# SEO during website development: design pages for search and enquiries [Read this article on ENQAVIA](https://enqavia.com/articles/seo-during-website-development/) By ENQAVIA · Published 2026-10-21 SEO during website development means agreeing the pages, content and links a search visitor will need before signing off the design. The practical output is a brief that tells the designer what each page must explain, tells the developer what must be editable, and gives the website owner something concrete to check before launch. A homepage can introduce a manufacturer well while leaving a specific buying question unanswered. A purchasing manager looking for a supplier of injection-moulded housings needs to understand whether the company can assess that part. A striking production photograph and a general statement about quality leave the important work to an email exchange. We would settle that gap while the page is still a layout. The following worked example uses a hypothetical plastic parts manufacturer. Its search phrases and page names illustrate the planning method; they are not a measured keyword list or a description of a client website. ## Turn buyer searches into a page brief Start with the products and processes the company can actually supply. Ask sales which terms appear in suitable enquiries, which descriptions cause confusion, and what buyers need to confirm before sending a drawing. Compare that vocabulary with search results in the intended market. Record whether the results mainly offer a service, sell a standard product or explain a process. For each group of searches, name the buying task. “Plastic injection moulding” and “injection moulding services” may belong to the same capability page. A request for a standard enclosure and a request to manufacture a custom enclosure involve different offers, even though both mention plastic housings. The brief for our example might begin like this: | Illustrative search or question | Proposed page and purpose | Information the design must accommodate | | --- | --- | --- | | “Plastic injection moulding services” | Explain the manufacturing service | Part types, process scope, material review and quotation requirements | | “Custom plastic housings manufacturer” | Help a buyer assess a particular application | Relevant housing examples, design constraints and what to send for assessment | | “Can you mould this material?” | Answer within the capability page, with a dedicated material page only if justified | Approved material information and limits that need technical confirmation | | “What affects injection moulding cost?” | Explain quotation inputs in a guide | Tooling, part requirements and order assumptions, linked to the service | | “Who will manufacture our parts?” | Establish the company behind the offer | Verifiable company information, production evidence and contact details | The final column is the part most easily lost between SEO research and design. Handing over a spreadsheet of phrases gives a designer little help with deciding what belongs on the page. ## Decide which pages deserve separate URLs A new page earns its place when it answers a different question with useful, supportable information. Before adding “custom plastic housings” to the navigation, we would ask whether the manufacturer has enough relevant material to explain that application: part examples, specification considerations, production scope and an appropriate enquiry route. If the proposed page only changes the heading of the general injection-moulding page, keep the subject within that page until there is something distinct to publish. Likewise, an industry label alone does not justify another version of every service. An equipment enclosure page and a packaging page should explain genuinely different requirements. For a website with both standard products and custom manufacturing, agree where the two offers separate. Product selection belongs in a catalogue; assessing a drawing belongs in a service journey. Our [product catalogue planning guide](https://enqavia.com/articles/product-catalog-website/) covers the record and variant decisions behind that distinction. ## Give the commercial template room to explain the offer The design needs to work with a real page draft. For the injection-moulding example, we would bring an approved description, representative photographs and the actual quotation questions into the layout review. Placeholder headings and identical text lengths can hide a template that breaks as soon as the technical content arrives. The opening should identify the service and who it suits. A buyer landing directly from search needs that context without returning to the homepage. A short explanation of the work, an appropriate image and a clear enquiry action give the page a useful starting point. Further down, leave space for the distinctions that matter: types of parts, material considerations, what the business needs to assess feasibility, and examples it has permission to show. Each image should help explain something. A close view of a moulded feature beside an explanation can carry more information than another wide factory photograph. Technical detail must remain usable on a phone. Review a long material name, a specification table and a document link in the actual layout. A fixed-height card that clips an important qualification is a content problem as well as a layout problem. The machining-page mockup below is a design example showing how the offer, supporting information and enquiry action can share one page. Its capabilities would need verification before publication.
CNC machining service page concept on a laptop and phone, with materials, drawing requirements and a quotation action
A commercial template connects the service, supporting details and quotation route on desktop and mobile. Illustrative design concept.
During signoff, ask the reviewer to locate a particular answer: “What would you send to have this part assessed?” If the answer is missing, the template needs a content slot or a clearer route. Enlarging the quotation button will leave the question unanswered. ## Plan the links while planning the pages We encounter websites where the useful information exists but the pages barely connect. The manufacturer explains a process in one section, shows a suitable application elsewhere and places the contact action at the end of a third page. The visitor has to assemble the offer. Draw the useful connections in the page brief. In our example, the custom-housings page would link to the relevant manufacturing service and to a guide explaining what affects a quotation. That guide would lead back to the service when discussing the information a buyer needs to prepare. A material reference would link to the applicable capability rather than leave the reader at a dead end. On ENQAVIA, we use this relationship between services, industries and guides. The [plastic manufacturing website page](https://enqavia.com/industries/plastic-manufacturing-website/) shows the sector's information problems; the [corporate website service](https://enqavia.com/services/corporate-website-development/) describes the website work. A guide can explain an individual decision in more depth and connect the reader to both. Use link text that identifies the destination. In the interface, page navigation should use ordinary links with real addresses. Keep actions such as opening a form separate from links that take the visitor to another page. A sitemap supplements this structure; it cannot make an unclear journey understandable to a buyer. ## Agree what the team can edit after launch The content model should reflect the approved template. If a service page needs a process description, material notes, supporting documents and related applications, those items need a maintainable home. Avoid making the whole page one unrestricted text field or hard-coding every useful relationship into the layout. We would specify a page name, stable address, main heading, search title, description and the content sections the team will update. Also decide how an editor selects related pages, changes a document and supplies meaningful image alternatives. The [manufacturing content workflow](https://enqavia.com/articles/manufacturing-website-content/) explains how to assign sources and reviewers for technical statements. Ask the developer to demonstrate a realistic update before accepting the editing system. Change a service heading, add a longer material description and replace an obsolete document. Check the published preview on a phone. The team should be able to do routine work without breaking the layout or leaving an old reference behind. Search titles and descriptions need to describe each page accurately. They are editable content, not fields for a repeated list of keywords. The visible main heading should still make sense to someone who has never seen the company's homepage. ## Make launch acceptance specific “Basic SEO included” leaves too much open to interpretation. Name the checks and the person responsible for them. For a small manufacturing website, we would include these in the acceptance list: - **Page coverage:** each agreed commercial task has its intended page and reviewed content. No placeholder sections remain. - **Navigation:** the important pages can be reached through working links, including relevant connections within the content. - **Search access:** the public pages intended for search are accessible; development restrictions are handled deliberately at launch. - **Page identity:** titles, headings, canonical addresses and the sitemap refer to the intended public URLs. - **Content rendering:** essential descriptions and specifications appear as readable page content rather than only inside images or downloads. - **Mobile delivery:** images have reserved space, tables remain readable, and opening a menu or form does not obscure the task. - **Enquiry delivery:** a test request reaches the agreed recipient with the expected page or product context, and failures preserve the visitor's entries. Use the same list when comparing development quotations so both sides can see the work being accepted. When an existing site is being replaced, add a URL inventory and redirect mapping before changing addresses. That is a separate migration task covered in the [manufacturing website redesign guide](https://enqavia.com/articles/manufacturing-website-redesign/). ## Use the first search data to test the plan After launch, check whether the intended pages can be discovered and indexed, then review which queries lead to which pages. Search Console can help identify indexing issues and show impressions and clicks. A new site may have little data, so start by confirming that the implementation matches the brief. As evidence accumulates, compare the search with the offer. If a capability page appears for standard products the company does not sell, inspect its wording and internal links. If buyers repeatedly ask a question the page was meant to answer, check whether the explanation is present, visible and specific enough. Keep commercial feedback alongside search reports. Relevant impressions, visits and enquiries answer different questions; an increase in one does not establish an increase in orders. Record whether sales can assess the requests and where information is still missing. ## Questions before approving the design ### Can SEO be added to a finished website? Yes. The amount of work depends on what is missing. Updating a description is a small change; separating several offers that share one page may require new content, navigation and layouts. Identify those structural decisions before approving the design when possible. ### Should we create a page for every keyword variation? Group phrases that describe the same task. Create a separate page when the visitor needs a different answer and the company can provide useful material for it. A long keyword list is a research input, not a page-count target.