63% of independent Delaware businesses list no website
Key finding: We checked 1,363 independent restaurants, shops, salons, auto shops and offices across Delaware on OpenStreetMap, the open map data many apps and tools rely on. 855 of them (63%) list no website. Those listings are thin in other ways too: only 15% show a phone number and 11% show opening hours, compared with 78% and 70% for businesses that list a website.
By type of business
Share of independent Delaware businesses in each group with no website on their map listing. Groups are sorted from highest to lowest.
| Business type | Businesses checked | No website listed | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tattoo studios | 11 | 10 | 91% |
| Clothing, gift and boutique shops | 112 | 95 | 85% |
| Beauty, nail and massage | 82 | 68 | 83% |
| Hair salons | 76 | 60 | 79% |
| Auto repair, tires and car washes | 112 | 85 | 76% |
| Bars and pubs | 57 | 41 | 72% |
| Takeout | 72 | 47 | 65% |
| Law offices | 20 | 12 | 60% |
| Cafes, bakeries and ice cream | 101 | 57 | 56% |
| Restaurants | 621 | 319 | 51% |
| Dentists and vets | 45 | 23 | 51% |
Restaurants are the largest group and the most likely to have a site, yet about half still list none. Personal-service businesses, such as salons, nail and beauty studios and tattoo shops, are the least likely. Many of them rely on Instagram, Facebook or a booking app instead, and those pages rarely appear for searches like "hair salon near me".
By town
The ten Delaware towns with the most businesses in our data that include a town name in their address.
| Town | Businesses checked | No website listed | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| Millsboro | 59 | 55 | 93% |
| Georgetown | 23 | 19 | 83% |
| Rehoboth Beach | 92 | 61 | 66% |
| Selbyville | 23 | 15 | 65% |
| Lewes | 69 | 43 | 62% |
| New Castle | 39 | 24 | 62% |
| Newark | 137 | 63 | 46% |
| Bethany Beach | 26 | 9 | 35% |
| Middletown | 24 | 8 | 33% |
| Wilmington | 123 | 28 | 23% |
Wilmington businesses were the most likely to list a website. Sussex County towns such as Millsboro and Georgetown were the least likely, and so were the beach towns of Rehoboth Beach and Lewes, where many seasonal businesses depend on visitors searching on their phones.
Why it matters
When someone asks Google, a map app or an AI assistant for a local business, those tools pull facts from websites and from map data like this. A business with no website and a bare listing gives them very little to work with: no hours, no phone number, no menu or price list. The business down the road with a clear website usually gets the mention instead.
You can fix this yourself. Make sure your business is listed correctly on Google Business Profile, Apple Maps and OpenStreetMap, with your website, phone and hours. If you don't have a website yet, our guide on whether you need one if you have a Google Business Profile explains the trade-offs.
How we did it
- Source: OpenStreetMap, queried on November 2, 2026 through the Overpass API, for all of Delaware.
- Included: named restaurants, cafes, takeout, bars, pubs, ice cream shops, bakeries, salons, beauty and massage businesses, clothing, gift and boutique shops, auto repair, tire shops, car washes, dentists, vets, law offices, tattoo studios and some trades.
- Excluded: chains. We dropped anything tagged with a brand and any name that appears three or more times.
- "No website listed" means the map entry has no website or url tag. Some of these businesses may have a website that isn't on the map, so the true share without any site is lower. The finding is about what apps and AI tools can find, not proof that a business has no site.
- Trades are underrepresented on OpenStreetMap, so we don't report them as a separate group.
Data © OpenStreetMap contributors, available under the Open Database License. Questions about the data? Email cuttoshort.media@gmail.com.
Questions about the study
What share of Delaware small businesses have no website?
In our November 2026 check of 1,363 independent Delaware businesses on OpenStreetMap, 855 (63%) had no website listed. Some of them may have a site that simply isn't on the map, so treat this as the share with no website that apps and AI tools can find there.
Which Delaware businesses are least likely to list a website?
Tattoo studios (91% of a small group), clothing, gift and boutique shops (85%), beauty, nail and massage businesses (83%) and hair salons (79%) had the highest shares with no website listed.
Can I use these numbers?
Yes. Please link to this page as the source. The data comes from OpenStreetMap contributors and is available under the Open Database License.
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