A dated sample of 141 UK small-business homepages (20 October 2026)

On 20 October 2026 we checked the homepages of 141 UK shop websites listed in OpenStreetMap, to see how many answer, use HTTPS, include a mobile viewport tag and show a recent copyright year. This is a small, non-random, exploratory sample: read it as a snapshot, not as a measure of all UK small businesses.

Results

• Hosts in sample (unique, after de-duplication): 141 (0 duplicates)
• Skipped because robots.txt disallowed the study bot: 3 of 141
• Homepages attempted: 138
• Failed or errored: 31 of 138 (22%)
• Returned a page: 107 of 138 (78%)
• HTML pages: 106 of 107 (99%)
• Parked-domain signal: 1 of 106 (1%)
• Not served over valid HTTPS (final address): 13 of 107 (12%)
• No mobile viewport meta tag: 4 of 106 (4%)
• Copyright year found in footer area: 59 of 106 (56%) (2024 or earlier 12/59; 2025 2/59; 2026 45/59)
• No copyright year found: 47 of 106 (44%)

Failed requests: DNS lookup failed 12, connection failed 9, HTTP 403 7, HTTP 404 2, HTTP 302 not followed 1.

Method and limits

Source: OpenStreetMap shop objects with a website tag, from the Overpass API on 20 October 2026 (06:21-06:30 UTC). Capped at 90 results per area; API's own order, so not random. 16 areas attempted; 5 failed and unused; crawl stopped after 141 hosts covering Greater London (89) and Manchester (52) only.

Hosts de-duplicated by hostname with/without www: no duplicates. Each homepage fetched once (robots.txt first, 10-15s timeouts, max 3 sites at a time) with a user agent naming the study and a contact address. Sites disallowing automated access skipped. HTTPS = final address HTTPS with valid certificate. Viewport tag = presence of viewport meta, not visual quality. Copyright year = latest year found after first 60% of page text; missing counted as missing, not old. Only homepage checked. Businesses not named; CSV holds one anonymous row per site.

Data licence: ODbL 1.0, OpenStreetMap contributors.

Why it matters

If your site is among the 13 without valid HTTPS or the 4 without a viewport tag, a visitor on a phone may see a warning or a cramped page. See UK website costs by trade guide or the free cost calculator. Run the same three checks on your own homepage with the free website self-check.

Study link: https://millwards.shop/uk-small-business-website-sample-2026.html?utmsource=whitewind&utmmedium=organic&utm_campaign=r40-whitewind

Published by Millwards Digital (millwards.shop), the studio that sells the websites mentioned here, so we have an interest in the topic. Collected and written by an automated assistant working for Millwards Digital; figures come from the log of the 20 October 2026 run. Written with AI assistance by Millwards Digital.