Capability visibility engine

Get found by the buyers who need what you make.

Helix turns your capabilities, certifications, and past work into a visibility system, so the engineer or buyer searching for exactly what you make finds you first and sends the RFQ.

Request a visibility auditCapability pages · industry authority · AI search

Before the RFQ

Helix owns everything that gets the RFQ started.

Capability visibility, certifications, proof, and the searches that put your shop in front of a buyer ready to source. Quoting and follow-up is the front office's job.

Accurate capabilities and tolerances
Certifications and claims stated correctly
Distributor and dealer content approved
You approve before it publishes

Built for

Aerospace & defenseMedtech & life sciencesElectronics & precisionContract manufacturersIndustrial equipment
CNC machiningMetal fabricationInjection moldingMedical devicePrecision components
Live

Real buyers we found for manufacturers this week

Every card is a real conversation on Reddit, X, LinkedIn, or Facebook. In your account, we draft the response and ship it.

What a Helix scorecard looks like

Here's the scorecard for a shop like yours.

A fictitious Arizona precision machining shop, real-shaped findings drawn from the same rubric we run on your site. Composite grade, 4 outcomes, findings ranked by severity, weekly + monthly shipping. Click "View full scorecard" to see the findings and cadence detail. Yours pulls real data, same shape.

Sample scorecard for a fictional firm in your vertical. Yours will use real data from your site + market.
Helix Scorecard·July 15, 2026

Ironforge Precision Machining

ironforgeprecision.com · Phoenix, Arizona · 5-axis CNC machining, custom fabrication, AS9100 aerospace-grade parts

Composite

C-

1.80 GPA

Projected · 6 mo

B

+1.30 GPA with Helix

4 outcomes

SEO

D+

Ranks for the shop name and a few long-tail material queries. Missing on the queries buyers actually search: "aerospace 5-axis machining Phoenix," "AS9100 CNC shop Arizona," "titanium precision machining Southwest."

1.30 GPA

GEO

D

ChatGPT, Claude, and Perplexity name the shop 0 times out of 20 when asked to recommend an AS9100 5-axis shop in Phoenix or the Southwest. Answer engines cite two Los Angeles shops, one Denver shop, and Thomasnet category pages.

1.00 GPA

Brand

C+

Thomasnet profile is claimed but half the capability fields are blank. Google Business Profile is claimed for the facility but sits at 4 reviews collected over 6 years. LinkedIn Company Page publishes about once a quarter.

2.30 GPA

Website

C

Site loads fast, mobile-clean, hero video of a 5-axis cell runs on the homepage. Structure is a single Services page with a paragraph per capability. No per-process capability sheets, no per-industry landing pages, no RFQ form outside /contact.

2.00 GPA

View full scorecard(8 findings · shipping · monthly targets)

Top findings

8 findings shown

highSEO

Organization + Service schema missing across the site

No JSON-LD structured data detected on ironforgeprecision.com. Google reads Ironforge as a shop from the title tag alone, no schema-level signals for legalName, address, foundingDate, numberOfEmployees, or the specific processes offered. Costs eligibility for entity-panel presentation and for the Service filters industrial buyers pivot on when they cross-reference a Google result against a Thomasnet capability.

What Helix does

Add Organization JSON-LD to the homepage carrying legalName, url, address, telephone, foundingDate, numberOfEmployees, and sameAs (LinkedIn, Thomasnet, AIA + PMPA directory entries). Add Service JSON-LD to each capability page naming the process, provider, areaServed (Arizona + Southwest), and serviceType.

highSEO

Every capability bundled onto a single Services page

ironforgeprecision.com/services lists 5-axis CNC, 3-axis milling, wire + sinker EDM, precision grinding, and custom fabrication as five short paragraphs on one URL. Nothing here can rank for a specific process + material + tolerance query because the page has no title, meta description, H1, or content depth tuned to a single capability. An engineer searching for "5-axis titanium machining Phoenix" lands on Thomasnet + a Los Angeles shop before this page.

What Helix does

Split into per-process capability sheets: /5-axis-cnc-machining, /precision-grinding, /wire-edm, /sinker-edm, /custom-fabrication. Each carries machine list with make + model + axis count + travel envelope, materials handled, tolerance band, surface finish spec, and secondary operations (heat treat, plating, passivation). Existing Services page becomes a hub linking to all sheets.

highBRAND

Thomasnet profile claimed but half-empty

Thomasnet profile for Ironforge is claimed but 4 of 9 capability fields read blank (secondary operations, part-size envelope, machine list, quality-system references). Employee count and plant square footage are unset. Aerospace and defense buyers filtering Thomasnet for a shop with 5-axis + AS9100 + titanium capability do not surface Ironforge because Thomasnet reads blank capability fields as an implicit no.

What Helix does

Complete every Thomasnet capability field: full process list, materials (aluminum 6061 + 7075, titanium Ti-6Al-4V, Inconel 718, 17-4 PH stainless, PEEK), tolerance band, surface finish, machine list with axis counts, secondary operations, quality registrations (AS9100D + ISO 9001:2015 + ITAR), employee count, and plant square footage. Upload 20+ photos: facility exterior, each machining cell, CMM inspection room, finished-part portfolio.

mediumWEBSITE

Certification badges buried in the About-page footer

AS9100D + ISO 9001:2015 + ITAR registration + Made in USA badge are all present but sit in a small strip at the bottom of the About page. Homepage hero has zero credibility signal. A buyer vetting the shop on mobile scrolls past a hero video, a generic services intro, and a contact form before seeing any registrar-verified badge, which is the single signal that decides whether the buyer keeps reading.

What Helix does

Move a compact badge strip (AS9100D + ISO 9001:2015 + ITAR + Made in USA) above the fold on the homepage and repeat on every capability + industry-served page. Each badge links to the certifications hub with registrar name, scope of registration, and downloadable certificate PDF for verification.

mediumSEO

No industry-pointed landing pages for aerospace, defense, or medical

Ironforge serves aerospace, defense, and medical device customers per the About-page copy and per the LinkedIn Company Page but has no dedicated landing page for any of the three. Industry-modifier RFQ intent ("aerospace parts manufacturer Phoenix," "ITAR defense machining Arizona," "medical device machining Southwest") is being served by competitors with per-industry pages carrying the qualifying certifications + representative parts.

What Helix does

Build /aerospace-manufacturing, /defense-manufacturing, and /medical-device-manufacturing landing pages. Each names the relevant certification (AS9100D for aerospace, ITAR + CAGE code for defense, ISO 13485 for medical if the registration is in scope), representative parts shipped, quality + traceability practices, and an in-body RFQ form. Cross-link each into the matching capability sheets.

mediumWEBSITE

RFQ form only on the Contact page

RFQ intake is a single form on /contact behind a header nav link. Every capability page, About section, and press-release write-up ends with a generic "get in touch" line pointing back to /contact. Engineers landing on a capability page from Thomasnet or a Google result quote from the page they land on, not from a form two clicks away. Every extra click drops RFQ conversion.

What Helix does

Add an in-body or right-rail RFQ form to every capability + industry-served page. The form asks for part drawings (STEP + PDF), material, quantity, tolerance band, and target lead time. Keep /contact as a fallback and add a persistent floating RFQ button on capability + industry pages.

mediumGEO

Answer engines have no third-party sources that name Ironforge

ChatGPT, Claude, and Perplexity name Ironforge 0 times out of 20 probes when asked to recommend an AS9100 5-axis CNC shop in Phoenix or the Southwest. Answer engines are pulling from Thomasnet category pages, two association directories, and a handful of shop-comparison blog posts, none of which list Ironforge. The site itself carries no FAQ-shaped copy that an answer engine can extract as a citation.

What Helix does

Publish an "aerospace 5-axis machining in Phoenix" capability + FAQ page structured for answer-engine extraction (tight paragraphs, clear headings, FAQ schema on material + tolerance + certification questions). Add Ironforge to at least 4 association + industrial directories (AIA, PMPA, NTMA, GlobalSpec) with matching capability + certification copy so answer engines have consistent third-party sources to triangulate.

lowBRAND

Google Business Profile for the facility is thin

GBP is claimed with primary category "Machine Shop" but no secondary categories (Metal Fabricator, Manufacturer, Aerospace Company) and only 3 photos posted, all exterior. No business hours listed, no service-area tag, and 4 Google reviews collected over 6 years. Any Phoenix-area engineer who searches "cnc machine shop near me" sees Ironforge outranked by two smaller job shops with 20+ reviews and full facility photo sets.

What Helix does

Add secondary categories (Metal Fabricator, Manufacturer, Aerospace Company), upload 20+ facility + machining-cell + inspection-room photos, set hours, and tag service area at Phoenix metro + Southwest. Add a post-program review-request step tied to program close, targeting 1 new Google review per quarter from a client engineering or purchasing contact.

Shipped this week

Jul 6 - Jul 12, 2026

6

pieces published

blog1
linkedin3
x2

blog: 5-Axis vs 3+2 Machining for Complex Aerospace Brackets: When Each Wins

linkedin: Why AS9100 audit prep starts six months before the auditor arrives

linkedin: First article inspection: three failure modes we see on titanium brackets

linkedin: Case study: 0.0005 in tolerance on an Inconel 718 turbine housing (anonymized)

+ 2 more

Thomasnet Profile views287
Thomasnet RFQs received3
LinkedIn Impressions2,164
Blog Sessions318
X Impressions1,472

July 2026 targets

north star

Rank on page 1 of Google for "aerospace 5-axis machining Phoenix Arizona" by end of Q3 and be cited by name in ChatGPT + Perplexity when an aerospace or defense buyer asks for an AS9100 shop in the Southwest.

Google ranking (aerospace 5-axis machining Phoenix)

Page 4, position 34Page 1, position 4-7

Thomasnet monthly RFQs

312

Capability sheets live

1 bundled Services5 per-process sheets + hub

Industry-served landing pages live

03 (aerospace, defense, medical)

AI answer citations (ChatGPT + Perplexity + Claude)

0 of 20 probesCited in 6+ of 20 probes

This is what a Helix scorecard for your firm looks like. Yours pulls real data from your site, market, and answer engines.

Request your free scorecard

Best fit

Built for shops whose capabilities are better than their website.

Shops with real capabilities but a weak or dated website

Manufacturers who live on referrals and repeat buyers and want new RFQs

Capability pages that read like a generic equipment list

Shops adding a process, a machine, or a new industry

Manufacturers buying ads but sending buyers to thin pages

Certifications and past work that never get used to win trust

By what you make

A job shop and a product line are not found the same way.

How a buyer searches, and what earns their trust, changes with what you make and how you sell it. We build the pages and proof each one needs.

Custom & contract

Machining, fabrication, contract manufacturing. Work comes in as RFQs. The shop that shows the right capabilities and quotes fast wins the PO.

Product & OEM

Product and equipment makers. Longer design-in cycles. Spec visibility, proof, and distributor relationships get you into the drawing.

Components & supply

Suppliers, distributors, and MRO. Buyers reorder and expand. Findability and clear availability keep the account and grow it.

Where you're getting missed

The best shop in the region still loses the RFQ it never showed up for.

Buyers source what they can find. If your capabilities never show up in search, or your site does not prove you can hold the tolerance, the RFQ goes to a shop that does.

  • 01Invisible for the process, material, and industry searches buyers actually type
  • 02The site lists equipment, but not what you can make or the tolerances you hold
  • 03Certifications and industries served are buried instead of building trust
  • 04There is no clear path from a capability page to a submitted RFQ
  • 05Capacity, lead-time, and minimum-order questions go unanswered
  • 06Distributors and reps have no strong page or asset to send buyers to

What Helix builds

A capability engine built around how buyers source parts.

The goal is simple: when a buyer needs the process you run, in the tolerance you hold, for the industry you serve, you are the shop they find and trust with the RFQ.

Capability and process pages

A real page per process, material, and part type, written around what an engineer or buyer needs to know before they send an RFQ.

Product and application pages

Product, part, and application pages that show a buyer you make exactly what they are sourcing, in the industry they work in.

Case studies and proof

Certifications, equipment lists, and past-work case studies placed where a buyer decides whether to trust you with the job.

Distributor and dealer content

Pages and assets your distributors, reps, and dealers can actually send buyers, so the channel sells for you instead of guessing.

AI-search visibility

Clear, structured content built to show up in search and in the answer engines buyers now ask when they source a part or a supplier.

Trade-show follow-up

Campaigns that turn a badge scan or a booth conversation into a real, tracked RFQ instead of a business card that goes cold.

What the audit shows

Show where you're getting missed.

01

We zero in on one priority process, part, or industry.

02

Show where you rank today in search, and which shops are beating you.

03

Map the capability, material, and industry searches you should own.

04

Show a stronger capability page with tolerances, certs, proof, and an RFQ path.

05

Recommend the first proof asset to publish, from certs to a past-work example.

Common questions

What shops ask before working with Helix.

How do you get our shop found for the process and material searches engineers use?

We build capability, process, and application pages written around what an engineer or buyer needs before they send an RFQ, including the tolerances you hold and the industries you serve. It is one of four outcomes we drive, and we report where you rank every Friday.

How do you get us cited when a buyer asks AI tools to source a part or a supplier?

We shape your capability and product pages so the AI answer engines have a clear source to cite when someone asks who makes what you make. We check those answers every week and add the pages that get your shop named.

What does it cost, and who runs it?

Helix runs from $999 a month, handled by our team. We drive four outcomes: your Google rankings, your citations in AI answers, your mentions in the conversations where buyers source suppliers, and how well your site turns a visitor into a submitted RFQ.

Be the shop the RFQ comes to.

We will map one priority capability, where you show up in search today, and the pages and proof it takes to get found and sent the RFQ.

Request a visibility audit