Most local tradesmen are far harder to find online than they think. We audited the public online presence of 4,895 UK trade businesses and the picture is stark: a quarter have no website, over half are invisible to the structured data Google and AI engines rely on, and the typical firm has fewer than ten reviews.
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. Measured: website presence, mobile-friendliness, schema (structured data) markup, and Google review counts. All percentages below are of the businesses we analysed, not a national census. Because every business was found via Google in the first place, the figures most likely understate how many tradesmen are truly invisible.
The key findings
- 1 in 4 (25%) of the trade businesses we analysed had no website at all: 1,241 of 4,895. Their entire online presence was a Google listing and, sometimes, a social page.
- 54% are effectively invisible to Google rich results and AI search. They either have no website, or a website with no structured data (schema) for search engines to read.
- Among the businesses that do have a website, 39% have no schema markup and 14% are not mobile-friendly, despite most trade searches happening on a phone.
- Nearly half (48%) have fewer than 10 Google reviews, and 11% have none at all. The median across the sample was just 10 reviews.
- Plasterers (41%) and handymen (40%) are the least likely to have a website; gardeners (19%) and domestic cleaners (22%) the most likely.
A quarter of tradesmen have no website at all
Of the 4,895 businesses we analysed, 1,241 (25%) had no website we could find. For these firms, the entire online shopfront is a Google listing and perhaps a Facebook page. Every homeowner who searches, compares and then chooses based on what they see online is effectively choosing between their competitors.
The gap is widest in the trades you might least expect, and it varies sharply by trade:
| Trade | No site | count |
|---|---|---|
| Plasterer | 41% | 120/291 |
| Handyman | 40% | 74/183 |
| Painter and decorator | 33% | 151/461 |
| Plumber | 26% | 187/710 |
| Tiler | 25% | 79/310 |
| Electrician | 23% | 155/668 |
| Roofer | 23% | 130/566 |
| Carpenter | 23% | 113/502 |
| Domestic cleaner | 22% | 109/492 |
| Gardener | 19% | 122/648 |
Plasterers and handymen are the least likely to have a website, with around four in ten operating without one. Even among the most digital trades, roughly one in five still has no site, which is a remarkable amount of work left on the table.
Over half are invisible to Google rich results and AI search
Having a website is only half the battle. We counted a business as effectively invisible if it had no website, or a website with no schema markup, the structured data that lets Google and AI engines reliably read, understand and cite a page. On that measure, 54% of the businesses we analysed are invisible to the parts of search that increasingly decide who gets found.
Among the firms that do have a website, 39% have no schema at all and 14% are not mobile-friendly. As AI search and rich results take over more of how people find local trades, structured data is shifting from a nice-to-have to the difference between being cited and being skipped.
Most tradesmen have almost no reviews
Reviews are both the strongest trust signal a homeowner sees and a major local-ranking factor, yet most trade businesses have very few. In our sample, 48% had fewer than 10 Google reviews and 11% had none at all. Only 17% had 50 or more. The median across all 4,895 businesses was just 10 reviews.
Average ratings looked high, but that is largely because so many firms have only a handful of reviews, where a single five-star rating skews the average. The more useful signal is volume, and on volume the typical tradesman is badly under-served.
What this means if you are a tradesman
The encouraging read on this data is how low the bar is. If a quarter of your competitors have no website, more than half are invisible to AI search, and most have a handful of reviews, then a fast, properly built site with structured data and a steady trickle of reviews puts you ahead of the large majority of your local market, often for the price of a single job.
None of this requires being the biggest firm in town. It requires being findable, readable by the tools people search with, and visibly trusted. Most tradesmen are none of those things, which is precisely the opportunity.
Want to be in the visible minority?
I build fast, properly structured websites for tradesmen, with the schema, mobile-first build and review prompts this data shows most of your competitors are missing. From £500, and you own everything. Based in Watford.
Frequently asked questions
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Citation: LeadFly Websites, "Tradesman Website Statistics 2026", based on an audit of 4,895 UK trade businesses. Please link to this page if you use these figures.