Case Study -SEO for Electronic Manufacturing, PCB, SMT

SEO for Electronic Manufacturing PCB, SMT & Semiconductor

In this case study, we will evaluate the performance of SEO compared to other online marketing channels such as banner ads, pay per click and social media for the SMT & PCB electronics manufacturing and semiconductor industries. We will present the results of more than 15 years of data analysis from OEMs, Contract Manufacturers and consumable product providers.

Our objective is to enlighten you regarding:

• The marketing channels that yield the highest number of leads and the most valuable website visitors in these sectors.
• The premier advertising source within these sectors that propels leads and enhances website traffic with quality visits.

SEO Provides An Awesome Opportunity

SEO is an effective way to attract potential customers who are searching for your offerings online. Unlike banner ads and social media posts, which are more suitable for raising awareness, SEO techniques focus on the active buyer who is ready to make a purchase.

Opportunity By the Numbers (a few examples, worldwide)

Annual # of Searches on Google

• PCB Assembly – 177,600
• PCB Design – 397,200
• Stencil Printer – 97,200
• Pick and Place – 64,800
• Reflow Oven -52,800
• AOI Machine – 22,000
• Semiconductor Packaging – 15,600
• Dry Cabinet – 15,600
• BGA Rework – 10,560
• SMT Stencil Printer – 6,000
• Solder Paste Inspection Machine -6,000
• X-Ray Inspection – 3,120

Active Lead Potential vs. Passive Lead Potential

Active Lead Potential

Engagement with your content, be it a webpage or an advertisement, is crucial for success. Engagement is most likely to occur when there is active involvement from a potential lead. A person who has active lead potential is defined as someone seeking a solution to their problem, which could be resolved by your product or service.

Potential leads typically conduct three types of searches:

• Informational: They seek more knowledge on a topic without the immediate intent to purchase.
• Navigational: These individuals know what they want and are searching for it. This oftentimes includes company names and product brand names.
• Transactional: This searcher intends to make a purchase and is either ready to proceed through e-commerce or is gathering information to inform their decision.

Passive Lead Potential

Passive lead potential refers to individuals who may eventually become interested in a product or service, yet have not actively sought out solutions. Consider the analogy of drivers noticing billboards and web users encountering online ads; both groups receive information passively, making them less inclined to engage transactionally.

SEO vs. Pay-Per-Click

SEO targets the organic search results vs. pay-per-click (PPC) which targets the ads on the search results pages. SEO & PPC both target the active buyer, but Pay-Per-Click is costly, less profitable and not as effective as SEO in driving quality visitors who become new customers. In addition, PPC stops working for you when you are stop paying, whereas SEO efforts can last for years .

Managing a pay-per-click program involves not only the direct costs of the clicks but also the management expenses. These additional costs are essential to ensure that your spending aligns with your business objectives and avoids wastage on irrelevant phrases.

SEO in the Context of B2B Electronics Manufacturing

SEO is an acronym for search engine optimization, which is the practice of enhancing the online visibility and relevance of a website or web page on search engines such as Google or Bing. For B2B manufacturing firms, SEO can help attract more qualified prospects, increase brand recognition, and generate more revenue.

A common misconception among electronic manufacturing businesses is that SEO only concerns their own website(s). However, this overlooks the bigger picture. SEO for B2B should also include marketing partners – for links and for SEO visibility.

Links from industry partners to your website are beneficial for attracting relevant traffic and boosting your search engine rankings.

Most websites do not rank well for their competitor’s company name and product brand names. A reliable industry SEO partner can assist you with this.

Visibility partners can help you rank higher for phrases related to your business that you might not otherwise dominate. This is particularly important for increasing your exposure to potential customers who are searching for your direct competitors.

SEO vs. Banner Advertising vs. Pay-Per-Click & Social Media

We have compiled and analyzed data from OEMs, contact manufacturers and consumable product providers in the electronic manufacturing and semiconductor industries.

We conducted A/B tests on industry portal sites, magazine sites, and pay-per-click advertising for both Bing and Google, comparing them to our SEO efforts. The budgets allocated for each medium were similar.

The primary objective was to drive traffic that converted in sales inquiries. In addition to this goal we also looked for other data signals that we like to call, ‘quality traffic’. The primary data points considered here were ‘time on site’ and ‘pages viewed’.

Acquisition Channels Compared

We compared website traffic acquisition channels including:

• Organic Search
• Paid Search
• Referral Traffic
• Organic Social
• Display Advertising
• Email Marketing

Our findings were consistent across company types – e.g. OEMs, contact manufacturers and consumable providers KPIs all showed the same medium as the top driver to deliver sales inquiries and quality traffic – organic search with over 2x difference in time on site and pages viewed.

Industry Advertising Details

In assessing the impact of online advertising initiatives across various platforms within the industry, such association sites, specialized magazines, and portal websites, it has been observed that SMTnet.com stands out for its effectiveness in driving high-quality traffic and generating valuable leads. This observation is supported by data from Google Analytics and client testimonials.

Notably, SMTnet.com has been found to deliver a volume of quality visitors that is tenfold higher than other sources,and in certain instances, even surpassing that by more than twenty-five times. Additionally, the duration of visits from SMTnet’s audience is significantly longer, with visitors spending double the time compared to those from other industry-related sites.

We analyzed why this would be the case – our conclusion is two fold:

• People go to SMTnet.com to do work – ask questions in forums, find suppliers, buy and sell equipment, read technical articles.
• SMTnet’s 125,000 + pages in Google combined with their SEO efforts drives over a half million electronic manufacturing professionals to their site every year.

Numbers of Pages in Google as of 4/8/24:

• Smtnet.com 125,000+
• Global SMT has a little over 14,000 pages
• SMT Today has 3,000+ pages
• IPC’s primary site has 14,000+ pages
• EMS Now has 7,000 + pages
• Circuits Assembly a little less then 2,000 pages
• Circuitnet a bit over 6,500 pages