A website that does not work on a phone is worse than no website at all, because it actively turns customers away. Our audit found a quarter of tradesmen have no site, and many of the rest fall down on exactly the screen their customers are using.
Here is how trade websites perform on mobile, why structured data is the new invisible barrier, and why more than half are effectively invisible to modern search.
How we did this
Sample: 4,895 UK trade businesses across 61 towns and 25 trades, concentrated in Hertfordshire and the surrounding South East of England. Collected: 2026, from public Google Business Profiles and business websites. All percentages from our own data are of the businesses we analysed, not a national census. Because every business was found via Google in the first place, our figures most likely understate the true gaps. External figures are cited and linked inline.
The key findings
- 25% of the businesses we analysed have no website at all, just a Google listing and perhaps a social page.
- Of those that do have a website, 14% are not mobile-friendly, despite most local trade searches happening on a phone.
- 39% of the websites have no schema markup, the structured data Google and AI engines rely on to read and understand a page.
- Put together, 54% of the businesses are effectively invisible to rich results and AI search: no website, or a website with no structured data.
Your customers are on a phone, in a hurry
When a boiler dies or a roof leaks, the homeowner is searching on a phone, often with several tabs open, and they are not patient. A site that loads slowly, needs pinching and zooming, or hides the phone number loses them in seconds to the next result.
This is the most basic test a trade website has to pass, and our data says a meaningful share fail it. A non-responsive site is not a small flaw. On the screen most of your customers use, it is the whole shop window falling over.
Mobile-friendly is the floor, not the ceiling
Fourteen percent of the trade websites we checked are not mobile-friendly at all. That is the obvious failure. But passing the mobile test only gets you to the starting line, because being readable on a phone is now assumed, not impressive.
The sites that win are fast, with a tappable number on every screen and the service area spelled out. Most trade sites we looked at were built on heavy templates that are slow before they are anything else.
Schema is the new invisible barrier
Here is the part most tradesmen have never heard of. Schema markup is structured data that tells Google and AI engines exactly what a page is: the business, the services, the area, the reviews. It is invisible to humans and essential to machines. In our audit, 39% of trade websites have none.
Without it, a perfectly nice-looking site can still be skipped by the rich results and AI answers that more and more homeowners rely on. The page exists, but the machines that increasingly do the recommending cannot read it properly.
More than half the market is invisible
Combine the two problems, no website and a website with no structured data, and 54% of the trade businesses we analysed are effectively invisible to modern search. As AI search and rich results take over more of how people find local trades, that share is the gap between being found and being skipped.
It is also the opportunity. A fast, mobile-first site with proper structured data puts you ahead of more than half your local competition, most of whom do not even know the gap exists.
Frequently asked questions
How many tradesmen's websites are not mobile-friendly?
What is schema markup and why does it matter?
What does it mean to be invisible to AI search?
Want to pass the phone test?
We build fast, mobile-first websites for tradesmen with proper structured data built in, so you load quickly, read well on a phone, and can actually be found by Google and AI search. From £500, and you own everything. Based in Watford.