Who appears when you search for a local business?

Together, those ten platforms occupied 148 of all 1,000 organic positions analysed (14.8%). The 70% figure refers specifically to the 212 results belonging to commercial directories, booking sites and review platforms.

Checkatrade appeared in plumber searches for 19 of 20 locations. Tripadvisor appeared in restaurant searches for all 20.

Directories and other commercial platforms occupied 35 of the 60 top-three positions across the 20 plumber searches. Checkatrade and TrustATrader alone accounted for 32.

More than half of the leading organic results in these plumber searches belonged to commercial platforms rather than plumbers’ own websites.

There were 20 plumber searches, one for each place. Each contributed three leading organic positions, giving 60 in total.

The gap was wider among the top three results: 58.3% for plumbers versus 1.7% for florists. The type of service made a substantial difference to how often platforms appeared.

These comparisons describe the five search terms tested. They shouldn’t be assumed to represent every search within each industry.

Tripadvisor appeared in all 20 restaurant searches and in the top three in 17. Florist searches showed a different pattern: businesses selling flowers directly accounted for most results, including national online sellers as well as local shops.

Of the 1,000 organic results analysed, 473 linked directly to businesses classified as independent or local. Commercial directories, booking sites and review platforms accounted for another 212 positions.

Independent/local is a research classification, not a legal check of small-business status or a count of local shops. It includes national online sellers. Three websites belonging to the Prestige group account for 24 positions in this category.

Commercial platforms were more prominent at the top of the results. They occupied 29.7% of top-three positions, compared with 21.2% across the full first ten.

Reddit appeared in 33 of the 1,000 positions, including 1 top-three position. Forums and social profiles remain separate from commercial platforms.

Appearing in local Google results isn't always a contest between one business and another. Businesses can also compete for space with directories, review sites and booking platforms that appear across many locations.

The contrast was clearest between plumbers and florists. Commercial platforms held 58.3% of the top-three plumber positions but just 1.7% for florists. A business’s search competition can look very different depending on the service it offers.

For a small business, search visibility isn't only about its own website. Commercial platforms where customers discover, compare and choose providers can occupy a substantial share of the results too. These findings don't establish which route will bring that business more enquiries.

These figures measure appearances in search results, not clicks or leads. The study is a snapshot of the searches tested, so it can't show whether platforms are gaining ground over time. Directory costs, website quality and AI-search access weren't measured.

The places in the sample

Preston, Manchester, Newcastle upon Tyne, Leeds, Sheffield, Nottingham, Birmingham, Norwich, London, Brighton, Bristol, Exeter, Glasgow, Edinburgh, Inverness, Cardiff, Swansea, Wrexham, Belfast, Derry.

Limits and remaining uncertainty

The places were deliberately selected for geographic coverage, not randomly sampled. Smaller and rural places are underrepresented. Google can still use location and session context with personalisation turned off, so these results aren't what every UK user would see.

Twelve cases remain uncertain, affecting 13 positions. Ten are business positions with unresolved classification; three are directory positions with unresolved commercial status. One of the ten business positions also has an uncertain provider or agent role.

Independent/local results range from 473 to 483 if every unresolved business is included. Of the supported positions, 219 have explicit ownership or independence evidence; the rest have supported local-operator evidence.

Even if every unresolved directory result and the uncertain agent were counted as commercial platforms, the top ten platforms’ share would change only slightly, from 69.8% to 68.5%. These are alternative classification scenarios, not statistical confidence intervals.

The large/chain category takes precedence where evidence shows 250 or more employees, ten or more branded locations, a qualifying national chain or a large parent group. National delivery and association membership alone don't establish that status. Separate website domains remain separate in the counts, even where ownership is shared.

Data licence

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