SEO for manufacturers: How to achieve search success
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The manufacturing industry is built on precision and expertise, and your online marketing should reflect this. If you’re a manufacturing brand that is struggling to reach your target audience online or have found that potential clients struggle to find your specialised services amidst a sea of competitors, then this guide is for you!
Here at Embryo, we believe that effective manufacturing SEO requires a much deeper understanding of your unique challenges and goals. In this blog, we won’t just talk about keywords and backlinks, but about how you can craft a strategic digital presence that resonates with your target audience.
Ready to delve into the world of SEO for manufacturing? Let’s get into it…
What is manufacturing SEO?
First things first, it might be beneficial for you to understand what SEO for manufacturing actually is. If we take it back to basics for a moment, manufacturing SEO is essentially the application of SEO techniques specifically tailored towards manufacturing companies… It’s all about enhancing a manufacturer’s online visibility so that potential customers can find them easily through search engines like Google.
Some of the biggest manufacturing companies in the world are:
- Apple
- Samsung
- Toyota
- Tesla
- Ford
- BMW
For example, Apple’s SEO and digital marketing success has allowed them to secure a prominent position in the market, captivating their audience and ensuring continued growth and dominance in the evolving technological landscape. All of these brands will most likely be using targeted keywords, creating relevant content, and improving their site performance. It’s these strategies, along with others that we’ll discuss in this blog, that will attract customers searching for the products that you sell.
Why SEO for manufacturing companies matters
Like any business or company, SEO is crucial for helping you connect with potential clients, build your brand, and drive business growth in the digital age. SEO is vital for putting your brand in front of the right people at the right time – without SEO, your customers might never find your products or services. By optimising your website, you’re attracting more traffic, generating leads, and increasing sales.
Here are a few other reasons why SEO matters for manufacturers:
- Increased visibility – Your potential clients will rely heavily on online searches to find suppliers and partners. SEO ensures that your manufacturing website appears prominently in search results, increasing your likelihood of being discovered.
- Building trust and authority – Ranking highly in search results signals credibility and expertise in your topic. Consistent and high-quality content will further establish you as a manufacturer and therefore a trusted authority in your industry.
- Targeted reach – Manufacturing SEO allows you to target specific keywords that relate to your niche, ensuring that your website attracts the right audience. This is particularly important if you specialise in specific materials, processes, or industries.
- Competitive advantage – In an already competitive market, SEO can give manufacturers a significant edge. By optimising your online presence, you can outperform your competitors who neglect this crucial part of digital marketing.
If you weren’t already aware, SEO is an effective long-term digital marketing strategy – if you’re hesitant about investing, then you’re ignoring it at your own risk. It’s an investment that pays off with more leads, sales, and a future-proof online presence.
5 manufacturing SEO strategies that actually get results
If you’re tired of your website getting lost in the digital noise, fear not, as we’ve got 5 SEO strategies that truly do work. We’ve witnessed first hand how these tactics below boost visibility, generate leads, and ultimately, grow your business. If you’re ready to transform your online visibility, let’s explore them in a bit more detail.
1. Hyper-specific keyword research
Keyword research is crucial for manufacturers, as it identifies the exact words, phrases, and questions that prospects search for online. Nailing your keyword research strategy means reaching potential leads looking to discover your products. First, build a list of relevant terms. Qualify them by checking their search volume, search intent, competition, and potential traffic. Then actually use these keywords in your content!
Some easy keyword research tactics include:
- Focus on long-tail keywords – They are specific, less competitive, and attract more qualified leads.
- Expand your list – Use SEO tools like Ahrefs or Google Keyword Planner to find related terms. Look at search volume, difficulty, and trends.
- Analyse search intent – Ensure that your keywords match the search intent, and check the SERP.
- Competitor analysis – Look at your competitor’s keywords for gaps and opportunities.
- Identify core keywords – Make sure to list your main products, services, and relevant business terms, as these are the seeds for your research.
2. High-quality and informative content
High-quality and informative content is absolutely crucial when it comes to SEO in the manufacturing sector. Potential clients, and often other businesses, will require detailed information to make informed decisions. Most buyers are also often searching for solutions to specific problems – high-quality content that provides answers demonstrates the expertise your website has to offer, helping to build trust and credibility.
When producing content, make sure that you:
- Have good content quality – Ensure you are delivering relevant and helpful information tailored to your audience’s needs. Provide solutions to their questions.
- Use relevant keywords – As we mentioned above, place these keywords that you find into your H1 title, headings, and meta descriptions, as well as the main body of your content.
- Internal links – Guide your users and search engines between your site’s pages by using keyword-rich anchor text.
- Include meta tags – Title tags and meta descriptions are essential for presenting well in SERPs. Make them captivating so that they’ll boost click-through rates.
This high-quality and informational content that you’ll be producing will establish your authority and help to drive plenty of organic growth to your site.
3. Technical SEO
Technical SEO ensures that your website is easy for search engines to find and index. Even the best content that you produce won’t reach your audience without a solid technical foundation. Technical SEO therefore involves optimising your site’s speed, ensuring that it’s mobile-friendly, and fixing errors. Improving these factors will help visibility, user experience, and search rankings.
Follow these easy technical SEO tactics:
- Optimise site speed – Having a slow website will affect user experience and sales. Try to optimise images and apply caching to reduce load times.
- Make your site mobile-friendly – Ensure that your website looks good and is easy to use on any device.
- Fix site errors – Run semi-annual site crawls to identify errors, and repair broken links, redirects, and other issues that you encounter.
- Optimise site structure – Organise your content with a sitemap and simple architecture. This will make it easy for users and search engines to navigate your website.
4. Local SEO (where applicable)
While not every manufacturer will rely on local SEO, it’s important for those who serve a specific Geographical area, have a physical location, and offer local services. Local SEO essentially will help your manufacturing business to show up in local searches and maps. Your potential customers are often right around the corner – they will often search for local suppliers, and you must be visible to them.
Some easy local SEO steps to follow include:
- Encourage reviews – If you’ve got satisfied customers, ask them to leave you a review. Respond to each one to show that you are engaged and truly care about your customers.
- List in local directories – Add your business to local online directories, and ensure that your phone number, address, and contact information are consistent.
- Optimise for local keywords – Make sure that you are using location-specific keywords. Include these keywords in your content, titles, images, and URLs.
Implementing the above tactics will connect you to nearby customers and can be more effective than national SEO for reaching local buyers. We recommend optimising your Google Business profile, encouraging reviews, and creating local content to show your customers how available your services are.
5. Strategic link building
Finally on our list of manufacturing SEO strategies is strategic link building. This can be a powerful SEO tool, helping you to boost authority, visibility, and ultimately attract qualified leads. However, link building for manufacturers requires a bit more of a focused and strategic approach.
First of all, you should be focusing on industry-specific directories. Seek out directories that are specifically made for your manufacturing niche, whether that’s technological or automotive. Ensure that those directories you are targeting have good domain authority and are well-maintained, and make sure that your information is consistent across all directories.
You also want to create valuable content that earns links. Showcase your expertise and link to other informative and trustworthy websites to build your domain rating and portray your business as authoritative and reliable. Websites with a strong backlink profile tend to rank higher in SERPs, which ultimately leads to more organic traffic.
Ready to upgrade your SEO strategy? Get in touch with the experts
Claire Wilder
SEO Account Manager
"When it comes to manufacturing, each company often has a unique set of skills and expertise. When optimising for SEO success, one of the key elements is for each company to lean into their niche market, even if the search volumes are smaller than the generic terms. This will not only allow them to target customers with the right intent for the products and services they sell, but it will improve their topical authority for their dedicated industry"
Hopefully, this blog has taught you everything you need to know about manufacturing SEO. In a nutshell, manufacturing SEO is about making it easier for potential customers to find manufacturers online, specifically what your business has on offer. By implementing the practices above, you can boost your online presence and achieve long-term success – a win for any business!
Ready to get your manufacturing SEO strategy underway? Then get in touch with our expert SEO team – our holistic approach will help to optimise every aspect of your website, provided by a group of SEO consultants who genuinely care about your online success.
Manufacturing SEO FAQs
1. What makes SEO for manufacturers different?
As our SEO expert Claire Wilder mentioned, SEO for manufacturers stands out because it is technical and niche-targeted. Manufacturing companies need to use industry-specific keywords and content that will highlight their expertise in a certain area. This means a much more specialised approach than typical consumer SEO.
2. Can small manufacturers compete with larger companies in SEO?
Yes, small manufacturing companies can still compete with larger competitors in SEO. They can achieve this by targeting niche keywords, crafting tailored content, and leveraging local SEO. We recommend using a focused, data-driven approach – this will help you beat industry giants for search visibility and lead generation.
3. How often should manufacturers update their SEO strategy?
We recommend that manufacturers review and update their SEO strategy at least quarterly. Search engines frequently update their algorithms, so it’s essential to be aware of industry trends and refine your tactics accordingly. Monitoring your competitor’s SEO strategy is also crucial – if they are making significant improvements, you’ll also need to adjust your approach to stay competitive.
