SEO for Manufacturing Companies: A Step-By-Step Guide

SEO for manufacturers involves optimizing a company’s website so it ranks higher in the SERP for industry-specific keywords. Strategies include content creation, link building, and mobile optimization — but there’s much more to it.

Most businesses want their website to rank on the first page of the search engine results page (SERP) for relevant keywords.

But for the manufacturing industry, there are specific search engine optimization (SEO) strategies you need to execute to make this happen.

This guide will help you build your own SEO strategy that attracts more qualified leads and increases your revenue.

What is manufacturing SEO?

Manufacturing SEO is a digital marketing strategy that optimizes a manufacturing website to help it rank higher in the organic search results for relevant search terms.

It involves common on-page, off-page, and technical SEO strategies, including content creation, link-building, and mobile optimization.

(Image: Pexels)

Why is SEO for manufacturing and industrial businesses important?

Purchasing specialists who represent distributors, wholesalers, and retailers leverage search engines to find their manufacturing solutions.

SEO helps your business get to the top of search engines to connect with these decision makers.

With a successful SEO strategy, manufacturers can expect:

• Increased visibility and traffic
• More qualified leads
• Industry authority and trust
• Competitive advantage

How to build an SEO strategy for your manufacturing company

SEO takes time to yield results. But when done right, it can have a massive impact on your business.

Here’s how to start:

1. Identify your target audience
2. Conduct an SEO audit
3. Research target keywords
4. Optimize your site for user experience
5. Optimize for on-page SEO
6. Pay attention to technical SEO
7. Engage in link-building techniques
8. Incorporate SEO tracking and analytics
9. Engage on social media
10. Update and audit content regularly
11. Make sure your site is mobile-friendly
12. Publish high-quality content
13. Refresh your service, product, and category pages

1. Identify your target audience

Who is your product for, and how does it benefit them?

To find the answer, start by analyzing your current customer base for trends and patterns, then do some competitor research to see which companies target a similar audience and what their B2B marketing strategies are.

Finally, build an ideal customer profile (ICP) that embodies your company’s target customer with factors like their location, industry, and budget.

Further reading: How to Create an Ideal Customer Profile (+ Template)

2. Conduct an SEO audit

An SEO audit evaluates how optimized your website is for search engines and identifies fixes to improve your website and SEO.

Use free SEO audit tools from companies like Semrush or Ahrefs for an overall health score and breakdown of the site’s general issues.

Here’s an example of the Overview given by the Ahrefs SEO Audit tool. (Image: Ahrefs)

Audits also provide a comprehensive breakdown of site issues impacting SEO, like redirects, slow-loading pages, and indexability issues.

With this list of issues, you can fix areas of your site that might be impacting your ranking.

Ahrefs SEO audit tool provides a list of all the issues that are impacting your SEO. (Image: Ahrefs)

Further reading: SEO Audit: A Step-by-Step Guide + Free Checklist

3. Research target keywords

Using keywords in your content tells search engines what your site is about so they can drive relevant traffic (potential customers) to your website.

Begin with keyword research to identify search terms customers use to search for products and services like yours:

• Identify the keywords you already rank for
• Compile topics and keywords relevant to your brand
• Use a keyword research tool to find related terms
• See what keywords your competitors rank for

While keyword research tools like Moz or Semrush will help with this, Google is a helpful place to start.

Look at the People Also Ask section to find common questions people search for about your keywords.

Related searches at the bottom of the search results page is another excellent resource for long-tail keyword opportunities.

Further reading: Short-Tail vs. Long-Tail Keywords: Key Differences (+ When to Use Each)

4. Optimize your site for user experience

Elements that make your website user-friendly also impact SEO and the user experience for visitors browsing your site for information.

Here’s how to optimize your site for user experience and SEO:

Improve site speed

If your site’s pages load too slowly, visitors will navigate to a different site, likely a competitor. In fact, more than 88% of visitors will leave a site due to slow loading times.

To optimize site speed:

• Compress images
• Minify JavaScript, CSS, and HTML code
• Use content delivery networks (CDNs)

Make the site easy to navigate

Navigational elements like menus and headers enhance the user experience. If your site is difficult to navigate, people will leave.

This can increase your bounce rate and lower your time spent on site — two metrics that determine if your site is relevant to search engine users.

Use clear calls to action

Don’t assume site visitors know the next step to take on your site. Use clear and concise language on your call-to-action (CTA) buttons so visitors know what to do.

Here’s an example of an industrial website from American Alloy Fabricators with a clear and simple navigational menu with a clear CTA:

5. Optimize for on-page SEO

On-page SEO is the practice of creating and optimizing the content on your website.

Start by identifying the target keywords for existing pieces of content, then seamlessly integrate them into the body, title tags, and meta description.

Then focus on each webpage’s metadata, which includes elements like title tags, meta descriptions, image titles, and alt text for photos.

Designate H1s, H2s, and H3s in your content to help Google crawlers understand the structure of your site.

A great, SEO-rich structure can also earn you spots in Google rich snippets like “Featured Snippets” or “People Also Ask.”

And lastly, use internal linking to help visitors find additional information on your site.

This helps search engines better understand your content, and shows you’re an authority on the topic, which boosts your authority.

Further reading: 20 On-Page SEO Factors to Help You Rank on Page One

6. Pay attention to technical SEO

While on-page SEO refers to website content, technical SEO refers to the backend elements and structure of a website.

You can discover areas of improvement for your website by using SEO audit tools like Semrush and Ahrefs.

Running an SEO audit uncovers things like:

• 404 errors
• Broken links
• Duplicate content or title tags
• Uncrawlable pages
• HTTPS requests
• Missing schema markup
• Page redirects

These can all negatively impact the health and functionality of your website.

If you don’t know how to fix the technical aspects of your page, defer these fixes to an internal developer or an SEO audit service.

Further reading: Technical SEO: An Easy-to-Follow Guide + 6 Improvement Tips

7. Engage in link-building techniques

Link building is the process of getting relevant third-party websites to link to your site.

One of the best ways to achieve backlinks is by creating valuable content. Other strategies include:

• Guest blogging
• Influencer outreach
• Creating and sharing informative infographics
• Posting on social media
• Leveraging local partnerships
• Publishing press releases
• Building relationships with other businesses
• Providing testimonials

Further reading: Are Backlinks Still Important? Yes, Here’s How to Get Them

8. Incorporate SEO tracking and analytics

“Tracking is an essential part of any SEO campaign, especially for manufacturing firms,” says co-founder and CEO of HawkSEM Sam Yadegar.

Two free tools for tracking your SEO performance are Google Analytics and Google Search Console.

Google Analytics gives you insights into website traffic and user behavior. It provides stats like total site traffic, average time on page, bounce rate, and even demographic data about visitors.

Google Search Console helps you understand your website’s performance and how it impacts your SEO. Here, you’ll find information like click-through rates, crawl errors, and HTML errors. You can also find search queries and links from outside websites.

At HawkSEM, we also use our proprietary technology ConversionIQ (CIQ) to better understand SEO performance.

“We use ConversionIQ (CIQ) to granularly track every single step of the buyer journey so we can understand what aspects of a campaign are working and where we need to adjust our strategy,” says Yadegar.

“This allows us to optimize towards a higher ROI year over year.”

9. Engage on social media

While interacting on social media doesn’t have a direct impact on your SEO, it can indirectly impact your traffic and brand awareness.

Being active on social media involves:

• A consistent posting frequency
• Interacting with other brand pages and posts in your industry
• Responding to comments from users
• Sharing relevant content, images, and videos

When building your content strategy, create a content distribution plan that includes sharing your content on appropriate social channels.

If you have valuable, relevant, and shareable content, you increase the likelihood of people not only reading your content but also sharing it with others.

10. Update and audit content regularly

Auditing and updating content is important because information gets outdated over time, and competitors may produce content that ranks better than yours.

Google is more likely to rank recently updated content higher in the SERP. So be sure to audit your content at least twice a year.

11. Make sure your site is mobile-friendly

No matter how seamless your web design may be, if you don’t optimize for mobile devices, it’ll increase bounce rates and plummet search engine rankings.

As of 2025, 66% of U.S. mobile users use the Google Search app on their phones to find information. So, it’s no surprise that 74% of website visitors are more likely to return if your site is mobile-friendly.

Here are a few things to focus on as you design a mobile-responsive website:

• Optimize images
• Use a large, readable font
• Make clickable elements like links and CTA buttons large enough for thumbs
• Avoid pop-ups
• Declutter your website design

American Alloy Fabricators’ mobile website is still easy to read and navigate on a smartphone screen. (Image: American Alloy Fabricators mobile site)

After changes or additions, test your mobile site regularly. The average person should navigate the site and interact with elements easily on mobile devices.

12. Publish high-quality content

Consistently publishing high-quality, optimized content helps industrial companies improve their online presence and visibility.

Use your target keyword list to create a content strategy for your website.

This strategy should include valuable content for your target audience and be optimized for the keywords you’ve already identified.

This consists of both website pages, like product pages, and additional resources like blog content.

Here’s an example from American Alloy Fabricators of a blog post optimized for the keyword “jacketed vessels:”

(Image: American Alloy Fab)

Providing visitors with valuable content focused on relevant topics helps this industrial company bring more organic traffic to its site.

This content also helps the business improve brand awareness and become a trusted source of information online, all of which lead to conversions.

Further reading: How to Build a Content Marketing Strategy: 7 Steps + Free Checklist

13. Refresh your service, product, and category pages

Many industrial companies have shallow content on their most important pages.

Using the keyword list you’ve created, refresh your service, product, and category pages with high-quality content that incorporates those keywords your audience is looking for.

Here’s an example of an optimized product page for pressure vessels:

(Image: American Alloy Fab)

This page goes beyond optimized written content with a video to explain the product further. Smart move because video content keeps visitors on the page longer, which helps your SEO.

The rest of the page has a comprehensive product breakdown, including optimized images, so they appear in Google search results.

(Image: American Alloy Fab)

Local SEO for manufacturing companies: Expert tips

For manufacturing companies that target a local audience, local SEO strategies will improve your lead generation and overall marketing efforts.

Use these tips to increase your local business’s visibility in search.

Enhance your Google Business Profile

Claiming your Google Business Profile gives you control over your online business listing and presence. From there, you can upload images, change your name, address, and phone number (NAP). You can also optimize your description, service areas, and more.

Leverage local keywords

Implement keywords that are location-specific into your website content, meta descriptions, and title tags. Examples include: “local manufacturers in Kansas City” or “average manufacturing rates in Massachusetts.”

Create localized content

Blog posts about local events, news, or community activities can boost your local SEO. If you’re a state known for an item that’s manufactured there, use that location-specific information to your advantage.

Encourage online reviews

Word-of-mouth is a powerful tool in the digital marketing world. Local customers tend to read business reviews before engaging with or hiring a company. Do your best to deliver quality service and ask happy customers to leave a review.

Engage in local link building

If you’re part of a Chamber of Commerce or local group that collects local business listings, this could generate high-quality backlinks that help your business. Collaborate with other businesses or your city government marketing team to get added to local websites.

Update local business listings

Tools like Semrush and Yext help you manage your local business listings across the internet. Consistent business and NAP information ensures customers can see or contact you no matter which directory they used to discover you.

Create a local URL structure

Manufacturing businesses may benefit from creating pages that specifically target a location. For example, you can create a business page on manufacturing services that only speaks to people in a certain area. It’s as simple as creating the write location-specific page title.

Further reading: Local SEO Guide: Cost, Case Studies + Expert Tips

Average cost of SEO for manufacturing

If you’d prefer to hire an agency for your SEO campaigns, basic SEO services for manufacturers can cost anywhere from $1,000 to $5,000 per month.

Alternatively, more intensive SEO packages can range from $3,000 to $10,000 on a monthly basis.

Further reading: SEO Pricing: How Much Should You Pay? (+ 10 Options)

How to find manufacturing SEO services

When searching for managed SEO services for industrial websites, look for:

• Industry experience
• A keyword strategy that reflects purchase intent
• Content strategy tailored to B2B
• Strong technical SEO skills
• Proven track record and certifications
• Experience with product and spec pages
• Regular reporting

Be sure to look for case studies and client testimonials that highlight the results of the industrial company’s SEO campaigns.

SEO terms you need to know

Here are SEO terms to understand as you build your industrial SEO strategy:

• On-page SEO: Optimizations made to the pages of a website to help them rank higher in the search results. On-page elements include content, keywords, images, URLs, internal links, and metadata.
• Off-page SEO: SEO efforts that occur outside of your website to help your pages rank higher on search engines. Off-page elements include backlinks, guest posting, social media promotion, and digital PR.
• Technical SEO: Optimizations made to the backend of your website to improve search rankings. Technical SEO elements include page speed, sitemaps, site structure, indexation, and structured data.
• Backlinks: Links from external websites back to your website. Google uses high-quality backlinks as a signal for quality content, so having relevant backlinks from quality websites helps your SEO.
• Internal linking: The process of linking from one page on your website to another. Relevant internal links help Google understand what your content is about.
• Meta title: The title of a webpage as defined in the site’s HTML code. Search engines index meta titles and show them in the search results.
• Meta description: A short, relevant description of a page’s content. This is what searchers see when your page appears in the search results.
• Alt text: Describes the appearance of images on the page and their function. Alt text improves accessibility for visually impaired users and helps search engines understand image context.
• Long-tail keywords: Keyword phrases (typically three words or more) that target higher intent searches, like “custom stainless steel enclosures for marine use.”
• Search intent: The goal behind a user’s search query, like to learn more, compare products, or buy.
• Schema markup (or structured data): Code added to a website that helps search engines categorize and understand the content.
• Conversion rate optimization (CRO): The process of improving a website or page to increase the percentage of visitors who take a desired action.
• Title tag and H1 tag: The title tag is what appears on the SERP and browser, and the H1 is the visible page heading.

SEO for manufacturing and industrial companies: Checklist

• Identify your target audience
• Conduct an SEO audit
• Research target keywords
• Optimize your site for user experience
• Optimize for on-page SEO
• Pay attention to technical SEO
• Engage in link-building techniques
• Incorporate SEO tracking and analytics
• Engage on social media
• Update and audit content regularly
• Make sure your site is mobile-friendly
• Publish high-quality content
• Refresh your service, product, and category pages

The takeaway

SEO for industrial websites involves many elements that increase your chances of ranking on Google and driving high-quality organic traffic to your site.

But this also requires consistency, know-how, and a strong strategy. An SEO agency can do all of this for you so you can focus on growing your business offline.

If you want to accelerate your SEO results, it may be time to call in the experts. The team at HawkSEM would love to support your industrial SEO efforts.

To get started, reach out today.

This article has been updated and was originally published in March 2024.