How to find businesses without websites in the UK

Every web designer has had the same idea: find the businesses with no website, and offer to build one. It's a good idea. The hard part is finding them in numbers, and finding the ones that actually want a site.

Here are four ways to do it in the UK, what each one finds, and the one thing that matters more than which method you use.

1. Google Maps, by hand

Search Maps for a trade and a town, "plumber Wakefield" or "café Harrogate", and go through the results. Listings with no website button are businesses Google doesn't know a site for. It's free and it's local, and you can see their reviews and photos before you get in touch.

It's also slow, and Google's terms don't allow scraping Maps, so tools that promise to do it automatically carry a risk to whatever account you use. And many of the businesses you find have traded for years without a site. Some will be glad to hear from you. Many have decided they don't need one.

2. New companies on the Companies House register

This is where the volume is. Every new limited company appears on the Companies House register the day it's incorporated, and almost none of them have a website yet. When we checked the clean new companies registered from 17 to 23 October 2026, we could find a website for only about one in ten.

That makes them better leads than established businesses. A new founder without a site hasn't decided against one. They just haven't got to it, and they're making supplier decisions every day. The catch is noise: about four in ten new companies are shells, holding companies or formation-agent registrations that will never need a website. You'll want to strike those out first. Our guide on finding newly registered companies covers how.

3. Domains that say "coming soon"

For each new company, try the obvious domains: its name without "Ltd" and spaces, then .co.uk, .com and .uk. If one loads a "coming soon" page or the registrar's holding page, you've found the best lead there is. They've bought the name and haven't decided how to build the site. Check the page really is theirs before you pitch: plenty of matches belong to a business with a similar name somewhere else.

4. Facebook-only and directory-only businesses

Search local Facebook groups and directories such as Yell for businesses whose only online presence is a page or a listing. They've shown they want to be found online, which puts them ahead of a business with nothing. The pitch writes itself: a site they own, that shows up in search, with bookings or a quote form that a Facebook page can't do well.

What matters more than the method

Timing. A business that's had no website for ten years is a hard sell. A business that's had no website for ten days is an easy one, because it's going to get one soon either way, from you, from a template builder or from a friend. Find them early and say something specific to their sector: menus and bookings for a restaurant, a quote form and reviews for a trade, online booking for a salon.

When you get in touch by email, a generic company address is fine for limited companies under the ICO's business-to-business rules, as long as you say who you are and offer an opt-out. A letter to the director by name, whose name is on the public register, still stands out.

Our web designer feed does the second and third methods for you every morning: new companies in your area with no website or a "coming soon" domain, with the directors named and a pitch angle for each. Our earlier guide on finding web design clients among new businesses goes further into what to pitch.