Symptoms you may be seeing
- You hear about large projects after the shortlist has been made.Contractors and consultants shortlist from what they can check on screen: capacity, past jobs, approvals.
- A smaller competitor is invited to quote where you are not.His website states what yours leaves out. Buyers judge the size of a supplier by what is written, not by what is true.
The moment it matters
An EPC contractor is choosing whom to propose for a large warehouse. He has three names. He needs to know which of them can supply the tonnage in the time the project allows.
What the buyer sees
"State-of-the-art infrastructure" and "modern machinery", with a gallery of machine photographs that carry no captions. No figure for monthly output, no largest size, no list of what the machines are.
For a vendor-registration team, that page answers none of the questions on their form: installed capacity, major machines, testing facilities, plant area.
What it costs you
"Can you handle my size of job?" is the second question every industrial buyer settles. When the website does not answer it, the buyer either asks, and many do not, or proposes the name whose site does.
A photograph of a machine tells a person something. To a search engine or an AI assistant, an uncaptioned photograph says nothing at all.
What the buyer is asking at this point
"What is the largest and smallest you can make?"
He is checkingWhether his requirement sits inside your range or at its edge.
A good answerThe limits written out: longest length, heaviest casting, widest coil, thinnest wall, largest diameter. A range with its ends stated is more convincing than "all sizes available".
"What is your installed capacity?"
He is checkingWhether his order is a fraction of your month or more than it.
A good answerCapacity as a number, in the unit he orders in: tonnes a month, pieces a day, metres a shift. On the home page and the plant page.
"Can you deliver this quantity by this date?"
He is checkingLead time and the risk of a delay that holds up his project.
A good answerTypical lead times by product, stated as ranges, and a line on how urgent orders are handled. The confirmed date comes in the quotation.
"Which machines do you have?"
He is checkingWhether the plant can make what you claim, at the tolerance claimed.
A good answerA machine list with make, size or capacity, and photographs captioned with what each machine does.
"How big is the plant, and where is it?"
He is checkingScale, and freight cost and time to his site.
A good answerPlant area, town and state written out, with the nearest highway or port where it matters for delivery.
All 62 questions industrial buyers ask, with good answers →
Check your own website in two minutes
- Find your capacity on your own website, written as a number. Is it there?
- Is it in the unit your buyers order in: tonnes a month, pieces a day, metres a shift, kVA a month?
- Is there a list of your main machines, with their sizes or capacities, and of your testing equipment?
- Are the plant's town and state written out, and its area given?
What good looks like
- Installed capacity in the buyer's unit, on the home page and the plant page.
- The largest and smallest you can make: the longest sheet, the heaviest casting, the widest coil.
- A machine list with makes and sizes, and the testing and quality checks you run.
- Plant area, location and photographs, each captioned with what it shows. MNF Metals & Forming, for example, now states its monthly rolling capacity and the longest sheet it can deliver by road.
How this gets put right
This problem rarely comes alone. It usually shares a cause with others on this list: a website written once, years ago, without the facts the plant and the sales team hold. Patching one page at a time seldom changes what a buyer concludes.
The AI Search Visibility Blueprint shows how far your own site has this and every related problem, how Google and the AI assistants read it today, and what to correct in what order. A Website Transformation rebuilds the site from your own documents so the whole set is put right together, and measures what moves each month.
Written by Arun Agrawal, founder of EbizIndia and author of Before the Buyer Calls, a free guide to what industrial buyers check on a supplier's website.