Prior to initiating a website rebuild, Audit Your Manufacturing Website. Be sure to conduct an audit of the site that you are currently utilizing.
Audits will give you a clear and better understanding of the specific goals and objectives that are needed to establish a successful website. Auditing will, also, help you to fully comprehend your site’s performance, engagement and how it is currently ranking with search engine optimization (SEO). An audit allows you to discover the strengths and weaknesses of your online presence as a manufacturer, through your website and the individual web pages that form your site.
Start by measuring key website metrics so that you can determine:
- Which web pages visitors find extremely useful
- Which web pages visitors cannot find
- Which web pages visitors never navigate to
Website Metrics for Manufacturers to Benchmark
- Visits, Visitors and Unique Visitors
- Bounce Rate
- Time on Site
- SEO Rankings for Keywords
- Domain Authority
- Number of New Leads (from Form Submissions)
- Total Number of Sales Generated
When you Audit Your Manufacturing Website, you will uncover what your rebuild process must involve, in order to achieve a highly efficient online presence.
A Manufacturer’s Visits, Visitors & Unique Visitors
Prior to the rebuild of your site, make certain that you benchmark specific metrics on your current manufacturing website.
Key Metrics to Benchmark:
- Visits
- Visitors
- Unique Visitors
Your website visits can be effectively measured. Numerous visits are analyzed, simultaneously, as soon as a user clicks onto one of your web pages. As a result, the number of visits that your site receives can be transmitted into a measurable amount of traffic. This metric helps you to uncover the sum total of visitors that have discovered your website. The number of visits an individual web page receives can be especially eye-opening, whether that page is attracting many visitors or no visitors.
If an individual web page receives a low number of visits, that can specify that:
- Accurate, quality users are not being targeted
- Users are unclear on the action they should take next
- Enticing content is not offered to keep users engaged
Users who are navigating to your manufacturing website are known as your visitors and unique visitors. When it comes to unique visitors, they are referred to as the individual users who browse your site in a specified sum of time. This metric will show you the approximation for how frequent certain visitors are returning to your site and on more than one occasion. This metric will, also, allow you to recognize the percentage of new visitors compared to the percentage of visitors that have returned.
A Few Important Details to Remember:
- Don’t confuse the number of unique visitors for the sum amount of visitors that discover you, collectively, on your website
- It is critical that you take the initiative to measure and analyze your site’s traffic and compare it to your competitors’ website traffic
A Manufacturer’s Bounce Rate
Does your current website meet your audiences’ expectations?
An audit will show you a measured amount of users who are bouncing off your site, referred to as a bounce rate. A bounce rate is known as a percentage of visitors that quickly leave your site, prior to engaging or browsing through any other page on your manufacturing website. Unsatisfied visitors will not engage or take any sort of action on a site that does not compel them to.
As a manufacturer, you want to provide content that will appeal to your target audience, in order to keep visitors from bouncing. Keep in mind that a visitor will not only bounce off your website due to the content not meeting their expectations but, also, because they could have quickly discovered what they are searching for – such as your contact information. Your visitors need to immediately see you as an authoritative, credible and trustworthy manufacturer online. If they do not, they will bounce off your website from the same page that they landed on.
Offer content that will compel your potential buyers to engage and take action. As a result, helping to prevent various visitors from bouncing off your site.
Average Visit Duration on a Manufacturing Website
When you audit your manufacturing website, a crucial metric to benchmark is the amount of time that visitors will spend on your site. The average time that users spend on a website is referred to as the average visit duration. Time will start the moment a visitor has clicked onto your website and stop as soon as that visitor has left. This metric will analyze the engagement ratio and quality of your content on your website.
Whether your website receives a low average visit duration or a high average visit duration, this metric will show vital information. It helps you to identify what is performing well and what is keeping your visitors engaged. This metric will, also, help you to uncover the content that is not compelling your visitors to browse through your site or engage.
Offer enticing content and direct your visitors to take action. Whether a user has clicked onto your homepage, specific product page, blog or about us page, call them to take an action. As a manufacturer, it is essential that you create content that is educational, resourceful and useful. Make sure that you place calls to actions (CTAs) throughout the content on your website, in order to keep visitors engaged for longer periods of time. As a result, increasing your site’s average visit duration.
SEO Ranking for Manufacturers
It is important that you benchmark your traffic that is coming from organic search. Organic visitors discover your website by using a search query, or the specific keywords typed in search engines. When you Audit Your Manufacturing Website, you can establish the SEO health of your site. It is vital that you analyze your keywords and your website’s SEO ranking in search results. As a result, you will discover how well your manufacturing company is currently performing online and compared to your competitors.
Don’t forget to organize an audit on your competitors website and the keywords they are targeting, as well. Therefore, you will be able to better target specific keywords and utilize the ones that your competitors are highly ranking for. Make certain that the distinctive keywords you have chosen are the best targeted keywords for your company. Ensure they are relevant to you, as a manufacturer, and your manufacturing products and services. A highly effective search engine optimization (SEO) approach can raise your SEO ranking online and help to continuously direct traffic to your website.
A Manufacturer’s Domain Authority
Your website’s domain authority is a critical metric to benchmark when you audit your manufacturing website. The domain authority will determine how your site is currently ranking in search engine results pages (SERPs). A domain authority is a calculated result that measures and analyzes your website. A domain authority score is given to your website and will be based on a score of 1 to 100. This analyzed and measured score will be decided by the performance and ranking ability of your manufacturing website.
There are various components that go into your website’s domain ranking, such as:
- Domain name
- Number of high quality referring links
- Number of reliable and trustworthy backlinks
- The quality and authoritativeness of links
Compare your website’s domain authority to the domain authority of your competitors. Thereby, allowing you to better understand what your site’s rebuild process must involve.
New Leads from Form Submissions
You can discover the number of visitors that are filling out a form on your manufacturing website. This measurement will show you the submissions for each, particular form on your site. When you benchmark this metric, you will uncover the specific forms that are attracting users and enticing them to provide their contact information. It will, also, help you to determine the forms that are not getting visitors to engage.
Successful forms will receive the following contact information:
- First name
- Last name
- Email address
- Company
- Phone number
When Analyzing Your Forms, Ask Yourself:
- Was this particular form capturing quality leads?
- Was this specific form placed on the wrong web page?
- Was this detailed form asking for too much information?
A form should consist of just the fields necessary, only collecting the details you really need. Your visitors will give up their contact information if they are receiving educational, useful and resourceful content in return. These visitors will, then, become your highly qualified leads. That being said, you can start to nurture your quality leads and continue to build trust with them. As a result, helping to gain trusted manufacturing customers.
Total Number of Sales Generated
Benchmark the number of sales that your site is generating when you conduct an audit on your manufacturing website. If an individual web page is attracting the right audience, then that product or service page will generate sales on a regular basis. If a particular web page is not attracting accurate potential buyers, that product or service page will not generate sales regularly.
Benchmarking this metric is vital to your website rebuild process, guiding your efforts in the right direction. This metric, also, allows you to determine if your website is targeting the right audience with accurate and efficient keywords. It’s vital that you complete keyword research to ensure that your website targets the correct audience.
A Successful Website Rebuild for Manufacturers
Overall, there are a variety of website metrics to benchmark, in order to rebuild a successful manufacturing website.
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