Certified manufacturer website: certificate, scope, evidence.
A certified manufacturer’s website should show each certificate as a record: which standard and which edition, which site and which product scope, which body issued it, until when it is valid, and where a buyer can verify it. The product page says which certificate covers that product; the certificate page carries the certificate in its original form.
How a certificate belongs on a website is more than one page layout; logo rules, verification, expired certificates, test reports and the machine layer are separate questions, and each has its own guide in this cluster. Why a certificate is an answer for the buyer is covered in the how a B2B buyer searches for suppliers guide, and the general framework of an export website in the what an exporter’s website should look like guide; here we build the certificate record itself on top of those ideas.
What should a certified manufacturer’s website prove to a buyer?
A certified manufacturer’s website should carry the evidence needed for the decisions a buyer can make without talking to a salesperson. More and more of these decisions are made without a conversation: in a Gartner survey published on March 9, 2026 (646 B2B buyers, August–September 2025), 67% of buyers said they prefer to buy without a sales representative, and 45% said they used AI in their last purchase.
In Nielsen Norman Group’s 2006 study of B2B usability, visitors were also weighing a company by its website first. What has changed in the twenty years since is that the weighing now also happens through text that an answer engine reads. So the evidence has to stand both in front of the human reader and in a form a machine can read. On a certified manufacturer’s website, this evidence sits in seven layers:
- Identity — legal name, sites, addresses; the same name as on the certificates.
- Product — product families and technical values, with units, in a readable table.
- Capacity and process — machinery, monthly capacity, quality control steps; with the period stated.
- Evidence — certificates, test reports and measurable quality promises; each with its source.
- Price hint — minimum order quantity, lead time range, delivery terms.
- Quote path — a form reachable from every page that says what it needs.
- Machine layer — the same information in structured data and in text that answer engines can read.
The general form of these layers is described in the what a corporate website should look like guide. The layer this cluster is concerned with is the fourth: evidence.
What information should a certificate carry on the website?
A certificate should carry nine pieces of information on the website: standard and edition, scope, site, certificate number, issuing body and its accreditation, issue and expiry date, verification link, the original certificate and the products covered. This list is not a matter of taste. Under IAF MD 28, accredited certification bodies upload certificate data — legal name, sites, certificate number, standard, scope, issue and expiry date, status — to the international database; if the record on the site carries the same fields, a buyer can put the two records side by side.
The nine fields of a certificate record and their counterpart in the database
- ACertificate record on the website
- BRecord in the database (IAF MD 28)
- 01Standard and edition
- 02Scope
- 03Site
- 04Certificate number
- 05Issuing body and its accreditation
- 06Issue and expiry date
- 07Verification link
- 08Original certificate
- 09Products covered
| Field | Example | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Standard and edition | ISO 9001:2015 or ISO 9001:2026 | A name without an edition gets confused with another certificate |
| Scope | As written on the certificate | The buyer sees whether their own product is covered |
| Site | Address | Which site is certified in a multi-site company |
| Certificate number | The number issued by the body | The key to verification |
| Issuing body and its accreditation | Name of the body and the accreditation body | A certificate without accreditation is assessed separately |
| Issue and expiry date | mm/dd/yyyy | Not mandatory; makes the buyer’s screening easier |
| Verification link | Database record or QR code | The buyer does their own check |
| Original certificate | The PDF issued by the body | The certificate stays a certificate |
| Products covered | Links to product pages | Product and certificate match |
None of the sources we opened makes writing the expiry date on the site mandatory; we recommend it not as an obligation but as good practice that shortens the buyer’s screening. The certificate number, on the other hand, is explicitly asked for in the certification bodies' own guidance: SGS’s guide of September 30, 2026 recommends putting the standard, its year and the certificate number next to the mark; BSI’s 2025 guide asks for the number below its logo.
The edition field gained extra weight in 2026. The new edition of ISO 9001 was published on September 16, 2026, and the 2015 edition was withdrawn the same day. Under Global ACI’s transition requirements, after March 31, 2028 new certificates will be issued only against the 2026 edition; the last day for companies certified to the 2015 edition to transition is September 30, 2029. Throughout this period, both editions will appear on websites side by side. The right thing is to write whichever edition is on the certificate and to renew the record when the certificate is renewed.
Certificate page or product page?
Both: the certificate page carries the record and the original certificate, and the product page says which certificate covers that product and links to the record. The reason for the distinction is that not every certificate covers the same thing. A management system certificate covers the company’s processes, a product certificate the labeled product, a scope certificate the site’s ability to make certified products, and a transaction certificate a specific shipment. If the product page does not show this difference, a buyer may take a certificate issued to the site for a certificate of their own order.
| Certificate type | Example | What it covers | Where it sits on the site |
|---|---|---|---|
| Management system certificate | ISO 9001, ISO 14001 | The processes the organization runs within the certificate’s scope; not the product | Certificate page; referenced on the product page |
| Product certificate | OEKO-TEX STANDARD 100 | The labeled product or product group | Product page and certificate page |
| Scope certificate | GRS, GOTS scope certificate | The site’s ability to make certified products | Certificate page |
| Transaction certificate | Textile Exchange TC | A specific shipment | Not on the site; issued with the order, the site only says how to request it |
| EU declaration of conformity and CE | CE marking | The manufacturer’s own declaration; not a certificate | Product page |
Our cases show how this distinction can look on a website. On November 10, 2026, on the certificate page of Fersan Tekstil, all ten certificate cards gave the scope, certificate number and issuing body; six of them also gave the expiry date, and the card of a certificate being renewed noted that renewal was in progress. The page also had a section on which certificate proves what and what it does not. The page of Karcem stated that for an order to count as certified, a transaction certificate issued for that lot is needed and that a scope certificate alone is not enough. Why product information sits on the page and not in a PDF is explained in the PDF catalog vs. web page comparison.
Where can logos and marks be used?
A logo can be used where and in the form the issuing body’s rules allow; ISO’s own logo, however, nowhere. ISO does not certify and does not allow its logo to be used in connection with certification; its recommended wording is “certified to ISO 9001:2015”. Certified companies may use the TÜRKAK mark only together with the certification body’s mark and not on the product; accredited bodies may not let their clients use the IAF MLA mark. Which mark may stand where and under which condition is collected mark by mark in the how ISO, accreditation and CE marks are used on websites guide.
How does a buyer verify a certificate?
A buyer verifies a certificate in three places: the accreditation of the issuing body, the international database of accredited certificates and the QR code on the certificate. The database is CertSearch; Global ACI, which replaced IAF when IAF ceased operations on January 1, 2026, took over ownership of the database on October 26, 2026, and as of November 2026 it holds about 3.79 million certificates. In Turkey, accredited management system bodies print a TÜRKAK verification QR code of at least 20×20 mm on the certificate; a buyer can scan it on TÜRKAK’s certificate verification screen.
The manufacturer’s job is to shorten these three steps: write the certificate number in the record and give the verification link. The four-step verification from the buyer’s point of view is written step by step in the is a company’s ISO certificate real guide.
What about a certificate you do not have, or one that has expired?
The claim for an expired, suspended or withdrawn certificate is removed from the site; this is not a courtesy but the certification bodies' own requirement. SGS requires the claim to come down when a certificate ends or is suspended, Bureau Veritas that the mark not be used on suspension and withdrawal; BRCGS’s October 2026 guidance requires the logo and all claims to be removed when the certificate ends, and for IATF 16949, BSI and DQS require every reference, including on the website, to be removed.
The easy way to apply this is to write the expiry date into each certificate’s record and to keep renewal dates in a calendar. How writing “no” for a certificate you do not have shortens the buyer’s question is explained in the B2B buyer guide; the same logic applies to an expired certificate: if the record quietly stays up, the buyer trusts not the site but the oldest date on it.
How are capacity, process and test reports shown?
Capacity is shown with its period, process with its steps, and a test report in its original form. An accredited laboratory’s report may not be partially copied or reproduced without the laboratory’s written permission; the sample report in TÜRKAK’s guide of February 24, 2026 carries this statement. A summary table on the page speeds up the reader but does not replace the report. The details are in the factory and capacity page and how to show an accredited test report on a website guides.
How does a certificate sit in the machine layer?
A certificate can be written in structured data as a Certification, identical to the record visible on the page; but it cannot be said that this changes how the site appears on Google. schema.org added the Certification type in January 2024, and the hasCertification property applies to organizations, products and services. Google, however, uses certification markup today only in merchant listings, for the EU energy label and the vehicle CO2 classes of France and Germany; there is no support for an organization’s or a service’s ISO certificate.
The value of the markup lies elsewhere: telling every machine that reads the page the certificate’s name, number, issuing body and dates with the same information. On November 10, 2026, the certificate pages of both our cases also carried the hasCertification property in their organization markup. There is one rule: only information visible on the page goes into the markup, and an expired certificate comes out of the markup too. The certificate markup generator exists to produce the visible record table and the markup for the same data together.
What changes by sector?
By sector, the names of the certificates, where they sit and the verification address change; the shape of the mistakes is the same in most sectors. The sectors this cluster covers account for about 89% of sector-based exports registered with the Turkish Exporters Assembly (TİM) in 2025 (our calculation from the TİM table). Each sector’s certificate map, what should not be written on the site and what changed in 2026 are collected on the certificate map by sector page, and the sector-by-sector detail in the guides linked from there.
How do you test your own website?
How to test it: pick any certificate on your site and try to find it in the certification body’s database using only what is written on the site — without calling, without writing an email. If you cannot find it, neither can your buyer. The list below gives the items of the same test:
- Is every certificate written with its edition (ISO 9001:2015 or ISO 9001:2026)?
- Is the scope written on the site as it is written on the certificate?
- If you have several sites, is it clear which site is certified?
- Are the certificate number and the issuing body’s name in every record?
- Is the issuing body’s accreditation written?
- Is the expiry date written, and have expired certificates been removed?
- Does every record have a verification link or QR code?
- Can the original certificate be opened from the record?
- Do product pages link to the certificate that covers them?
- Has the site avoided using ISO’s own logo or the IAF MLA mark?
The information here is not legal advice; confirm the current requirements on mark use from your certification body’s rules and from official sources.
Let’s read the certificate page on your site together against these criteria: in a free preliminary review we send a five-point written note on the certificate’s name and standard, scope, expiry date, verification link and machine layer.
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For a site that shows your certificates as a record buyers can verify, B2B website builds and measures the certificate page, the product scope and the path to a quote together.
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
Is it enough to put certificates up as PDFs?
It is not enough, but it is necessary. The PDF is the certificate’s original form and should be on the site; the information a buyer needs to find the certificate, read its scope and verify it should be on the page, in a readable record: standard and edition, scope, certificate number, issuing body, date and verification link.
Can I use the ISO logo on my website?
No. Because ISO does not certify, it does not allow certified companies to use the ISO logo. You can use the mark of the body that issued your certificate under its rules, and write your certificate with the edition on the certificate, for example “certified to ISO 9001:2015”.
Is it safe to write the certificate number on the website?
The certificate number is already searchable information, in the database where accredited certificates are recorded and in the certification body’s own verification system; the certification bodies' guidance also recommends showing it next to the mark. The number is the key to the buyer’s verification.
When should I remove an expired certificate?
The moment the certificate ends, is suspended or is withdrawn. The certification bodies' rules require the claim to come down at that moment; when the renewed certificate arrives, the record is published again with the new date.
How to use Certification markup generator