Original research, 2026 edition

The State of Small-Business Websites

Name: The State of Small-Business Websites, 2026
Creator: AtlasForge
Published: 2026-06-10
License: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

In a sample of 391 small-business websites, 36.8% had no structured data and 27.9% had no meta description.

In an initial sample of 391 small-business websites (Ontario and other Canadian provinces, crawled 2026-06-10), 36.8% had no structured data for search engines to read, 27.9% had no meta description, and 4.9% had no mobile viewport. The median homepage shipped 138 KB of HTML. Source: AtlasForge.

This is an initial sample of 391 public small-business homepages, Ontario and other Canadian provinces, measured on 2026-06-10. We report what we found in the sample and nothing beyond it. The method, the exact signals, and the limits are on the methodology page. The sample grows on an annual refresh.

The key findings.

Each finding is the share of the 391 sites in the sample with the gap named. The number is stated in the text so the finding reads without the chart.

No structured data36.8%
36.8% of the 391 small-business websites measured had no structured data, so a search engine or an AI assistant had no machine-readable way to confirm what the business is, where it operates, or what it offers.
No meta description27.9%
27.9% had no meta description, leaving the search-result snippet for the business to be guessed by the search engine instead of written by the owner.
Stale copyright year29.8%
29.8% of the sites that showed a copyright year (a base of 235) had not updated it in three or more years, a visible signal the site has been left untended.
No mobile viewport4.9%
4.9% had no mobile viewport tag, so the page does not adapt to a phone screen, where most local searches happen.
No social share tags31.7%
31.7% had no OpenGraph tags, so a link shared to social or messaging shows a bare URL instead of a title, description, and image.
No HTTPS1.8%
1.8% still served the homepage without HTTPS, which browsers flag as not secure and search engines treat as a negative signal.

By industry.

The structured-data and metadata gaps by industry, for every industry with at least 20 measured sites in the sample. Industries with fewer than 20 sites are not broken out, because a percentage on a small cell would mislead.

Structured-data and metadata gaps by industry, with sample sizes
Industry	Sites	No structured data	No meta description	See more
Manufacturing and industrial	24	62.5%	45.8%	n/a
Restaurants and food	21	47.6%	28.6%	Cost Design
Accounting and wealth	26	42.3%	34.6%	Cost Design
Auto and dealers	26	42.3%	23.1%	Cost Design
Real estate and property	24	41.7%	20.8%	Cost Design
Legal services	26	30.8%	19.2%	n/a
Dental and orthodontics	23	26.1%	21.7%	Cost Design
Med spa and cosmetic	27	25.9%	29.6%	n/a
Construction and renovation	28	17.9%	14.3%	Cost Design

By region.

The sample is concentrated in Ontario, with a second block across other Canadian provinces. Both clear the 20-site floor, so both are reported.

Key gaps by region, with sample sizes
Region	Sites	No structured data	No meta description	Stale copyright
Ontario	235	36.6%	30.6%	32.6%
Canada (other provinces)	151	38.4%	24.5%	27.1%

What they are built on.

The most common platforms were WordPress at 41.9%, Custom or unidentified at 32%, Wix at 14.1%.

WordPress41.9%
Custom or unidentified32%
Wix14.1%
Squarespace5.9%
GoDaddy builder2%
Weebly1.3%
Shopify1%
Joomla0.8%
Webflow0.8%
Drupal0.3%

The median homepage in the sample shipped 138 KB of HTML. Page weight beyond the HTML (images, scripts, fonts) was not fully measured in this sample and is named as a limit on the methodology page.

What this is, and what it is not.

This is an initial sample of 391 public small-business homepages, measured on 2026-06-10 and concentrated in Ontario and other Canadian provinces. It is honest for that sample. It is not a census of every small-business website, and the percentages here are not extrapolated past the sample. A signal like a missing meta description is a measurable gap, not a verdict on a business.

The crawl was robots-respecting, rate-limited, and limited to public pages. It collected no personal data and names no business. The full sampling frame, the exact signals, and the limits are on the methodology page. The dataset behind every number on this page is committed in the AtlasForge repository, so each figure is auditable.

The sample grows on an annual refresh. The next edition is published at a dated URL, and this one is kept, so the year-over-year change becomes its own record.

Questions about the data

What percent of small-business websites have no structured data?

In this sample of 391 small-business websites, 36.8% had no structured data (no JSON-LD and no microdata), so search engines and AI assistants had no machine-readable way to confirm the business and its details.

What percent of small-business websites have no meta description?

27.9% of the 391 sites measured had no meta description, leaving the search-result snippet to be guessed by the search engine rather than written by the owner.

Which website platform do small businesses use most?

In this sample, WordPress was the most common, followed by sites with no identifiable builder fingerprint (custom or hand-built) and Wix. Full platform share is on the report, sourced to the crawl.

How was this data collected?

By an automated, robots-respecting, rate-limited crawl of public homepages, identifying itself as AtlasForgeResearchBot. It measured page-level signals only, collected no personal data, and named no individual business. The full method and limits are on the methodology page.

Is this a complete picture of all small-business websites?

No. This is an initial sample of 391 sites, concentrated in Ontario and other Canadian provinces, and it is labelled as such. The findings are honest for the sample measured and are not extrapolated to every small business. The sample expands on an annual refresh.

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