Research · September 2026
4 in 10 UK tradespeople on Google Maps list no website
UK Trades Website Study 2026 · published 1 October 2026
We looked at 55,654 trade businesses on Google Maps across 18 UK cities and towns. 39.1% have no website on their Google listing, and another 2.1% list only a Facebook or Instagram page.
By trade
| Trade | Listings | No website | Social page only | Median reviews: own website | Median reviews: no website |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Plumbers | 7,418 | 40.5% | 2.0% | 11 | 1 |
| Gas and heating engineers | 4,468 | 39.7% | 1.3% | 6 | 1 |
| Electricians | 7,238 | 40.4% | 1.6% | 6 | 1 |
| Roofers | 6,130 | 34.5% | 1.0% | 6 | 1 |
| Builders | 16,690 | 36.3% | 1.5% | 2 | 0 |
| Joiners and carpenters | 3,942 | 48.7% | 4.4% | 3 | 0 |
| Landscapers and gardeners | 6,169 | 39.7% | 3.8% | 4 | 0 |
| Painters and decorators | 3,599 | 41.9% | 3.8% | 6 | 1 |
| All eight trades | 55,654 | 39.1% | 2.1% | 4 | 0 |
By city and town
Sorted by the share with no website. Areas with fewer than 1,000 listings are marked, because small samples move around more.
| Area searched | Listings | No website | Social page only |
|---|---|---|---|
| Birmingham | 4,572 | 48.8% | 2.2% |
| Oldham (small sample) | 233 | 46.8% | 3.4% |
| Bury (small sample) | 602 | 45.8% | 2.2% |
| Leicester | 1,386 | 45.3% | 2.5% |
| Liverpool | 2,712 | 44.5% | 2.9% |
| Bolton (small sample) | 891 | 43.9% | 2.8% |
| Newcastle | 2,065 | 42.9% | 3.0% |
| Wigan | 1,136 | 42.9% | 3.7% |
| Cardiff | 1,233 | 41.5% | 3.0% |
| Leeds | 3,266 | 39.7% | 3.3% |
| Nottingham | 2,065 | 39.7% | 2.8% |
| Manchester | 5,053 | 39.5% | 2.9% |
| Sheffield | 1,910 | 39.4% | 3.2% |
| Glasgow | 3,314 | 37.3% | 2.9% |
| Edinburgh | 1,665 | 37.1% | 1.0% |
| Bristol | 2,632 | 35.7% | 2.2% |
| Stockport (small sample) | 669 | 35.7% | 3.7% |
| London | 20,250 | 35.2% | 1.0% |
Greater Manchester
Across the six Greater Manchester areas we searched (Manchester, Bolton, Bury, Oldham, Stockport and Wigan), 40.8% of 8,584 trade listings have no website, slightly above the UK figure of 39.1%. Another 3.0% list only a social media page. See Greater Manchester by trade.
Area pages, with figures by trade: Birmingham, Bristol, Cardiff, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Greater Manchester, Leeds, Leicester, Liverpool, London, Manchester, Newcastle, Nottingham, Sheffield, Wigan.
What it suggests
Listings without a website also tend to have fewer reviews: their median is 0 reviews, against 4 for listings with their own website, and 51.6% of them have no reviews at all. That's a link, not proof that one causes the other. Newer and part-time businesses may be less likely to have either. But it does show that a large share of trades are easy to overlook when customers compare options on Google.
How we did it
- Source: Google Maps listings, collected through the Serper Maps API between 24 and 28 September 2026.
- Searches: one search per trade term (for example "plumber", "roofing contractor", "painter and decorator") on a grid of points across each area, from 6 km to 20 km around the centre.
- Cleaning: listings deduplicated by Google's unique place ID. Shops, suppliers, merchants and hire firms were excluded.
- Trades: each listing was grouped by its primary Google category into one of eight trades. Builders include construction companies, home builders and general contractors.
- No website: the listing has no website on Google. A Facebook or Instagram link is counted separately as "social page only".
Limits
- This isn't a census. Google Maps shows a limited number of results per search, so some businesses won't appear.
- Some businesses may have a website that isn't linked from their Google listing.
- Categories are chosen by the businesses themselves, and some fit more than one trade. We used the primary category only.
- Where search areas overlap, a listing is counted once, in the first area it was found in.
Use this data
You're welcome to use these figures, with a credit and a link: "Source: Hi-Vis Web, UK Trades Website Study 2026, hivisweb.co.uk/research/uk-trades-without-websites/". The figures are published under CC BY 4.0. The trade and area tables are available as a CSV download. The study contains totals only, never individual businesses.
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