With many businesses moving online for better exposure, any industry has tons of competition. If you want to gain organic traffic to your website, a solid SEO strategy is necessary. However, several SEO challenges for manufacturing companies make this process difficult.

This article will help explain them and give you useful tips on improving your overall awareness. With all the necessary knowledge on your side, you’ll face any issue with ease. Continue reading to discover the most common SEO difficulties a manufacturing company can encounter and how to solve them!

Why Is SEO Important For Manufacturing Companies?

A solid SEO strategy is crucial for any online business. Search engine optimization is used to improve the quality of a website so it ranks better on Google. Yet, its importance for manufacturing companies is even greater. 

Through this process, you can gather useful information about your target audience. Having insight into the search intent has many benefits.

First, you’ll get a better understanding of what the consumers seek. Thus, you can develop strategies that give you better results and higher revenue.

Secondly, you’ll know which tools and designs work best for you. Grabbing the audience’s attention can tell them your story and promote your product.

Lastly, you can use the knowledge to further develop your Manufacturing SEO strategy and drive more website traffic. This doesn’t only improve your brand awareness but also brings you more potential buyers. 

However, to achieve this goal, there are two types of SEO you should focus on:

• On-site SEO
• Off-site SEO

Source: shutterstock.com/ Photo Contributor: Fauzi Muda

On-site SEO

On-site SEO happens directly on your website and involves coding. Doing this allows search engines to easily read and index the information on them. Thus, it affects the position in which your website appears on Google. This process is also called “ranking”.

Several technical factors play a key role:

• Meta descriptions
• Keywords
• Headings
• Title tags
• URL structures
• Page loading time
• Alt texts

On-site SEO also includes the content you’re posting. It can be in the form of videos, photos, and blog posts. Furthermore, creating relevant and valuable content will showcase what your company offers. It’s a great way to promote products while including valuable information about them.

Off-site SEO

Off-site SEO is conducted outside your website. It includes linking to other websites to increase your domain authority. This backlinking process plays a big part in ranking better on Google.

By taking time to link to credible websites, you also improve your own credibility. You can do so by listing your product on third-party websites or creating suitable content. The key actions you can do for this process are:

• Backlinking to renowned websites by pitching content that interests the audience
• Using video formats like YouTube to link back to your website
• Sharing your content on social media for it to reach useful influencers

SEO Challenges For Manufacturing Companies

When developing a strategy, you should be aware of several SEO challenges for manufacturing companies. Remember that the online marketing scene is ever-changing and growing. So many trends and issues arise in certain periods.

As of 2023, here are the most common problems you may face when dealing with SEO as a manufacturing company:

• Using keywords incorrectly
• Forgetting the importance of mobile-friendliness
• Insufficient measuring and analyzing
• Leveraging videos
• Tracking algorithm changes

Using keywords incorrectly

The first problem many manufacturing companies encounter is using keywords for the wrong reasons. If you’re starting out, it’s difficult to find the right ones and use them correctly.

With the latest changes, Google doesn’t focus only on specific keywords. But, the engines analyze the site as a whole. So instead of relying only on keywords, they are looking for authority, relevancy, and tone. That’s why using keywords as your sole strategy is ineffective.

However, choosing the right keywords is useful for your target audience. Your main goal should be discovering what the potential customers are looking for. And the best way to do so is through effective keyword research.

What you should focus on is the user intent. By discovering what the audience wants, you can tailor your content appropriately. This will boost your relevancy, awareness, conversions, and results.

Furthermore, you should look out for the keywords’ search volume. If you notice a spike in the metrics, it means that a certain subject is becoming popular. You can use this to further create relevant and interesting content related to your business.

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Using long-tail keywords

During your keyword research, you have to remember the competitive industry. Don’t forget that manufacturing companies have many competitors. So using a single keyword with high difficulty is useless. Instead, you can create unique long-tail keywords which can help drive more traffic.

Long-tail keywords differ from normal ones because they have more words in them. With them, you can specify your location, product, and targeted industries. 

Even though they have a smaller search volume, they bring a better audience. Only those who are really interested will click on the exact phrase you’ve chosen. 

Forgetting the importance of mobile-friendliness

The next common challenge for these companies is creating a site suitable for mobile phones. People used to do all their searches through a computer in the past. But in today’s age, the go-to devices are mobile phones. That’s why your website should be designed for both mobile and desktop users.

Furthermore, Google favorises these devices and prioritizes their indexing. Thus, you’ll get a better ranking if your site has higher quality on mobile.

The biggest problem for manufacturing companies is using outdated websites. So updating to a responsive design suitable for different devices is a must.

If you don’t know where to start, you must first map out the customers’ journey. By tracking what they’re doing on your site, you can further optimize it for them. You should analyze the search, content interactions, and overall flow. It will be easier to decide which content to publish and which CTAs to use.

You should also ensure that the entire customer journey is responsive. After, focus on making it relevant and actionable. The key features you should remember are:

• Big and eye-catching CTAs
• Simple layout with responsive designs
• Proper-sized text that’s easy to read
• High-resolution images with small sizes 

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Insufficient measuring and analyzing

If you’re new to SEO, never overlook the importance of tracking your performance. Another common problem for companies is that they forget to measure and analyze their results. So to create a good SEO strategy, you must first determine what works and what doesn’t. And the best way to do so is through tracking your performance metrics.

This will give you insight into what the audience is experiencing. It’s the easiest way to discover obstacles restricting the website’s flow. Furthermore, you’ll discover what content is more intriguing for your potential customers.

Remember that a good SEO strategy is a long-term investment. Even if you don’t see the results right away, the benefits add up when done correctly. Additionally, you’ll start learning through trial and error and optimize to your fullest potential.

Some of the most important KPIs you should focus on are:

• Conversion rates
• Cost per acquisition (CPA)
• Return on investment (ROI)
• Organic visibility and traffic
• Bounce rates
• Search ranking
• Click-through rate (CTR)
• User engagement
• Number of backlinks

Leveraging videos

Another setback for manufacturing companies is forgetting the use of multimedia. Especially how much video content they can benefit from. With new changes in the algorithm, you’ll notice even more featured videos on Google. This trend can be a game changer since Google wants to implement more short-form videos in the search results.

So if you’re starting your new SEO strategy, ensure it also features video content. With renowned websites like YouTube, you can easily gain exposure for your company. Furthermore, there are several practices you should use in this strategy. Some of them are:

• Adding chapters that section the video based on the topic. On the one hand, it provides further context for the viewer. On the other hand, it helps search engines better understand and index it.
• Using keywords throughout the video so Google and YouTube can register it. This betters your chances of ranking higher in results. 
• Optimizing the titles, tags, and descriptions based on your SEO strategy.
• Pro-tip: Try embedding videos on your website. This way, the audience can get all the needed information without leaving your site. Thus, you’ll reduce the number of bounce rates and achieve better results. 

Tracking algorithm changes

Most companies new to SEO don’t know how frequent the algorithm changes are. If something worked for you last month, it may not bring you the same results now. Since search engine technology is developing rapidly, you must stay up-to-date with the latest trends.

The best way to stay informed is by researching industry news frequently. If minor changes arise, you won’t have to change your whole strategy based on them. However, you’ll surely hear about the fuss online if something big is on the horizon. 

If a big change has happened, don’t rush to make any changes. Let a few days pass to see if Google will stick to it or revert to the old version. Remember that updates don’t always work, and more experimenting may be needed.

Conclusion

After discovering the SEO challenges for manufacturing companies, use this article as a guide to surpass them or contact a manufacturing SEO agency like One Percent SEO. Even if it seems hard initially, remember that there are many benefits. In the long run, a good Manufacturing SEO strategy will help your business grow and achieve better results.