Google, Yahoo!, Bing. Search engines are usually the first places we turn to when we have questions, want to shop for a product or service, or need to learn more about a topic. What many people don’t know, is how the order of the search results seen are chosen. This is where SEO comes in. Good SEO helps search engines like Google and Bing realize the relevancy of your website for any given search. Bad SEO can make your website appear to be irrelevant to a search, pushing you further down the search engine results page (SERP). Regardless of what your website is for, potential customers are finding you through search engines. This is why manufacturing SEO needs be included in your marketing plan.
What is SEO?
SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization. The goal of SEO is to optimize your website and web-presence so you can rank at the top of the SERP during a user’s relevant search. For example, if you were to Google “b2b advertising agency”, you wouldn’t get results for luxury hotels. This is because these sites are not optimized to appear during a search for an ad agency and are deemed irrelevant by Google. What you would see, are results from various B2B advertising agencies, since Google understands they are related to your search.
Types of SEO
There are many ways to improve SEO, but the most common 2 ways are on-site and off-site.
On-site SEO (also known as on-page SEO) refers to the optimization of the content on your site. This includes the copy on each webpage, keywords used, metadata, and more. Body copy on each page should include specific keywords related to your products or services. SEO for manufacturers may include keywords such as “safety product manufacturers” or “outdoor structure manufacturers”. Having these keywords helps identify if your website is relevant or not during a search. Metadata refers to title tags, meta descriptions, and other HTML elements. Title tags and meta descriptions can appear on the SERP to give a user a quick description of the page’s content.
Off-site SEO (also known as off-page SEO) mostly refers to online organic exposure not on your website. The largest factor in off-site SEO is backlinks (also called inbound links and incoming links). Backlinks are links that are created when one website links to another website. A good example of this would be a blog on an online magazine that talks about one of your products and then links to your product page. Backlinks are important because they give your website a sense of authority. The more high-quality websites that link to yours, the better.
Other types of SEO include technical and local. Technical SEO is everything from your website’s mobile friendliness to website speed. Websites that load quickly and are easy to view on both mobile devices and desktop are considered higher quality websites. Google has their own Speed tester that can help you see how your technical SEO is performing. Local SEO is about increasing your web-presence in your own community. Claiming your Google Business Profile and making sure all information (company name, address, email, and phone number) is correct is an easy way to improve local manufacturing SEO. While this is more important for local restaurants and shops, manufacturing companies that supply specific regions can benefit from local SEO.
Why Manufacturing Companies Need SEO
As you can probably tell, SEO has many key aspects and can be hard to explain due to so many moving parts. Many agencies struggle to get clients to understand just how important SEO is, especially since SEO is a long-term marketing strategy. You won’t see results right away, but it is important for the long game.
Whatever you’re manufacturing, from outdoor lifestyle products to industrial safety equipment, SEO can benefit you greatly. SEO for manufacturers is key in making sure your website is the one to appear at the top of the SERP, not your competitors. B2B manufacturing brands need to keep up with SEO trends to ensure they don’t fall behind and continue to accelerate growth. An article from Forbes reiterates the importance of following SEO trends and being ready to adapt to changes in search engine algorithms.
If you want to know more about SEO for manufacturers from a trusted B2B advertising agency, our team at Mascola would love to help. Contact us today to get started on improving your manufacturing SEO.