We looked at 35 Colorado engineering firm websites

In October 2026 we loaded the websites of 35 engineering firms, once at desktop size and once at phone size, and scored each from 1 to 5. Twenty-eight are independent Colorado firms of roughly 10 to 300 people. The other seven, larger Colorado firms and national firms with big Denver offices, served as a benchmark.

We found the firms through ACEC Colorado's Engineering Excellence award lists for 2020, 2021 and 2024, two Inven company lists (engineering consulting and geotechnical), the Clutch directory of Denver civil firms and the Structural Engineers Association of Colorado sponsor listing. This note reports patterns across the set and names no firms.

The scores

The 28 independent firms averaged 2.5 out of 5. Sixteen scored 2, ten scored 3 and two scored 4, with none at 1 or 5. The five larger Colorado firms averaged 3.6 and the two national firms 4.0. On our rubric, a 2 is a site that works but is generic and out of date, and a 4 is good and current.

These are one reviewer's judgments from a single load of each site, so read them as a rough sort. Very little was broken. Every site had a working mobile layout, and visible bugs were rare. The weak spots were in what the sites said and what they could prove.

Platforms

Eighteen of the independent firms run WordPress. The other ten use Wix, Squarespace, GoDaddy's builder, a hand-coded page or an AI site builder, and that group averaged 2.2 against 2.7 for WordPress. Four of the Wix sites still serve phones a separate layout fixed at 320 pixels wide. The platform alone settles little, though. WordPress sites in the set scored anywhere from 2 to 4, and two of the builder sites scored 3.

News that stopped

Twenty-eight of the 35 footers show 2026, but many sites fill in that year automatically, so it tells a visitor little. A dated news post tells them more. Sixteen of the 28 independent firms had nothing dated from the past 12 months. Eleven had no dated news at all, and the other five stopped posting at various points between May 2023 and June 2025.

Numbers in the copy drift as well. We found homepage copy giving a firm's age as it stood several years earlier, and an About page whose headcount was well below the one on the same firm's homepage.

Awards left off the homepage

At least 11 firms in the set appear on ACEC Colorado's Engineering Excellence winner lists for 2020, 2021 or 2024, yet only three of the 35 mention an ACEC award on their homepage. Four firms appear on all three lists, and three of those four don't mention it there.

An award is someone outside the firm saying a particular project went well. That is close to what a client checks when it weighs past performance, so the award belongs on your project page and, for the best ones, near the top of your homepage.

Other proof is thin too. Fifteen sites mention employee ownership, more than any trust claim except the firm's age, and six show a workplace award. None of the 35 publish a safety figure such as an experience modification rate, including firms that send testing and survey crews into the field.

The first screen

Five of the independent firms put no headline over their hero image. Many others lead with a line any firm could use: six headlines in the set lead with the firm's age, and five use the word excellence. About five of the 35 name a market or a type of client. Those stand apart, because one line tells you who the firm works for.

Cookie notices take part of the first screen on 11 of the 35 sites, and on two of them the notice covers the hero.

What the best sites do

Seven sites scored 4: two independent firms, three of the larger Colorado firms and both national firms. Most show a short row of numbers such as staff, offices or projects. Several bring specific projects or awards onto the homepage, and one opens on a rotating set of case studies. Five of the seven had posted news in 2026, and the sharpest headline in the set names the type of project its firm specializes in.

Even these slip on upkeep. One hasn't posted news since October 2024, and one of the strongest designs has no project pages.

What to check on your own site this week

• Open your homepage on a phone in a private browser window, so the cookie notice appears as a first-time visitor sees it. Note what that first screen tells someone who has never heard of you.
• Find the date on your newest news post or project. If it's more than a year old, add something real, like a finished project or a newly licensed engineer.
• List the awards the firm has won in the past five years and check that each one appears on its project page. Put the best of them on the homepage.
• Search the site for numbers such as years in business, staff, offices and projects. Make sure they agree with each other and with the boilerplate in your current proposals.
• Read your homepage headline and ask whether a competitor could use it unchanged. If one could, rewrite it to name your market or your clients.