For web designers & developers
31,627,706 businesses that need a website built
42.6% of the world's local businesses have no website — 2,857,391 in the United States, 690,670 in the United Kingdom. A further 1,149,821 have only a Facebook or Instagram page.
These are not leads in the marketplace sense. Nobody on this list has posted a job or asked for a quote. They are businesses with the exact problem you fix, filterable by city and trade, with a phone number attached — and no other designer bidding for them.
Two lists, two different pitches
No website at all
The bigger list, and the harder sell: you have to make the case for having a site before you make the case for yourself. Best approached with proof — show them what a customer sees when they search for them right now.
Where they are: walk-in trades. Bars, cafes, salons, corner shops. Volume is enormous; budgets are smaller.
A bad website
Smaller list, warmer money. This business already believes in the thing you sell and has paid for it once. Run the audit, filter to sites scoring under 40 on Google PageSpeed, and open with the number.
Where they are: considered-purchase trades — contractors, clinics, estate agents. They are the ones who bought a site in 2015 and never touched it.
Pick the market before the prospect
The share of businesses with no website varies from 58% to under 20% depending where you look. That decides how hard your month is.
| Market | Businesses | No website | Share | Social only |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| United States | 14,894,884 | 2,857,391 | 19.2% | 53,293 |
| United Kingdom | 3,207,987 | 690,670 | 21.5% | 11,850 |
| India | 4,489,484 | 2,598,882 | 57.9% | 29,044 |
| Australia | 1,319,213 | 302,812 | 23.0% | 6,329 |
| Canada | 1,579,455 | 354,844 | 22.5% | 6,380 |
| Philippines | 1,158,723 | 880,583 | 76.0% | 29,128 |
Questions
How do I find people who need a website built?
Filter for businesses whose website field is empty. There are 31,627,706 of them worldwide, 2,857,391 in the United States alone. Narrow to your city and to trades that can afford the work, and you have a list of people with the exact problem you solve, none of whom have asked anyone for a quote yet.
Are businesses with only a Facebook page worth approaching?
They are usually the easiest sale on the list. 1,149,821 businesses list a social profile and nothing else. They have already decided they need to be findable — they just took the free option. You are not persuading them that the internet matters, only that renting their presence from Meta is worse than owning it.
What do I say in the first message?
Something only true of them. "I searched for a plumber in Wakefield and you came up fourth, but there's no site to click" lands because it is specific and checkable. Generic openers get deleted because they read as a mail-merge, which they are.
Can I find businesses whose existing site is bad?
Yes, and this is where the bigger budgets are. The built-in audit scores any site with Google PageSpeed, so you can filter to businesses scoring under 40. A rebuild pitch backed by "your site scores 28 and takes 9 seconds on a phone" is a different conversation from "I think your site looks dated".
Ten prospects, free, in about a minute
Pick your city, choose a trade, tick “no website”. If the list looks like work you could win, it is $27 a month. If it does not, you have lost nothing.
Start free — no card The wider case for direct work