to the products or services may result in keyword phrases that have lower search volume. However, the goal with any search campaign is to gain visitors who are hyper-relevant and in a buying mode. A far more specific search (i.e. someone contacting you to say something like, “I’m looking for a company to do some copper fabricating with a CNC machine”)  typically means it’s a better potential prospect for your business.

My competitors aren’t active in digital marketing, so why should I start?

We’ve found that the industrial industry is a late adopter of digital marketing, and the primary purpose of manufacturing company websites is to serve as a portfolio you can refer potential customers to when talking to them. Your competitors’ lack of activity is an opportunity for you.

Another thing to consider is your competitors in the search engine landscape. The competitors that you closely watch may not be the ones you have to battle for position on search engines. Try doing a few searches for products you make or services you offer. Note who is ranking both organically (listings below the paid ads) and who is running ads on these terms via Google Ads. That will give you more of an idea of where you truly stand in Google’s eyes.

Where do I start?

Researching SEO can be intimidating, especially if you are just starting out. You’ll quite often find a mix of recommendations that talk about recent changes to search engine algorithms and established best practices. It’s enough to make your head spin, because just there’s so much to take in.

For most companies in the manufacturing industry, the best place to start is your website and the content on it. Search engines like sites that publish content regularly because it helps them understand if you are an authority on a topic or a series of topics. A topic can be considered one of your products or services. Here are a few areas of your website where you could consider adding content or creating new pages if needed:

• Add content to your homepage. Here are things to expand upon on this page:
  • What makes your company different? In manufacturing, it’s usually the expertise, years in business, customer service, how quickly you can get them your product, and the level of customization of the product that you offer.
  • The history of your company
  • Your team and leadership
  • Photos of your facility/team
• Add your phone number to the top-right corner of your website header (across the site)
• Include a link to a “contact us” page in copy across the site. It’s also key to include it in the main navigation of your website (you’ll get bonus points if you have a form on there)
• Create an “about us” page and post pictures of the leadership at your organization. If one of your differentiation points is your expertise, this will be critical
• Create new pages for each individual type of product or service that you offer. Quite often, we see companies list all of these things on one page. We recommend creating individual pages for each product and service because it’s much easier for a search engine to find and rank a page if it has a specific content focus on it. It also improves the probability that someone will contact you because their search has led them to a page with hyper-relevant content.

A lot of our site is product specifications and data. How do you go about adding more content to those pages?

We have a great in-house staff of copywriters who have extensive experience working with a range of clients and crafting copy for sections like these. Our writers have backgrounds in marketing, journalism, communications, and other fields that give them a creative boost to ensure that your content can be optimized strategically.

What types of manufacturers can you help?

Over the years, we have worked with a wide range of industrial companies in various niches. From tank manufacturers to metal parts distributors, our experience has helped us learn the ins and outs of various businesses in the industry. We can help companies in fields such as:

The Ways Our Approach to SEO Helps Manufacturers

Here are some of the tactics we consider and implement when crafting custom SEO strategies for manufacturers:

Evaluate Top Landing Pages

We will go into your Google Analytics profile and see which pages on your website get the most traffic, convert the best, and have the most room for opportunity. From there, we can revamp page copy, add additional keywords, internally link pages together, and more.

Address Product and Service Pages

We often see manufacturing websites that have little to no page copy on their most important pages, whether it’s because they never had the time to write content, had limitations in how the website was built, or they just weren’t sure what to write. Part of our process includes making sure these pages are optimized properly.

Check Your Local Presence

Have you claimed and optimized your local listings on Google and Bing? Even if you are a national company, making sure your business information is properly displayed not only on your website, but across citation websites, social media, and your Google Business Profile is an essential SEO tactic.

Assess Data Sheets and PDFs

As a business that needs to value the technical aspects of your products, from their size to their range of abilities, you are likely linking to various PDFs that your company creates for your product line. But did you know there is no way to track PDF views in Google Analytics? Not to mention, PDFs don’t give customers the ability to contact you. Ensuring that we address issues like this is a top priority of our strategy.

Take Time to Build Quality Links

Having a strong backlink profile is essential in the eyes of Google. Our strategists have experience crafting link-building strategies that will give your site a boost from quality websites.

Refresh Your Metadata

If it has been a while since you updated the metadata on your website, give these titles and descriptions a makeover to include more keywords and more appealing copy can bring more users to your site.

Identify and Track Your Top Keywords

Do you currently know where your website ranks on search engines such as Google? The answer may not be what you think it is, since Google’s personalized search algorithm often interferes with most search queries. We will work with you to identify what terms you wish to rank for and utilize reliable software that helps us track your website’s ongoing progress in ranking.

Create Useful Content to Help the Sales Process

Your sales team is likely asked a lot of redundant questions, like ordering info, shipping queries, and everything in-between. One great way we can help alleviate that is by creating a frequently asked questions page that users can have as a tool to get the info they need quickly, which will ultimately save you the hassle.

Design for Conversion

Our team has the ability to make strategic design and development changes to your website that will turn website visitors into customers. From adding pops of color to changing the location of your web forms to be “above the fold” of the page, there are numerous things we can implement to improve your pages from a conversion standpoint.

Establish Proper Goal Tracking

Even if you already have Google Analytics connected to your website, you could be missing out on key data by not having proper goal tracking in place. Our team can enable goal tracking across web forms, phone numbers, and even purchases to help you better analyze your website and marketing efforts.

We Do More Than Just SEO for Manufacturing Companies

A complete campaign from a successful manufacturing marketing agency doesn’t just stop with search engine optimization. For industrial companies, it means reaching out to customers in new ways and making it easier than ever for them to find what they need, request parts, create custom orders, inquire about capabilities, and more.

Our company can also provide:

• Website Design and Development
  One of the best ways to help your website convert higher is through a fresh look and design. We have years of experience designing custom websites for specific industries that cater to their preferred customers’ needs. Best yet, we work with you step by step through the phases of planning, designing, and launch.

• Pay-Per-Click Marketing and Management
  Running a successful paid campaign can be extremely difficult. With our in-house staff of PPC experts, we can deliver custom landing pages, well-written ads, and precise keyword and location targeting to ensure your ads get in front of your ideal customers on Google, Bing, Facebook, LinkedIn, and other social media outlets.

• CRM Consulting/Marketing
  Do you use a customer relationship management system such as HubSpot or PipeDrive? As CRM experts, we can assist you in setting up workflows, organizing leads, and much more to help your sales team keep up with the leads we bring in through our marketing services.

• Social Media Management
  For manufacturers, social media marketing can be a great way to get the word out on new products, services, and any special events going on in your company, such as attending trade shows. Our team will write posts, schedule them, and conduct maintenance on your social media accounts on your behalf.

• Email Marketing
  Supplementing our SEO services, we are trained in working with various email platforms such as MailChimp, Constant Contact, HubSpot, and more. From designing a template to match your brand to writing monthly newsletters, we can help you email your current customers, distributors, and more.