Note: Over the next several months, ProspectMX will be conducting search engine optimization audits on top company websites (not portals, social networks, or directories) that rank in organic search engine results for high volume search terms in a variety of industries. Be sure to check back for posts chronicling the results of our audits. We will also be providing a series of 10 internet marketing tips for each industry based on the audit results. Hopefully, you find this information useful.
There are tons of internet marketing and search engine optimization blogs with general tips for improving your website’s presence.
On the web, however, some keywords are more competitive than others. For example, while packaging supplies and packaging materials mean the same thing, the former gets more search volume and requires a higher CPC rate for pay-per-click marketing than the latter.
In a recent study of FORTUNE 500 companies, manufacturing companies on the list failed to rank in the top 100 search results for around 81% of the top manufacturing search terms.
That got us thinking – why aren’t manufacturing companies utilizing search engine optimization and internet marketing services to position their site for improved online ROI?
Take the term “plastic packaging,” for example. The 10 top ranking company websites we found in one data center employed some SEO best practices on their site, but not all best practices we recommend and regularly utilize for our clients.
If you work for a manufacturing company as a marketing director, IT director, or webmaster, perhaps you might be interested in checking out our list of 10 SEO tips to improve the internet marketing efforts of your website. Does your company employ all of the best practices below?
- In opposition to making general pages detailing all of your “services” or “products,” create an individual page on your site for each product and service.
- Because you likely sell products on your site, name all of the images of your products with the product name and include a keyword-centric “alt tag.” More info on this can be found on our Universal Search Chart.
- Make sure the name of the main product you sell is included in your website title tag. Instead of just having your Company Name in your title tag, reformat your title tag as “Target Product | Company Name.”
- List actual keyword phrases in your keywords meta data. Instead of having your keywords include terms like “plastic, packaging, supplier” – list “plastic packaging supplier” as a keyword.
- Make sure all your links work. In our audit of “plastic packaging” websites, about 80% of the websites we reviewed had broken links. Google Webmaster Guidelines clearly state that broken links on pages are a no-no. If Google says not to do something, you probably shouldn’t do it.
- Utilize “page rank sculpting.” Take the authority your homepage has in Google and put it to good use. Funnel link authority to the most important pages on your site – “nofollow” links to pages like your Privacy Policy and Contact Us page.
- Build links. Perhaps you can consult “Link Building 101” for some tips on link building.
- Find your company’s best copywriter and have them start blogging or writing articles about your company’s products.
- Update the content on your site regularly. Search engines like fresh, updated content because it is more relevant to what searchers are looking for at that particular moment. This is becoming more important as the search engines compete with sites like Twitter and, well… mostly just Twitter.
- Submit your corporate press releases to a major web-based PR distribution service.
If you went through our checklist and are employing all those SEO best practices, great! If not, let us know… maybe we can help.
I think it would even be a great idea to have different departments blog. Each department could highlight what they are doing that is unique to the industry. That would help set you apart as an industry leader and put you in front.
Thanks for the idea, Alexander. Much appreciated.
I appreciate all your comments very much, those one from Jonathan and also from Alexander – thank you. Our business is EMS (Electronic Manufacturing Service) and we have realised it’s very difficult to use the normal techniques e.g. salesletter resulting in a special offer to get the email address from interested parties. Do you have suggestions on this or do you think the only way is to get a higher ranking in order to get traffic to our website? Our website is currently under rework so we can implement everything what you have suggested.
@Sabine There are A TON of ways that you could effectively generate leads… Doing keyword research to find out what people are looking for and creating content for them with a valuable offer is certainly something that we often do for our clients
There are MANY other things that you can do as well, like sponsoring forums where your potential customers are; commenting in blogs; having reviews written about your “stuff”, etc.
Let us know if we can help further… any comments, Bentz?
I agree very strongly with the lead generation angle. Many company and corporate websites (too many, IMO) are built to be a public relations tool – “let us tell you why our business is great.” When potential customers visit the site, they don’t have the opportunity to “raise their hand” as a business lead. Keyword research and reviewing your website analytics should be done to figure out what keywords are “conversion keywords” for your business. Without a simple form on your site targeted at business prospects, however, your website is likely letting a lot of customers walk right out the door.