If you have been in web design or SEO for any length of time, you have probably had a conversation that goes something like this: “Surely everyone has a website by now?” The answer, perhaps surprisingly, is no. Not even close.

The UK picture

The UK Business Data Survey 2024, conducted by Ipsos across 3,911 businesses between October 2023 and February 2024, found that only 68% of UK businesses have a website. That leaves roughly 32% with no web presence at all.

The breakdown by business size is where it gets interesting for web professionals:

• Sole traders35% have no website
• Micro businesses (under 10 employees)26% have no website
• Small businesses (10–49 employees)7% have no website

Sole traders and micro businesses represent the overwhelming majority of UK businesses. The Business Population Estimates 2025 puts the total number of UK SMEs at 5.7 million, of which 5.4 million are micro businesses. Even a conservative reading of the data puts the number of UK businesses without a working website well into seven figures.

The US picture

The pattern holds in the United States. According to widely cited research from Clutch and aggregated by sources including Backlinko, approximately 27% of US small businesses do not have a website as of 2025. SCORE, the US small business mentoring nonprofit, found that website adoption has grown from around 51% in 2018 to 73% by 2024 — but that still leaves more than one in four small businesses offline.

The reasons businesses give for not having a website are revealing. According to Clutch's survey data:

• 27% said they felt a website was not relevant to their industry
• 26% cited cost as the primary barrier
• 21% said they relied on social media instead

These are not businesses that have looked into it and decided against it. They are businesses where the owner has not yet been shown what a website could actually do for them. That is the conversation you can start.

Why word of mouth is not enough anymore

The problem is that the behaviour of their customers is changing even when theirs is not. Someone who needs a plumber today will almost certainly search on Google before asking a neighbour. If your business does not show up, or shows up without a proper website, you lose to someone who does. A local competitor who is otherwise worse at their job but has a clean site with clear pricing, good photos, and a few dozen reviews will get that call.

Business owners often know this on some level. They have seen customers mention that they “could not find them online” or that they found a competitor first. But knowing something is a problem and knowing how to fix it are different things. Many small business owners have no idea what a website should cost, who to trust to build one, or what they would even put on it.

The pitch is not a hard sell

This is why cold outreach to local businesses, done well, has a much higher success rate than most freelancers expect. You are not selling something they do not need. You are offering to solve a problem they are already aware of and have not yet found the right person to help with.

The key is specificity. A cold email that says “I help local businesses get more customers online” goes nowhere. An email that says “I noticed your Google Business profile does not link to a website. I build sites for local electricians in your area and have a slot available this month” is much more effective because it shows you have actually looked at their business.

Is the window closing?

A fair concern: are website builders and AI tools eating into this opportunity? Three pieces of data suggest not.

First, the US Bureau of Labor Statistics projects employment of web developers and digital designers to grow 7% from 2024 to 2034, faster than the average across all occupations, with around 14,500 new openings projected each year. If AI tools were displacing professional web work, you would expect the opposite.

Second, the DIY builder market and the “no website” market are largely different groups. Around 32% of US small businesses use a DIY builder — those businesses have already solved their problem themselves. The separate 27% with no website at all are a different cohort. When you look at why they have not built anything, the Clutch data tells the story: 27% say they think a website is not relevant to their industry, 26% cite cost, and 21% rely on social media instead. None of them say they are waiting for a better AI tool. They are waiting for someone to make the whole thing easy and worth it.

Third, sole traders and micro businesses — the segment with the lowest website ownership — also have the lowest digital literacy on average. A 55-year-old plumber who has run their business off referrals for two decades is not going to start using Squarespace or prompting an AI builder. The technical barrier is not really about the tools available. It is about confidence and time, which is exactly what hiring a professional removes.

What this means for your practice

The demand is there and it is quantifiable. Over a million UK businesses and tens of millions globally are operating without a working website. The question is not whether there are enough potential clients. The question is whether you have a consistent way to find and reach them.

Relying on referrals and inbound enquiries makes your pipeline unpredictable. Adding even a few targeted outreach contacts per week, to businesses you have researched and know you can help, makes it predictable. You do not need to pitch a hundred businesses. You need to pitch the right ones.