The Best Manufacturing Website Design Examples of 2022-2023: Manufacturing Website Designs That Hit The Mark
Manufacturing companies are increasingly utilizing digital technology to improve their business from the boardroom to the factory floor, however, they remain behind-the-curve in bringing digital transformation to their marketing and website practices.
With trade shows and in-person sales calls falling from the spotlight, a manufacturer’s website has quickly become the most visible and impactful marketing asset for today’s manufacturing companies. And it’s not enough to just have a website that acts as a placeholder or digital brochure; B2B manufacturing and industrial companies require an online presence that clearly communicates who they are and how they’re different, represents the value and quality of their offerings, and inspires trust that they’ll be around to help their customers into the future. Engineers and technical audiences want quick and intuitive access to technical details before talking to a sales rep, while purchasing or C-level website visitors have a separate but overlapping mental checklist that they use as they evaluate a new supplier online.
It’s widely understood that nearly three fourths (70%) of a buyer’s journey happens online, before a prospect initially reaches out to your sales department. The website’s role is more important than ever, in attracting, engaging, and inspiring prospects to take the next step. The design of the manufacturing website, as well as the user experience, content and functionality, all come together to fill this important role.
Manufacturing websites designed with a proper flow, organization, and wording can earn the sort of increased lead quality and quantity that most manufacturing companies are hoping for as they consider leveling up their website. To provide examples, we’ve gathered a few of our current and all-time favorite manufacturing web design examples below.
This Year’s Examples of Manufacturing Website Designs
Manufacturing Website Design Example 1: Path Robotics
Path Robotics, a manufacturer of autonomous welding robots, uses a state-of-the-art, lead-generating website to introduce its intelligent, industrial robots to new prospects, who are also in the manufacturing industry. This manufacturing website excels by telling a clear and compelling story of what the company offers, paired with stunning visuals, and including a wealth of easy-to-get-through information. The website leads with overview-level storytelling that also links users into deeper content that provides all of the facts & figures that technical audiences need to know before they’re inspired to take action. The mega dropdown navigation under “Robotic Welding Systems” serves as an ever-present overview of what the company offers, while providing quick links to deeper content. The website homepage demystifies the process for newcomers to the company and to the technology with an explanatory video and blocks for three easy-to-understand steps: “it sees,” “it understands,” “it welds.”
Manufacturing Website Design Example 2: Kongskilde Industries
Kongskilde Industries, a global manufacturer and specialist in pneumatic material conveyance, uses a modern and robust website to provide a tailored experience to website visitors. The website includes localization and translation functionality, as well as separate experiences for their primary verticals, industrial and grain. The website leads with a clear positioning statement, “Discover the Power of Air: Kongskilde systems are a flexible, powerful solution for both industrial and grain applications,” and the homepage experience follows a clear narrative to provide deeper understanding of the company’s offerings to visitors, including client logos, testimonials, and clear paths into their products and applications. Other features include a robust filtering mechanism to help technical audiences easily find relevant information.
Manufacturing Website Design Example 3: ETI
ETI, an electronic contract manufacturer, combines the branding and capabilities of ETI and an acquired brand, American Cable and Harness, within one easy-to-understand custom manufacturing website. Where many manufacturers struggle with confusing homepage experiences and unclear positioning statements, ETI’s website leads with a clear statement of who they are and what they do, followed by clear paths into their three main service lines (Printed Circuit Board Assembly, Box Build Solutions, and Wire Harness Assembly). The storytelling continues on the homepage with an overview video, logos of existing clients for credentialing, and testimonials from happy customers to provide social trust. Like most contract manufacturers, the work that they do is varied and custom, so industry vertical pages help to provide further context to the breadth of their services, and provide trust to prospective customers in similar industries.
Manufacturing Website Design Example 4: Plitek
Plitek is a manufacturer and custom converter of precision die-cut components and converted materials. Their website, like other well-designed manufacturing websites, takes a complex set of offerings and creates an experience that provides a clear overview to newcomers and C-suite decision-makers, while offering paths into deeper, more technical information for the engineers and technical audiences who are often doing the bulk of the research into a new vendor, product or service. The website provides a clear path toward varied information that covers converting capabilities, services, materials, markets, and products, all with an intuitive user experience. The homepage features a slideshow in the “hero” area, which we typically steer against, but in this case it works for them as it leads with a strong positioning statement that describes who they are and what they do.
Manufacturing Website Design Example 5: Air-Cure
Air-Cure, a manufacturer of dust control, filtration, and disposal systems, has a manufacturing website with eye-catching imagery that adds visual interest and drama to the website, while clearly communicating how they help customers. The homepage hero image gives an impactful and easy-to-understand visual of the applications that Air-Cure’s products and solutions are part of. Rather than relying on generic-looking stock imagery, colorful and unique iconography is used to depict the industries that the company works most heavily in. While this may not be the largest manufacturing website on the web, it succeeds with clear content strategy and succinct navigation that walks the website visitor through the company’s offerings, including applications and services, as well as replacement parts, service & maintenance, and company history.
Manufacturing Website Design Example 6: Halco USA
Halco is a manufacturer, supplier, and converter of specialty reclosable hook and loop fasteners for automotive, aerospace, medical, hygiene, print and display, and general industrial use. Halco’s website also succeeds in providing a succinct overview of who they are and what they offer, while also getting information into the hands of engineers and purchasing agents quickly and efficiently. Halco’s product pages accommodate a robust system of categories and subcategories for filtering down to the product code. The industry pages describe Halco’s experience and expertise with hook and loop applications within that particular industry and offer the opportunity to request a sample kit. The website structure is set up to easily accommodate additional SEO-driven industry and product pages as the company’s marketing strategy grows into emerging markets.
Oldies but Goodies: Prior Years’ Examples of Manufacturing Website Designs
A good manufacturing website design should have a shelf life of more than a couple of years. While technology is always changing, the ultimate goal is to build a website that utilizes current technology well, and while also allowing for the site to grow and evolve as the company grows and evolves. This means building a website that easily accommodates new products, services, vertical specializations, resource content and marketing strategies—as well as new features and functionality. By building a website soundly, with a strategy that takes into account current and future needs, as well as a practice of continuous improvement, a manufacturing website doesn’t need to become completely stale and out-of-sync with your sales and overall company needs.
Here are a few additional examples of manufacturing websites from last year, or in some cases several years ago, that have continued to do their job as a marketing tool, and in many cases have grown and adapted along with the company and its needs.
FasTest: Manufacturer of Advanced Engineering Sealing Connectors
FasTest is a dedicated manufacturer of advanced engineered sealing connectors for product testing, fluid transfer, and other processing applications. They offer both custom and off-the-shelf solutions to industries including automotive, appliance, aerospace, HVAC-R, compressed gas and medical/life sciences.
FasTest presents a modern, intuitive e-commerce website designed specifically for engineers, their primary audience. This manufacturing website features clear positioning and messaging on the homepage and throughout the website, robust but intuitive filters to help engineers quickly identify the products that suit their applications, and integrated e-commerce functionality powered by Shopfiy. The site also directly integrates with FasTest’s CRM, MAT and ERP systems, creating efficiency for the internal team.
Minnesota Rubber & Plastics: Rubber & Plastics Manufacturing
Minnesota Rubber and Plastics (MRP) is a world leader in the plastics manufacturing sector, offering material compound development, engineering design, and manufacturing of custom-molded elastomeric and thermoplastic components and assemblies. Their modern, responsive manufacturing website design attracts and engages their diverse target audiences with clear messaging & positioning, SEO informed content, and an intuitive user experience that showcases MRP’s products and services.
Primary Flow Signal: Custom Flow Measurement Solutions Manufacturer
Primary Flow Signal (PFS) is a leader in flow measurement solutions offering world-class differential pressure flow elements that ensure the highest quality, accuracy, and reliability for liquid, gas, and steam applications.
This manufacturing website’s user experience is elevated with organized product and service pages that allow users to easily differentiate and dial into the right product line, strategically placed call-to-action (CTA) design elements, and highly relevant content such as white papers and case studies for their technical audiences. Industry pages and case studies provide trust to C-level audiences and less technical influencers in the buying cycle.
Misco Speakers: Custom Speaker Manufacturing
Misco Speakers designs and manufactures hundreds of different speakers for a multitude of audio applications. They are recognized as the only audio manufacturer in the country that provides product design, prototyping, and testing under the same roof—a complete end-to-end experience.
MISCO’s website handles two major lines of their business – custom solutions for their OEM market, and off-the-shelf products for small batches and prototyping. The site features robust filtering and offers comprehensive product specifications for its technical audiences, including a customizable “feature compare” function, which includes a sound wave visualization capability powered by Highcharts.
Supermax Tools: Drum and Brush Sander Manufacturing
SuperMax Tools manufactures drum and brush sanders for the woodworking and metalworking industries. This manufacturing website is a visually-driven, user-friendly website designed with their two target audiences — hobbyists and commercial users in mind. The website features easy-to-find product content, video tutorials, and dealer locations for SuperMax’s sanders and supplies.
A multi-tabbed product page delivers a large amount of content, including specs and videos that help hobbyist buyers learn about the product before buying, while keeping the interface quick-and-easy to use for commercial buyers. An interactive map and dealer listing make it easy to find both physical and online dealers.
How to Design a Great Manufacturing Website
There are several patterns that lead to the success of these manufacturing website design examples. A high-performing manufacturing website will provide a quality of experience that reflects the quality of the company’s offerings, while also quickly and efficiently giving an overview of what company offers and offering clear paths into deeper information on products and services. When engineers or other technical audiences are part of the decision-making process, it’s critical to provide an intuitive user experience that allows them to easily find technical information about your offerings. If they can’t find the answers to their immediate questions online, or find enough information to give them confidence that you’ve solved problems similar to theirs in the past, they’re more likely to browse to a competitor website than to reach out to your sales team. Here are a few additional key points for a successful manufacturing website design:
- Lead with a clear positioning statement on the primary “hero” portion of the website homepage, to clearly inform your site visitors what your company is about and what you have to offer them.
- Design the homepage and navigational structure to provide clear paths to product or service categories, and provide content tailored to different users, personas, industries, and/or applications.
- Provide intuitive filtering where it will help the user find the right product, service, or case study.
- Include an SEO-optimized resource section or blog that’s regularly updated with industry-specific news and other content that’s relevant to your prospects, while overlapping with your SEO strategy and positioning. But it’s critical that you and offer quality content , instead of just writing to improve SEO metrics.
Seeing examples of well-designed manufacturing websites can be inspiring, given the sea of underperforming B2B industrial and manufacturing websites that are out there. Helping manufacturing, industrial and technical B2B companies achieve greater success from their websites and digital marketing is what we specialize in at Windmill Strategy, so if you’re curious about how you could level up your manufacturing website’s design and performance as a marketing tool, get in touch with our team today. We’d love to hear from you.