Certificates and approvals: why a logo strip is not enough

A logo strip says you claim approvals, not what they cover

A row of ISO, BIS and CE logos at the foot of a page tells a buyer you hold, or once held, some certificates. It does not say which standard, which product or process, which plant, which certification body, or whether the certificate is still valid. A purchase engineer or a vendor registration team needs all of that, so the logos alone either trigger an email asking for copies or leave you off the shortlist.

When EbizIndia read 30 Indian manufacturer websites for a study in October 2026, certificates were named on 18 sites, but only 1 was confirmed to let a buyer open or download a certificate; on 17 sites that could not be settled from the pages read. Approvals or vendor registrations were named on 6.

What to write for each certificate

For every certificate, licence or approval, state these facts in text on a certificates page:

• The standard or scheme, written in full, such as ISO 9001:2015 or the relevant IS number for a BIS licence.
• Certificate or licence number, exactly as printed.
• Issuing body: the certification body, notified body or government authority that issued it.
• Scope, copied from the certificate: which products, processes and sites it covers.
• Valid from and valid until dates.
• A link to the PDF of the certificate itself.

Then name the approvals relevant to each product on that product page, and link to the certificates page. A buyer reading about a cable or a valve should see in the same place that it is made under a particular licence or approval. The structure of that page is in what an industrial product page needs before a buyer will enquire.

A before and after for one plant

Before, on an invented valve maker's site: a footer with five logos, ISO, BIS, CE, a lab accreditation mark and a railway approval, each a small image with no link and no alt text.

After, as text on the certificates page, with illustrative placeholder values:

Each row links to its PDF. The same layout works for API, PED, RDSO and other approvals, and for NABL accreditation of your test laboratory. Vendor registrations with PSUs, railways or large EPC companies can go in a second table with the registering organisation, registration number and product.

Buyers can only verify what they can read

Text with numbers lets a buyer check the certificate rather than trust a logo. ISO's page on certification makes the point that ISO itself does not perform certification or issue certificates: independent certification bodies do, and accreditation gives independent confirmation of their competence. ISO's help page on verifying a certification points buyers to the IAF CertSearch database and to the certification body itself. A buyer who has your certificate number and issuing body can do that in minutes.

CE marking works differently, and the text should reflect that. The European Union's guidance on CE marking says the manufacturer must draw up and sign an EU declaration of conformity before affixing the mark, that where a notified body is used its four-digit number must appear next to the mark, and that CE marking applies only to products covered by specific EU rules. "CE certified company" is not a meaningful claim; "CE marked under [the EU rule], declaration of conformity available, notified body [number]" is.

Why an image of a certificate is weak for search and AI

Search engines and AI assistants work mainly from the text of a page. Google's guidance on images in search says it understands an image using alt text, computer vision and the content of the page around it, including captions. That helps Google know a picture shows a certificate. It does not promise that the certificate number, scope and expiry date inside a scanned JPEG will be read, indexed and quoted correctly.

When an assistant answers "Which Indian manufacturers of TMT bars hold a BIS licence?" or a buyer asks it to check a supplier's approvals, it can only use what it can read and attribute. Facts written in text on your page are the ones it is most likely to pick up, as covered in the factory facts AI assistants look for. Scans on their own fall into the same gap as a PDF catalogue that AI assistants struggle to read. This is part of the wider work on LLM visibility covered across the AI visibility hub.

Keep the certificates page current

Certificates expire, scopes change and licences get renewed with new dates. Give one person, usually the quality manager, the job of updating the page whenever a certificate is issued, renewed, extended or withdrawn, and show a "last reviewed" date.

• One certificates page, each certificate in text with number, body, scope and validity.
• PDF of each current certificate linked from its row.
• Approvals named on each relevant product page, linked to the certificates page.
• Logos kept only if the certification body's rules allow, and given alt text naming the certificate.
• Lapsed certificates removed the day they lapse.
• The same certificate details on the website, catalogue, directory listings and tender documents.

Overseas buyers check certificates closely; the other things they look for are in what overseas buyers check on an Indian manufacturer's website. For more on presenting approvals, see EbizIndia's guide to certificates on manufacturer websites.