Your Industrial Website Is Simply NOT Enough
- Posted by:
- Categories: Industrial Marketing, Websites
Having a quality, up-to-date, website is the cornerstone of your manufacturing business’s online presence and overall marketing efforts… but it is only the beginning. If you simply put up a great website and walk away then you’re wasting a lot of money. It’s like printing a really nice brochure and then leaving them all in your office – no one will see the brochure unless you put it in front of them. The same goes for your website.
As we have mentioned before your website should be easy to navigate and have plenty of content on it for your prospects to help them get the true picture of how you are their optimized solution provider. Your site also needs to be updated frequently with new helpful information, contain great visuals, peppered with calls to action, easy to navigate, and more. So if you are doing all of these things already, what are you missing?
An industrial company website is not a static marketing tool – it is actually a lot like your business and should be constantly changing and evolving with new ideas, content, technology, and trends. What do we mean? Well, like your business, your site needs to be cleaned from time to time, it could use a fresh “coat of paint” occasionally, maybe a new piece of “equipment”, etc. Let’s dive in to a few things that you should be sure to do with your site on a regular basis… particularly if you have made no changes to the site since it was originally launched.
1.) Regular maintenance & cleaning
To keep your site secure and functioning properly you need to make sure to keep on top of all necessary website updates. It is recommended to check at least once every 3 months for any critical updates as well as check any automatic website security or backup functions to be sure that everything is still running as it should. This includes: checking the status of your SSL certificate to be sure that it is installed properly and is up-to-date, regularly scheduled automatic malware scanning and removal, automatic monthly backups of your entire site, checking for updates to any plugins on your site, checking for updates to your site’s platform (if applicable), plus it is a good idea to check to be sure there are no broken links or images on your site.
2.) Outdated design or no mobile functionality
Website trends are constantly changing and your site needs to change along with them. Ideally, your website’s look and feel should be re-vamped at least once every two years. Did you know that according to recent statistics from GlobalStats currently over 50% of internet users use a mobile device (phone or tablet) to view websites or shop? Did you know that over 83% of those users expect a FLAWLESS experience when they visit a site? With those numbers in mind, can you answer whether or not your industrial manufacturing site was built to be mobile-friendly? If your site isn’t mobile-friendly or it has been over 2 years since it was last revised, it is well past time for a full site re-build to bring it up-to-date with current trends.
3.) New “equipment”
As we stated above, your site needs to stay up-to-date with the latest trends, which means you will need to add new “equipment” to your site occasionally. This can range from adding new plugins to enhance user experience, to chat bots, to a new video library, to shopping cart functionality, and so much more. Maybe your site has not yet been optimized for SEO (Search Engine Optimization) and you need to add the right keywords/phrases and all necessary meta data. You could also still need to add your industrial company to relevant social media channels and get those linked to your main website.
As you can see, simply having a website is only the beginning. Your site, like your business, needs proper maintenance, upgrades, and renovations. Driving traffic, and new business, to your site is truly the “name of the game” – so yes, putting up a great website is important but don’t simply put it there and ignore it.
All industrial – all the time!
With over 30 years of experience, The Rico Group specializes in helping industrial manufacturers and job shops grow their business and diversify their customer base. We are your bolt-on marketing department. Our solutions give you the full capabilities of an in-house marketing department at a fraction of what it would cost you to hire a full-time marketing crew. We know how engineers think and what they are looking for. We know your processes, equipment, and materials. We also know that you have very little time to take away from your production and getting your customer’s orders delivered.
Interested to see what your current digital marketing efforts are really doing for your company?
We offer a free comprehensive analysis of your company’s online marketing to give you insights into what your true digital footprint is and how you can improve it. The report also comes with an in-depth competitor analysis and a free expert consultation to review the report with you and answer any questions you may have.
Also, please grab a free copy of our comprehensive digital marketing success guide to help you accelerate your job shop’s growth. The guide walks you through the process of generating more qualified leads for your industrial manufacturing company.
Grow your business with better marketing with The Rico Group.
(805) 497-7401