How to show your credentials so Google and AI can actually verify them.
Most asbestos contractor websites display their credentials as a row of logos in the footer. To a visitor that looks reassuring. To a search engine or an AI assistant it is a row of images with nothing to check. This is the practical guide, including a worked example of the structured data almost no contractor publishes, to presenting a licence, memberships, accreditation and insurance so that every reader, human or machine, can verify them.
- A credential is only verifiable if it is in text with the identifying number, the expiry and a link to the public register that issued it.
- Each body publishes a register: HSE for licences, ARCA and ACAD for membership, UKAS for accreditation, UKATA for training providers, and each prequalification scheme for its members.
- Structured data lets you state credentials in a format machines read directly. We include a copy-and-adapt example below.
- One accreditations page should be the single source of truth, linked from every service page and the footer.
- A lapsed credential left on the site does more harm than none. Expiry dates are not decoration.
The principle: text, number, expiry, link
For every credential publish four things: what it is, the identifying number, when it expires and a link to the register where it can be checked. Do it in text on the page, not inside an image. That is all a buyer needs, and it is all an AI assistant needs to treat the claim as verified rather than asserted. We have written about why this matters so much to assistants in how AI search chooses asbestos companies; this article is about how to do it.
The HSE asbestos licence
State the licence holder's exact legal name, the licence number, the expiry date and the type of licence, and link to the HSE licensing pages and the list of licence holders. Put it on the homepage above the fold and on the accreditations page in full. If the licence is held by a parent company, say so in one sentence. If you do non-licensed or NNLW work only, say that just as clearly: buyers respect precision and distrust vagueness.
ARCA and ACAD membership
Both ARCA and ACAD maintain member directories. Link to your entry. If you have won training or audit awards, name the award and the year. ARCA's awards are public and dated, so a claim is checkable. Do not write "award-winning" without saying which award.
UKAS accreditation for surveyors and analysts
Accreditation is held by the organisation, as an inspection body or laboratory, with a number and a published schedule. State the number, the scope in plain terms, and link to your schedule on the UKAS website. Name your surveyors and their qualifications, such as P402, in text on a team page.
Training, insurance and prequalification
Say which UKATA-approved or equivalent training your operatives and supervisors hold and that medicals are current for licensed and NNLW work. State public liability and contract works cover with the levels. List CHAS, SafeContractor, Constructionline, SMAS and any others with the level and renewal date, linked to your profile where the scheme allows. These are the filters commercial buyers apply first, as we set out in what buyers check before they shortlist you.
Buyers check the registers. Assistants read the text. Both should find the same facts on your site.
Every Envirorank website includes an accreditations page with all of the above in text and in structured data, linked to each register, and we keep it current on the monthly plan when a licence or scheme renews. It is the single page that moves a contractor from unverifiable to recommended.
Structured data: the part nobody does
Schema markup is structured data placed in the page code that states facts in a form search engines and AI tools read directly. Google explains the format in its introduction to structured data, and the vocabulary lives at schema.org. It is invisible to visitors and absent from almost every contractor site we check, which is why the few that have it get cited.
Here is a worked example for a licensed contractor. Replace the placeholder values with your own, keep the dates in year-month-day format, and ask your web developer to add it to the head of your homepage and accreditations page. Every Envirorank site ships with this as standard.
<script type="application/ld+json">
{
"@context": "https://schema.org",
"@type": ["Organization", "ProfessionalService"],
"name": "Example Asbestos Services Ltd",
"url": "https://www.example-asbestos.co.uk/",
"telephone": "+44 191 000 0000",
"address": {
"@type": "PostalAddress",
"streetAddress": "Unit 4, Example Industrial Estate",
"addressLocality": "Sunderland",
"postalCode": "SR1 1AA",
"addressCountry": "GB"
},
"areaServed": ["Sunderland", "Newcastle upon Tyne", "Durham"],
"hasCredential": [
{
"@type": "EducationalOccupationalCredential",
"name": "HSE asbestos licence",
"credentialCategory": "licence",
"identifier": "12345678",
"validUntil": "2028-03-31",
"recognizedBy": { "@type": "Organization", "name": "Health and Safety Executive", "url": "https://www.hse.gov.uk/" }
},
{
"@type": "EducationalOccupationalCredential",
"name": "CHAS Elite",
"credentialCategory": "prequalification",
"validUntil": "2027-06-30"
}
],
"memberOf": [
{ "@type": "Organization", "name": "ARCA", "url": "https://www.arca.org.uk/" }
],
"employee": [
{ "@type": "Person", "name": "J Smith", "jobTitle": "Contracts supervisor", "hasCredential": "P402, licensed supervisor" }
]
}
</script>Two cautions. First, structured data must match what is on the page: a licence number in the markup that is not in the visible text is treated as spam. Second, keep the expiry dates true. A validUntil in the past is read as a lapsed credential by every machine that sees it.
One page as the source of truth
Build a single accreditations page with everything above, then link to it from the homepage, every service page and the footer. When a credential renews, update that page and the markup the same day. When one lapses, remove it the same day. A lapsed credential left on a live page is the fastest way to lose a commercial buyer who checked the register and found a mismatch. The glossary defines any of the bodies and terms above you have not met.
A five-minute audit of your own site
- Open your homepage. Can you select your licence number as text, or is it only in a logo?
- Click each credential logo. Does it go to a register, or nowhere?
- Search the page for an expiry date. Is there one?
- Paste your homepage address into Google's Rich Results Test. Does it find any structured data at all?
- Ask an AI assistant "Is [your company] a licensed asbestos contractor?" and see whether it can answer from your site.
If the answers are no, the Four Stage Clearance will confirm it in three minutes and tell you what to fix first.
Related: competence, accreditation and certification explained, and how to show independent site audits as proof.
Credentials that cannot be read cannot be trusted.
Buyers and AI assistants now verify claims against the HSE register and membership lists, and leave out firms they cannot check. A logo in the footer no longer counts. A new website with your licence, memberships and accreditations in text and structured data, kept current through monthly AI visibility work, is what gets you named. More in how AI search chooses asbestos companies.
Questions this raises
Is it safe to publish our licence number?
Yes. The HSE already publishes it with your address. Publishing it on your site saves buyers a search and makes you verifiable to AI tools.
Our credentials are on our Checkatrade profile. Is that enough?
No. Your profile belongs to a platform that also lists your competitors. Credentials on your own site, in text and structured data, are what Google and AI tools attach to your business.
Can we add the structured data ourselves?
If you are comfortable editing your site's head code, yes; the example above is a starting point. If not, a developer can add it in under an hour, and it comes as standard on every site we build.
Make your credentials verifiable in a minute, by buyers and machines.
Envirorank websites put your licence, memberships, insurance and prequalification schemes in text and structured data from day one, linked to every register. £3,500, with no hidden fees.
