Define each category your company actually sells, such as stock, configured from standard options, and custom built to the buyer's requirements, and say for each one what the buyer must send, how timing and minimums differ, and who they will work with. Put that distinction on the product and quote pages where buyers make the choice. A buyer who knows which path they are on sends the right files the first time.
Many manufacturers sell some mix of catalog products and engineered work, and the word "custom" ends up doing too much. To one buyer it means a non-standard length from a standard profile. To another it means a part designed from scratch to their print. When the website does not say which one the company means, the first sales call is spent sorting it out, and some buyers may leave before making that call.
This is a content-planning question for manufacturers, not advice on pricing or contract terms. Your sales leadership and production planning team decide how each category is quoted, scheduled, and sold.
Define the categories by what the buyer supplies
The clearest way to separate the categories is by what the buyer has to bring and what your team has to do before anything ships. A long option list is not custom work, and a custom part is not a catalog item with a special note. Use the names your sales team already uses, and define them once, in plain sentences, in a place every product page can link to.
| Category | A definition to adapt | What the buyer sends | What usually changes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Stock | Standard products built ahead and held in inventory | A part number and quantity | Ships from inventory; pricing from a list or quote |
| Configured | Standard products built to order from a defined set of options | Selections from your options list | Built to order; timing depends on the options chosen |
| Modified standard | A standard product with a change your engineering team reviews | The standard part number plus the change requested | Engineering review before quote; may carry minimums |
| Custom | A product made to the buyer's print or requirements | Drawings, specifications, volumes, and application details | Quote after review; may involve tooling, first articles, and minimums |
Your categories may differ. Some companies have no modified-standard path; others split custom into build-to-print and design-and-build. The point is that each category on the page matches a path that actually exists inside your company.
Find out where the language blurs
Sales teams often stretch a word to keep a conversation going, and a buyer who hears "we can do custom" may picture something your plant does not offer. Before writing, sit down with sales and production planning together and ask them, "When a buyer says custom, which of our paths do we actually put them on, and what do we tell them first?" Where the two groups answer differently, the website copy cannot fix it until they agree.
Look at your own pages for the same drift. A product page might say "custom sizes available" while the quote form only accepts standard part numbers, or a capabilities page might promise "engineered solutions" with no route for submitting a drawing. Each of those is a place where the buyer has to guess.
Show configured options without a page for every combination
Configured products tend to multiply on a website. Every size, finish, and mounting option can turn into its own thin page, which helps no one. Google's documentation on product variants notes that many products "are sold in different variations (for example various sizes, colors, materials, or patterns)" and describes ProductGroup markup as a way "To help Google better understand which products are variations of the same parent product." A single page for the product family, with the options laid out in a table and markup your developer confirms, can carry what the buyer needs without the duplication.
Custom work is different. It is a process rather than a product, so it belongs on a page that explains how to request it: the files to send, the questions engineering will ask, and what happens between the request and the quote. Our page on writing about lead times and minimum orders covers how to describe the timing side without promising dates.
A fictional product family page
This hypothetical example uses a fictional electrical enclosure manufacturer in Texas. It describes no real company, and its timing language is a placeholder for the plant's own approved wording.
The family page opens: "Our wall-mount enclosures come three ways. Stock sizes ship from inventory. Configured enclosures add standard cutouts, finishes, and mounting kits from the options below and are built to order. Custom enclosures are built to your drawing, starting with a review by our engineering team." A table lists the stock sizes. A second table lists configuration options and notes which ones extend build time, in the words production planning approved. A short section on custom work lists the files to send and links to the quote request. Each category names the team the buyer will deal with: inside sales for stock and configured orders, applications engineering for custom.
The note about which options extend build time came straight from the production planner. No one writing the page should be estimating how long a configured enclosure takes compared with a custom one; the scheduling team holds that answer, and a wrong guess turns into a missed expectation on the buyer's first order.
Connect each category to the next step
Each category should end in an action that fits it. Stock products point to where to buy or how to order. Configured products point to a configurator, an options form, or a quote request that captures the selections. Custom work points to a request that asks for drawings and application details. Match the form to the path: a custom request form that cannot accept a drawing file, or a stock order form that asks for application details nobody needs, adds a step the buyer did not have to take. Review the forms with the same people who approved the category definitions. If your products also sell through distributors, our page on product pages for distributors and end users covers how to serve both readers.
Hudson South's process works through this in order. The Authority Asset gathers your category definitions, option lists, and the approved language from sales and production planning. Hudson Twenty-One records how your company communicates across 21 dimensions. Market Intelligence researches how buyers in your category describe what they need, including the words they use for custom work, and AEO Creation writes product and process pages that answer those questions directly. The manufacturing and industrial overview lists the other pages in this set.
Make your categories clear before the first call
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- Product Variant Structured Data (ProductGroup, Product). Google Search Central. Read 2026-10-16.