What Your Old Website Says About Your Business

What Your Old Website Says About Your Manufacturing Business

In companies' rushes to upgrade machinery, improve processes, expand capabilities, and keep up with competitors, there is one piece of equipment that often gets left sitting in the corner collecting dust: the website.

For many manufacturers and other B2B companies, the website was built years ago, handed off to someone internally, and mostly forgotten about unless a phone number changes or somebody realizes an employee who left three years ago is still on the About page.

The problem is that while you may not be paying much attention to your website, your customers are.

Before a potential buyer ever calls your sales team, they may have already searched your company, looked through your capabilities, compared you with competitors, checked whether you serve their industry, and decided whether you look like a company they want to work with. According to McKinsey's 2024 B2B Pulse research, B2B buyers now use an average of 10 different interaction channels throughout the buying journey, and company websites are among the three most frequently used touchpoints.

If your business has evolved over the last five or ten years but your website has not, you may be giving buyers a completely different impression of your company than the one they would get if they actually walked through your facility.

Unfortunately, nobody visiting your website knows that it is "just outdated." They only know what they see.

An Old Website Can Make a Modern Company Look Outdated

A company may have millions of dollars of equipment, experienced employees, modern production processes, impressive customers, and decades of industry knowledge, but if its website looks like it was built when everyone was still using Internet Explorer, there is immediately a disconnect. The quality of the company and the quality of its online presence do not match.

That disconnect matters more than some companies would like to believe. Stanford University's Web Credibility Project found that a broad range of website design decisions, including visual elements and information architecture, can strongly influence whether visitors perceive a website as credible. In other words, people do judge the business by the website.

This is especially common with established manufacturers because the business did not stop growing just because the website did. Over the years, you may have:

  • Added new equipment or production capabilities
  • Expanded into different industries or applications
  • Opened another location
  • Added products or services
  • Earned new certifications
  • Changed leadership or positioning
  • Started taking on much larger projects

Meanwhile, the website is still talking about who you were eight years ago.

This does not mean every manufacturer needs to completely redesign its website every two years or chase whatever design trend is popular this month. Your customers probably do not care whether your homepage has the trendiest animations. They care whether they can understand what you do, whether you can solve their problem, and whether your business looks credible enough to trust with their money.

A modern manufacturing website should accurately reflect the company you are today, not the company you were when somebody finally convinced leadership that having a website might be important.

Your Website May Be Underselling What Your Company Can Actually Do

One of the more damaging effects of an outdated B2B website is that it can make a company look significantly smaller or less capable than it actually is. I have seen manufacturers doing sophisticated work for large customers whose websites make them look like a tiny operation with a couple of pieces of equipment and a contact form.

Again, the website is not necessarily telling the truth about the company. It is just telling the only version of the story the buyer has access to at that moment.

If your company has invested in new machinery, show it. If you have expanded your facility, update your photography. If you regularly handle large or complicated projects, explain what those projects involve. If you serve several industries, create content that demonstrates your experience in those industries instead of throwing their names into a list somewhere and hoping that is enough.

Your buyers may be looking for information about:

  • Equipment and capacity
  • Materials
  • Certifications
  • Industries and applications
  • Quality standards
  • Project complexity
  • Production capabilities
  • Lead times
  • Past work

Vague claims about "quality," "innovation," and "exceptional customer service" do very little to answer those questions. Almost every company says those things. Actual photos, capabilities, certifications, technical information, customer examples, and case studies give buyers something they can evaluate.

Nielsen Norman Group's research on website trustworthiness found that comprehensive, correct, and current content is one of the major factors people use to judge a website's credibility. Their usability research also found that users valued websites with substantial relevant information because it demonstrated expertise and a commitment to helping customers.

This becomes even more important when the person researching your company is not the final decision maker. An engineer may need to send your website to purchasing. A salesperson may need to forward it to their boss. A plant manager may be comparing several potential vendors before bringing a recommendation to leadership.

Your website should give that person enough information to make a case for you without requiring them to explain, "Yes, I know the website looks rough, but I promise they're actually a really good company."

Your sales team should not have to apologize for your website before sending someone the link.

An Outdated Website Can Cost You Leads You Never Knew You Had

Companies tend to notice website problems when something obvious breaks. A form stops working, a page will not load, or somebody finally opens the site on their phone and realizes half the text is running off the screen.

The harder problem to measure is how many potential customers visited, did not find what they needed, and left without ever telling you.

Those buyers do not send an email saying, "I was considering requesting a quote, but your website made me unsure whether you still offer the service I need."

They just move on.

That matters because B2B buyers increasingly want to do their own research before they talk to sales. A 2025 Gartner survey of 632 B2B buyers found that 61% prefer an overall rep-free buying experience. Gartner also found that buyers tend to prefer digital self-service when looking for general information and learning about potential solutions, although they still value sellers when they need more contextual advice about whether a solution fits their needs.

That distinction is important.

Your website does not need to replace your sales team. It needs to handle enough of the early research process that a qualified buyer understands what you do and has a reason to contact them.

For a manufacturer, that might mean helping someone:

  • Understand your capabilities
  • Determine whether you work with their material or application
  • See examples of similar projects
  • Review technical information
  • Understand your industries and service areas
  • Request a quote
  • Upload drawings or specifications
  • Find the appropriate person to contact

If your website cannot answer the basic questions your salespeople answer every day, it is not doing much to support sales.

Your Website and Sales Team Should Be Telling the Same Story

There is another problem with letting your website sit untouched for years: eventually, the information online may no longer match what your salespeople are telling customers.

Maybe sales is promoting a new capability that barely exists on the website. Maybe your company stopped offering something that still has an entire page dedicated to it. Maybe you entered a new market two years ago but never added it online. Maybe someone updated your sales presentation but forgot that prospects are still finding completely different messaging on Google.

That inconsistency can create a real credibility problem.

In the same Gartner research, 69% of B2B buyers reported finding inconsistencies between information on a sales organization's website and information provided by its sellers. Gartner warned that conflicting information can create mistrust and potentially put transactions at risk.

That is not just a "marketing needs to update the website" problem.

That is a sales problem.

If marketing says one thing, the website says another, and sales says something else entirely, the customer is left trying to determine which version is correct. Nobody wants to introduce unnecessary doubt into a sales process that is probably already long and complicated.

Your website, sales materials, presentations, CRM content, email messaging, and salespeople do not need to use the exact same script, but the facts and positioning should match.

A Bad Website Experience Reflects on the Rest of the Company

Fair or not, people make assumptions based on what they see.

If a company's website is filled with outdated information, broken links, old employee names, blurry photos, spelling errors, and products the company no longer offers, a buyer may start wondering what else has not been updated.

That does not mean someone is going to see a broken button and immediately assume your quality department is in shambles. But credibility is built through dozens of small signals, and your website is one of them.

Nielsen Norman Group found that things as simple as typos and broken links can quickly damage credibility because users interpret those mistakes as a lack of attention to detail. Their research also identifies professional design, clear navigation, current information, and transparency as important factors in building website trust.

An outdated website can unintentionally communicate things such as:

  • The company is not investing in growth
  • Information may not be current
  • The business may be smaller than it actually is
  • Customer experience is not a major priority
  • The company may not be keeping up with competitors
  • Nobody is really paying attention to the website

Those assumptions may be completely wrong.

The problem is that the buyer has no way of knowing that.

Your Website Is Part of a Much Larger B2B Buying Journey

I think one reason some industrial companies continue to neglect their websites is that they know their sales process is relationship-driven.

And they are right.

Manufacturing sales often involve relationships, technical discussions, site visits, samples, quotes, engineering conversations, negotiations, and a lot of back and forth. Nobody is arguing that a $500,000 piece of machinery is being sold because somebody liked your homepage.

But relationship-driven does not mean digitally irrelevant.

McKinsey's B2B Pulse research found that buyers use an average of 10 interaction channels throughout their purchasing journey, compared with five in 2016. More than half of the surveyed buyers also said they were likely to switch suppliers if they did not receive a smooth experience across channels. Among those likely to switch, 54% cited poor-quality digital customer experiences as a reason to go elsewhere.

Your website is one part of the larger experience customers have with your company.

They may meet you at a trade show, visit the website later, follow a salesperson on LinkedIn, open an email, watch a product video, request a quote, and then finally schedule a meeting. All of those interactions contribute to their perception of the business.

The website does not need to do everything.

It just cannot be the weakest link.

An Old Website Can Also Make Recruiting Harder

Customers are not the only people Googling your company.

Potential employees are too.

Imagine trying to convince an experienced engineer, salesperson, technician, or manager that your business is growing and investing in the future when the website looks like it was created when they were in middle school.

Again, the website might not represent reality. You may have excellent leadership, modern equipment, strong benefits, a great culture, and major plans for growth.

But candidates cannot magically know that.

The same website that helps customers evaluate whether they want to buy from you helps potential employees evaluate whether they want to work for you. At a minimum, candidates should be able to see what the company does, what the workplace looks like, whether the business appears active, and where it is going.

If you are already struggling to recruit qualified people, your website does not need to add another obstacle.

When Is It Time to Redesign Your Manufacturing Website?

There is no magical number of years when a website suddenly expires. An older website can continue performing well if it is properly maintained, regularly updated, technically sound, and still represents the company accurately.

The better question is whether the website still supports your business.

It may be time to seriously consider a redesign when:

  • Your company has changed significantly but the website has not
  • Important products, services, or capabilities are missing
  • Customers regularly ask questions the website should answer
  • Your sales team avoids sending prospects to the site
  • The website is difficult to update
  • It performs poorly on mobile devices
  • You get website traffic but very few qualified inquiries
  • Your branding and positioning have changed
  • Competitors provide substantially more useful information online
  • The site no longer reflects the size or sophistication of the business

Before redesigning anything, however, start with the business problem.

Do you need more RFQs? Are you entering a new market? Does sales need better resources to send prospects? Are customers struggling to understand everything you offer? Are you trying to attract larger accounts? Are you having trouble recruiting? Are competitors appearing in searches for products and services you have offered for years?

Those answers should drive the website redesign.

Not whether somebody in the executive meeting likes blue better than green.

A Website Redesign Should Be a Business Project, Not a Decorating Project

One of my biggest frustrations with website redesigns is when the entire goal is, "We want something fresh."

Okay, but why?

If you are spending the money, time, and internal resources to rebuild a website, it should solve an actual business problem.

For manufacturers and other B2B companies, that could mean improving:

  • Qualified lead generation and RFQs
  • Sales enablement
  • Search visibility
  • AI search visibility
  • Product and capability education
  • Customer experience
  • Recruiting
  • Brand positioning

The design supports those goals. It is not the goal by itself.

A pretty website that still does not explain what you sell, cannot be found in search, gives sales nothing useful to send prospects, and generates no qualified inquiries is still a bad website. It is just a prettier bad website.

Your website is already saying something about your business whether you actively manage it or completely ignore it. Potential customers are looking at it. Candidates are looking at it. Partners are looking at it. And yes, your competitors are probably looking at it too.

The question is whether it is telling the story you actually want them to hear.

If your business has better people, better equipment, better processes, bigger customers, and greater capabilities than it did when your website was built, your online presence should have grown with it.

Because until a potential customer calls, visits your facility, or meets your sales team, they cannot see the company you know from the inside.

They can only see the company you chose to show them online.

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