Free Buyer's-Eye Audit
Menu
Free Buyer's-Eye Audit

Guide · Websites

Industrial and manufacturing website redesign checklist: before, during and after launch

A website redesign checklist for an industrial company has three parts. Before: list every URL and find the ones that earn links, rankings and RFQs. During: keep the words buyers search and rebuild every form. After: put redirects live on launch day and watch for 404s. Route the redesign like an engineering change.

Get your free Buyer's-Eye Audit Manufacturing website design and redesign

On this page

Why it matters

The ECO nobody routed

A shop launched a handsome new site. Its old heat-treat page, linked from an association directory and an OEM's supplier list, now returns a 404.

Sheet 306, The ECO Nobody Routed: REV A as said beside REV F released Two-panel drawing. Left, REV A as said: an engineering change order for a heat-treat shop's site relaunch changes the old URL, /services/vacuum-heat-treating.html, to /vacuum-heat-treating/. The where-used check was not run and there is no supersedure, so the form is stamped NOT ROUTED. A small trend line, with no figures, shows organic visits falling to a fraction in the three months after launch. The where-used tree fans out from the old URL to an association directory listing, an OEM supplier page, a trade article, a search engine's indexed URL, and the shop's own PDFs and cert files. Every branch is red, marked OBSOLETE: NO SUPERSEDURE, and ends in a 404. The new page exists but nothing points to it, and the new homepage has no H1 and has dropped the words buyers searched. Right, REV F released: the same change order shows where-used run, five references found, and a 301 in one hop before launch, stamped RELEASED. Every branch is re-pointed in gold through the old URL to the new vacuum heat-treating page in one hop, and the new page keeps its H1 and the buyers' words. Illustration; companies invented. REV A · AS SAID LAUNCH DAY REV F · RELEASED SAME LAUNCH DAY ENGINEERING CHANGE ORDER ECO 0412 · SITE RELAUNCH WASironbark-ht.test/services/vacuum-heat-treating.html ISironbark-ht.test/vacuum-heat-treating/ WHERE-USED SUPERSEDURE NOT RUN NONE · OLD SITE SWITCHED OFF NOT ROUTED WHERE-USED: OLD URL OBSOLETE: NO SUPERSEDURE LAUNCH ORGANIC VISITS 3 MONTHS: A FRACTION OLD URL · NOW 404 /services/vacuum-heat-treating.html NEW URL · NOTHING POINTS HERE /vacuum-heat-treating/ ASSOCIATION DIRECTORYLISTING LINK OEM SUPPLIER PAGEAPPROVED-SOURCE LINK TRADE ARTICLEIN-TEXT LINK SEARCH ENGINEINDEXED URL, RANKINGS OWN PDFS, CERT FILESBROCHURE LINKS 404404404404404 NEW HOMEPAGE H1: NONE BUYERS' WORDS: DROPPED ENGINEERING CHANGE ORDER ECO 0412 · SITE RELAUNCH WASironbark-ht.test/services/vacuum-heat-treating.html ISironbark-ht.test/vacuum-heat-treating/ WHERE-USED SUPERSEDURE RUN · 5 REFERENCES FOUND 301, ONE HOP, MAPPED BEFORE LAUNCH RELEASED WHERE-USED: OLD URL · 301 MAP SUPERSEDED: EVERY BRANCH, ONE HOP OLD URL · 301 TO NEW /services/vacuum-heat-treating.html NEW URL · LIVE /vacuum-heat-treating/ ASSOCIATION DIRECTORYLISTING LINK OEM SUPPLIER PAGEAPPROVED-SOURCE LINK TRADE ARTICLEIN-TEXT LINK SEARCH ENGINEINDEXED URL, RANKINGS OWN PDFS, CERT FILESBROCHURE LINKS 1 HOP1 HOP1 HOP1 HOP1 HOP NEW PAGE H1: VACUUM HEAT TREATING BUYERS' WORDS: KEPT LAUNCH DAY: EVERY LINK TO THE OLD PAGE NOW ENDS IN A 404. A 301 MAP RE-POINTS EVERY BRANCH TO THE NEW PAGE IN ONE HOP. GENERAL NOTES 1. ILLUSTRATION. THE HEAT-TREAT SHOP, THE BUYER AND THE REFERRING SITES ARE INVENTED. 2. NO REAL TRAFFIC FIGURES. A REDIRECT MAP KEEPS LINKS WORKING; IT PROMISES NO RANKINGS. 3. RUN WHERE-USED ON EVERY OLD URL BEFORE RELEASE. WATCH FOR 404s AFTER LAUNCH. TITLE THE ECO NOBODY ROUTED ILLUSTRATION · INVENTED COMPANIES (.TEST) SHEET306 REVF SCALE NTS · DRN IM INDUSTRIAL MARKETING

The ECO Nobody Routed

Watch the story 4 min

What happens

  1. 01An engineering change goes out: the old page address is swapped for a new one
  2. 02Every directory, supplier list and article that linked to the old page now leads nowhere
  3. 03The fix: a redirect map sends every old link to its new page in one step

Why a website redesign is an engineering change

On the floor, nobody releases a new revision without checking where the part is used. A website redesign is the same kind of change, and it needs the same check.

Your old URLs are the part numbers. Association member directories, OEM supplier lists, distributor line cards, trade articles, old quote emails and search engines all point at them. Change an address without routing the change, and every reference to it points at scrap. The buyer who clicks gets a 404, and the ranking that page earned has nowhere to go.

The fix is a list, a map and a check, done in order. Here it is, step by step.

Before: inventory and plan

Most of the work happens before anyone sees a design.

  1. OP 10

    Export every URL

    From the sitemap, analytics and Search Console, plus a crawl of the live site. Include PDFs, cert files, spec sheets and old landing pages. Anything with an address counts.

  2. OP 20

    Run a where-used check

    For each URL, note the links pointing at it, the searches it ranks for and the RFQs or calls it brought. A page with any of the three is load-bearing.

  3. OP 30

    List who links in

    Association directories, OEM and prime supplier pages, distributor line cards, trade articles. Keep the list; you'll ask some of them to update their links later.

  4. OP 40

    Write the capability list first

    Decide which pages buyers need before anyone opens a design tool: a page for each process, material, certification and industry you want more of.

  5. OP 50

    Draft the redirect map

    Every old URL to its closest new page, in one hop. No old URL goes to the homepage by default.

  6. OP 60

    Save a baseline

    This month's Search Console clicks and impressions, your top pages and your form fills and calls. You'll compare against it after launch.

During: build and protect

The new site can look completely different. What it says about your capabilities should get more specific, never less.

  1. OP 10

    Keep the words buyers search

    Don't trade 'Inconel machining' for 'Advanced Solutions'. If a page ranks for a phrase today, the new page keeps that phrase in its title and heading.

  2. OP 20

    One clear H1 per page

    Named for the capability a buyer searches. The homepage gets one too.

  3. OP 30

    Carry over titles that earn clicks

    Keep page titles and meta descriptions that already bring clicks, then improve the ones that don't.

  4. OP 40

    Rebuild forms and tracking

    Test every RFQ form, drawing upload and tracked phone number on staging. Send a real test file and check it reaches the right person.

  5. OP 50

    Keep staging out of search

    Password-protect or noindex the staging site, and write down how to remove that block at launch.

  6. OP 60

    Crawl staging

    Find broken links, missing titles and pages nothing links to, before launch.

Launch day: the cutover

Four checks the day the new site goes live.

  1. OP 10

    Redirects live at launch

    Not next week. Test a sample of old URLs, PDFs included, on every version of your domain: with and without www, on http and https.

  2. OP 20

    Remove the staging block

    Check robots.txt and the page code for a leftover noindex. One stray line can keep the whole site out of search.

  3. OP 30

    Submit the new sitemap

    In Google Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools.

  4. OP 40

    Send yourself an RFQ

    From a process page, on a phone. Check that it arrived and that someone owns it.

After: the first 90 days

A redesign isn't finished at launch. The first three months show what the map missed.

  1. OP 10

    Watch for 404s

    Weekly for the first three months, in Search Console and your analytics. Add a redirect for every missing page that has links or traffic.

  2. OP 20

    Compare against the baseline

    Clicks, impressions, top pages, form fills and calls, month by month. Some movement after a redesign is normal. A page that drops out entirely needs a look.

  3. OP 30

    Ask referring sites to update links

    Association directories, OEM supplier pages, distributor line cards, trade articles. A redirect works; a direct link is better.

  4. OP 40

    Keep the redirects

    For at least a year, and longer for pages with strong links. Removing them early breaks every old link at once.

How to build a redirect map

One row per old URL. Four columns are enough. Map each one to its closest match, in one hop: old to new, never old to older to new. Invented examples.

PageOld URLWhere it's usedNew home (one hop)
Heat treat/services/heat-treating.htmlAn association directory, an OEM supplier list, and it ranks for 'vacuum heat treating'/heat-treating/vacuum/
Quality cert/docs/as9100-certificate.pdfCustomer supplier portals and old quote packets/quality/ (with the current certificate)
Discontinued product/products/model-200/A distributor's line card/products/model-250/ (the replacement)
Old news post/news/2019-open-house/No links, no trafficClosest section, or retire it

Pages buyers couldn't find: what to add in a manufacturing website redesign

A redesign is the cheapest moment to add the pages your buyers screen for. The list changes with the work.

  • Machine shop

    A page for each process and material, with machine envelopes and tolerances in numbers.

  • Fabricator

    Bay length, crane capacity and press brake tonnage, so a buyer can check the fit.

  • Coatings or heat treat

    Spec numbers, maximum part size and load limits on every process page.

  • Equipment maker

    The problem the machine solves, then the spec sheet, then service and parts.

  • Distributor

    Lines carried, stock locations and how to open an account.

  • Lab or engineering firm

    Accreditation scope or disciplines, turnaround, and what to send with a sample or a scope of work.

  • Every industrial site

    A quality page with cert scopes and expiry dates, and a vendor setup page for purchasing.

Six redesign mistakes that cost manufacturers rankings and RFQs

  • Redirecting everything to the homepage

    Search engines can treat it as a missing page, and the buyer lands somewhere that doesn't answer the question.

  • Renaming capabilities as brand language

    'Advanced Solutions' matches nothing a buyer types. 'Wire EDM' does.

  • Moving PDFs without redirects

    Cert files and spec sheets get linked from supplier portals and quote packets. Move them and those links break.

  • Launching with staging still blocked

    A leftover noindex can keep the whole new site out of search.

  • Forms nobody tested

    The new RFQ form sends to an old inbox, or nowhere.

  • Fixing it later

    Every week without redirects, buyers and search engines keep hitting dead pages.

When to bring help

If your site has links from associations, OEM supplier pages or trade press, or more than a few dozen pages, the redirect map alone is a project. We treat it as part of the build, with your paid Buyers Blueprint deciding the new pages.

If your site is small, nothing links to it and it ranks for little, you can run this list yourself. Keep the order: inventory, map, build, test, launch, watch.

Questions about manufacturing website redesigns

Will a redesign hurt our rankings?

It can. Rankings tied to old URLs hold up best when each URL redirects in one hop to a page about the same thing, and the new page keeps the words buyers search. Nobody can promise rankings; you can protect what you have.

Do we have to keep the same URLs?

No, as long as every old URL redirects to its closest new page. If your URLs are already clean and descriptive, keeping them saves work.

How long should redirects stay in place?

At least a year, and longer for pages with strong links. They cost almost nothing to keep.

Is the design or the content the bigger problem?

If buyers can't find your numbers today, a new design won't fix that. Decide the pages and what each one says first, then design around them.

What's the one item not to skip?

The redirect map, live on launch day.

Check your site before you redesign it

The free Buyer's-Eye Audit reads your current site line by line against the RFQ you most want to win, so you know what the new one has to say. Or subscribe for the next guide.

Get your free Buyer's-Eye Audit Subscribe