Most businesses without a website told me NO. Here's who said YES
I run a small marketing agency. For a while my plan was simple: find local businesses with no website and offer to build one.
Most of them said no. Two reasons kept coming up:
- The money didn't make sense to them, because one client is small money for a lot of these businesses.
- Word of mouth was enough: "people come from other people, we're fine."
One of those who said YES was an electronics lab. I showed him what his competitors already had online and how we could do better. Today the site brings him organic leads for one of his services, with no ads.
That changed how I pick. I stopped chasing "no website" and started checking the niche first:
- Do customers in this niche actually search Google for it?
- Are competitors already winning online, while some businesses aren't?
If both are yes, there's an opening.
I got tired of checking this by hand, so I built Before You Build. You pick a US city and a niche, and it shows search demand, cost per click, how many businesses are listed, and which ones look untended.
A real run, roofers in Spokane, WA: 320 searches a month, $12.24 a click, at least 100 businesses. 35 have under 10 reviews, 16 have no website, 17 never claimed their listing. Those 35 are the list. The ones with 200 reviews and no site are busy and don't need you.
Two decisions I made along the way:
- Every number shows its source and the date it was read. I wanted to show how long a business has been open, but Google only gives that date to the owner. I couldn't source it, so I cut it.
- It stays free. I'd rather it be useful and let it feed my main site than put a paywall in front of a tool people use a few times.
My own kill rule: if I try a niche in 3 cities and not one business is interested, I change the niche.
If you want to try it (sign in with Google, 3 free checks, US only for now):
https://aimarkdeck.com/before-you-build?utm_source=indiehackers&utm_campaign=story
What's your rule for dropping a niche or a market?
The qualification framework here is gold — segmenting by low reviews, no website, AND unclaimed listing is so much smarter than just cold-pitching everyone without a site. The ones who already show up in search but haven't claimed their profile are probably the warmest leads. Great hustle!
Thanks. One thing I'd add from doing this by hand: reviews come first for me, before no-website or unclaimed. A business with no reviews is the one whose presence isn't working. No website is the last check, not the first.
Your point about unclaimed listings showing up in search anyway is interesting, and honestly I haven't measured it. What I noticed is that unclaimed gives you something concrete to open with. You're not selling anything yet, you're telling the owner their own listing isn't theirs and anyone can suggest edits to it. That gets a reply more often than "you need a website".
Which part would you check first, unclaimed or reviews?
Your two no reasons were money and word of mouth, and the niche screen fixes the second one but not the first. A business can sit in a niche with real search demand and still be too small to pay you, because one customer is worth forty dollars to them. The roofers example works precisely because one job is worth thousands, which is also why the click costs twelve dollars. That makes cost per click a decent proxy for what a customer is worth in a niche, not just how contested it is. If Before You Build ranked cities and niches by that rather than by volume, it would be screening for who can afford you, which is the objection you kept running into.