Businesses without websites: which ones to pitch, and what to show them

A business without a website still has customers searching for what it sells. It just cannot be found when they do, so those searches go to a competitor's page. About 1,600 people in the US search for "businesses without websites" every month, and another 720 for "local businesses without websites", mostly web designers and agencies looking for their next client.

Naming the business is the easy part. This guide covers which businesses without websites are worth a pitch, what they are missing, and what to show the owner so the first site gets bought.

Why so many small businesses still have no website

There are about 260 US searches a month for "small businesses without websites" and 260 for "businesses that don't have a website", and the reasons behind those businesses repeat:

• The phone already rings. Trades and home services that live on referrals and repeat work never felt the need.
• The owner is the whole company. A one-person business has no time for a site and no one to run it.
• A maps listing or a social page feels like enough. It brings some calls, so the gap is invisible.
• The site lapsed. An old site expired with a domain or a hosting bill, and nobody replaced it.
• The business is new. It opened before it had a budget for anything but the work.

None of these is a reason the business does not need pages. Each is a reason the owner has not seen what the missing pages cost.

What a business without a website is missing

Customers search before they call: for the service, for the problem, for the town. A business with no pages has nothing for any of those searches to land on, so every one of them goes to a business that does.

Here is a worked example for a roofer in a mid-size town. The searches are typical of the trade; the numbers are round and made up to show the shape.

• Search in its area: roof repair

  200Searches a month (example)

  Who gets it today

  Two competitors with a page for it

• Search in its area: roof leak repair

  90Searches a month (example)

  Who gets it today

  One competitor

• Search in its area: roof replacement cost

  70Searches a month (example)

  Who gets it today

  A competitor's pricing page

That is the pitch in one table: people search for this work every month, and the business gets none of them. An owner who sees it understands the site as customers, not as a design project.

Which businesses without websites are worth a pitch

Not every one of them is a client. Before you write, check four things about each business:

• Its customers search. Roofers, plumbers, cleaners, clinics and movers are searched for every day. A business that only sells to a few known buyers gains little from pages.
• Its competitors have pages. If the rivals in its town already answer the searches, the demand is proven and the gap is visible.
• It has something to show. Reviews, photos of work, a phone that rings: a business with a track record is easy to build a site for.
• It wants more work. A business booked out for months by referrals will not buy a site to get busier.

The businesses that pass all four are the easiest first projects an agency can sell: the gap is the whole site, and the owner already half suspects it. For a market-by-market view of the searches behind a trade, see local keyword research.

How to pitch a business without a website

• Lead with the customers, not the design. Open with the searches people make for the owner's work and the competitor pages that get them.
• Name one competitor. "The roofer across town has a page for this" lands harder than any statistic.
• Sell the pages, not the template. The first site should have one page for each service people search for, and a page for each place it serves. Our guide to location pages shows why.
• Keep the first project small. A site with five pages that match five searches beats a large site that answers none.
• Promise what you control. You can build the pages; you cannot promise the position they reach.

Mistakes that lose the sale

• Pitching the price first. The owner has no reason to compare prices until they see what they are missing.
• Showing a mockup with no searches behind it. A pretty page that answers nothing is easy to say no to.
• Building one page for everything. A single page cannot answer ten different searches.
• Ignoring the maps listing. For a local business it brings calls today; the new site should work with it, not replace it. A local SEO audit shows both side by side.

When the business has a site, but a weak one

Many prospects have a site that exists and answers almost nothing: a home page, a contact form, no service pages. They are the same pitch with one extra step: you need to show which searches the current site misses. Send the list of sites and get, for each one, the searches it has no page for, with the competitor that has the page: your prospect list, checked.

Frequently asked questions

Are businesses without websites good clients?

The right ones are. A business whose customers search, whose competitors have pages and which wants more work is an easy first project. One booked out by referrals is not.

What should the first website for a local business include?

A page for each service people search for, a page for each town or area it serves, the proof (reviews, photos of work) and a clear way to call. Fewer, focused pages beat one long page.

Is a maps listing enough without a website?

It brings some calls, but it cannot answer the separate searches people make for each service. The listing and the site work best together.

More on finding and winning clients in lead generation for marketing agencies, or read the page for web designers.