Worked example, B2B and manufacturing
A precision engineering firm choosing between three ways to buy SEO: the decision memo
A forty-person precision engineering firm in the Midlands makes machined parts for three sectors and wins most work by referral. The managing director has three proposals on the desk: a one-off audit and a day of fixes, a monthly SEO tier, and a part-time hire. This is the memo we would write for that meeting, with the figures that frame it marked by source.
Written by Daniel Stoychev. The firm is a composite built from the manufacturers we have spoken to; the search volumes are Google Keyword Planner figures from our own export. Nothing on this page is a client result.
Worked example. The firm, the director and the three proposals are invented to show the method. The reference figures are marked and sourced. If you want the memo written for your own firm, the quote form is the place to start.
The memo
To the managing director: which of the three, and why
| Line | Content |
|---|---|
| To | Managing director |
| From | Us, after a two-hour call and a read of Search Console |
| Decision required | Which of the three ways to buy SEO, and what to measure at day 90 |
| Recommendation | The audit and fixes now, the monthly tier only if the audit finds demand the site can win |
The situation
What the site earns today, from the numbers the firm already has
Search Console shows the site earning clicks for the firm's own name and for two part names, and almost nothing for the services. The capability pages are one paragraph each. The Keyword Planner gives the service searches a size: manufacturing seo and seo manufacturers are each searched about 260 times a month in the UK, and manufacturing seo services about 40, which are the figures a buyer in this sector types when looking for help rather than parts. The part-name searches the firm actually wins are unmeasured in the Planner, which is normal for engineering terms and is the first reason not to buy on volume alone.
The second reason is the buyer. An engineering buyer searches for a process, a material and a tolerance, reads two or three pages, and sends a drawing. The site does not have the pages that answer a process-and-material search, so there is nothing for the buyer to read and nothing for Google to show.
The three options
Side by side, on the things that differ
| One-off audit and fixes | Monthly tier | Part-time hire | |
|---|---|---|---|
| What it buys | The technical faults found and fixed, the demand measured, a page plan | The plan carried out, pages written, the monthly report | A person inside the firm who learns the parts and the buyers |
| What it needs from the firm | Two hours and Search Console access | An hour a month and a draughtsman's time for photographs | Management, tools, and a year before judging |
| Cost shape | One payment | A monthly fee, no contract beyond the month | A salary and the tools |
| Biggest risk | The plan sits in a drawer | Paying for months before the pages exist | Hiring for a skill the firm cannot assess |
| Right when | The site has faults and the demand is unknown | The demand is known and the pages are the work | The firm sells in several markets and needs content every week |
Recommendation
The audit first, and the tier only on evidence
Buy the audit and the day of fixes now. It answers the question the other two options assume: whether there is demand the site can win. If the audit shows process-and-material searches with real volume and a results page that service pages can rank on, move to the monthly tier with a page plan of six capability pages and two case studies, written with the production manager. If it shows that the firm's work is won by name and referral, stop there, fix the faults, and spend the rest on the trade shows that already work.
The part-time hire is the wrong first step for a firm this size. It is the right second step in two years if the tier has proved that pages win work, because by then the firm will know what the hire should do.
Checkpoints
What the director reads at day 30, 60 and 90
- Day 30: the audit delivered, the faults fixed and verified live, the demand table with sources, the page plan with a draft of the first capability page. Nothing is judged in Search Console yet.
- Day 60: four capability pages live and indexed, each with a process, a material range, a tolerance and a photograph of the firm's own machine. Impressions on the new pages are read, clicks are not judged.
- Day 90: the six pages and one case study live. The first honest reading: impressions per page, the queries each shows for, and the position for the process-and-material searches. If none of the six pages has a hundred impressions, the pages are not the problem and the memo is wrong about the demand; we say so and stop the tier.
Where this leads
The pages that do this work
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