Websites for
Scrap Dealers
Websites for scrap metal collection and recycling firms. Phone-first, clear coverage areas, and licensing stated plainly where buyers check for it.
Sound familiar?
- Nearly every enquiry is a phone call, and the number is buried at the bottom of the page.
- People want to know whether you cover their postcode and cannot tell from the site.
- Buyers checking that you are licensed find nothing and ring somebody else.
- Metal prices move constantly and anything published goes out of date.
What I do about it
Phone-first build
Structured around the call, because that is how this trade actually converts.
Coverage areas
A straight answer to whether you collect from a given postcode.
Prices and process
Published where competitors stay vague, with a review cycle so figures do not drift.
Compliance visible
Licensing and permits stated plainly where commercial buyers look for them.
A job I actually did
Anonymised. Sector, size and region only, never a client name. The work and the numbers are real.
Who: A licensed scrap metal collection and recycling firm covering London and Surrey, trading since 2009, handling copper and brass through to aluminium and steel.
Before: This trade converts on the phone, not through a form. Somebody with a van load of copper or a cleared site wants to know three things in about twenty seconds: do you come to me, what will you pay, and are you legitimate. A conventional brochure site answers none of those quickly.
- The phone number in the header and a call action in the hero, because that is how the enquiry actually arrives.
- A dedicated areas page, so the postcode question is answered without a phone call.
- A prices page and a how it works page, which most competitors will not publish at all.
- Licensing under the Scrap Metal Dealers Act stated openly, since it is exactly what a cautious commercial customer checks.
After: The three questions that decide the call are answerable in seconds, and the compliance point that reassures commercial customers is visible rather than buried.
What went wrong: Publishing prices is the risky part of that build and it needs saying. Scrap prices move with the commodity market, sometimes week to week, so a figure typed into a static page starts drifting the day it ships. Quoting a stale high number costs you an argument at the weighbridge, and a stale low one costs you the call outright. It is still worth publishing, because almost nobody else does and it wins trust, but it needs an owner and a review date. Publishing a number is a commitment to maintaining it, not a one-off decision.
Questions
Should a scrap metal site publish prices?
It is a real advantage because most competitors will not, and it is a real commitment because metal prices move. Publish them with a date and a person responsible for updating them, or do not publish them at all. A stale figure is worse than none.
Why does licensing belong on the homepage?
Because commercial customers and site clearances check it before they call. Under the Scrap Metal Dealers Act a dealer must be licensed, so stating it plainly removes a reason to ring somebody else.
Do I need a contact form?
Have one, but do not build around it. In this trade the phone is the enquiry. The form catches people who are out of hours or comparing quietly.
How should coverage areas be handled?
One clear page listing where you genuinely collect. Not a generated page per town, which reads as spam and answers the question no better.
What does the site cost to run?
A static site is pennies a month plus the domain. There is no platform subscription, and you own the code.
Tell me what you need
No pitch deck, no discovery call to book another discovery call. Describe the job and I will tell you what it takes, or tell you that you do not need me.
Or see what I have built and the free tooling.