Guide Search visibility
SEO for manufacturers and industrial suppliers
By Studio Swing
Trade buyers search the way they specify: by part number, by a product type with a size and material, by a standard they must meet, or by a problem the product solves. A manufacturer's site is found when each of those searches has a page that answers it, with the answer written as readable text, on an address a search engine can crawl, and without a hundred near-identical pages competing with each other. No one can guarantee a first place in search, and we do not. What you can do is remove the reasons a good page would not be found.
On this page
- 01An engineer, a part number and a competitor's code
- 02How do trade buyers search?
- 03Find out how your own buyers search
- 04Make each product page findable
- 05PDFs: allowed, but not enough
- 06Filters, variants and thousands of addresses
- 07Do not generate pages just to match searches
- 08Structured data: optional, and it has to match the page
- 09Several languages or regions
- 10Write for the buyer's question, not the keyword
- 11How to tell whether it is working
- 12What this will not do
- 13A checklist you can use without us
- 14Where to go next
- 15Sources
An engineer, a part number and a competitor's code
Say you make stainless steel valves. An engineer is replacing a failed valve and has only the old part's number, which belongs to another manufacturer. She types that number into a search engine. A week later a purchasing manager at another company types "316 stainless ball valve 1/2 inch threaded". A third buyer types "valve for chemical dosing, corrosive". These examples are invented.
All three are looking for your valve, and they use three different kinds of search. Your site might have one page that answers all three badly: a "Valves" page with a brand-style description and a PDF. Or it might have the right pages and hide the answers in images and files a search engine cannot read well. Neither is a ranking problem you can fix with more keywords. Both are page problems.
How do trade buyers search?
A useful way to group industrial searches is five kinds. This is a working classification, drawn from how buyers specify products, not a published statistic.
| Kind of search | Example | What the right page is |
|---|---|---|
| Part number or model code | A manufacturer's code, or a competitor's code you can cross-reference | A product page that carries the code as text, plus a cross-reference |
| Specification string | "stainless ball valve 1/2 inch threaded" | A product family or category page whose table lists exactly those attributes |
| Standard or certification | A standard's code and a product type | A page that names the standard and the products that meet it |
| Application or problem | "valve for corrosive chemical dosing" | An application page or guide that explains the choice and links to products |
| Supplier search | "manufacturer of stainless valves" and a region | A page that says what you make, where, and how to buy |
Each kind needs a different page, and one page should own one kind of search. If two pages target the same search, they compete with each other.
Find out how your own buyers search
Do not guess. You already hold the evidence.
Search Console, Performance report. Its Queries view shows the searches that displayed your site, and you can filter by page and country. Google cautions that a query in your list may not show your site to everyone who types it. Our guide to Google Analytics and Search Console explains how to read it.
Your own site search. Google Analytics records searches made inside your site as the view_search_results event, with the search_term it detected. Those are the words buyers typed after arriving, which tells you what your navigation failed to give them.
Your sales inbox and quote requests. The exact part numbers and phrases buyers paste into emails are keyword research from your own market.
Your distributors and sales staff. Ask what buyers call each product, including old names.
List what you find as a table: the search, the kind, and the page that should answer it. Where a search has no page, that is a gap. Where several pages could answer it, that is a conflict to settle.
Make each product page findable
Google's own guidance on being found applies, and in this field it comes down to a few habits.
A unique, descriptive title on every page. Google recommends that every page has a title that describes its content, that you do not repeat boilerplate across pages, and that you do not stuff keywords. For a product, that means the product type, the key specification and the code, not the same company slogan on 600 pages.
Key data written as text. A dimension that lives only in a drawing, or a rating that lives only in a PDF, is a fact search engines and buyers on phones read poorly. Write the key figures on the page.
Readable web addresses. Google recommends readable words over long ID strings, hyphens between words, and trimming parameters that do not change the content.
Image descriptions for drawings and photos. Alt text is described by Google as the most important attribute for image metadata. Describe what the image shows in plain words, for example the product, its size and the view.
Links built as real links. Google can follow a link only when it is an anchor element with an href attribute. Menus and filters built so that clicks run script instead may not be followed, which can leave whole parts of a catalog undiscovered.
PDFs: allowed, but not enough
Google can index PDF files, so a datasheet is not invisible. But a PDF is a poor place to leave the only copy of a specification. Put the key figures in the page, link the PDF as the formal record, and keep the file name and the page title consistent so each datasheet is found with its product. Remove superseded datasheets from the site, so an old version is not the one that shows up.
Filters, variants and thousands of addresses
A catalog with filters can generate an enormous number of addresses. Google's guidance on faceted navigation explains that crawlers cannot tell whether such addresses are useful, so they may spend their time on the wrong ones. The same guide says there is "no good reason to allow crawling of filtered items" when you do not need them indexed, and offers ways to block them.
That points to a decision rather than a rule: which filtered views are pages a buyer would search for? "Stainless steel ball valves" is a category worth having as a real page, with its own title and introduction. "Stainless steel ball valves, 1/2 inch, threaded, sorted by price, page 3" is not.
Category pages for the filtered views buyers search for. Give them their own address and a short introduction.
Filter combinations beyond that should not generate pages for search engines, and your developer or studio can set that up.
Variants of one product often create several addresses for the same page. Google's guidance is to mark duplicates with a canonical link pointing at the main version.
For how to design the catalog itself, see putting a B2B product catalog online.
Do not generate pages just to match searches
A spreadsheet can produce thousands of pages in minutes. Google's spam policies warn against this when it is done to catch searches without adding value. They name "scaled content abuse", defined as many pages generated "for the primary purpose of manipulating search rankings and not helping users", and "doorway abuse", which includes many "substantially similar pages". A page for every part number is fine when each page holds real data: the specification table, drawing, compatibility and a way to ask. A page that repeats the code and a title adds nothing and puts the whole site at risk.
If you are a distributor, the same principle applies to manufacturer descriptions. Google's policies call out pages built on "product descriptions and reviews copied directly from the original merchant without any original content or added value". Add what only you can: what you stock, what it replaces, what it fits, and who to call.
Structured data: optional, and it has to match the page
Structured data labels the content of a page for search engines, and Google recommends JSON-LD. Its rule is firm: do not add structured data about information that is not visible to the user. For products, Google's product snippet markup needs a name plus a review, a rating or an offer. Product rich results support pages about a single product or its variants. A quote-only catalog without prices or reviews may not qualify for these results. Markup is worth doing where it is true and visible, and it does not guarantee any appearance.
Several languages or regions
If you serve buyers in more than one language, give each language its own address, and mark the relationship between them with hreflang annotations. Google requires every version to list itself and all the others. This is part of the site's structure, so decide it at the start.
Write for the buyer's question, not the keyword
Application guides and comparison pages can win searches that product pages cannot, such as how to choose a material for a corrosive fluid. Google's guidance on helpful content asks whether a page shows first-hand expertise and demonstrates why it was created: to help people, not to attract visits. A guide written by your engineers, with their actual selection logic, answers that. A generic article written to fill a content plan does not.
How to tell whether it is working
In Search Console, watch clicks and impressions for the searches on your list, per page and over months, not for the whole site.
In Analytics, check whether visits from organic search reach product pages, and whether they lead to quote requests. Setting that up is covered in how to track leads from your website.
Check that important pages are indexed, using the Page indexing report in Search Console.
What this will not do
Search work will not make an unclear catalog clear, and it will not guarantee a ranking or a number of enquiries. It takes time to show, and we do not state how much, because it depends on competition and on what the site starts with. Industrial searches may be answered by distributors, marketplaces and agency pages, and a specific, accurate page for a specific product is how a manufacturer competes with them. Search is also not the only route: buyers may also arrive from distributors, trade shows and referrals.
A checklist you can use without us
Checklist
- A list of the searches your buyers use, from Search Console, site search and sales emails.
- Each search assigned to one page, with no two pages targeting the same one.
- A unique, descriptive title on every product and category page, including the code and key specification.
- Key specifications written as text on the page, not only in images or PDFs.
- Readable web addresses and real links that a crawler can follow.
- A decision on which filtered views become pages, and the rest kept out of search.
- Duplicate variants marked with a canonical link.
- No pages generated only to catch a search.
- Old datasheets removed or replaced.
- Search Console set up, with queries read per page.
Where to go next
If you want a catalog and quote site planned around these searches, our B2B and manufacturer websites page explains how we work, and the SEO and content strategy service covers the search work. For the whole site, read what a manufacturer or distributor website needs. When you want to talk about your own site, you can discuss your project.
Sources
Google Search Central, SEO Starter Guide: https:/
Google Search Central, Influencing your title links in search results: https:/
Google Search Central, URL structure best practices: https:/
Google Search Central, Making links crawlable: https:/
Google Search Central, Google image SEO best practices: https:/
Google Search Central, File types Google can index: https:/
Google Search Central, Managing crawling of faceted navigation URLs: https:/
Google Search Central, Consolidate duplicate URLs: https:/
Google Search Central, Spam policies for Google web search: https:/
Google Search Central, Introduction to structured data: https:/
Google Search Central, Product snippet structured data: https:/
Google Search Central, Localized versions and hreflang: https:/
Google Search Central, Creating helpful, reliable, people-first content: https:/
Search Console Help, Performance report (search results): https:/
Analytics Help, Automatically collected and enhanced measurement events (site search): https:/