Key findings
- The typical trade business between Norwich, Peterborough and Lincoln has 6 Google reviews.
- 60% have fewer than 10 Google reviews; only 141 of 3,182 have 100 or more.
- 1 in 8 websites (391) wouldn’t load, had no padlock or showed a security warning.
- Builders, carpenters and decorators have the fewest reviews (typically 3); window and door firms the most (17).
- Only 3% of the websites we could check use the Meta pixel.
In September 2026 we looked up every trade business with a website of its own that we could find on Google Maps between Norwich, Peterborough and Lincoln, plus Newark and Grantham: 3,182 builders, electricians, plumbers, roofers, landscapers and more. We checked each one’s Google reviews and whether its website worked.
The short version: most local trades are easier to beat online than they think. The typical one has 6 Google reviews. Six in ten have fewer than 10. And 1 in 8 had a website a customer would give up on.
The headline figures
| What we checked | Result |
|---|---|
| Trade businesses with a website | 3,182 |
| Google reviews for the typical business | 6 |
| Fewer than 10 Google reviews | 60% (1,906) |
| No Google reviews at all | 534 |
| 100 or more Google reviews | 141 |
| Website wouldn’t load, had no padlock or showed a security warning | 12% (391) |
| Website with the Meta (Facebook) pixel, of 2,819 we could check | 86 (3%) |
“Typical” means the one in the middle: half have fewer reviews, half have more.
Reviews, by trade
Some trades are far ahead of others. Window and door firms and kitchen and bathroom fitters, who sell bigger jobs, have the most reviews. Builders, carpenters and decorators have the fewest.
| Trade | Businesses | Typical Google reviews | Fewer than 10 reviews |
|---|---|---|---|
| Window and door firms | 207 | 17 | 37% |
| Kitchen and bathroom fitters | 105 | 15 | 38% |
| Plumbing and heating | 398 | 14 | 42% |
| Tree surgeons | 82 | 10 | 50% |
| Fencing | 64 | 9 | 52% |
| Flooring and tiling | 51 | 8 | 55% |
| Electricians | 474 | 7 | 58% |
| Roofers | 231 | 7 | 59% |
| Driveways and surfacing | 111 | 6 | 55% |
| Plasterers | 104 | 5 | 65% |
| Scaffolding | 59 | 5 | 71% |
| Landscapers | 283 | 4 | 64% |
| Builders | 604 | 3 | 76% |
| Carpenters and joiners | 270 | 3 | 73% |
| Painters and decorators | 139 | 3 | 72% |
Reviews and websites, by area
Areas are a town and the villages around it.
| Area | Businesses | Typical Google reviews | Fewer than 10 reviews | Website problem |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Norwich | 851 | 7 | 56% | 10% |
| Lincoln | 489 | 6 | 59% | 13% |
| Peterborough | 468 | 7 | 56% | 14% |
| King’s Lynn | 315 | 4 | 65% | 10% |
| Spalding | 181 | 7 | 61% | 12% |
| Wisbech | 169 | 5 | 67% | 13% |
| Newark | 110 | 8 | 56% | 13% |
| Boston | 107 | 5 | 64% | 16% |
| Dereham | 105 | 6 | 60% | 11% |
| Grantham | 101 | 7 | 59% | 12% |
| Swaffham | 99 | 5 | 66% | 14% |
| Sleaford | 97 | 3 | 70% | 14% |
| Bourne | 70 | 7 | 64% | 17% |
| Downham Market | 20 | 1 | 80% | 10% |
Downham Market is a small sample, so treat its figures with care.
Websites that lose customers
When we checked in September, 391 of the 3,182 websites (12%) had a problem a customer would notice:
- 242 wouldn’t load at all.
- 115 had no padlock, so browsers mark them “Not secure”.
- 34 showed a security warning before the page opened.
Someone who hits one of those rarely waits. They go back to Google and ring the next name on the list.
What it means if you run a trade
- Reviews are the quickest win. In most trades and most towns, 10 or so recent reviews puts you ahead of the majority of local competition. Ask every customer, on the day you finish, with a direct link. Here’s how to get more Google reviews.
- Check your website on your phone today. If it doesn’t load quickly, or the browser says “Not secure”, fix that before anything else.
- Almost nobody is following up on their website visitors. Only 3% of the sites we could check had the Meta pixel, which lets you show adverts again to people who’ve already looked at you. That’s an easy edge for the firms that use it.
If you’d like to see where your own business stands, our free website audit checks your Google listing, your website and whether AI tools name you, in about a minute.
How we did it
- Who we included: trade businesses on Google Maps with a website of their own, across 15 trades, between Norwich, Peterborough and Lincoln, plus Newark and Grantham. We removed businesses that Companies House showed as dissolved or being wound up.
- Reviews are the Google review counts shown on each business’s Google Maps listing in September 2026.
- Website problems were checked automatically in September 2026: whether the site loaded, whether it used a secure (https) connection, and whether browsers showed a security warning. A site can fail to load for a short time, so a few of those may have been temporary.
- The Meta pixel was checked on the 2,819 sites we could read.
- We only report totals. We don’t name any business.
We plan to repeat the research. If you’d like to use these figures, please credit RareBear Digital and link to this page.