Manufacturing SEO is one of the most effective marketing strategies for building awareness, generating leads, and driving revenue. Learn how to get started with search engine optimization for manufacturers now!
insights from 237,500+ hours of manufacturing marketing experience
Manufacturing SEO is a set of strategies designed to improve your website and boost your rankings in search engine results for keywords and phrases related to your business. These optimization strategies take place both on and off your site, and are divided into on-page and off-page SEO.
On-page SEO for manufacturing
On-page SEO refers to optimizing elements on your website in ways that make it easier for search engines to crawl and rank your pages.
For example, you can include key manufacturing phrases in your title tags, meta descriptions, and headings. If you know that your target clients most often search for the term “manufacturing services in [your city],” for example, you could be sure to include that keyword on some key pages aimed at answering that search intent.
You can also optimize your URL structure to include keywords, which helps search engines understand what each page is about. And you can add alt text to your images to help search engines determine how they’re related to your content.
Adding helpful, unique content to your pages can help people find your site and the information they need to take the next step with your business. For example, you can create blog posts, videos, or article pages on your website that highlight the products you manufacture, the process you use to manufacture them, and the people on your team who facilitate that process.
Through that, you can provide people with more information about your industrial manufacturing company.
Off-page SEO for manufacturing
Off-page SEO, on the other hand, focuses on increasing the authority of your website by earning links from other websites.
Expert insights from
Adam GanteLead Ongoing Strategy Consultant at WebFX
The search results have become incredibly competitive in the manufacturing industry. To succeed long-term and maintain a strong ROI, we’re seeing many of our manufacturing clients invest in off-page SEO.
When you publish unique content like blog posts, infographics, and videos, you can reach out to various online outlets to see if they’re interested in sharing it with their readers. Those outlets might include bloggers or reporters, but often, you’ll want to focus on reputable manufacturing-related sites. After all, that’s where your target audience is the most likely to be found.
When you’re successful, those sites will link back to your content as their source. And when they do, those links will send positive signals to search engines and can boost your rankings in search results.
How does manufacturing SEO benefit my business?
A solid manufacturing SEO strategy, made up of both on- and off-page tactics, has several benefits for industrial manufacturing companies. Those benefits include:
Increased website traffic
More qualified leads
Higher brand awareness
Better ROI than traditional advertising
Increased revenue
Ultimately, SEO helps your business increase exposure in search results, reach more customers, and earn more revenue online.
For manufacturers specifically, SEO is a great way to get ahead of the curve. The manufacturing industry has long been behind in the world of digital marketing, but in recent years, industrial companies have started to make it a priority. Starting SEO now can put you ahead of your competitors — but if you hang back, you’ll end up falling behind them.
Finally, SEO for manufacturing companies is also cost-effective, and you’ll enjoy a higher return on investment (ROI) than with traditional advertising methods.
4 SEO tips for your manufacturing business
Want to take advantage of these benefits? Here are a few tips for improving your manufacturing SEO strategy.
1. Create informative copy
Helpful, keyword-rich copy that clearly explains your services and helps website visitors learn more about your business is essential for an effective SEO strategy.
Be sure to create unique copy for each of your pages, and keep in mind that search engines and site visitors like copy that is both informative and descriptive. Don’t forget to add keywords and phrases in strategic places on each page, like page titles, meta descriptions, and headings.
So, what type of content should manufacturing companies like yours create? Some ideas include:
Blog posts and articles outlining how you create your products
Photos and graphics showing off the products you manufacture
Videos introducing your team members
And more!
2. Improve your site’s speed and user-friendliness
This sends positive signals to search engines and can help boost your rankings in search results. It also improves the browsing experience for your website visitors, which can keep them on your site for longer and encourage them to learn more about your company.
If you’re unsure if speed is an issue for your site, you can use Google’s PageSpeed Insights Tool to test it for free. And if you determine that there’s room for improvement, you may want to work with an agency with development experience to improve it.
At WebFX, this is a common issue we see with client sites – and one of the many reasons we have an in-house development team that’s experienced with these types of issues. Our developers work with our account managers to improve site speed and make other changes that not only improve user experience, but have a positive impact on SEO.
3. Make your site mobile-friendly
Now more than ever, people are accessing the Internet via their smartphones, tablets, and other mobile devices.
This means that if your site isn’t mobile-friendly, you could be missing out on a large portion of your target audience. In addition, Google recently announced that it is switching to a “mobile-first” index, which reiterates the search engine’s push towards mobile as the new standard.
Not sure if your site is mobile-friendly? You can use Google’s Mobile-Friendly Test to get a quick answer to that question.
If your site isn’t mobile-friendly, you’ll want to switch to responsive design as soon as possible. Any experienced web design agency today should be able to guide you through the process and help you avoid losing leads to competitors that have mobile-friendly sites.
4. Earn links from reputable websites
You can also improve your rankings in search results by reaching out to other websites and asking them to link to your content. These links are called backlinks, and they’re a critical part of SEO.
Of course, don’t try to earn backlinks from just any sites. The best sites to target are manufacturing-related sites — not your competitors, of course, but other sites that discuss manufacturing-adjacent topics. You can also aim for various blogs and news sites that might have an interest in linking to some of your content. Importantly, though, you should make sure that those sites are reputable.
Why does all of this matter? Because when a relevant, reputable site links to your content, Google assumes that your site must be reputable as well. That means it ranks you higher in search results.
So, how can you earn backlinks? Perhaps the best strategy is to scour reputable websites for missing or broken links. When you find some, you can notify the site owners, recommending that they replace the broken links with fresh ones to your content.
Manufacturing SEO plans from WebFX
At WebFX, we offer custom manufacturing SEO services to increase your visibility in search engine results and help more potential customers find your business. To date, our SEO plans have driven over 24 million leads for our clients.
At WebFX, we follow the R.O.C.K.E.T. SEO process. Our plans include:
Research: All SEO plans from WebFX begin with research, and our team of Internet marketers will work to fully understand your company, website, competitors, and industry. We’ll also conduct a complete site and server analysis to evaluate your current website and create a roadmap of how to best optimize your site.
Optimization: Next, we’ll implement big and small changes to your website to help search engines better understand your company. Our team will update your title tags and meta descriptions, improve your site speed, and optimize your site’s navigation to decrease bounce rate and enhance the experience of website visitors.
Content: We’ll also work to provide topic suggestions and content to help you educate readers and keep them coming back to your website. This will help you gain quality traffic and provide visitors with the information they need to make a purchase.
Keywords: Our team will conduct keyword research to uncover the keywords and phrases your industrial manufacturing company can rank for online. Then, we’ll provide you with a keyword mapping report and advanced rank tracking.
Earned media and links: WebFX will also help you promote your content. We have an entire team dedicated to earning your site links and mentions from authority websites.
Testing: Finally, we’ll conduct comprehensive testing to ensure your website is driving visitors through your conversion funnel. And we’ll make improvements to get you the highest possible ROI.
WebFX has been globally recognized for our SEO services, and we’re named the #1 SEO agency.
On average, we increase client revenue by 25%, and our client retention rate is 91%.
Get started with SEO for manufacturers
Interested in learning more about how SEO for manufacturing can help your company reach more qualified customers and earn more revenue online?
When prospects look for industrial products online, your website needs to be one of the first results they see so you can maximize your web traffic. Make that goal a reality with WebFX.
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insights from 237,500+ hours of manufacturing marketing experience
