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Small Business SEO Data 2026
We audited the websites of 50 local service businesses in Miami and Fort Lauderdale. This is what the audits found.
Audits run: . By Ryan Mayiras, Savage Digital Solutions.
Key Findings
- Half of the sites rank in Google's top 100 for fewer than 33 search terms. 20% rank for none.
- 40% have no structured data of any kind on the home page.
- 28% have no meta description and 20% have no main heading on the home page.
- 64% have no llms.txt file.
- Google showed an AI Overview for 9 of the 20 local searches we checked, such as "dentist Fort Lauderdale".
How Many Search Terms Does A Small Business Website Rank For?
The median site ranks in the top 100 results for 32.5 search terms. A few sites rank for thousands, most rank for a handful.
| Search Terms Ranked In The Top 100 | Sites | Share |
|---|---|---|
| None | 10 | 20% |
| Fewer than 50, including none | 29 | 58% |
| 500 or more | 5 | 10% |
The middle site in each trade, with five sites per trade:
| Trade | Median Search Terms Ranked |
|---|---|
| Dentist | 99 |
| Accountant | 78 |
| Personal injury lawyer | 62 |
| Auto repair shop | 49 |
| Plumber | 44 |
| Med spa | 43 |
| Chiropractor | 20 |
| Roofing contractor | 14 |
| Landscaper | 7 |
| Air conditioning repair | 4 |
Five sites per trade is a small group. Read this table as a rough order, not a ranking.
What Basic On-Page Elements Are Missing?
| Home Page Issue | Sites | Share |
|---|---|---|
| No meta description | 14 | 28% |
| Meta description present but shorter than 70 or longer than 200 characters | 19 | 38% |
| No H1 heading | 10 | 20% |
Are Small Business Websites Ready For AI Search?
| Home Page Check | Sites | Share |
|---|---|---|
| No structured data detected | 20 | 40% |
| No llms.txt file | 32 | 64% |
We also ran one local search for each trade in each city, 20 searches in all. Google showed an AI Overview on 9 of them. Whether the answer appears varies from one search to the next, so treat this as a snapshot from one day.
Method And Limits
- Sample: 50 websites, five from each of ten local service trades, three in Miami and two in Fort Lauderdale per trade.
- Selection: Google Maps listings at fixed positions for each trade search (3rd, 8th and 13th in Miami; 5th and 12th in Fort Lauderdale). When a listing had no website of its own, we took the next one down. The rule was set before any audit ran.
- Because the sites come from the first page or two of Google Maps, they are established businesses. Sites that do not appear there at all are likely to do worse.
- Each site was checked once, by our free audit tool, on the date above. Ranking counts come from a third-party search data provider and cover Google in the United States.
- A few listings were national brands or pages on a website builder. We kept them, because removing sites after the fact would break the selection rule.
- Not measured in this round: page speed, reviews, and whether an AI answer cited a given site.
- Fifty sites in one region is a sample, not the whole market. No business is named.
Using This Data
You may quote these figures with a link to this page. To see how your own site compares, run the free audit. For questions about the data, contact us.