I checked 2,619 small business websites. Here's what most of them are missing.
Original research: 2,619 independent business websites in 25 cities across 6 countries, checked for tap-to-call, forms, booking, reviews and dead links.
Most advice about small business websites is opinion. I wanted numbers.
So I took 3,918 independent businesses (dentists, hair and beauty salons, auto repair shops and trades such as plumbers, electricians and roofers) from public map listings in 25 cities across the US, Canada, the UK, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand, and checked every website they list. 2,619 of those websites could be fully analysed.
I didn't judge design or copy. I only checked things a customer would notice in the first few seconds and that anyone can verify: can I call you with one tap, can I send you a message, can I book, and does the website even work?
The headline findings
- 1 in 7 listed websites doesn't work at all. 13.9% of the website links in these businesses' public listings led to a dead domain, a missing page or a parked "for sale" page.
- Nearly 1 in 5 working homepages has no tap-to-call link and no contact form. 18.7% offer neither, so a visitor on a phone has to copy a number or hunt for a contact page. For hair and beauty salons it's 27.6%.
- Only 1 in 4 lets customers book online. 61.6% of homepages say "book now" or similar, but only 25.0% use a recognisable online scheduling tool. The rest of those "book now" buttons lead somewhere else, such as a phone number, a form or an external page I didn't follow.
- 4 in 5 don't show reviews on the homepage. Only 19.7% embed a review widget.
- Most aren't telling Google what they are. Only 38.9% include local business structured data, the code that tells search engines the business name, address, hours and type.
- Many look abandoned. Of the sites that show a copyright year in the footer, 18.4% still show 2023 or earlier.
The good news: the basics of a modern website are nearly universal. 95.5% load securely over HTTPS and 97.1% are set up for mobile screens.
Results by industry
Share of analysed homepages with each feature. Dead links are a share of all tested listings.
| All | Dentists | Hair & beauty | Auto repair | Trades | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Websites analysed | 2,619 | 836 | 830 | 596 | 357 |
| Listed website is dead | 13.9% | 7.1% | 19.4% | 16.3% | 8.7% |
| Tap-to-call phone link | 71.3% | 85.3% | 53.4% | 69.8% | 82.9% |
| Contact or quote form on homepage | 45.4% | 43.2% | 44.7% | 41.6% | 58.5% |
| Neither tap-to-call nor a form | 18.7% | 11.2% | 27.6% | 21.5% | 10.6% |
| "Book now" style prompt | 61.6% | 76.1% | 73.4% | 41.8% | 33.6% |
| Online scheduling tool | 25.0% | 27.5% | 40.1% | 7.2% | 13.4% |
| Review widget on homepage | 19.7% | 24.8% | 13.6% | 16.8% | 26.9% |
| Local business structured data | 38.9% | 48.3% | 30.8% | 31.5% | 48.2% |
| Copyright year 2023 or earlier | 18.4% | 13.9% | 24.9% | 21.1% | 12.1% |
What stands out:
- Dentists have the most complete websites, with tap-to-call on 85.3% of homepages, but fewer than 3 in 10 let patients book online.
- Hair and beauty salons are the most likely to use online booking (40.1%), yet more than a quarter have no tap-to-call link and no form, and almost 1 in 5 listed websites is dead. One possible reason: some salons send customers to a booking app or social profile rather than their own website, which this study didn't measure.
- Auto repair shops almost never offer online scheduling (7.2%); 78.5% offer a tap-to-call link or a form instead.
- Trades are the most likely to have a quote form (58.5%) but the least likely to show any booking prompt (33.6%), which makes sense for quote-based work.
Results by country
US = United States, CA = Canada, UK = United Kingdom, IE = Ireland, AU = Australia, NZ = New Zealand.
| US | CA | UK | IE | AU | NZ | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Websites analysed | 1,160 | 525 | 261 | 132 | 346 | 195 |
| Listed website is dead | 13.8% | 9.2% | 14.4% | 26.6% | 15.4% | 11.9% |
| Tap-to-call phone link | 74.1% | 72.2% | 66.7% | 62.1% | 72.8% | 62.1% |
| Neither tap-to-call nor a form | 17.4% | 17.1% | 21.1% | 29.5% | 18.8% | 19.5% |
| Online scheduling tool | 21.5% | 21.0% | 23.8% | 32.6% | 34.7% | 35.9% |
| Review widget on homepage | 20.2% | 19.2% | 22.6% | 12.9% | 24.0% | 11.3% |
| Local business structured data | 43.5% | 37.5% | 32.6% | 28.0% | 39.9% | 29.7% |
| Copyright year 2023 or earlier | 15.8% | 19.2% | 16.3% | 29.8% | 18.5% | 30.0% |
Australia and New Zealand lead on online booking, with more than a third of businesses using a scheduling tool. Ireland has the highest share of dead listed websites (26.6%) and of homepages with no tap-to-call link and no form (29.5%). The Irish and New Zealand samples are smaller, so treat those differences as indicative.
What this means for your business
Every gap above is a moment where a customer who already wanted to buy has to work harder, and many won't. None of them is expensive to fix:
- Check the website link on your Google Business Profile, Apple Maps and directory listings. If it's dead, every listing is sending customers to an error page. See why your business might not be showing on Google Maps.
- Make your phone number a tap-to-call link on every page, especially on mobile.
- Put a short enquiry form on the homepage, not only on a separate contact page.
- If customers book appointments, let them book online, and make sure "book now" actually opens a booking calendar.
- Show your reviews. Embed recent Google reviews or testimonials near the top of the homepage. Here's how to get more Google reviews.
- Add local business structured data so search engines and AI assistants understand exactly what and where you are.
- Update the footer year. It's a small thing, but an old year makes a business look closed.
Not sure which of these your site is missing? A free business audit checks all of them, or see how I approach websites that convert for home service, healthcare, beauty and automotive businesses.
How I did the research
- Sample. Businesses tagged as dentists, hairdressers, beauty salons, car repair shops, plumbers, electricians, roofers, HVAC companies and painters, with a website listed, in OpenStreetMap (data © OpenStreetMap contributors, ODbL). Areas covered: Houston, Phoenix, Dallas, Atlanta, Denver, Austin, Chicago, Los Angeles, Seattle, Toronto, Calgary, Vancouver, Edmonton, London, Manchester, Glasgow, Bristol, Dublin, Cork, Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch.
- Independent businesses only. Listings tagged with a brand, and websites shared by three or more listings, were removed as chains or franchises. To stop the largest cities dominating, I took a random sample of up to 60 businesses per industry in each city, giving 3,918 businesses.
- What I checked. Each business's listed homepage, visited once on 1 October 2026. Pages that are built by JavaScript in the browser were re-checked in a real browser. A random sample of 115 sites was also re-checked in a real browser: the results matched on 97–100% of checks for every measure.
- Exclusions. 353 sites that block automated visitors and 207 pages that couldn't be read even in a browser were excluded from the percentages. "Dead" means the domain no longer resolves, the server refuses connections, the page returns "not found", or the domain is parked or for sale. Some dead links may be out-of-date listings rather than businesses that lost their website.
- Limits. I checked homepages only, so a business with a form only on its contact page counts as "no form on homepage". Online scheduling tools were detected from a list of more than 30 common booking platforms, so the true share may be slightly higher. Map listings are a sample of businesses, not every business.
Only aggregate results are published. No individual business is named.
Download the data: all results as a CSV file (totals by industry, by country, and by country and industry; cells under 50 sites are indicative).
How to cite: Abolarinwa, I. (2026). Small Business Website Study 2026. Scale Business HQ. https://scalebusinesshq.com/blog/small-business-website-study-2026
Frequently asked questions
What percentage of small business websites have online booking?
In this study, 25.0% of independent business homepages used a recognisable online scheduling tool, although 61.6% showed a "book now" style prompt. Hair and beauty salons were highest at 40.1% and auto repair shops lowest at 7.2%.
How many small business websites are broken?
13.9% of the websites listed for these businesses in public map data no longer worked: the domain didn't resolve, the page was missing, or the domain was parked or for sale.
What should every small business homepage have?
At minimum: a tap-to-call phone number, a short contact or quote form, a clear way to book if you take appointments, visible reviews, and local business structured data. In this study, 18.7% of homepages had neither a tap-to-call link nor a form.
Can I use these statistics?
Yes. The results are published under CC BY 4.0: please credit Scale Business HQ and link to this page.