What a manufacturer website needs to survive the first cut

A manufacturer website has a distinctly different reader. The person opening it is not the user of the product. It is a purchasing officer or an engineer who has been told to find three suppliers and put them side by side in one table. The job of the site is to let every cell in that table be filled without a phone call.

That matters because the supplier who cannot be filled in gets cut in the first round — not because the product is worse, but because the person with the table has limited time and two other suppliers who published everything.

The two things manufacturers usually get wrong

The first is believing a website is unnecessary because sales already comes through representatives and existing relationships. True for existing customers. Not true for new ones, because the first step in finding a new supplier now happens in a search box, before any representative knows the deal exists.

The second is worrying that publishing capacity and specifications tells competitors too much. In practice competitors already know. The people who do not know are the customers about to buy.

What the site needs

Everything here maps to a cell in somebody comparison table.

• Product pages with complete specifications — materials, dimensions, tolerances and the standards met. Not a category page with a photograph and a phone number.
• Production capacity, minimum order quantity and lead time — three numbers that decide whether you are even in scope, and three numbers most sites omit.
• Certifications, downloadable — so the buyer can attach them to an internal document without asking you for them.
• A quotation request form that takes specifications — quantity, material, tolerance, deadline. Not a generic contact box.
• Photographs of the actual plant and equipment — capability is claimed by everybody; a photograph of the machine is evidence.
• The industries you already serve — a buyer looking for a supplier in their sector reads this before anything else.
• Multiple names for the same product — the formal name, the name people on the floor use, and the standard code. A buyer searching the shopfloor term will not find a page that only carries the formal one.
• English, if you export — and not only the home page. The product and capability pages are the ones a foreign buyer decides from.

A page structure that works

• Home — what you make, for which industries, and at what scale
• Products — an index, then a page per product with full specifications
• Capability — machines, capacity, tolerances and quality process
• Certifications — with downloadable documents
• Industries served — one section or page per sector
• Request a quotation — a form that captures specifications
• About and contact — company details, location, and who to reach

What to have ready before the build starts

• A product list with specifications, in a spreadsheet rather than a brochure
• Capacity figures, minimum order quantities and typical lead times
• Certification documents as files
• Photographs of the plant, the machines and finished work
• The industries and, where you may name them, the kinds of customers you supply
• Company registration details and the address as it should appear
• Whether English is needed, and for which pages

Is English necessary?

If you export or deal with foreign buyers, yes, and translating only the home page does not help. Product and capability pages are where a foreign buyer decides. If you sell domestically only, Thai alone is enough and considerably easier to keep current.

If you want the product structure and a downloadable catalogue built, the manufacturer website page sets out what each package covers.