Most manufacturing websites are written from the inside out. A history page, a photo of the factory, a list of machines, and a contact form. They describe the company. They rarely answer the questions a buyer arrives with.
The people buying from manufacturers are usually engineers, designers and procurement teams. They're precise, short of time, and often comparing you against three other suppliers in another tab. Here's what they're looking for.
Can you make what I need?
The first question, and the one most sites make hardest to answer. A buyer wants to know quickly:
- What you make, or what processes you offer, in their terms rather than yours.
- Materials, sizes and tolerances you can work to.
- Volumes: one-offs, batches, or production runs.
- Industries you supply, because "we work in aerospace" means something specific about standards.
Put this in pages a buyer can scan, not in a paragraph on the About page. One page per product range or capability works far better than one page listing everything, and it's also what gets you found in search.
Can I trust you with it?
Engineers and procurement teams are spending someone else's money and putting their name to the choice. They look for proof:
- Certifications and accreditations: ISO standards and industry approvals, shown clearly, ideally with the certificates available.
- Case studies: a real problem, what you made, and the result. Even three good ones beat a gallery of photos.
- Who your customers are, where you're allowed to say.
- How long you've been doing it. Many manufacturers are older than the internet, and a long track record is worth showing rather than hiding behind a stock photo.
Can I get the information without ringing you?
A lot of buyers do a great deal of research before they contact anyone, and some won't contact you at all if they can't find what they need. Make it easy:
- Downloadable datasheets and specifications for each product.
- CAD files or drawings, where it's appropriate to share them.
- Lead times, even as a range.
- Minimum order quantities.
Every question the site answers is a phone call your sales team doesn't have to take, and a reason not to pick the competitor whose site made them ring.
How do I start?
"Contact us" isn't a call to action for an engineer with a drawing. Give them a way in that fits what they're trying to do:
- Request a quote, with the option to upload a drawing or specification.
- Request samples.
- Talk to an engineer, rather than a general enquiries inbox.
Keep the form short. Ask for what you need to reply usefully, and no more.
The parts that are closer to software
For a lot of manufacturers, the website becomes more useful when it connects to the systems behind the business:
- Trade pricing shown only to logged-in customers.
- Stock levels pulled from your stock system, so the website never promises what you can't ship.
- Repeat ordering and invoice downloads for existing customers.
- Product configurators for ranges with lots of options.
This is where a template site runs out, and where it pays to work with a studio that builds software as well as websites.
The common mistakes
- Writing for yourself. Your internal product codes and machine names mean nothing to a buyer.
- Burying the technical detail. Hiding specifications behind an enquiry form loses the buyers who wanted to qualify you first.
- One page for everything. It won't rank, and it won't help anyone find what they need.
- No proof. A claim about quality with no certificates or case studies behind it reads as marketing.
- A site nobody can update. Product ranges change. If adding a datasheet means ringing an agency, the site will be out of date within a year.
Where we come in
We build websites for manufacturers from our studios in Huddersfield and Leicester. Both sit in areas with a lot of manufacturing, and the work often ends up closer to software than to a brochure site. There's more on our approach to web design for manufacturers, or tell us about your product range and we'll tell you honestly what your site needs.
