The Best Aerospace and Defense Website Design Examples

Windmill Strategy specializes in website design and development for aerospace and defense companies of all types and sizes.

The aerospace and defense website design projects we most often engage in are with companies that are engineering or delivering a part or component of an overall aerospace or defense solution.

Our Top Picks for Aerospace and Defense Websites

Here are some of our favorite aerospace and defense website design and development examples:

McNally Defense

Hydro- and electro-mechanical systems provider and Department of Defense contractor McNally Industries created an updated website with Windmill Strategy that presents a state-of-the-art appearance to modernize their business. They wanted to take their basic, outdated website and change it into a point of validation and trust, conveying a message of professionalism to existing and referral clients within the DOD. With a focus on this professional appearance, it also was built with lead generation in mind in attracting new potential clients through appearing better in search results.

Check out our McNally Industries website redesign case study

ETI Manufacturing

Electronics Technology International (ETI) came to Windmill to clarify its brand and positioning in the context of a redesigned website that would increase the quantity and quality of leads and provide a more flexible marketing platform. Through its use of a more modern look-and-feel, and clarified brand positioning and messaging, the content strategy and user experience were crafted to guide the user through the landing page to a point of conversion. Unique to this business (which is two combined companies with distinct names remaining), we introduced an additional page explaining the synergy that the combined organization offers to its customers. This site uses a clear SEO strategy focused on attracting the company’s ideal customer profiles and personas: OEMs.

Check out our ETI website redesign case study

HALCO Hook & Loop Company

As a growing business, Halco USA had found that its B2B website, built on the assumption that a prospect would almost immediately connect with a sales representative, was not doing enough to provide information online to guide buyers through their journey. SEO performance was also relatively poor, despite Halco’s status as the fifth-largest brand of hook and loop fasteners in the United States. In working with Windmill, Halco’s redesigned site was upgraded to include a deeper level of product data and architecture which is ultimately the core content its users are seeking when searching for a solution and partner like itself. This website does a fantastic job at converting prospects using a “request a sample” approach as a primary conversion path on the website, tied to the user’s personal interaction with the individual projects themselves.

Check out our Halco USA website redesign case study

PEKO Precision

PEKO Precision Products, Inc. is a world-class electromechanical contract manufacturing company that specializes in manufacturing and designing equipment, machinery, and precision assemblies to support a range of industries including defense, medical, and renewable energy. The company works with many of the world’s most prominent industrial OEMs, supporting new product development through full production, and has the flexibility to immediately respond to changing demand. There are ample opportunities throughout the site for users to convert into marketing qualified leads (or MQLs for short), with customized calls-to-action placed subtly in the right spots with relevant content to the page.

NDT Products

NDT Products Limited is a full-service supplier of a wide range of non-destructive testing (NDT) products. Its e-commerce website, built by Windmill Strategy, allows users to explore their full suite of non-destructive testing products for aerospace and defense. The website is fully “self-service”, allowing prospective customers to access, browse, and add products to a cart without assistance, making it well-positioned to attract conversions.

Raytheon Technologies

Raytheon tackles the world’s toughest challenges, serving customers in the commercial aerospace and defense industries. Their world-class engineers and scientists develop disruptive technologies and advanced solutions to protect and defend people and infrastructures. Its website leads with less is more, and it works in this case. Given how complex Raytheon is as an organization, this simplistic approach to explaining itself and its positioning in the marketplace functions well and likely leads to less confusion and annoyance to end customers (all of whom are already aware of Raytheon and its capabilities).

Boeing

Boeing is an American multinational corporation that designs, manufactures, and sells airplanes, rotorcraft, rockets, satellites, telecommunications equipment, and missiles worldwide. With such a wide range of categories, and being a global leader, Boeing’s website is a great example of how to take a large amount of content (pages) and still make it easy to navigate and find what you’re seeking. The use of mega menus throughout the drop-downs helps the user find their way as they drill down into relevant content, without having to click through several times to get to an end page.

Link2Compliance

Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification (CMMC) is a new requirement rolling out for companies that contract with the United States Department of Defense (DoD). These contractors will have to have their cybersecurity audited by a third party, specifically a Certified 3rd Party Assessor Organization (C3PAO). Given how complex CMMC compliance has become to all organizations in the aerospace and defense sector, Link2Compliance adopted a strategy focused on education first to establish itself as a thought leader in this newly developing space. The content strategy leads with a skim-and-dive approach to help the audience seeking an assessor feel confident that a firm like Link2Compliance is well qualified in assessing their compliance to these standards.

Aerospace & Defense Website Considerations

Marketing to the Primes

We’ve all heard of Raytheon, Boeing, Collins Aerospace and the other primes. These major industry players are always in the mix when it comes to the components your company is manufacturing for highly complex, mission-critical applications. When you’re talking about anything in the aerospace and defense industries, you can’t ignore the primes – they’re the 800-lb gorillas in this sector. While they may not be your direct customer, they are at the top of the supply chain, and many of the qualifications and certifications that your customer requires come directly from these primes.

Highlighting Certifications Matter

NIST, NADCAP, CMMC, etc. The list of acronyms and abbreviations continues…

Certifications are the cost of entry in the world of aerospace and defense. Without these certifications, you wouldn’t be able to sell your product or service to the innovative companies you’re working with to deliver a fully functioning solution.

You need to make sure your website quickly and clearly lists your certifications. We recommend doing this on the homepage towards the bottom or in the footer of the website. You should also maintain (and, more importantly, update) a list of quality certifications on a standalone page or resource section of your site, as the purchasing agents and executives that are reviewing your site will need to see this information to continue their conversation.

CMMC and Cybersecurity

CMMC has been on the horizon for a long time and on everyone’s radar despite how slowly it’s rolling out in reality. We’ve worked with lots of companies like yours that are also subject to the CMMC requirement. We’ve also worked with a 3PCAO-certified CMMC consultant on their own marketing and website redesign, so we generally understand how these requirements will apply and affect you and your marketing.

An Important Distinction in Targeting Aerospace and Defense

You should be as specific and narrow in your approach to the website and optimization as the product or service you deliver within aerospace and defense. For example, if you’re a metal finishing company serving aerospace and defense projects 95% of the time, optimizing your site for ‘commercial metal finishing’ or ‘industrial metal finishing’ won’t cut it. You need to go a step further. A narrower focus might seem counterintuitive as you’ll receive less overall traffic, BUT, that traffic will be more qualified and you’ll waste less time entertaining projects you wouldn’t be able to (or wish to) complete anyway. Instead, get more specific with your SEO and optimize for something like ‘NADCAP metal finishing’ or similar.

In Conclusion

You’re already providing elite services in the aerospace and defense sector with the credentials and certifications to prove it, but effectively marketing your products and services to achieve more and higher-quality leads takes more than qualifications alone.

It takes a comprehensive design and development strategy. The team at Windmill Strategy understands you, your industry, and your customer base. We’re equipped to help you establish a website that offers more value to your current and potential customers while helping you solidify your place as a leader in aerospace and defense. If you’re ready to start discussing strategy and design for your website, we’d love to hear from you. Get in touch with our team to schedule a free consultation.