Engineering Copywriter Blog

Content marketing tips and insights to help grow your engineering audience

November 26, 2024

10 Costly Mistakes to Avoid on Your Engineering Website

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Estimated reading time: 14 minutes

There are many things that you, as an engineering marketing manager, need to think of when running your engineering website and company’s online presence.

Social media, brand authority, SEO strategies, website content – these are all elements that may constantly be on your mind. And, to make matters worse, the digital landscape is constantly changing, meaning you need to go back and revisit both your strategy and the work you’ve done time and time again to avoid falling behind.

Luckily, you’re not alone.

In this article, I’ll take you through some common website mistakes engineering companies make so you can quickly establish whether or not any of these apply to you – and fix them before they negatively affect your site.

1. Failure to post blog content regularly

Google appreciates a website that’s active, up to date, and relevant.

According to the latest stats, there are roughly 1 billion websites live on the internet, of which about 200 million are active. That’s a lot of sites – and a lot of content Google has to draw from in order to present users with high-quality SERPs (Search Engine Results Pages).

statistics showing total number of websites vs active websites
Image Source: Themeisle

You could think of the internet as a city, with all the websites representing homes or apartment buildings. The inactive websites are the houses and buildings that are derelict and unsafe to enter. Just as you wouldn’t want a city tour to take you into these constructions, so, too, you wouldn’t want Google to take you to websites that are old, outdated, and possibly filled with spam and malicious information.

In order to avoid accidentally being mistaken for a derelict house (i.e. an inactive website), you need to demonstrate to Google that your site is active and focused on keeping up to date.

While you can, of course, work on updating your core site more regularly, this can be quite time consuming. One of the easiest ways to keep your site active, though, is by publishing new engineering articles on a regular basis.

2. Failure to post relevant content

Even if you post content regularly, this won’t do you much good if the content you’re creating doesn’t match your target market.

To give a very absurdist example, you can’t run an engineering company blog and publish articles about popular celebrities or the latest restaurants. This is completely off-topic.

Your content marketing plan has to consider the niche you operate in and your ideal audience. You then need to create content that matches both your niche and suits your audience well.

This is worth remembering for all content, including social media. There’s no use jumping onto the latest social media trend if this completely misses your target audience, just as there’s no use creating website blog content that doesn’t match your ideal customer’s needs and wants.

The right content, however, will attract your ideal customer and make a lasting impact.

3. Failure to follow SEO principles

Any website that makes it to the top of the Google SERPs will undoubtedly have taken advantage of good SEO principles.

I won’t get into too much detail here as I have other articles devoted to the topic. You can take a look at some of the basics of SEO and on-page SEO essentials if you’re interested in learning more.

It is important to note, however, that a focus on SEO should be paramount.

If your engineering company disregards relevant SEO principles – like choosing the right keywords, setting up meta titles and meta descriptions correctly, or running with optimized images – you’ll likely set yourself up for Google failure, missing out not only on website traffic but also great lead generation opportunities and potential new clients.

CTA banner for content planner

4. Failure to include a good call to action

What purpose does your website as a whole or a specific page on your website serve? Are you selling a product or explaining a service? Or perhaps you’re sharing news and technical user guidelines?

Regardless of what type of content you choose to share, chances are you want your reader to take action after having visited your site.

This could be as simple as signing up to your newsletter for more content or as complex as starting the first steps down the sales funnel and turning a reader into a paying customer.

Either way, the action you want your reader to take should be clearly stated in terms of a direct call to action (CTA). This is key to good business and lets your potential clients know exactly what they need to do in order to continue their experience of your site.

It’s important to include a good number of relevant CTAs and place them as efficiently as possible, without going overboard (which can quickly begin to look spammy).

5. Failure to visibly include contact information

It may be fairly obvious that your engineering website needs to include contact information, but this information should also be very easy to find.

A website should always be extremely well-structured, but this is particularly important when it comes to contact information. No one likes running through a website maze trying to find a phone number, email address, or even a physical address.

contact page in an engineering website
Image Source: MotoPress

These contact details should be clearly displayed, both in your footer and in a designated contact page. You can even add a contact form if necessary.

6. Failure to visibly include social media profiles

Social media profiles deserve a place on your website, and are usually included in either the header or footer of every page.

This may seem irrelevant if you’re running an engineering company and don’t put too much emphasis on your social media, but humans often rely on social proof and brand authority before building trust – especially when it comes to business.

Having a strong social media profile, or at least an active, well-managed one, is one of the best ways to do this.

How often do you Google something, land on a random website, and then check out the company on social media to see if they’re an authoritative entity? I know I do most of the time!

By including links to your social media profiles directly on your website, you can make this process easier for potential clients and give them the social proof they’re seeking to trust your content.

7. Failure to include email sign-up forms

The number of active email users is expected to grow to 4.8 billion by 2027. There are already billions of emails exchanged around the globe on a daily basis, and email marketing remains a highly effective marketing strategy because it directly connects you with your target audience.

By sending out regular emails to your newsletter base, you can keep your products, services, and latest blog posts on their minds. Remember to not overdo it, though. Information fatigue is a very real thing, and no one would be happy receiving multiple marketing emails a day.

Newsletter sign-up for in an engineering website
Image Source: Zapier

Building up an email database and getting newsletter subscribers can take time, but one of the easiest ways to do this is by simply having an email sign-up form visible on your website.

8. Failure to neglect mobile responsiveness

Over 60% of internet users access websites and services from their mobile phones. This means that your focus should definitely be on creating an engineering website that functions well on mobile devices.

Mobile responsiveness simply means that a website, usually designed for desktop computers, also operates well on other devices, like mobile phones and tablets.

If you have a relatively new website, it should be responsive. But if you’re working with a very old theme or haven’t updated your template in quite a while, it could be that your site isn’t quite optimized.

It’s also worth remembering that just because your template is responsive doesn’t mean it’s been set up correctly. For example, if you have a series of text, images, and videos displayed in a grid on a desktop screen and you run on a responsive site, the positioning of these elements will change automatically to fit the new screen size when viewed on mobile. However, if the images aren’t correctly sized or individual elements contain a lot of padding, the layout may not be optimal on a smaller screen.

This means you always need to check the design and layout of your site on a variety of devices. Luckily, you can check different dimensions quickly and easily by right-clicking on your site and then clicking on “inspect”.

A well-designed, responsive website will look great no matter where you view it, regardless of whether it’s a large desktop screen, a medium-sized tablet, or a small mobile.

9. Failure to focus on security measures

In today’s digital age, good website security is non-negotiable. This is particularly true when handling sensitive client information, like bank details or personal records, but equally so if you’re just using your site to run an engineering blog or showcase company information.

You don’t want users to fall prey to cyber-attacks due to security issues on your site. Some internet browsers will also auto-block your site if it doesn’t meet the minimum security criteria.

Pay attention to cyber-security staples, like SSL certificates, and update any themes and plugins you may be using regularly to protect against cyber threats.

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10. Failure to learn from analytics and feedback

One great thing about setting up your SEO correctly is that you get feedback on your site via platforms like Google Analytics and Google Search Console.

Are people visiting your site? Where do they spend the most time? Where is most of your audience based? And what devices are they using when accessing your site?

These are all questions that can help you better understand both your audience and how well your site functions. Luckily, these are all insights you can gain by spending time in analytics software.

Spending a few hours each month looking at your analytics report can help you understand your website better and help you implement positive changes.

If you’re lucky, you may also have customers giving you direct feedback.

Do many people call your customer services line complaining that they can’t find certain information on your website? Or did someone in a client meeting raise particular concerns?

These are vital insights you should be paying attention to, as they’ll help you craft a website that works in your favor.

Avoid making these engineering website mistakes

By paying attention to these common website mistakes and ensuring your site addresses all of these, you can rest assured knowing that your engineering company’s site is working for you, and not against you.

It can be a lot to take in, but the good news is that you don’t have to work on all of this alone. Contact us if you’re looking for support to optimize your content, SEO, and your website as a whole.

10 costly mistakes to avoid on your engineering website infographic

Engineering Website FAQs

Are website visuals important?

High-quality visuals, including photographs, graphic designs, and images, can really take your website to the next level. Whether you choose to showcase completed projects, team members, or office spaces, visuals help break up text and provide a glimpse into your company’s work and culture.

What structure should my engineering website have?

I can’t answer that directly because the structure that’s best for your site depends on what you’re trying to achieve. It is important, however, to follow some sort of logical structure so that users can navigate your website easily.

Should I display my social media profiles on my website?

If you’re active on social media (which you should be), it’s a good idea to include links to your social pages on your website. You can even embed an Instagram or TikTok feed if it suits your niche.

Is it bad if my website loads quite slowly?

Website speed is very important, so if your site loads slowly, it’s vital to figure out why.

Are your images too large? Does your server or host run optimally? Do you perhaps have too many unnecessary graphics?

Users tend to abandon sites that load too slowly, so you should do what you can to get your site to load faster.

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