Small business website statistics (2026), sourced and dated

Most small business website statistics travel without their sources, and some of the most quoted ones trace back to a 2002 study or to no survey at all. This page lists only numbers we re-read at the source on October 14, 2026, each with its publisher, date, survey size and a plain note on what it does and does not show. Use it for a decision or a citation. If you are weighing whether to get a site at all, Do I need a website for my small business? applies these numbers to that question, and Is a free website really free? covers what a free offer costs later.

What are the key small business website statistics for 2026?

The table below is the whole dataset. Every figure is quoted in the source’s own terms; the last column is ours.

22 small business website statistics, re-read at the source on October 14, 2026. “Who was surveyed” is what the source states; “not stated” means the page gives none.

Statistic	Source	Date	Who was surveyed	What it does and does not show
83% of US small businesses have a website, up from 64% in 2018	Clutch, State of Small Business Websites 2025	August 21, 2025	Not stated on the release	Adoption among the owners Clutch surveyed. The release names no survey size.
17% of small businesses have no website	Clutch, same release	August 21, 2025	Not stated	The complement of the 83%.
Over a third of businesses without a website say a website isn’t relevant to them	Clutch, same release	August 21, 2025	Not stated	Clutch gives no exact percentage and no cost figure; do not quote one.
28% of businesses without a website have no online presence at all	Clutch, same release	August 21, 2025	Not stated	Base is businesses without a site, not all businesses.
12% of small businesses launched a website in the past year	Clutch, same release	August 21, 2025	Not stated	A rate of new sites, not a growth rate in the 83%.
Recently launched sites were built by outsourced partners (45%), in-house teams (37%) or owners (8%)	Clutch, same release	August 21, 2025	Not stated	Sums to 90%; the release does not say what base these shares use.
Platforms: DIY builders such as Wix and Squarespace 41%, WordPress or Shopify 34%, custom-built 12%	Clutch, same release	August 21, 2025	Not stated	Same base caveat as the row above.
36,207,130 small businesses in the United States; 99.9% of businesses are small	SBA Office of Advocacy, FAQ About Small Business 2026	February 3, 2026	Federal data; “small” means fewer than 500 employees	A count of firms, most of them with no employees. Not a count of businesses that need a website.
54% of consumers visit a business’s website after reading positive reviews, up from 32% in 2019	BrightLocal, Local Consumer Review Survey 2026	February 11, 2026	1,002 US adults, SurveyMonkey panel	Self-reported behavior after a positive review.
45% of consumers use ChatGPT or other generative AI for local business recommendations, up from 6% a year earlier	BrightLocal, same survey	February 11, 2026	1,002 US adults	Any generative AI tool, not ChatGPT alone.
97% of consumers read reviews for local businesses	BrightLocal, same survey	February 11, 2026	1,002 US adults	Any frequency of reading; not “always”.
71% use Google for local reviews, down from 83% in 2025	BrightLocal, same survey	February 11, 2026	1,002 US adults	Google is still first; the share fell as other sources grew.
The average consumer uses six review sites when choosing a business	BrightLocal, same survey	February 11, 2026	1,002 US adults	A mean, so a few heavy users pull it up.
85% say contact information and opening hours are an important factor when researching a local business; 46% say very important	BrightLocal, Consumer Search Behavior 2025	April 29, 2025	1,000 US consumers, SurveyMonkey panel	Importance ratings, not a measure of how often people look.
56% often or always check that business information is consistent across sources	BrightLocal, same survey	April 29, 2025	1,000 US consumers	Self-reported checking; the sources checked are not broken out here.
73% of local searches start on a mobile device	BrightLocal, local SEO statistics page, citing Consumer Search Behavior 2026	2026 (page checked October 14, 2026)	Not stated on the statistics page	19% start on a computer and 8% on a tablet, per the same page.
46% always or often add “near me” to local searches	BrightLocal, same page, citing Consumer Search Behavior 2025	2025 (page checked October 14, 2026)	Not stated on the statistics page	Query habit, not a share of all searches.
84% of consumers searched for a local business in the past 3 months	BrightLocal, same page, citing Consumer Search Behavior 2026	2026 (page checked October 14, 2026)	Not stated on the statistics page	The survey size is not documented on the page; prefer the 73% and 85% rows when you need a fully documented figure.
85% of US diners look at the menu online before deciding on a new restaurant	TouchBistro, 2024 American Diner Trends Report	Fielded September 12 to 21, 2023; published 2024	1,500 US diners, Maru/Matchbox, plus or minus 3%	Restaurants only, and 2023 fieldwork. Name the year when you quote it.
80% look at the restaurant’s website	TouchBistro, same report	2023 fieldwork; published 2024	1,500 US diners	Same scope as the row above.
64% do a Google search for the restaurant	TouchBistro, same report	2023 fieldwork; published 2024	1,500 US diners	Same scope as the row above.
The “design look” of a site was mentioned in 46.1% of comments about its credibility	Stanford Persuasive Technology Lab with Consumer WebWatch	October 29, 2002	2,684 participants evaluating live sites	A share of comments, not of people, and the sites were news, health and similar categories. The age of the study is the caveat.

How many small businesses have a website?

83% of US small businesses have a website, up from 64% in 2018, according to Clutch’s survey released on August 21, 2025, and 17% do not. Among the 17%, over a third say a website is not relevant to their business and 28% have no online presence at all, which means no profile and no social page either (Clutch, 2025). The same Clutch release says 12% of small businesses launched a site in the past year.

For scale, the SBA Office of Advocacy counted 36,207,130 small businesses in the United States in its February 2026 FAQ, and says 99.9% of all businesses are small, with “small” meaning fewer than 500 employees. Most of those firms have no employees, so the count includes side businesses and sole proprietors who may never want a site; multiply it by Clutch’s 17% only as a rough sense of scale, not as a measurement.

How do customers use a business’s website?

Customers use a business’s website as the second step after a review or a search. BrightLocal’s Local Consumer Review Survey 2026 (1,002 US adults, published February 11, 2026) found 97% of consumers read reviews for local businesses, 71% use Google for those reviews, and 54% visit the business’s website after reading positive reviews, up from 32% when BrightLocal last asked in 2019.

In restaurants the pattern is sharper. TouchBistro’s 2024 American Diner Trends Report (1,500 US diners, fielded September 2023) found 85% of diners look at the menu online before deciding on a new restaurant, 80% look at the restaurant’s website and 64% run a Google search for it. The oldest row in the table makes the same point from the other side: in a 2002 Stanford study of 2,684 people, the design look of a site appeared in 46.1% of the comments people made about whether to believe it.

What do customers check before they contact a business?

Contact details and hours come first. In BrightLocal’s Consumer Search Behavior survey (1,000 US consumers, April 29, 2025), 85% of consumers said contact information and opening hours are an important factor when they research a local business, and 46% said very important. In the same BrightLocal survey, 56% said they often or always check that business information is consistent across the sources they find.

The second figure is the one that catches a site out. A phone number on the site that differs from the one on the Google Business Profile, or hours that disagree, is the inconsistency more than half of consumers say they look for. What should be on a small business website? puts those details first for that reason.

How many local searches happen on a phone?

73% of local searches start on a mobile device, with 19% on a computer and 8% on a tablet, according to BrightLocal’s local SEO statistics page citing its Consumer Search Behavior 2026 study (page checked October 14, 2026). The same BrightLocal page reports that 46% of consumers always or often add “near me” to a local search (2025 study) and that 84% searched for a local business in the past 3 months (2026 study).

BrightLocal’s 84% figure comes without a documented survey size on that page, so we list it with that caveat and lean on the 73% when a number has to carry weight. The practical reading is the same either way: the phone view of your site is the one most customers see, and a phone number that dials on a tap matters more than most design choices.

How many people ask AI for local business recommendations?

45% of consumers use ChatGPT or other generative AI tools for local business recommendations, up from 6% a year earlier, according to BrightLocal’s Local Consumer Review Survey 2026 (1,002 US adults, February 11, 2026). The figure covers any generative AI tool; a secondary write-up that puts ChatGPT alone at a lower number is not on this page because we could not confirm it at the source.

Google’s position on what that requires of a website is short. Its Search Central documentation says there are “no additional requirements to appear in AI Overviews or AI Mode, nor other special optimizations necessary”: a page has to be indexable and eligible for a snippet, and any structured data has to match the visible text (updated December 10, 2025). Google also says local ranking is based on relevance, distance and prominence, and that businesses with complete and accurate information are more likely to show up (Google Business Profile Help, checked October 14, 2026). How to get your business recommended by ChatGPT and AI turns those two statements into a checklist.

What does a small business website cost?

Website cost figures are a different kind of statistic: they are list prices and vendor estimates rather than survey results, and they change. These are the ones we quote, with the date each was read.

Website cost figures by route. Vendor prices read on the vendor’s own page on October 14, 2026; guide figures carry the guide’s own updated date.

Figure	Source	Date
Wix: Light $17, Core $29, Business $39, Business Elite $159 a month, billed yearly in full	wix.com/plans	October 14, 2026
Squarespace: Basic $19, Core $29, Plus $49, Advanced $99 a month billed annually; $25, $39, $65, $139 billed monthly	squarespace.com/pricing	October 14, 2026
Durable: Launch $25 a month, or $22 billed yearly; Grow $49, or $41 yearly; free tier is a private preview	durable.com/pricing	October 14, 2026
Hostinger Website Builder: $143.52 for 48 months up front, then $10.99 a month	hostinger.com/website-builder	October 14, 2026
Freelancer: $50 to $95 an hour, 40 to 80 hours, $2,000 to $7,600 for a small business site; agency $5,000 to $15,000; 4 to 8 weeks	WebsiteSetup	Updated November 22, 2025
Small business site $1,500 to $3,500; shared hosting $5 to $25 a month; domain $10 to $50 a year; content updates $50 to $200 a month; DIY builder 1 to 2 weeks	Ueni cost guide	Updated September 22, 2026
Most web design projects reviewed cost under $10,000; agencies charge $2,000 to $100,000, and Clutch’s shortlisted agencies $100 to $149 an hour	Clutch, web designer pricing	Updated September 21, 2026
.com domain $12 to $25 a year	WebsiteSetup	Updated November 22, 2025
FreeWebGuy: $0 to build, $15 a month for hosting after you approve the preview; $180 in the first year plus a domain if you need one	freewebguy.com/pricing	October 14, 2026

What a small business website costs in 2026 works these into first-year and three-year totals, and the website cost calculator does the arithmetic for your own case.

How were these statistics chosen?

Four rules decided what made the table:

1. Primary source only. Each figure was read on the publisher’s own page or report on October 14, 2026. Numbers that appear only in roundups, slide decks or other people’s blog posts were left out, however often they are repeated.
2. Date and survey size stated. Where the source gives the number of people surveyed and the method, the table carries it. Where it does not, the table says “not stated” rather than borrowing a figure from a secondary write-up.
3. The source’s own wording. “Consumers” means the people the survey asked, “small businesses” means what the publisher counted, and we do not round a share of comments into a share of people.
4. Caveats travel with the number. The last column is there so the figure cannot be lifted without its limits.

Two widely quoted numbers are absent on purpose. Claims that a fixed percentage of consumers “judge a company’s credibility by its website design” trace to the 2002 Stanford study’s 46.1% of comments, which is a different measurement, so we list the original and not the paraphrase. And no count of how many Google Business Profile websites were shut down in 2024 appears here, because Google published none.

What has changed on this page?

• October 14, 2026: first published. All 22 figures re-read at the source on October 14, 2026. The small business count is taken from the SBA Office of Advocacy’s 2026 FAQ (February 3, 2026), which superseded the 2025 edition. The web credibility figure is attributed to the 2002 Stanford and Consumer WebWatch report, the version that states the 2,684 participants and the 46.1% share; a 2003 conference paper by the same authors reports the study with “over 2,500 participants.”

Next scheduled review: February 2027, when BrightLocal publishes its next Local Consumer Review Survey.