Congratulations, you’ve just launched your new manufacturing website and its got all the bells and whistles. But there’s just one problem: you’re not getting that much traffic. Traffic can come from a variety of different sources, but the best way to do that is through Search Engine Optimization (SEO).
How important is SEO to your manufacturing website? Here’s a look at the click-through rates per position in a Google search. You can see how a higher ranking could have a drastic impact on the amount of traffic you receive.
Taking this into consideration, if there were 1,000 searches a month, that would mean 285 of those searches would click on the #1 ranking. That’s 285 people who are actively searching out information based on the industry you’re in. Juxtapose this with the #10 spot, where only 25 people would be clicking through to your website.
More visitors to your website = more manufacturing sales, and that’s why you have a website in the first place. It’s a way to educate clients and customers about your products or services, and the more content you have about what you are selling will make you come off as more authoritative in your niche.
Let’s say you are a plastic injection molding company. The website with the best SEO is what will appear at the top of the search engine when this term is typed into the search bar. Now, there are a lot of different aspects that go into SEO; as a matter of fact, there are 200 of them, but for the sake of this article, we are going to focus on content creation. Not only content creation but consistent content creation that is focused on the manufacturing keywords you want to rank for.
Consistent Content Creation
You are trying to match keywords with what people are searching for. So if someone were searching for “plastic injection molding,” you would want to create content around that search term. Here at Foremost, we implement a variety of different tools that help us determine what to write about, how long to write, and what to include. Our tools allow us to actually scan the number one ranking term you want to search for, and outline what is needed to do in order to best the competition.
The more manufacturing content you add, the more opportunities you have for inbound and outbound links as well, which also help with SEO. Think of your website like a spider web, with new content additions constantly adding to the size and intricacies of your website. The best way to get started is by creating pillar pieces of content around any number of areas that you specialize in.
These are generally longer, more in-depth pages. Next, you will create smaller, more niche pieces of content that you can link to and from your pillar pieces (again, think spider webs). In the “see” link right above we linked to our SEO page, but we have a variety of different blog posts and pages that link to that same page which makes for a terrific content creation strategy.
Using “plastic injection molding” as a pillar piece of content allows for a variety of different sub-articles that can be composed around it.
You can begin to see how plastic injection molding could rise to the top of search rankings with so many other pieces of related content linking to and from it.
Updating Old Content
Manufacturing content creation doesn’t have to be just about posting new articles to your website. You can also go back and refresh old content that you have made in the past. Google actually recognizes this and rewards it. Taking the plastic injection molding spider web example above; imagine you created articles for every subtopic listed and did a complete 360 of the circle.
If you got back to the first article, don’t you think there would be something that had changed in the plastic injection molding industry, or something that you could add? One obvious addition that sticks out is more inbound links you could add throughout your website. Links either from old articles or to new ones that have been published since the first pieces you wrote.
By splitting your time between updates, and fresh content creation, there will be plenty on your plate to keep you busy. This is why you should think of SEO and manufacturing content creation as a marathon; a slow, methodical game you are playing - constantly tweaking and adding to your content.
There is no greater thrill for us than when we see a client jump up in the search rankings for a coveted manufacturing keyword that they have been trying to rank for after months or even years. This is why this is the best, but unfortunately, the hardest way to drive traffic to your website.
Think Outside The Box
Content doesn’t have to be limited to the written word. In fact, if the only thing you’re doing is writing, it’s best to start thinking about other mediums to make your spider web even bigger. Here’s a little secret: everything that you write can be repositioned. For example, we could take this article, and turn it into a podcast episode, an infographic, or a video. The possibilities are truly endless, and this is specifically true in manufacturing where there traditionally isn’t much rich media.
Think about yourself personally, how often do you read an article on a topic compared to listening, viewing, or watching something on the same topic, it’s about even, right? Going further, do you think your competition is doing the same things over at their website? Probably not. The bottom line is that the competition is far stiffer if you’re simply writing and not getting into other mediums of content creation.
How To Go About Creating Your Content
SEO Analysis
Using the plastic injection molding as the pillar piece, let’s say we wanted to write a piece about “injection molded parts.” The first thing you would want to do is search for that term, and see what the top rankings for that keyword currently look like. From there you can judge approximately how long your content should be and identify areas you should be focusing on. You can also use the command F on a mac or control F on a PC and type in the keyword to see how many times it is mentioned in the article, this should also be matched with what is currently the top ranking article.
Generally, the higher the search volume for a keyword, the harder it is to rank for. So if you’re just getting started, it is best to focus on long-tail (more niche) keywords where there isn’t as much competition.
Instead of injection molded parts, it might be a good idea to start with polypropylene injection molded parts, which is one of the types of materials used in injection molding. Even though fewer people will be searching for polypropylene injection molded parts, it won’t be as difficult to rank for.
Writing The Content
When you write your content, it is important to make sure that the page you’re writing for should be fully optimized. This means having proper heading tags, page titles, and meta descriptions. This is done differently depending on how your website is built, but consistently building optimized content will pay for itself over the course of time.
Your content should be concise, have a voice, or personality that resonates with your readers, and be unique, so you’re not simply regurgitating what has already been said by someone else. Also, be sure not to go off on different tangents, if you are, that just means you’ve got an idea for an entirely separate post.
Again, keep in mind that this doesn't have to be in the form of articles, you can explore the different types of rich media listed above including images (infographics), podcasts, or videos.
Manufacturing Content Creation Statistics
source: content marketing institute
More manufacturers are starting to branch into rich media than they were before, so it is important that you keep up with the trends here. If everything is equal, search engines will favor sites that have more diverse content.
source: content marketing institute
These percentages indicate that there is much room for manufacturers to grow and expand with their content creation efforts and abilities. In this article, we outline the exact path you can take by creating pillar pieces of content and then smaller pieces of subtopics where the pieces link together to create your spiderweb, and then going farther and branching into other forms of media.
Content Creation in General
-Content creation brings in 3X as many leads as traditional marketing and costs 62% less.
-61% of online purchases are the direct result of a customer reading a blog.
-Companies that publish 16+ blog posts per month get 3.5X more traffic than those that post four or fewer posts per month.
source: HubSpot
If you’ve got any questions about manufacturing content creation or your website in general, feel free to reach out to us at our Contact Us page. We love chatting about websites and different ways to create engaging, insightful content around them.
Thinking about redesigning your manufacturing website? Take a look at our free workbook.