Tl;dr - Before we had Google search, we had Yellow Pages and meetings. Search brought enormous change. Buyers could find all sorts of info on their own. But it was an iterative process. Try several search terms to find one bit of info (a recommendation, definition, vendor list, etc.) and then repeat, repeat, and repeat. Now there's another massive switch - from those linear, iterative searches to handing an LLM a prompt to research and quantify the problem, consider various solutions, suggest vendors, and provide a project framework for making a decision. As that happens, our buyers' reliance on Google indexing of SEO-optimized content is decreasing, and instead, we must create content for buyer behaviors and LLM engagement.
Is SEO for Manufacturers Still a Productive Marketing Tactic?
The industrial marketing digital lead generation playbook is well understood.
- Research what buyers ask.
- Conduct SEO research around those questions to find appropriate key terms.
- Create well-optimized content around those key terms.
- Publish and promote the content to accrue inbound links and traffic so that Google recognizes its value.
- Create conversion opportunities on the page so visitors can raise their hand for more of your related info.
- Score that "lead" and hand it off to sales for follow up.
The question is whether that still works as a functional lead-generation approach.
The answer is an unsatisfying "maybe" but quickly trending to "no."
There are several reasons.
First, changes in content consumption.
- Buyers Don't Rely on Search Results Early in the Journey - SparkToro research has found that the percentage of Google searches that result in clicks on organic search results has plummeted over the last couple years. We can speculate about causes. Likely, buyers have found that the quality of content is deteriorating as the volume explodes, with more marketers running the playbook and more relying on AI to create optimized but vapid content. Further, increasingly Google serves the answers in their AI synthesized result.
- Pre-awareness Content is Less Effective - SparkToro research also finds that Google search activity disproportionally focuses on the consideration and decision stages of the buying journey. This means that the ability of marketing to help prompt creative/critical thinking in prospects to drive new initiatives is limited.
Second, changes in buyer behaviors.
- Early or Irrelevant - 6Sense, TrustRadius and Pavilion research shows that the vast majority of vendor shortlists are fully formed before buyers reach out for sales engagement, and largely include only vendors who were known to buyers BEFORE they launched a research project.
- Selling into Projects is Hard - Additionally, the top vendor that was initially first on that shortlist normally wins the order, and only 16% of the time is there any adjustment made to the selection criteria and project spec after engagement with sales reps.
In short this means that SEO and content marketing don't generally generate "new leads." Instead, these inquiries represent companies with active projects that are likely well on their way to creating a stack-ranked vendor short list and an inflexible spec.
But that's not all.
Searching for Data Points vs. Solving the Problem
Internet search was a huge boon for buyers. Prior to online content and Google indexing/search, buyers had to rely on the Yellow Pages and Thomas Register, plus an occasional referral, to find possible sources of solutions to problems they had. Then, they'd have to invite sales reps in for meetings, through which buyers could access information and expertise.
Google changed that. Buyers could access vast information on their own and in private. They could avoid the sales reps that they loathed. And they could access not only the information (e.g., data sheets) that sales reps would previously willingly share, but they could also find pricing, competitor details and other info sales reps often withheld.
That was powerful. It required new approaches.
Search was an interactive process. Try a key term, see the quality of results. Dig into one. Capture an insight. Modify the search. Dig into a result or two from that one. Capture another insight. Repeat. Repeat. Etc.
It was liberating compared to being stuck with a green book and sales rep visits, but over time, buyers realized it wasn't a panacea. It was still a lot of work with many dead-ends, and required lots of filtering and interpretation.
That's suddenly changing in ways that buyers are gradually realizing, but marketers and sellers are still generally ignoring.
Now every buyer effectively has a junior associate, intern, or project manager that they can hand a problem to for research and well-formed possible solutions. They can open Claude, ChatGPT Deep Research and other tools, provide a prompt that describes the symptoms/problem, the way they'd like it researched, the range of potential solutions they'd like to consider, and instructions on how to present the findings and recommendations - and then go back to their other tasks.
Now search is simply an embedded feature of LLM based solutions. "Searching" itself as a step is much less frequently required.
Understanding the Rapidly Changing Environment
Traditional content marketing based on SEO for manufacturers is of rapidly diminishing value.
- The approach isn't practical for reaching buyers early in their journey.
- If you're not early, you're not part of the decision.
- If you are involved in the decision, but didn't shape the spec, you probably lose.
- Search is inherently inefficient and iterative for industrial buyers - and there's now a better, more efficient way.
- Search is embedded as a feature in LLMs that deliver complete research, recommendations and project guidelines - offering buyers new ways of looking at problems and saving them massive time. (Not to mention bypassing the content and results that companies create with their SEO for manufacturing marketing and optimized content playbook!)
In other words, we need our content to reach buyers when they're not searching for it, in order to help build trust and create a relationship that helps them look at their challenge with a different perspective - and eventually to reach out to us.
We still need to understand the questions they DO ask at all stages in their buying journey. We also need to double down on understanding the questions they SHOULD ask but don't know to do so - particularly in the pre-awareness stage. And then we need to create effective content that answers those. That content must be available to suite the habits and tastes - particularly video and passively consumable formats like podcast.
There's no reason not to optimize them around impactful SEO keywords (different terms for YouTube and website), but increasingly that's just for a bit of additional juice.
Understanding the growing role of LLMs in defining and solving problems (not just providing iterative breadcrumbs of sequential search results) helps us to define critical next steps.
Understanding the Mechanism of Effective LLM Optimization for Industrial Marketing and Sales
If it's less productive to follow the traditional inbound marketing playbook of key term research and search optimized content creation because LLMs are increasingly not just providing iterative links but synthesizing entire solutions, then it stands to reason that we need to improve our performance with LLMs.
That skill set and approach aren't intuitive to the agencies that have built their model on SEO research and content publishing - even those that purport to offer manufacturing SEO services and industrial content marketing.
That's why I recently turned to David Anderson, founder of Engora.tech, a GPT designed to help engineers source and spec components.
David was clear that the most important thing we can do is to provide contextual content - in other words, content (which can be SEO optimized) that explains our perspective/solution in the context of the problem and outcomes, as well as content that offers comparisons.
This context helps LLMs understand the overall situation - and when we help it to learn and understand, it's more likely to offer us as a part of a suggested solution. You can watch my conversation with David here.
Realistic Evaluation of What LLMs Can & Can't Do
We must also be clear about what LLMs will be able to do, and the opportunity for our people. While LLMs offer exciting potential and encouraging results, many folks who live in the space are clear-eyed that it's not a panacea.
In the case of industrial sales, that means that our reps must be well above average and conversant in business finance and the outcomes that matter to management so that they can bring the value that's necessary in a consultative sales process.
Meta's Chief Al Scientist,
— ₕₐₘₚₜₒₙ — e/acc (@hamptonism) March 23, 2025
Yann LeCun, dismisses the idea of "genius Al". pic.twitter.com/cLuNPIGVnB
Next Steps in a World Where SEO for Manufacturers Offers Diminished Value?
So if content marketing and SEO are changing as we shift from search engines to "solution engines" - from Google to find iterative links to LLMs that help us understand our entire situation, possible solutions, and next steps - then what should we do?
First, be clear about the role of our website and content. A website is still powerful. And content, particularly enablement content is important. But it's probably no longer the powerful lead conversion/generation engine we've assumed.
Second, rapidly accelerate our efforts to build content that reaches buyers in the pre-awareness stage and builds trust before they have a project. We must create it for and publish it on channels and in media that are meeting buyer expectations - passively consumable, video, audio, etc.
Third, shift our sales team from prospecting for active projects to prospecting to create projects.
Four, overindex on video.
Five, deliberately create content (and track our impact and traffic) for LLMs.
Download my position paper on the secular changes that are impacting industrial marketing and sales.
