Websites for small manufacturers in BC.
B2B capability sites that convert trade-show leads, product catalogs that Google can actually read, customer portals that replace the order-by-email workflow. For small and mid-sized manufacturers across the Fraser Valley and Metro Vancouver.
Most BC manufacturing sites were built in 2010and haven’t changed.
The pattern is consistent across the region: a site built by a one-person agency in the late 2000s, a few capability pages, a carousel of industry certifications, and every product data sheet as a separate PDF download. It worked when trade shows and referrals did most of the lead work. It still works for that purpose — badly. What it doesn’t do is convert a modern B2B buyer who Googles your name after meeting you at a trade show, lands on a site that loads slowly on their phone, can’t find the spec they need, and quietly decides to ask for a second quote.
A Five-Year Website for a small manufacturer solves this without changing your go-to-market motion. Capability pages stay substantive but move to HTML, so a buyer can read specs on a phone without opening a PDF. Your product catalog becomes indexable (meaning Google can serve a buyer searching a specific spec directly to your product page). Auto-generated PDFs still exist for the buyer-workflow use case — engineering teams still want a data sheet they can attach to a bid package — but they’re generated from the same source as the HTML, so they’re never stale.
The operational half of manufacturing web work is the customer portal. For established manufacturers with a stable customer base reordering the same parts or products, a simple portal — order history, reorder in one click, PO upload, shipment tracking — eliminates a real chunk of the email volume your office team manages. Scoped per engagement; typical builds land in 5–8 weeks depending on ERP integration complexity.
On the website side
- HTML capability pages per core competency — indexable, readable on mobile.
- Product catalog with individual pages per product, full specs exposed, Schema markup.
- Auto-generated PDFs from the same source as the HTML so data sheets never go stale.
- Clear contact paths — general enquiry, RFQ, technical questions.
- Industry certifications and compliance credentials visible, not buried.
- Case studies or application examples — the B2B equivalent of a project gallery.
On the customer portal side
- Order history and one-click reorder for recurring customers.
- Purchase order upload with workflow to your office team.
- Shipment and delivery tracking surfacing carrier data.
- Parts list / BOM management for customers with ongoing service relationships.
- Account-level price tiers for customers with negotiated rates.
- ERP sync (NetSuite, Acumatica, SAP B1) or manual reconciliation depending on volume.
Serving small manufacturers across the Fraser Valley and Metro Vancouver.
The regional manufacturing base is concentrated in the Fraser Valley — Abbotsford, Langley, Chilliwack — with additional clusters in Burnaby and Surrey. See the city-specific pages for Abbotsford, Langley, and Burnaby for the local-market context.
Our buyers aren't searching Google, they come through trade shows and referrals. Do we even need a website?
Yes, and the argument is stronger than you'd think. A B2B buyer who got your name at a trade show will Google you before making contact — the site is the credibility check. A thin, outdated site loses deals you already half-won. A substantive capability site reinforces the referral. Even without chasing organic search traffic, the website pays back by converting warm referrals that would otherwise stall.
Should product specs live on the website or stay in PDF brochures?
Both — but in a specific way. HTML product pages are what Google indexes and what buyers read on mobile; PDFs are what gets sent to engineering and procurement for inclusion in a bid package. A good manufacturing site exposes each product as an HTML page with full specs, then offers a PDF download for the buyer-workflow case. Search traffic goes to the HTML; trade-show contacts download the PDF. The PDFs stay updated because they auto-generate from the same source.
Can you build a customer ordering portal that integrates with our ERP?
Depends on the ERP. Modern cloud ERPs (NetSuite, Acumatica, SAP Business One) have APIs that let a customer portal read/write real-time. Legacy on-prem systems are harder and usually require a middleware sync layer. For smaller manufacturers, a cleaner path is often a standalone customer portal (order entry, history, reorders, PO upload, shipment tracking) that the office team reconciles with ERP manually until the volume justifies full integration. I scope both approaches on the call.
Manufacturer with a site from 2010?
20 minutes on the phone. Send me your URL and a sense of how your customer orders currently flow. I’ll tell you whether a capability-site rebuild, a customer portal, or both is the right next step.
Book a 20-min call