When Chris Davison, Managing Director of Bradford’s Davison Fencing, announced the launch of their new website on LinkedIn, I dropped a quick comment saying it had been a great pleasure to work on.
His reply?
“I’m not sure ‘pleasure’ is the right word, Simon 🤯”
My response?
“Yes 🤯 but it was a hoot too!”
We are Little Fire Digital and we love this stuff, we really do.
But it is more than that. A large site for a well-established client is seldom completely plain sailing.
This project wasn’t the simplest, it took a long time, and still we loved it.
So why?
Here’s our story: why the head-melt was worth it and how it took a village to build something terrific.
Table of Contents
The Privilege of Trust
From the off, we have felt trusted by the client. Davison Fencing are not the largest of companies; a great deal of decision-making still falls to the MD and founder, Chris Davison.
But there comes a point when a wise business leader knows that some decisions must be made by others. And we feel privileged that that trust was placed with us.
Thank you, Chris.
The Reputation Gap
Davison Fencing is a cracking firm. They have an exceptional reputation locally and across the region, a tight-knit (and now employee-owned) culture. They insist on excellent staff training and the rigorous pursuit of safety standards. This rigour has seen them rewarded with growth into major commercial projects with tier 1 contractors.
But the old website had not developed with the company. We never heard the full story with the original developers, but it didn’t sound happy.
And that is a shame, because Davison Fencing a pretty happy company.
It wasn’t just that the old website was confusing (“What am I doing on Facebook?”), dated and lacking in a clear user journey. It just didn’t tell the story of who Davison Fencing are, what they represent and just how good they are at what they do.
The website simply didn’t represent Davison Fencing.
Davison’s are not here to keep hedgehogs out of your roses. When you are bidding for major projects, procurement managers do their due diligence. They aren’t just looking at your quote; they are looking for operational maturity.
You don’t want to send those decision-makers to a digital dead-end.
We needed to close the “Reputation Gap” between how good Davison Fencing is on-site, and how good they looked online.
It Takes a Village (and a Lot of Content)
It’s not our style to claim all the credit for a shiny new launch.
Davison’s is a company built on trust: you cannot make your company employee owned without it. Throughout the project Chris was adamant that some lightness of character, of heart, should show through. The cliché holds true: Davison’s are a deeply serious company who don’t take themselves too seriously.
We felt we fit right in.
At our best, our job isn’t just to write code and push pixels; it is to try to express the absolute best of the people we are working with.
Davison’s were already making steps in the right direction:
- Steph Masters at Wall Nuts was well on with the Davison Fencing corporate ID and their HQ already sports a dynamic feature wall. We worked with Steph to build colourways and design schemes to work everywhere for the client.
- Keith, long-time collaborator and Davison family member, had built a library of images of the many projects completed. But more, we had a collection of images of Davison’s staff, horsing around, being who they are.
But characterful photos and attractive logos are, in themselves, not enough. Chris proudly stated that his team could handle almost any eventuality. But this is not enough. To make plain the difference between a flamboyant outfit that can muddle through and a quality operation, you need discipline, and you need content.
Content. The hardest part of any web build. Content. Fencing experts may be great at securing a perimeter, but they don’t always have the time to write marketing copy and curate project portfolios.
No doubt, it was the toughest nut to crack.
In the end:
- Little Fire mapped out template content: projects should have a short executive summary at the top of each page, sectors should describe challenges and expertise and systems describe the solutions.
- News content and consultancy was provided by Charlotte Wilkinson at WilkinsonVA.
- Armed with this, Olive Davison collated content and images and whipped each section into shape.
It was a massive collaborative push to get the details right, but between our agency and their in-house team we got it together. It was a genuine pleasure to work on – a ‘hoot’, even.
It was more trial and error than we’re used to. But, in no small part thanks to Olive’s diligent testing, we got there in the end.
The Tier 1 Polish (and Why We Love This Stuff)
From the off, this was a company we wanted to portray well (it’s what we do).
In some ways, a website for a building contractor is a straightforward thing. But that’s no excuse not to bring our best.
The web ain’t what it used to be: it’s much better. We deployed the modern front-end technologies required to make the site sing.
We locked in the typography. We don’t care where a font comes from or what foundry made it; we only care that it is the right typeface. Steph had chosen the font – highly readable but distinct from the ubiquitous Montserrat. Bang on brand and setting the site apart from the crowd. A shade more authority, a touch more polish to align the company with the top end of the commercial construction sector.
Then we added a small splash of “zing”. The client has a preference for gritty, black-and-white photography, giving the site a highly premium, structural feel. But to ensure the site felt alive and interactive, we wrote some bespoke CSS transitions. As users scroll the page or hover over a service, those structural monochrome images smoothly transition into vibrant, full colour.
We love this stuff because we get to take our talents for a walk. The client? They get to show visiting contractors that this company pays attention to the finest details.
The Aftercare: The Work After the Work
We are already knee-deep in the aftercare phase. That means getting our hands dirty in Google Search Console, tidying up the sitemaps to ensure Google properly indexes the new architecture and completely forgets the confusing dead-ends of the old site.
It means setting the new domain up in Semrush to establish a clear baseline, allowing us to actively monitor their search visibility as they grow.
Crucially, it means setting up an ongoing process for content creation. We are continuing to support the team so that adding new, high-value case studies to the site is a seamless process, not a chore.
The Moment of Calm
The launch of a website built to go places is rarely quiet. There is a lot of work, a lot of toing and froing and a relentless push to get everything aligned.
But then comes the moment of calm.
It happens a few days after launch. The dust settles, the frantic emails stop, the technical SEO is locked in, and you finally get to just sit back with a coffee, click through the live site, and say:
“‘Yes. That is good.”
Davison Fencing no longer has a confusing brochure; they have a scalable digital platform that accurately reflects their trajectory into the Tier 1 space. It was an absolute privilege to help build it, even if it did make Chris’s head explode just a little bit.
What Did the Clients Say?
Well, for all the head melt:
“Simon was first introduced to Davison Fencing as a highly competent and trustworthy professional in his field of expertise, and he has certainly lived up to that reputation.
From our initial meeting – where we put pen to paper and drafted a basic plan for the new website – Simon has been outstanding. His experience, attention to detail, and ability to guide us through the process have been invaluable. He has also been patient and flexible, working at our pace even when our time has been limited due to the demands of running a business.
Above all, we placed our trust in Simon, and that trust has been fully rewarded with the delivery of an exceptional website. His communication with our team has been excellent, and he consistently brings a positive attitude and great humour to every interaction.
We look forward to continuing our work with Littlefire as we progress on our own company journey.
Thank you for the support, the website, and for putting up with us!”
Chris Davison
Davison Fencing
… and from Olive, with whom we worked closely …
“Working with Simon at Little Fire Digital to build our website has been a really positive experience. It took us a bit of time to get everything together on our side, but Simon was great throughout and just worked with us at our pace (giving us a nudge every now and again!).
He was patient the whole way through, took everything we threw at him on board, and kept things moving along smoothly without any fuss. He made sure things were clearly explained and was always on hand whenever we needed help or had questions.
We’re very pleased with how the website has turned out in the end, it looks great and does exactly what we need it to. Big thanks to Simon for sticking with us and seeing it through from start to finish, we really appreciate it!”
Olive Davison
Davison Fencing
A huge thank you to the team at Davisons for putting your trust in the Little Fire Digital team. Delivering an exceptional website is always our baseline; building a brilliant partnership along the way is what we do it for.
Be More Davison Fencing
Davison Fencing is not alone. The tide is rising for contractors at this level. Expectations of commissioning bodies when assigning contracts will only get higher.
For a trade that is frequently seen as muddy and improvised, Davison Fencing brings professionalism, planning and design expertise before the first spade splits the soil. It’s a story they need to tell.
If you want your site to stand a little taller amongst its peers, to speak more clearly to your market, you need a team with the talent and tenacity to deliver. You need Little Fire.
Want a site like Davison’s? Of course you do … give us a shout.