One of the things I enjoy about working with folks in manufacturing is that they are very focused, very results oriented, and they truly understand the meaning of the phrase “getting down to brass tacks.” I believe that’s one of the reasons you see so many manufacturing websites that are getting a bit dated. The company feels that the site presents accurate information and therefore is serving its purpose just fine.
However, our experience at 30dps tells us that today’s industrial buyer (like every consumer) is looking for more than just information. If your website isn’t up to snuff, it’s very possible they’ll move on to someone else’s.
Indicators Your Website Needs Attention
Studies show that prospects are doing a significant amount of online research before they ever reach out to a company they’re interested in. This means it is critical that your website is making a good first impression. If it’s not, you may lose a potential customer before you ever knew they were interested.
Here are five signs that your website needs work:
- It looks old and tired. A font that’s too small, too much text, old stock imagery, and a pixelated logo are just a few of the things that will alert a web-savvy site visitor that your site hasn’t been updated in many years. And that fact may leave them wondering if the same is true of your manufacturing processes.
- It is slow to load. Buyers are busy people who are looking for information and probably want to “hit and git.” If they visit your site and have to wait more than a fraction of a second for pages to be displayed, they will see this as a red flag and may go elsewhere in search of what they need.
- It isn't mobile friendly. Buyers want to be able to learn about your company wherever and whenever they have a few minutes. And that is often when they are away from their computers. If your website isn’t easy to navigate on a smartphone, not only is it frustrating for the user, but the major search engines will penalize you, making it harder for your site to achieve a good position in search results. And each prospect who doesn’t know you exist is one that never becomes a customer.
- It isn’t optimized for search. Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process of creating content for your website that the search engines believe will be helpful to searchers. Gone are the days when you could simply repeat the name of your product or service multiple times on a page to move your site up the search results. Today, Google and the others are looking for well-written, meaningful web copy and additional materials that show you know your business.
- It has a high bounce rate. There are many analytics tools that can measure how often people arrive at your website and promptly leave without navigating to other pages. If this happens frequently, your site clearly isn’t meeting the needs of your audience. One of the biggest reasons visitors bounce off of a website is that the messaging is unclear, or worse, is all about the manufacturing company and its products. The website content needs to make it perfectly clear what the company does, but ALWAYS in the context of what the customer needs, NOT what the company wants to sell.
Updating Is Easier than You Think
Now, you can choose to ignore these signs, but you do so at your peril. And, while updating your site may seem very complicated to you, it’s what our web development and content marketing teams in Colorado Springs, CO, Olympia, WA, and Springfield, MO, live for. We’re experts in helping manufacturers develop highly effective websites that engage visitors, capture leads, and increase sales.
Looking for an outside perspective on your website and your marketing efforts in general? We’re happy to share ours. Give us a call!
