Specialism
Scaffolding company websites — built for commercial buyers
Domestic customers look at photographs. Commercial customers are managing risk, and they are checking entirely different things before your name goes on a list.
Who is actually looking
Contracts managers, quantity surveyors, site managers.
Rarely the person who will use the scaffold. More often a contracts manager, a quantity surveyor, a site manager or someone in procurement, doing a first pass on several firms before anyone rings anybody.
They are not being inspired. They are reducing risk and eliminating options. Every unanswered question is a reason to move to the next name on the list, because chasing you for basic information is work they were not planning to do.
The six checks
What gets checked, in the order it gets checked.
A commercial buyer checks six things before shortlisting. A site that answers all six in plain words wins shortlist places most scaffolding sites never compete for.
01 Are they real and solvent?
Company name, company number, trading address, how long they have been going. If a company number is nowhere on the site, that is noticed.
02 Are they insured, and for enough?
Public liability and employers’ liability, with the cover levels stated. Commercial work frequently requires a specific minimum, and a firm that does not state its cover creates an email that need not have existed.
03 Are they accredited?
This is the big one for commercial scaffolding. SSIP-recognised health and safety assessments (SSIP), trade body membership such as the NASC, and card schemes covering the operatives, of which CISRS is the scaffolding standard. Put the names and the scheme numbers on the site. Whatever you genuinely hold, state it plainly — and never state one you do not, because it will be checked and it ends the conversation permanently.
04 Can they design, or only erect?
Anything outside a standard configuration needs a design and calculations. Whether you produce those in-house or work with a designer is a material distinction and a genuine differentiator. Most scaffolding sites never mention it.
05 Do they produce the paperwork?
Risk assessments and method statements, handover certificates, inspection records. Saying openly that this comes as standard removes a question that would otherwise be asked on a call.
06 Have they done this size of job?
Not client names — sector, scale, duration, complexity. “Four-storey residential block, twelve weeks, temporary roof” tells a contracts manager more than a logo wall does.
Domestic vs commercial
What a domestic-facing site gets wrong here.
Most scaffolding websites are built for the householder: a hero photograph, three sentences, a phone number. That is fine for a chimney job and it fails completely on a first-pass commercial check, because none of the six questions above are answered anywhere on it.
You do not need two websites. You need the commercial answers present and findable, even if the front page still speaks to domestic work. A single clear page covering accreditations, insurance, capability and paperwork does most of it.
Photographs
Different rules for this audience.
A commercial viewer reads your photographs as evidence about how you work.
- Show scale — the full elevation, not a detail crop that could be anything.
- Show competence indicators — proper edge protection, ties, boarding out, brick guards, netting, a tidy site.
- Show the range you want more of. A page of domestic jobs tells a commercial reader that domestic is what you do.
- Never use stock scaffolding images. Anyone in the trade spots them instantly, and half of them show non-compliant work.
Areas & structure
Scaffolding is bought locally — say where you work.
A firm that covers eight towns and lists none of them is invisible to anyone searching for their own town. Say where you work, in words, on the site.
The same applies to what you do. Commercial, domestic, industrial, temporary roofs, loading bays, edge protection, access towers, shrink wrap — if these live as one comma-separated list on the homepage, none of them is properly covered. Firms at this scale usually need separate pages for the main services and the main areas, which is genuinely more work than a template and is where the price bands start to matter.
Checklist
A short checklist for your scaffolding site.
- Company number and trading address, visible.
- Insurance types and cover levels, stated.
- Accreditations and card schemes, named with numbers — and only the real ones.
- Design capability, stated one way or the other.
- Paperwork you provide as standard, listed.
- Project examples by type and scale, no client names needed.
- Every town you cover, written out.
- Your own photographs, showing the work you want more of.
- A business email on your own domain.
None of that requires an expensive website. It requires somebody to have thought about who is reading it. Most of the sites in this trade have not, which is why the bar is lower than you would expect.
Pricing
Fixed price. Published in full.
The same four tiers apply to scaffolding firms. No quotes to chase, no day rates, no surprises.
Prices exclude VAT. Build fee up front; the monthly by Direct Debit from go-live. You own your domain — it’s registered in your name, not ours.
Not sure which tier? Take the Growth Diagnostic — five questions, plain-English priorities.
Related reading
The domestic side — winning direct work.
For the other end of the market, where the checks get harsher and the reader is a contracts manager rather than a homeowner, this page covers that separately. And for winning work from clients who pick their own scaffolder rather than inheriting one:
Questions
Scaffolding sites, answered plainly.
What does a scaffolding website need that other trade sites don't?
Commercial buyers check six specific things: company number and solvency, insurance cover levels, accreditations (SSIP, NASC, CISRS), design capability, standard paperwork (RAMS, handover certificates), and project examples by scale and type. A domestic-facing site answers none of these.
Do I need separate pages for commercial and domestic work?
You don't need two websites. You need the commercial answers present and findable, even if the front page still speaks to domestic work. A single clear page covering accreditations, insurance, capability and paperwork does most of it.
What photographs work for commercial scaffolding buyers?
Commercial viewers read photographs as evidence of how you work. Show full elevations, proper edge protection, ties, boarding out, brick guards, netting, tidy sites. Show the range you want more of. Never use stock scaffolding images — they are instantly recognisable and often show non-compliant work.
Why do areas matter so much for scaffolding?
Scaffolding is bought locally. A firm covering eight towns that lists none of them is invisible to anyone searching for their own town. Every town you cover should be written out in plain words — not 'across the South East'.
Contact
See the site we built you.
Tell us your business and trade. If we’ve already built your site we’ll show you. If we haven’t yet, we will.
No cost to look, no obligation. We only charge if you decide to keep and launch the site. We’ll never pass your details on or add you to a marketing list.