Selling websites to local businesses starts with a list: businesses that have no website, or one so broken it might as well not exist. This guide covers where to find them, how to check each one in under a minute, which to contact first, and what to send.
How many local businesses have no website?
More than you would expect. We ran our niche finder over two cities in October 2026. It counts every independent business in a trade within the city limits, and how many have no website listed on OpenStreetMap:
| Trade | Manchester, UK | Austin, TX |
|---|---|---|
| Restaurants | 188 of 265 (71%) | 240 of 441 (54%) |
| Cafés | 138 of 161 (86%) | 50 of 88 (57%) |
| Hair salons | 181 of 194 (93%) | 50 of 73 (68%) |
| Auto repair shops | 55 of 60 (92%) | 43 of 68 (63%) |
| Dentists | 27 of 35 (77%) | 44 of 80 (55%) |
Read those numbers as an upper bound. Map data is filled in by volunteers, and plenty of businesses have a site nobody added. That is why step three below exists. But even if half of them turn out to have a site, Manchester alone has well over a hundred restaurants and cafés with no website — in a single trade, in a single city.
Step 1: Pick one trade and one area
Do not start with “every business near me”. Pick one trade, so your examples and your message fit every business on the list, and one area small enough to visit. Good first trades are restaurants, cafés, barbers and salons: there are lots of them, the owners are on site, and the sites are simple. Higher-paying trades like dentists and accountants take longer to close but pay more. The niche finder ranks the trades in your city by how many have no website and what a site in each one usually sells for.
Step 2: Build the list
1. Google Maps, by hand
Search a trade and an area — “barber Didsbury”, “taqueria East Austin” — and open each listing. A listing with no Website button is a lead. Also note listings whose Website button points to a Facebook page, an Instagram profile or a booking app: those count too. It is free and accurate, but slow: expect about 30 listings an hour.
2. A finder that reads the map for you
Our businesses without websites finder does the same check for a whole city or neighbourhood at once, from OpenStreetMap, and lists the businesses with no website along with their address and phone number. It is free and needs no sign-up. For a ranked list you can download as a CSV, use the lead generator.
3. Businesses whose website is broken
A business with a dead or broken site is often an easier sale than one with no site at all: the owner has already paid for a website once, so they believe in it, and you are pointing out something that is costing them customers right now. The bad website finder flags sites that do not load, have no HTTPS, or are unusable on a phone.
4. Walk the street
Walk a high street with your phone and search each shopfront as you pass. It is the slowest method, but you are already at the door, and you meet the owner before you have sent a word.
Step 3: Check each business in under a minute
Before you write to anyone, run three quick checks. They save you from the most embarrassing pitch there is: offering a website to a business that has one.
- Search the business name and the town. If a site comes up that the map missed, cross them off — or move them to the “bad website” list if it is broken.
- Check it is independent. Franchises and chains get their website from head office. You cannot sell them one.
- Check it is open and busy. Recent Google reviews mean the business is trading and people are looking it up. A place with 300 reviews and no website is losing customers every week; a place with three reviews may not survive long enough to pay you.
Step 4: Decide who to contact first
Sort what is left. Start with the businesses that have:
- Lots of good reviews. Proof that people search for them, and good material for the website itself.
- Customers who check online before they come. Restaurants (menus), salons and barbers (prices and booking), and clinics (trust) all lose customers without a site. A corner shop mostly does not.
- A way to reach the owner. A published phone number, an email address, or a shop you can walk into.
Step 5: Pitch with the site, not a promise
Every business owner gets messages promising more customers. Almost none get a message with their own website already built. Build a first version before you reach out — their name, their photos from Google, their real menu or price list, their reviews — and link it. It turns “would you like a website?”, which is easy to ignore, into “here is your website, what is wrong with it?”, which people answer.
A message that works, by email or WhatsApp:
Hi, I was looking for a barber near Burton Road and found you on Google — 4.8 stars from 210 reviews, but no website, so anyone who wants your prices or opening hours has to call. I put one together to show you what it could look like: [link]. It uses your own photos and reviews. Have a look and tell me what you would change.
Why it works:
- It proves you looked at their business, not a list.
- It names one problem, in their customers’ terms.
- It shows rather than tells, and asks for feedback rather than money.
In person, the same thing works even better: show the site on your phone at a quiet moment, not during the lunch rush. Whichever way you reach out, follow up once, three or four days later. After that, move on.
What to say when they push back
- “We have a Facebook page.” Facebook is for people who already follow you. A website is what Google shows people who have never heard of you, and it is the only page you own.
- “We can’t afford it.” Offer a smaller first version, or a monthly price that includes hosting and changes. Many sellers charge $20 to $50 a month on top of the build.
- “My nephew is doing one.” Leave the link anyway. Plenty of nephews never finish, and yours already exists.
A note on the rules
Contact businesses only through details they publish themselves, say who you are, and make it easy to say no. Cold email rules differ by country: in the US, CAN-SPAM requires an honest subject line, your address and an opt-out; in the UK, emailing limited companies is allowed with an opt-out, but sole traders must have agreed first. Walking in, or calling the number on their listing, avoids most of this.
Doing it faster
Everything above can be done by hand with Google Maps, a spreadsheet and a website builder. Steps 2 to 5 are what SitesGen automates: it scans a neighbourhood, checks every business’s website, builds each one a finished site from its own photos and reviews, and writes the pitch for you to send. When they say yes, the site goes live on their domain in one click.
Either way, start today with the free businesses without websites finder: pick your city, pick a trade, and you will have your first list in a minute.