Does My Manufacturing Business Need SEO?

SEO

The Manufacturer reports that the general outlook of manufacturers is that marketing is important. 63% of manufacturing and engineering companies rated marketing as “high priority”, while SEO was listed as the third most successful marketing channel across all activities. Additionally, 42% of respondents stated that they will be increasing their budget.  

This outlines that manufacturing and engineering businesses recognise the importance of marketing for their business, with more people intending to invest more money into their marketing strategies. If you own a manufacturing business and have limited experience with marketing strategies, you’ll likely have read conflicting information on what works best for manufacturers and what may be a waste of time.  

Below we’ll be helping you decide whether your manufacturing business needs SEO to convert website traffic, generate more leads, and grow. 

Why SEO?

Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) is a digital marketing strategy that improves a website, increasing online visibility when consumers search for products or services related to that business. SEO targets search engine’s such as Google and Bing in order to appear in the top spots on the pages. The higher you are in the rankings; the more likely consumers are to visit your site. From there, it is a prime opportunity for your website to convert this traffic and ensure site visitors purchase your services.  

SEO includes a variety of strategies, from the initial audit, all the way through to professionally written content and continuous optimisation of your website. SEO is an ongoing strategy that enhances web pages to target relevant and high-intent keywords. SEO strategies look at all aspects of your business’s online presence and find where it needs improvement. From there a strategy will be created, targeting high potential keywords and battling competitors for positions in the search results. 

SEO has a few key pillars that target and improve different criteria and ensure your website is optimised in all areas for the best results.  

On-Page

On page SEO will optimise elements on the page. Initially building relevance between the page and the keyword, and then improving the knowledge gain available to the user. On-page tactics aim to help search engines interpret page content and makes sure that website users can efficiently understand a web page’s information find answers to their search query.  

Content is one of the most effective marketing tools for any business. The Manufacturer states that 43% of respondents consider written content to be the most successful marketing activity. Content on your website needs to be digestible, clean, informative, and easy to skim read for it to meet SEO best practices.   

Website visitors will turn to your content for direction of: 

• What you do  
• Who you are 
• How you can help them  
• How to contact you  

If you do not answer these with relevant information that meets user intent within your website content, you are missing an opportunity to generate leads, and therefore missing out on sales.  

Additionally, on-page SEO assists search engines in understanding the quality and relevance of a page, as well as how successful it is in answering relevant search queries. Having optimised and successful on-page SEO ensures your pages have all the foundations in place to rank in search results. 

Off-Page

Off-page SEO tactics aim to increase both the quantity and quality of traffic to your website through organic traffic, ultimately leading to better rankings in results pages.  

Off-page refers to actions taken outside of the site to impact rankings on search engine results pages (SERPs). This involves processes such as link building and increased brand coverage. Off-page SEO utilises back links as a means of boosting the ‘authority’ of your site. Backlinks act as a vote of confidence to your site and therefore is indicative of the trust awarded to by the search engine.  

 While the quantity of backlinks your site attains is of course important, the quality of the sources you’re building links from is imperative. For an effective, ‘white-hat’ link building campaign, always keep the following things in mind: 

• Is the domain relevant to you? 
• Does the domain receive genuine traffic? 
• Are the links appearing naturally? 

Technical SEO

Technical SEO involves optimising your website to help search engine spiders crawl and index your content more efficiently. For search engines, such as Google, to correctly index and rank your website, it must be crawled. Things such as an illogical site map, no SSL certificate, and duplicate content is an alarm bell for search engines and can hinder crawling, indexing, and ultimately how well your pages rank.  

Technical SEO targets criteria such as the below: 

• SSL certificate  
• Mobile browser optimised 
• Speed up site speed 
• Resolve duplicate content issues  
• XML sitemap  
• Register your site with Google Search Console  

Technical SEO finds and fixes every possible SEO problem your website may have, looking into the technical aspect of your site to clean up site structure, fix any broken links, and ensure all content is unique. A technically sound website has a much better chance at meeting user expectations, performing correctly, and ranking successfully.  

Local SEO

Around 97% of people who use online search look for local businesses, and approximately 46% of all searches include a location.  

Local SEO consists of strategies to help with your website’s visibility in local searches. Local SEO targets search queries within a catchment area to direct local traffic to your site. For example, if you were to search ‘garages near me’, Google would list all the local garages it has knowledge of. It will also list relevant contact information and any other consumer information (location, opening hours, reviews, etc) providing you register your business with Google my business.  

Local SEO is particularly beneficial for manufacturing businesses, ensuring you appear for local search queries related to your services, direct relevant traffic to your site, and convert said traffic. This will boost sales and provide your business with a positive reputation within the local area, which in turn can result in more leads and sales.  

Manufacturing

The manufacturing industry contributes to around 2.7million jobs in the UK, and 17.04% of the UK’s GDP. The manufacturing industry contributes massively to the UK economy and has potential to dominate its target market.  

That said, there are several common issues manufacturing businesses face regarding their online presence, their websites, and their accessibility to consumers.  

• No call to action on pages 
• Lack analytical data 
• Site doesn’t perform on mobile browser 
• Old content not optimised for search engines 
• Too much content that is not easily digestible 
• Key pages do not target keywords matching user search intent  
• No contact info on the site 
• Missing SSL certificate (non-https URL) 

Manufacturing websites tend to be the biggest culprit for failed marketing attempts. Outdated and poorly optimised websites leave lots of space for missed conversion, lost sales, bounced users, and more. Your website serves as constant marketing. A website is visible 24 hours a day and therefore, it is your most effective marketing tool.  

Manufacturing websites tend to have the above issues, as well as being outdated, poorly performing, and unappealing. They typically feature a large amount of information that is not cohesive or easily digestible. This leaves website visitors lost in ambiguous content, as well as being unsure of your services and how best to contact you.  

This makes it much harder to convert traffic and will likely leave consumers with a bad impression of your business.  

SEO, functional and appealing website design and development, and professional written content are effective marketing strategies for the manufacturers who understand the benefit of a 24/7 storefront, and realise the untapped potential awaiting them in the search engine result pages.

Design & Development

A functional website requires unique and compelling design, as well as expert development. While SEO strategies are beneficial, ultimately it requires a strong foundation in design and development to achieve maximum success.  

Previously, we have likened this to a car analogy. Imagine that SEO strategies are the car’s engine: driving it forward, working without being seen. Your website is the exterior of the car. If the car works but has scratches, bumps, and a bad paint job on the exterior, fails to start reliably and cannot reach desired speed, you’re less likely to purchase the car.  

The same applies to a business. No matter how effective SEO strategies are, site users will become frustrated at poorly optimised websites and shop elsewhere. This is why a well-designed and optimised website is essential for your manufacturing business.  

SEO for Your Business

At Sherbet Donkey Media, we have worked with numerous manufacturing clients. Our expert teams have completely re-designed websites, implemented SEO strategies, and saw our client’s rankings fly. We understand the manufacturing industry, its industry related niches, and how to capitalise on existing traffic while optimising your website to generate new leads.  

SEO has proven to be a profitable and worthwhile marketing strategy to benefit manufacturing businesses. If you’re unsure of your business’ next steps, how to reach your next sales goal, or where to begin marketing your business, SEO with Sherbet Donkey Media may be the right new step for you.  

If you’d like to know more, arrange a site audit, or just want a chat about your business, get in touch today.