For many manufacturers and industrial companies, search engine optimization (SEO) is still shrouded in mystery. It’s understandable — the rules and “best practices” are ever-evolving, shifting constantly as new technologies and trends come and go. It’s no surprise, then, that there are a lot of misconceptions surrounding SEO.
So if you're new to the digital marketing world, let's take a step back to the basics of SEO and help you understand its worth to manufacturers and industrial companies.
If you want more new customers, and you know your website is important to generate leads, how can you connect the dots? When you do a Google search, you’re likely to click on a link from one of the first five results. Have you ever given any thought to exactly how one of those sites gets to a top slot? It's a lead generation tactic fueled by quality content and SEO to drive your target audience to your website.
SEO stands for search engine optimization and how the search engines — Google, Bing, Yahoo, etc., — use a formula to determine the results for a user’s search. This is called a search engine algorithm (“algorithms” are the formulas used by search engines to determine the search results). Google updates its SEO algorithm often. While this can be difficult to keep up with, the SEO algorithm updates keep marketers focused on creating quality website content.
SEO isn’t about “quick fixes” or “tricks” to get a handful of your pages to rank. Good SEO is about fundamental, sustainable and proven best practices, implemented and refined over time. Some SEO tactics are more technical than others and can change as your company grows.
Quality content relevant to your industrial buyers helps you get found online, keeps them engaged on your website, and increases the chance of converting them to a sale. When search engines are crawling websites to bring relevant web pages up for users, they’re looking for a number of key factors: content, keywords, site usability, backlinks, and page authority.
SEO uses the following marketing components to be successful:
There are a lot of components for SEO to bring value to your website. Having an updated website is one of the most important factors.
💡 Thomas Tip: Curious to see how your website compares against a competitor? Request our free digital health check. You'll receive an assessment of your website and see the exact items you need to increase your presence to qualified buyers.
“We’ve been through two different SEO companies. Neither of whom came close to the results that Thomas has done for us in less than a year of handling our SEO services,” said Jessica Bloor of Trans-Matic.
"With Thomas running our lead generation efforts, SEO, and digital marketing, our sales increased by 60% in just one year. Thomas maximized our company exposure, drove a record number of qualified leads, and helped us turn these opportunities directly into sales dollars," said Bob Ryan, Group President of CJ Winter, a cold root rolling manufacturer.
In the 20th century, manufacturing was a roller coaster, with the majority of industrial companies coming out on top of their game. New clients rolled in with help from word-of-mouth referrals, direct mailings, and directories like our own Thomas Register. Then the internet spurned a period of intense, rapid change in the way businesses operate.
As years went on and the "big green books" went out of print, prospective customers moved online, opening a floodgate of possible business opportunities — if you knew how to get found. With an increasingly large amount of data available on the internet in the past twenty years, buyers and purchasing managers began to turn there, as opposed to business acquaintances, for supplier and product information.
So is there still value in SEO for manufacturers today?
Yes, if you're looking to connect with a new age of B2B buyers and get more qualified leads. Getting to the first page of Google became, and still is, a key priority for manufacturers and industrial companies who see value in getting more customers from the internet.
As the tail end of the millennial generation ages, graduates from college, and enters the workforce, these trends in internet usage continue to intensify. Millennials (roughly aged 20 to 36) in engineering and purchasing roles throughout the industrial industry rely on the internet, particularly search engines and Thomasnet.com, to find the information they need to make informed specifications and purchase decisions — studies show that 73% of them use your website as a critical factor in submitting RFIs.
SEO helps engineers, procurement managers, and B2B buyers see your business first online. Without SEO and other proper digital growth tactics in place (like online advertising!), you could be missing out on big growth opportunities.
“86% of the businesses we get from Thomas advertising closes a deal,” said Tailor Label Products VP of Sales and Marketing, Tracy Tenpenny. "Our traditional method of word-of-mouth is at 43%. The total number of customers we receive yearly is far greater than we’ve ever realized because those referrals also came from companies who found us online on Thomas and referred us to someone in their network.”
The best way to manage all this constant change and get the most value is to adjust your growth strategies to meet the needs of your B2B buyers so you can be where they are based on their behaviors.
Here's a head start on industrial buyers research: