Planning for an industrial website redesign is highly relevant at this time of year since many manufacturers are actively budgeting for 2025. Some of these industrial companies realize the importance of a customer-centric digital presence.
In this blog, I’ll share my thoughts and recommendations based on hands-on experience of working on many website design projects over the years.
Some of the key problems I have noticed are:
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Why do so many redesigns fail? Many industrial website redesigns fall short because they’re driven by a desire for a visual refresh rather than a strategic vision. In reality, a successful redesign goes beyond aesthetics. It must become a functional and productive online asset for your business—aligning with your overarching marketing and sales objectives.
Before diving into design concepts, it’s crucial to ask: “What do we want our website to accomplish?” For industrial companies, this could mean increasing lead generation, improving user engagement, or offering a seamless experience for existing clients seeking technical information. Additionally, alignment with your sales funnel is essential. Every page and feature should guide visitors through a journey that addresses their needs while supporting your sales team.
With clearly defined goals, you avoid costly revisions, scope creep, and ineffective features that don’t move the needle. The redesign also sets a solid foundation for metrics, making it easier to measure ROI once it’s complete.
Tip: Start with a strategic meeting to outline specific goals with stakeholders from both sales and marketing.
Is it worth the time and expense of an industrial website redesign? The short answer—YES!
And that’s not just my opinion. According to the 2024 State of Marketing to Engineers report, most technical buyers still rely on supplier/vendor websites as their primary source of information when researching products and services.
The data shows that 41% of technical professionals routinely turn to supplier websites, surpassing all other sources of information (see chart below).
Understanding the full scope of costs involved in a website redesign is critical, especially for industrial companies where technical complexity and specialized requirements are the norm. A budget that accounts for every aspect—from design and development to SEO and content—helps avoid unexpected expenses and ensures the final product meets both marketing and sales objectives. Here’s a breakdown of the primary cost components:
On average, a complete website redesign can cost between $15,000 and $80,000 or more, depending on size, functionality, and the level of customization. Manufacturing companies with custom needs should expect to budget higher to accommodate specialized content, design, and functionality.
By partnering with a specialized industrial website design agency, you can avoid the pitfalls of unexpected expenses and ensure efficient budget use. Agencies experienced in industrial marketing understand how to prioritize critical features without inflating costs, giving you a website that performs and scales with your business needs.
Tip: Map out all essential features upfront with your agency partner to prevent scope creep and maximize the value of every dollar spent.
Traditionally, industrial websites have been product-focused, designed more as digital catalogs than as user-centered platforms. However, today’s buyers expect more—they want to feel understood, supported and guided through a website that speaks directly to their needs. Shifting to a customer-centric design means rethinking your website’s purpose: it’s not just about listing products; it’s about offering value through a user-friendly experience that supports your buyer’s journey.
Creating a customer-centric website begins with a deep understanding of your target audience and their typical buying journey. Most manufacturing marketers find it challenging to understand and create content to fit the needs of different stakeholders at different stages of their buying journey because of the long and complex sales cycles.
Different stakeholders—such as engineers, procurement managers, and decision-makers—each have unique informational needs depending on their role and stage in the process. For a closer look at addressing these needs, read my blog How Technical Content Writing Drives Success in Manufacturing Content Marketing.
A customer-centric website requires a content strategy that goes beyond standard product descriptions. This means including resources like whitepapers, case studies, application notes, FAQs, online resource libraries, how-to videos and blog posts addressing your buyers’ questions and challenges.
Retrofitting content to a website redesign usually fails, often resulting in a disjointed experience that doesn’t fully support the buyer’s journey. For a deeper dive into this issue, check out my blog, Why Retrofitting Industrial Website Redesigns Usually Don’t Work. Website content can’t be an afterthought; it needs to be strategically developed to enhance the site’s structure, guide users intuitively, and reinforce your company’s credibility at every step.
Tip: Collaborate with an experienced industrial marketing agency to ensure your content strategy aligns with your customer’s needs and your sales objectives.
In many industrial companies, website redesigns are handed off to internal IT teams. While IT professionals bring a wealth of technical knowledge, they often prioritize the backend development and technical specifications over the essential marketing aspects of a website.
Coding is not marketing, and this difference in focus can lead to missed opportunities in user engagement, SEO, and content strategy. A successful industrial website isn’t just a functional asset—it’s a powerful marketing tool designed to attract, inform, and convert prospects.
From my own experience, I’ve seen several instances where IT teams opted for custom development instead of using established content management systems (CMS) like WordPress.
In two particular cases, IT teams developed custom platforms, thinking it would offer more control. However, when the original developers left, the clients found themselves “stuck” with a system they couldn’t easily update or edit.
Unlike widely used WordPress, supported by a large community and accessible to non-developers, custom-built sites can be challenging—and costly—to manage in the long term. Finding a custom developer familiar with the system became an ongoing struggle, impacting the client’s ability to update content and adapt to evolving market needs.
Using a platform like WordPress for your industrial website offers flexibility, ease of use, and a wealth of plugins tailored to industrial B2B marketing needs. WordPress, for instance, enables your marketing team to make updates independently, without relying on developers, so your website remains agile and responsive to business goals.
Plus, the vast ecosystem of developers and support resources ensures you’re never left without options if changes are needed.
Tip: At Tiecas, we use WordPress to develop front-end industrial websites and integrate them with Marketing Automation (MA) platforms and CRMs on the back end for seamless lead nurturing and tracking. We’ve also handled complex ERP integrations, ensuring a smooth connection between your website and essential backend systems.
An industrial website redesign is a complex project with many moving parts, from strategy and design to content creation and testing. Setting a realistic timeline ensures that each phase is completed thoroughly without rushing through critical details. A rushed redesign often leads to errors, missed opportunities, and setbacks that proper planning could have avoided.
Common delays often stem from insufficient planning, underestimated content needs, or prolonged feedback cycles. Working with an experienced industrial website design agency can help keep your project on track by providing structured project management and ensuring that all critical milestones are met.
Tip: Build buffer time into each phase to account for any unforeseen issues so your launch date stays realistic and achievable.
Launching your industrial website is a significant milestone, but the work doesn’t end there. It’s essential to track key performance indicators (KPIs) that reflect both user engagement and business outcomes. This step is a data-driven approach to proving your redesign delivers real value.
Metrics such as conversion rates, bounce rates, average time on page, and lead generation activity clearly show how effectively your website is meeting your marketing and sales goals.
One of the most critical KPIs to track is the conversion rate—whether that’s form submissions, contact requests, downloads of gated resources or a mix of all. Tracking conversion rates allows you to see how well your website engages visitors and moves them through the sales funnel.
Additionally, focusing on lead quality (not just quantity) is essential for industrial companies with complex sales cycles. High-quality leads are more likely to convert into sales, making this an essential measure of your website’s effectiveness.
Post-launch, it’s vital to use data to make continuous improvements. Analyze user behavior patterns to identify potential pain points or areas where users drop off.
For example, a product page with high traffic but a low conversion rate might signal that the content or call-to-action needs refinement. This iterative optimization approach ensures your website evolves based on real user insights, keeping it aligned with business goals.
Properly configuring analytics tools—such as Google Analytics, heatmaps, and your Marketing Automation (MA) platform—is essential to capture meaningful data. Integrating your website with a CRM or MA platform enables more accurate lead tracking and provides valuable insights into lead behavior, helping you nurture them through targeted follow-up actions.
Tip: Regularly review and adjust KPIs to reflect changing business objectives and market conditions. A well-performing industrial website should evolve with your business needs.
Choosing the right agency partner for your industrial website redesign is crucial. An experienced partner understands the unique demands of the industrial sector and can design a site that aligns with the technical needs of your audience and supports your business goals.
Generalist web design agencies may overlook key B2B industrial requirements, such as complex product specifications, content hierarchies, and lead capture mechanisms that cater specifically to engineers, procurement managers, and other stakeholders in your sales cycle.
When evaluating potential agency partners, consider these factors:
At Tiecas, we specialize in industrial marketing and website design. Drawing from decades of experience, we create highly functional sites strategically aligned with the needs of B2B industrial buyers. Our approach combines marketing and technical expertise, from SEO-driven content to seamless integrations with CRM and Marketing Automation platforms, delivering a solution that not only looks professional but drives measurable results.
Ready to schedule a discovery call? Let’s talk to assess if this is a good fit for a long-term partnership.
Let’s chat to determine if this will be a good fit for both of us. It will be a friendly conversation to get to know each other better, not a high-pressure sales pitch.