Scanned September 2026, n = 556 websites

Local SEO in the UK: what we found scanning 556 trade websites

Name: UK trade websites: local SEO basics, September 2026
Creator: RnkRocket
Published: 2026-09-29

Local SEO is how a business gets found by people nearby who search for what it does. Part of that is the Google map listing; the rest is the business's own website. We checked the website half on 556 UK trade business websites: how fast the homepage loads on a phone, and whether it has the basics Google reads.

The short answer: most homepages are slow on a phone in Google's lab test, and a lot are missing basics that are usually quick to fix. The figures are below, by area, with a plain note on what the sample can and can't tell you. For a step-by-step how-to, read our local SEO guide.

Check your own site free How we measured

Key findings

Scanned September 2026, n = 556 websites. 489 were speed-tested and 473 homepages could be read; the rest were unreachable, returned an error or blocked us.

67
Median mobile PageSpeed performance score, out of 100
489 sites speed-tested
6.7 s
Median time for the main content to appear on a simulated phone (LCP)
489 sites speed-tested
9%
Passed all three lab thresholds for speed and stability (LCP, layout shift, blocking time)
46 of 489
21%
Had no meta description
100 of 473 homepages read
36%
Had no structured data (JSON-LD)
170 of 473 homepages read
5%
Were not on HTTPS
25 of 495 homepages that answered

What this study measures, and what it doesn't

When someone searches for a plumber or a builder near them, Google shows map results (driven mostly by the Google Business Profile) and ordinary results underneath (driven by websites). Google says local results depend mainly on relevance, distance and prominence, and that a business's position in ordinary web results feeds into prominence. The website is the part you control completely.

This study looks only at the homepage, because that is the one page we could check the same way for every business. It does not measure Google Business Profiles, reviews, directory listings or where anyone ranks.

Mobile speed by area

Google PageSpeed Insights, mobile lab test, one run per site. “All three” means Largest Contentful Paint within 2.5 s, layout shift within 0.1 and Total Blocking Time within 200 ms.

Mobile PageSpeed results for UK trade websites by area. Scanned September 2026, n = 556 websites.
Area	Sites tested	Median score	Median LCP	Passed all three
Birmingham	11	73	5.9 s	18%2 of 11
Brighton	13	78	5.0 s	15%2 of 13
Bristol	16	68	6.0 s	13%2 of 16
Glasgow	10	82	4.2 s	10%1 of 10
Leeds	13	72	7.4 s	8%1 of 13
London	13	69	6.1 s	15%2 of 13
Manchester	13	63	7.4 s	8%1 of 13
York	11	62	7.8 s	18%2 of 11
South West (region)	291	66	6.9 s	8%22 of 291
Yorkshire and the Humber (region)	48	69	6.9 s	13%6 of 48
South East (region)	35	66	6.4 s	11%4 of 35
All sites in the sample	489	67	6.7 s	9%46 of 489

Homepage basics by area

Read from the homepage HTML as the server sent it. The HTTPS column counts every homepage that answered, including error pages; the other columns count homepages that loaded.

Homepage SEO basics for UK trade websites by area. Scanned September 2026, n = 556 websites.
Area	Homepages read	No meta description	No structured data	No H1 heading	Not on HTTPS
Birmingham	10	30%3 of 10	40%4 of 10	30%3 of 10	9%1 of 11
Brighton	14	14%2 of 14	29%4 of 14	7%1 of 14	0%0 of 14
Bristol	15	20%3 of 15	40%6 of 15	33%5 of 15	13%2 of 16
Glasgow	10	30%3 of 10	40%4 of 10	30%3 of 10	18%2 of 11
Leeds	13	8%1 of 13	15%2 of 13	15%2 of 13	0%0 of 13
London	11	36%4 of 11	64%7 of 11	18%2 of 11	7%1 of 14
Manchester	13	15%2 of 13	15%2 of 13	0%0 of 13	8%1 of 13
York	11	18%2 of 11	27%3 of 11	36%4 of 11	18%2 of 11
South West (region)	280	22%61 of 280	38%105 of 280	29%80 of 280	5%16 of 293
Yorkshire and the Humber (region)	48	10%5 of 48	21%10 of 48	17%8 of 48	4%2 of 48
South East (region)	35	17%6 of 35	43%15 of 35	17%6 of 35	3%1 of 36
All sites in the sample	473	21%100 of 473	36%170 of 473	23%111 of 473	5%25 of 495

A town or city appears only where at least 10 of its homepages were measured for that table. Regions appear where the sample has at least 30 sites, and include the cities above them. Places below those sizes are still counted in the regional and overall rows.

Small groups swing a lot: in a group of 10, one website moves a percentage by 10 points. Read the rows as a rough picture, not a league table.

How we measured

Sample. Trade businesses returned by Google Maps local search (through DataForSEO) within 15 km of the centre of 27 UK towns and cities (narrower, in a second pass, for two that overlap a bigger neighbour), up to 10 per trade per place, pulled on 22 September 2026. Added to that, a separate list of trade websites in Devon and Cornwall.
Exclusions. We removed 45 sites belonging to two landing-page networks, where one operator runs near-identical sites for many towns (13 under one naming pattern, and 32 “emergency plumber” sites that share their page copy or template). Other emergency plumbers with their own sites stayed in. We also removed 17 sites on free platform subdomains (such as a wixsite.com address) and 2 booking-portal pages. That left 558 listings, which are 556 distinct websites.
Homepage only. We fetched each homepage once, obeying robots.txt, and read the HTML as the server sent it, without running JavaScript. Sites that build their page with JavaScript can look emptier than they are.
Speed is a lab test. One Google PageSpeed Insights mobile run per site (a simulated phone on Google's servers), on 26 September 2026. Single runs vary by a few points, and lab results are not the real-visitor data Google uses in ranking; most small sites don't have enough visitors for that data to exist. Total Blocking Time stands in for INP in the lab.
The sample skews. 59% of the websites are in South West England (54% come from the Devon and Cornwall list). The rest come from 27 towns and cities with fewer than 19 sites each, and plumbers and electricians are the largest groups. Most are businesses Google Maps already shows, so they may be better set up than average. It is a sample of UK trade websites, not of all UK businesses.
What we publish. Totals only. We don't publish the list of websites.

What each number means for your site

Speed on a phone

Largest Contentful Paint (LCP) is how long the main content takes to appear. Google counts 2.5 seconds or less as good for real visitors; in the lab test, only 11% of the homepages we tested got there (55 of 489). On trade sites the usual cause is a large photo or slider at the top of the page. Resize and compress it, or swap the slider for one image. Google's own PageSpeed Insights is free and shows what is slowing your page.

Meta description

The meta description is the summary Google often shows under your link. Without one, Google picks text from the page, which may not say what you do or where. Google can still rewrite yours, but a clear one about your trade and area gives it something better to use. Check yours with our free meta tag checker.

Structured data

Structured data (usually JSON-LD) tells search engines your business name, address, phone number and opening hours in a format they read directly. 36% of the homepages had none, and 74% had no LocalBusiness markup (350 of 473). It doesn't guarantee anything in the results, but it removes guesswork. See what a page declares with the free schema checker.

H1 heading

The H1 is the main heading on the page. 23% of homepages had none, often because the top of the page is a logo or an image with text baked into it. One plain heading that says what you do and where helps visitors and search engines alike.

HTTPS

Browsers label pages without HTTPS “Not secure”, which puts people off before they read a word, and Google has used HTTPS as a ranking signal since 2014. Most hosts include a free certificate; it is often a single setting.

How RnkRocket helps you fix these

RnkRocket is a do-it-yourself SEO tool, not an agency. Nobody can promise you a ranking; what we can do is show you what is wrong and what to fix first.

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XML sitemap checker: Find a site’s sitemap, check it loads and is valid XML, and count the URLs it lists.
Meta tag checker: See a page’s title tag and meta description, how long each one is, and what to fix.
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Local SEO guideThe step-by-step how-to: Google Business Profile, citations, reviews and local pages.

SEO for trades and local businessesShort, practical guides for builders, cleaners, salons, solicitors and more.

SEO for plumbersBurst pipes, boilers, Gas Safe and the jobs that pay the bills.

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