Case study · Pipe and tube preparation tools · Since 2014
Marketing leadership for a family-owned maker of MILLHOG® pipe and tube beveling tools that sells through rep and distributor firms worldwide. We turned decades of Esco's engineering knowledge into the pages engineers search for.
Esco's engineering knowledge, put where engineers search, now brings in more requests from new buyers.
I’ve worked with Jay for over a decade. He is a detail-oriented, goal-driven, highly skilled marketing executive who has his finger on the pulse of web development and market trends. With his knowledge, he seamlessly brought our manufacturing company into the digital world. He takes the time to understand your business needs rather than pushing his own agenda. He’s a collaborator and easy to work with. If you’re considering working with Jay, I wouldn’t hesitate.
We've worked with Esco since 2014, and in November 2025 we took on their marketing leadership. Esco had decades of engineering know-how, a rep network on six continents, and years of sales history in the ERP. We started each project with what that data said.
We rebuilt Esco's website from the ground up: product pages structured for engineers, quote requests routed into HubSpot, and a product selector that recommends the right tool for the job.
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High-Performance
Pipe & Tube
Beveling Tools
Rugged, reliable portable beveling, cutting, and flange facing tools proven in the toughest field environments worldwide.
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New COHOG Clamshell Split Frames Are Available for
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Portable Precision Equipment
for Tube and Pipe Fabrication
MILLHOG O.D. and I.D. mounted beveling machines
APS-438 multipurpose air-powered saw
Solutions for tube and pipe alignment
Engineers search for the problem before they search for a tool name: the right bevel angle, how to face a flange, how to cut thin-wall stainless. We built the site to answer those questions with Esco's own know-how, then made it easy to go from an answer to a request.
Esco ranked for product names, with almost nothing for research questions.
Top 3 in Google for “compound bevel” (1.3), “bevel angle” (1.5), “bevel angle in welding” (1.6) and “pipe bevel angle” (2.0). Question and how-to searches where Esco ranks went from 10 to 86.
Ads and searches for pipe beveling landed on a thin category page.
A pipe beveling pillar page with a how-to-choose guide, applications, a tool grid and FAQs. Visits starting on it rose 2.5x (264 → 666), and the share of engaged visits went from 44% to 62%.
3–4 second load times and 337 pages in Google's index.
Under one second at launch, and 534 pages indexed.
One-step forms spread across plugins.
Two-step HubSpot forms on the product, contact and rental pages. Views of those pages ending in a request rose from 1.67% to 2.54%. Contact requests about 3x, rental requests 3x.
In twelve months Esco went from about half the category leader's page-one rankings to level with it, and now holds more top-3 positions than either of its two largest competitors. It did that with fewer sites linking to it.
| Google US | Esco | Category leader | Next competitor |
|---|---|---|---|
| Keywords in the top 10 | 141 (67 a year ago) | 144 | 122 |
| Keywords in the top 3 | 60 | 48 | 46 |
| Sites linking in | 553 | 651 | 877 |
Comparing the same months in 2025 and 2026.
| Measure | Chart | Before | After | Change |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Google Search Console | ||||
| Non-branded searches ranking on page one | 149 | 398 | 2.7x | |
| Non-branded searches ranking in the top 3 | 31 | 97 | 3.1x | |
| Search impressions | 144K | 246K | +70% | |
| Average position | 22.0 | 10.6 | about 2x better | |
| GA4 | ||||
| Engaged visits | 5,753 | 9,114 | +58% | |
| Engaged visits from Google search | 3,267 | 5,348 | +64% | |
| Visits starting on the contact page | 57 | 210 | 3.7x | |
| Requests | ||||
| Quote, contact and rental requests | 128 | 198 | +55% | |
| Form-page views ending in a request | 1.67% | 2.54% | +52% | |
The search numbers are the most visible part of the story. The bigger part is what happens after a request comes in.
Esco makes dozens of MILLHOG models, and the right one depends on the job. The selector asks whether it's pipe or tube, the size and the wall thickness, then recommends a best fit and a second option. It's built from Esco's capability chart and sizing logic, so the answer matches what the shop would tell you.
Reps got it first and used it to train new people, then it went on the homepage and in the menu. Answers feed into HubSpot, so Esco can see what buyers are sizing.
Video for Esco covers the hyperlapse and lead machinist Shauna on the new homepage, and the scripts and voiceover for the COHOG videos.
| Before | After |
|---|---|
| Forms spread across plugins, with bot spam spikes | Native HubSpot two-step forms, no spam spikes |
| Rankings built around product names | Top 3 for core bevel angle questions, page one for 2.7x as many non-branded searches |
| Catalog-style product pages | Pillar pages, industry pages and a Learning Center with 11+ technical guides |
| 3–4 second loads, 337 pages indexed | Under 1 second, 534 pages indexed |
| No site search | Site search with products ranked first |
| Tool choice handled by phone and email | A selector by pipe or tube, size and wall thickness |
| Web activity and sales kept separately | HubSpot matched to ERP orders every quarter |
| Sales reports built by hand | 6-year trend reports and territory summaries for rep visits |
Most manufacturers already have the answer in their website, CRM and sales history. They just haven't connected them. A Growth Audit shows you where you stand and what to fix first.