The build
A site written for a technical buyer
Specs, materials, tolerances and capacity laid out in the terms a buyer already searches with — so they can qualify you without an enquiry, and enquire already half-scoped.
Process, Chemicals & Coatings
Coatings, plating & finishing
Coaters and platers are chosen on a spec a part has to meet — a coating thickness, a salt-spray rating, a standard the buyer’s drawing calls up — and on the confidence you’ll hold it on part 5,000 as tightly as on part 1.
Most of that trust is currently earned over the phone, but the buyer sending parts out (and the AI assistant they ask first) can only judge what your site actually states. Most finishing sites say "quality finishes" and stop there; I state the finishes you run, the standards you work to and the performance you can evidence. That’s what gets your shop onto the drawing instead of into the "also rang" pile.
What I'd build you
A site that gets found, believed and quoted.
Found
Ranked for what you actually make
A page per process, material and sector instead of one “Services” page — every one its own door into the site, matched to how buyers search rather than how the business is organised.
Asked for
Named in the answer, not the results
Buyers ask an assistant before they ask a supplier, and it quotes whoever actually answered. Question-led content and structured data put your words in that answer.
Measured, not claimed
2.9s.
Time to main content on a phone, against 6.9s for the median of 5 comparable firms.
Reported
Numbers you can put in front of the MD
Speed, search visibility and enquiry volume measured on a regular cycle and reported back — so the site is answerable for something rather than just existing.
What I build for coatings, plating & finishing
-
A page per finish (electroless nickel, hard chrome, zinc & zinc-nickel, passivation, phosphating) with thickness, standard and salt-spray performance
-
Substrate and industry pages (steel, aluminium, castings; aerospace, defence, hydraulics, fasteners)
-
Quality and inspection content — thickness testing, salt-spray hours, batch records and traceability — built for the QA gate
-
A parts-in enquiry flow capturing part, substrate, finish spec, standard and volumes
Frequently asked questions.
What manufacturers ask before they hire me. If yours is not here, ask it — the answer is usually short.
Will buyers find us for a specific finish and standard, not just "metal finishing"?
I build a page per finish with the thickness range, the standard it meets and the salt-spray performance, so a buyer searching for exactly that spec matches to your shop instead of a generalist who lists every process as one line.
How do we distinguish the plating and coating types we actually run?
Each process gets its own page, because a buyer needing electroless nickel to a set thickness and one needing zinc plating to a salt-spray rating search and evaluate completely differently — collapsing them into one "services" page loses both.
Our whole reputation is batch-to-batch consistency — can a site show that?
I give your inspection and process control their own content — thickness verification, salt-spray results, batch records — so a QA buyer sees the finish is measured and traceable, not just claimed, which is what they check before releasing parts to you.
How do parts-in enquiries get captured without a dozen clarifying emails?
A parts-in enquiry flow captures the part, substrate, finish spec, standard and quantity up front, so you can quote and schedule from complete information the first time.
A lot of our work feeds machine shops and fabricators — how do we reach that trade?
I build content aimed squarely at machinists, toolmakers and fabricators who subcontract finishing, so the trade buyers who send you steady repeat work can find and vet you before they ship a single part.
Will AI assistants recommend us when a buyer asks who can apply a given finish?
That’s the point of the structured finish-and-standard content — and with my tool Periscope I measure how often ChatGPT, Gemini and Perplexity name you for real finishing questions, then work the pages that move it.
More in process, chemicals & coatings
Proof — recent manufacturer work
All case studies
Welding supplies & equipment — trade wholesale
Weldability-SIF
A trade portal for a welding wholesaler founded in 1925 — 3,400 pages, contract pricing, credit and reordering pulled live from the ERP.
Industrial distribution & engineering services
Tidyco
A rebuild for a Derby fluid-power and rail engineering group — seven divisions, one front door, and a 50-guide library that answers buyers before they enquire.
Precision CNC machining
Milltech Precision Engineering
A rebuild for a Norwich CNC subcontractor — four divisions, capability pages that state the tolerance, and a quote path that asks for the drawing.
Related reading
All articlesOpinion
What technical buyers actually ask AI before they shortlist a supplier
Buyers now run a first-pass supplier filter through ChatGPT before a human ever sees your site. Here's what the AI checks — and why most manufacturers get quietly cut.
Opinion
Why your distributors still phone their orders in — and what actually changes that
If your best trade customers still order by phone, it isn't loyalty — it's habit, and habits move to whoever removes the friction first. Here's what shifts it.
How-to
Your technical datasheets are your best salesperson — so why are they hidden in a PDF?
For technical products, the datasheet is what a buyer uses to choose. Locking it in an unfindable PDF hands the enquiry to a competitor who published theirs.
Next
Be the coatings, plating & finishing supplier AI recommends.
The snapshot checks what assistants currently say about a business like yours, and where the answer comes from. It takes about a minute.