How a manufacturing website build runs
What does a manufacturing website project ask of your team?
A manufacturing website project asks for roughly two to four hours a week from your side, concentrated in the first half, and almost all of it from people who quote and people who run the machines. Marketing input matters least. Capability confirmation is the part nobody outside the shop can do.
Who you need at each stage, and for how long
The named roles below are the ones that cannot be delegated. Everything else can be handled by whoever owns the project internally.
| Stage | Who from your side | Time | What it produces |
|---|---|---|---|
| Discovery | Whoever quotes, plus one engineer | 3 to 4 hours | The list of questions the site has to answer before an RFQ arrives |
| Capability inventory | Shop floor lead or production manager | 4 to 6 hours | Confirmed equipment, envelopes, tolerances and materials |
| Architecture review | Project owner | 1 hour | Sign-off on the page set and what each page is for |
| Content confirmation | Whoever owns the numbers | 2 hours per week | Every published figure checked by someone who can be held to it |
| RFQ field review | Whoever quotes | 1 hour | An intake form matched to how the shop actually prices work |
| Integration access | IT or the ERP administrator | 2 to 3 hours | Credentials, a test environment and a data contract |
| Pre-launch review | Project owner, plus quoting | 2 hours | Redirect map approved and the intake tested end to end |
Photography, where it is in scope, needs a half day of plant access and someone who can walk a photographer past the machines that are running.
Where the decisions actually get made
Four decisions set the shape of the site, and all four happen in the first three weeks. Everything after that is execution, and changing one of these later is what turns a build into a rebuild.
What work you want more of
This is a commercial decision disguised as a content one. A site built around everything the shop can do attracts the average of it. A site built around the work you want attracts that instead, and turns some of the rest away on purpose.
What capability data goes public
Tolerances, equipment and materials. The instinct is to hold detail back; the effect is that engineers cannot qualify you without a call, and most will not make it. Where there is a genuine confidentiality constraint, it gets named at this point rather than discovered at review.
What the RFQ asks
Every required field is a trade between qualification and abandonment. The quoting team decides which questions are worth losing a submission over, because they are the ones who deal with the consequences either way.
What the site connects to
Read-only from an ERP is straightforward. Writing back is a different project, and deciding which system is authoritative when they disagree is a decision your team has to make, not one an agency can make for you.
What stalls a manufacturing website build
Almost every overrun we have seen traces to one of these. None of them are technical, and all of them are visible in week one if anyone looks.
| Cause | How it shows up | Avoided by |
|---|---|---|
| Capability numbers need chasing | Content sits at 90 percent for a month | Booking the shop floor time in the schedule rather than assuming it |
| No single approver | Three rounds of contradictory feedback on one page | Naming one person who can say yes at the start |
| ERP access takes six weeks | Integration starts after the build is otherwise done | Requesting credentials in week one, before they are needed |
| Photography keeps slipping | Launch waits on images of a cell that is always running | Shooting early, or launching with what exists and replacing later |
| Scope grows a page at a time | Nothing feels like a change, and the date moves twice | Pricing each addition through the agreed change process |
| Legal review arrives late | Export controlled or customer confidential content is caught at review | Flagging constrained content during discovery |
If you have no marketing team
Most of the manufacturers we work with do not have one, and it is not an obstacle. The people who matter for this work are the ones who quote and the ones who run the machines, and both already exist.
What you do need is one person who can make decisions without convening a committee. The title does not matter. The authority does.
What happens after launch
The first useful measurement is not traffic, it is whether the RFQs arriving are quotable without a follow-up call. That is visible within a few weeks and it is the fastest thing to correct.
Ranking movement on a new page set takes longer than most agencies imply. Pages that were already ranking usually recover their positions within weeks if the redirect map was right; genuinely new pages take months, and a new domain takes longer still.
What we build during it
Frequently asked questions
How much of our time will this take?
Two to four hours a week, weighted to the first half of the project, and mostly from whoever quotes and whoever runs the machines. The capability confirmation is the part that cannot be delegated to us or to a marketing hire.
Who needs to be involved from our side?
One decision maker with real authority, whoever quotes, and someone on the floor who can confirm equipment and tolerances. IT is needed only if the site connects to an ERP or CRM. A marketing function is useful but not required.
What is the most common reason a build runs late?
Capability numbers taking longer to confirm than anyone planned for. The content reaches 90 percent and waits on figures only the shop can supply. Booking that time into the schedule rather than assuming it is the fix.
Can we start before we know what we want the site to say?
Yes, and most do. Discovery exists to answer that. What you cannot start without is a decision about which work you want more of, because that shapes the page set and changing it later means rebuilding the architecture.
Request a quote
Placeholder: scope and next-step copy. Section 8.1 puts RFQ submission at tier 1.