You don’t have to be the welding engineer to write a good article about welding, as long as you have a research system in place and fifteen minutes of the engineer’s time at the end.
Writing technical content used to feel grueling to us before we found the content research process that prepared us for it properly.
Well-researched, data-backed content performs best, and nowhere more than in manufacturing. Engineers and purchasing managers trust an article backed by standards, numbers, examples and photos of real parts far more than someone’s opinion.
In this article, we show you how to significantly improve the research behind your technical content in three steps.
Let’s dive in.
Table of Contents
Step 1: Research Your Competitors’ Top Content for Topics
Begin by analysing your competitors’ top-performing pages to see which of their topics bring them traffic.
If certain topics perform really well for them, that information shapes your own content marketing plan.
You don’t want to spend months writing articles on topics no engineer is searching for.
By seeing which pages perform for competing websites, you avoid chasing dead topics, because you already have proof of what works.
How to Find Your Competitors’ Top-Performing Pages
How do you get that data? There is a tool for it.
Several tools provide insight into competitors’ traffic. Remember that they are estimates, not exact figures. Luckily, exact figures are not what you need.
What you need are content strategy guidelines, and for that a simple competitor analysis is more than enough.
Some competitors will be more useful to analyse than others, and that is fine.
The metal shop next door with a “News” page from 2019 won’t provide actionable insights, so don’t spend time analysing it.
You want to learn from those who are already successful with content and whose pages get traffic from search engines.
In metalworking, that is often not a direct competitor at all. On-demand manufacturing platforms such as Xometry, Protolabs and Hubs, and the knowledge sections of machine builders like Trumpf or Bystronic, publish design guides that rank for thousands of technical keywords. They are the best sources of proven topics, even though you compete with them differently.
To do this analysis you need the right tools. We will focus on Ahrefs, with a note on cheaper alternatives.
But before we get to the tools, let’s cover the basics: how to find the competitors to analyse in the first place.
How to Detect Your Competitors
Our clients are not SEO experts, but they always know who their competitors are on the shop floor. Online, the picture is often different. Use these three ways to find the competitors that matter for content.
1. Google Your Main Service Keyword
This is straightforward. Google the keywords your buyers would type to find you.
If you are a laser cutting company, search for “laser cutting service”, “laser cutting supplier” and, in your market’s language, “Laserschneiden Lohnfertigung” (contract laser cutting). If you machine parts, search “CNC machining services”, “CNC Drehteile” (CNC turned parts) or “precision machining supplier”.
You will recognise many of the ranking sites as competitors, and you will find a few you have never heard of, plus the platforms and directories. Zero in on the most relevant keywords, the ones that really describe your business, to find your direct online competitors.
2. Find Them Through the Topics They Would Cover
A bit more complex, this broadens the scope of sites to analyse.
Ask yourself: “What topics would my competitors cover on their website?” Then search Google for those topics: “sheet metal design guidelines”, “laser cutting tolerances”, “how to choose a welding subcontractor”. Add words like “guide”, “how to” or “tips”.
Keep in mind that successful competitors often target a specific niche. If you make parts for agricultural machinery, search for “steel fabrication for agricultural machinery” or “wear parts for agricultural equipment”.
This lands you on other companies’ articles. Some of those sites will be direct competitors; others, such as material suppliers or machine builders, are not, but they cover the same technical questions.
There are advantages and disadvantages to such sites:
- Advantage: they target the same engineers, so they surface topics you would not think of yourself.
- Disadvantage: because they are not in the same line of work, some of their topics will be less relevant to a job shop.
Browsing niche topics is nevertheless eye-opening. Always tailor your content to the engineers and buyers you serve, not to your machines.
3. Browse Industrial Directories
Head over to industrial directories such as Europages, wlw (Wer liefert was), Techpilot or Kompass and find the categories you belong to: laser cutting, CNC machining, welding, steel structures, powder coating.
This generates a long list of companies in your niche. Some will be familiar, some unknown. Run a Google search on the unfamiliar ones to check whether they publish anything worth analysing.
Browsing directories is an effortless way to discover other companies in your field. One piece of advice: don’t fixate on a single category. Many shops are listed under several processes, and the neighbouring categories tell you which related services buyers look for together.
Now that you have your competitors, you know whose top pages to analyse. Back to the tools.
Tools for Top Pages Analysis
Ahrefs
Our go-to tool for analysing top pages is Ahrefs.
We have used Moz, Semrush and others, but Ahrefs has become our standard. We use it for rank tracking, backlink analysis and keyword research as well, but the feature that matters here is Top Pages.
The Top Pages Report
The data in this report is priceless. It shows which of a competitor’s pages perform best in search, with the main keyword and the estimated monthly traffic of each.
Ahrefs builds this data by tracking rankings for millions of keywords and estimating traffic from the ranking positions.
It is not perfect, but it is the next best thing to having access to your competitor’s Google Search Console.
The report also shows how many websites link to each top page, in the “RD” column (Referring Domains).
Why does that matter? The more referring domains a page has, the harder it is to outrank. If a platform’s design guide on sheet metal tolerances has 300 referring domains, that topic may be too competitive for a new site.
If your website is new and has little authority yet, be picky: look for pages and topics with traffic but few referring domains. In manufacturing niches there are many of them, because most competitors don’t publish at all.
How to Use the Top Pages Report, Plus a Few Tips
Here is what we do. Enter the competitor’s domain in Site Explorer and open Top Pages. Start at the top, where the most visited pages are.
Not every page on the list is an article. Many will be service pages, capability pages or product pages. Look at the URL patterns to tell them apart.
Articles usually have longer URLs and target informational keywords (“/blog/laser-cutting-tolerances-explained/”); service pages are short and target commercial ones (“/laser-cutting/”). Some sites keep the blog on a subdomain (blog.company.com), others in a subfolder (company.com/blog/).
Both types are useful, for different things. A competitor’s top service pages tell you which capability pages to build; their top articles tell you which technical topics to write about.
You don’t have to go through the whole list. Focus on the top 50 or top 100 pages of a strong site; pages beyond that rarely perform well enough to matter.
You only want “tried and tested” topics that already send engineers to your competitor.
Once you have found their most visited articles, the next step is to cover those topics on your site, but better.
Ahrefs is a paid tool, and not a cheap one, but if you are serious about content it pays for itself. If you can’t justify it yet, Ubersuggest and the free tier of Semrush give you a rougher version of the same report, and Google Search Console shows you the equivalent data for your own site for free.
Step 2: Skyscraper Others’ Content Structure
In content terms, “skyscraping” means creating a better version of something that already exists, like building a taller skyscraper.
In this step, you research the structure of existing content to create the outline for your article. Fix the headings and subheadings before you write a word.
Why outline first?
A better outline is the foundation of better content.
Without structure you wander off topic, and nothing kills a technical article faster than rambling. Engineers came for the tolerance table, not for your thoughts on Industry 4.0.
So here you analyse other content, look for weaknesses and ways to improve, and end up with a better-structured article than your competitors.
You already have their top-performing pages from Step 1, so you know where to look.
Keep in mind that you are only looking for a starting point. The goal is not to copy competitors; that only produces duplicate, low-value content.
With this attitude, you give both readers and search engines what they want: better, unique content.
Sometimes being only 5–10% better than the top-ranking content is enough.
Why? Because if your content is even 5% better, it is still THE BEST, and Google tries to rank the best content on a topic.
What 5–10% Better Looks Like for a Metal Shop
Take a topic like “laser cutting tolerances”. Everyone writing about it uses the same general guidance, because the physics doesn’t change and nobody can write inaccuracies.
The 5–10% comes from what only a manufacturer can add: a table of achievable tolerances by material and thickness from your own machine, a photo of the edge quality at 3 mm versus 20 mm, the three drawing mistakes that cause most rejected parts, and a note on which tolerances cost extra and why.
Same facts as everyone else, plus your own data, your own photos and your own style. That is enough to become the best source on the topic, and Google has no choice but to rank it.
In more competitive niches you will have to add more than 10%, but the process is the same. Here it is, step by step.
Review the Content of Your Competitor
If one of the articles you found in the Top Pages report ranks well and gets traffic, there is a good chance its structure is solid too. Check whether you can use it as the basis for your outline.
This doesn’t always work. Sometimes a page ranks because it sits on a strong domain with many backlinks, not because it is well structured. A platform’s design guide can rank first while being thin and generic. Keep that in mind.
If you don’t like what you see, ignore it and move on.
Run a Google Search for the Target Keyword
Find the top 10 or 20 ranking pages for your keyword and analyse their structure.
Remember, in this step you are only analysing structure, not writing quality.
Some topics suit a comparison format (laser vs. plasma vs. waterjet), some a how-to (how to prepare a DXF for laser cutting), some a reference format (a tolerance or material table), some a list (seven ways to reduce the cost of a machined part).
Use your judgement to decide which of the ranking articles is best, and which format fits the topic. Once you have found your “role model” structure, it is time to rebuild it.
A. Find Weaknesses and Things to Remove From the Structure
The easiest way to analyse an existing structure is to read the headings and look for shortcomings. Anything that doesn’t educate the engineer must go: the generic history of laser technology, the paragraph about “quality and innovation”, the section that repeats the introduction.
You don’t want the same structure as your source. You want to improve on it, and that includes cutting low-value sections.
A framework helps you start, but frameworks are not templates. You are doing this research to learn what performs and improve on it, not to imitate.
Scratch roughly 40% of the sections. If a heading might work with a different angle, note it as “keep, rephrase”.
B. Improve the Rest and Add Sections
You have trimmed the structure, so your article is now shorter and less valuable than the competing one. Compensate by brainstorming what to add.
For a technical topic, check whether your role model covered:
- Specifications and tables (tolerances, thicknesses, materials, batch sizes)
- Relevant standards (EN, ISO, DIN) and what they mean in practice
- Cost drivers and how to design around them
- Pros and cons versus alternative processes or materials
- Common mistakes on drawings and in RFQs
- A checklist or an FAQ
You are looking for important information they missed. This is a brainstorming step, not research yet; you are giving yourself time to come up with ideas for improvement.
Your production team will usually have ideas here. If nothing comes to mind, research the topic further and the ideas will come.
C. Search for Additional Articles on Your Topic
You focused on a single role model. Now skim the other pages ranking for your keyword.
This is rapid research: you are skimming several articles on the same topic to find things to add to yours.
Just by looking at headings, the points others covered and the images and tables they included, you will find more to cover.
There is no limit to how many articles you can analyse, but don’t fall into a rabbit hole. Don’t spend the whole day piling up ideas without committing to anything.
Include only highly relevant information and stay on point, or the article loses its substance.
Work in batches: open 5–10 competing articles, analyse their structure, write down usable ideas, then move to the next batch if needed. Fifty open tabs will overwhelm you and possibly crash your browser.
Jot down the best heading ideas in your document and don’t overthink it. The final review comes next.
D. Do the Final Review of Your Structure
In this last outlining step, review the structure you have built and edit it where necessary.
Decide which ideas from the previous step you really want to keep and which can go. Trim the less relevant headings.
Spend some time reorganising: promote some ideas to top-level headings and demote those not substantial enough to stand on their own.
There you have it: a data-driven outline for your article, expanded and trimmed. Now you can move on to sources.
Step 3: Research Sources for Each Section
With the outline in place, it is time to find information sources for each section.
The more structured your process, the better the research. Great research is not about investing endless time; too much time leads to information overload.
At this stage we simply use Google to find sources for each section. Here is how.
1. Boil Each Heading Down to a Keyword
Before you start Googling, you need to know what to type.
No advanced search operators needed, just a simple trick: boil each heading down to a searchable keyword of two to four words.
If your outline has the heading “The Benefits of Fibre Laser Cutting for Sheet Metal Parts”, search “fibre laser cutting benefits” or just “fibre laser benefits”.
This returns the most relevant resources for that section, because you have filtered out the noise that would otherwise skew the results.
Notice that this is the trimming process again. Research is a constant alternation of expanding and trimming.
2. Use Those Keywords to Find Sources
Now you have a keyword for every section.
Some writers start writing at this point. That is fine if they are experienced enough, or if they are the subject matter expert. The rest of us need a system, and a system like this one lets anyone produce solid technical content. Run a Google search for each keyword, one section at a time, and find the best sources.
Open the top 10–20 results and skim them. Don’t dive deep into every article, or you will spend days reading and write nothing.
You are still in the research phase. In the writing phase you will come back to these sources and read them properly.
For manufacturing content, the best sources are rarely other marketing articles. Look for:
- the standards themselves (EN 1090, ISO 2768, ISO 3834) and the summaries published by certification bodies,
- technical documentation from machine builders and material suppliers (data sheets, cutting parameter tables),
- trade associations, technical universities and research institutes,
- and, above all, your own production: measurement reports, cycle times, scrap rates, cost calculations.
Speed matters here. Learn to judge quickly whether a source is credible. Don’t worry if you are slow at first; after a few articles you will recognise the reliable sources in your niche and the process will speed up.
Paste the URL of each useful source into your outline, right under the relevant heading. That document becomes the brief for whoever writes the article, whether that is you, a colleague or an external writer.
As a rule, include one great source per heading to avoid overwhelm. If you can’t find one great source, use several, but no more than three per section, or you will get bogged down reading.
Trust us, there is no point spending eight hours researching a section that will be 100 words long.
Why look for separate sources for each section?
If you use only one or two sources for the whole article, you end up with rehashed content that reads like a copy of the platform’s design guide. You don’t need a hundred sources per section, but every section should bring something fresh, so do your best to find a unique source for each.
The research points you in the right direction on topics, structure and what to include. But always put your own spin on it, with your own numbers, photos and the mistakes you see in RFQs every week. Even a topic covered a thousand times becomes valuable when it comes from the shop floor.
3. Update Your Article Structure and Check It With an Engineer
One last thing to do during research: update the structure when necessary.
As you search for sources you may discover a new idea, a better angle or an element to add. When that happens, be open to adjusting your finished outline.
Keep this to a minimum; don’t restructure the whole outline and undo your previous work. But don’t limit yourself either. The outline is finished, not set in stone. Edit it if you are sure the change makes the article better.
Then, before anything is published, put the outline and the key numbers in front of an engineer for fifteen minutes. A wrong value in a tolerance table costs more credibility with buyers than no table at all, and Google increasingly rewards content that shows real expertise. Fifteen minutes on the shop floor is the cheapest quality check in this whole process.
A Few Final Productivity Tips
Use these if you need to escape writer’s block or don’t know where to start.
- Do the research one or two days before you write. You will start with an outline and every source you need in front of you.
- Limit the time for each step to avoid analysis paralysis. Cover each phase as thoroughly as you can in the shortest feasible time.
- Don’t put everything you know about a process into one article. It loses focus, and you run out of topics for the next one.
- Approach each topic with dedication. Let the sources spark the writing.
- Don’t just write. Use this system to benchmark what others publish and to improve on it.
Conclusion
With these three steps, the content on your manufacturing website becomes data-driven and deliberate.
You have learnt how to choose topics that already bring traffic to competitors and platforms, how to build a better outline in stages, and how to source every section without drowning in tabs.
Writing is not about reinventing the wheel. You are allowed to draw on other sources for your outline, as long as you avoid producing rehashed content that doesn’t perform. Rearrange the steps if a different order works better for you, but keep them small and purposeful.
We use this system to create technical content that ranks and brings RFQs. For the writing itself, our SEO content creation tips for manufacturing companies pick up where this article ends.
Overall, your goal is to go the extra mile for the engineer reading, not just for the search engine. Do this consistently, and your content will be well researched and, in most cases, the best on its topic.
