Long Beach Small Business Website Study 2026: What We Found on 203 Sites

We tested 203 independent Long Beach business websites listed in OpenStreetMap in October 2026. Of 161 testable listings, 17 (11%) no longer led to a working website, including 5 taken over by gambling spam. Of the 142 reachable sites, almost all use HTTPS and a mobile viewport, yet only 39% carry LocalBusiness structured data and only 45% offer a tap-to-call link.

How we did the study

We wanted numbers about Long Beach that anyone can check, so we started from public data and wrote down every rule we applied.

• The list. On October 8, 2026, we asked OpenStreetMap, the free, volunteer-built world map, for every place inside the City of Long Beach boundary with a website on file. That returned 710 mapped places. We kept businesses such as restaurants, cafes, bars, shops, offices, clinics, dentists, salons, hotels and gyms, and dropped government buildings, schools, places of worship, parks and hospitals. That left 543 business listings.
• Independents only. We set aside 122 websites tied to national or multi-state chains and franchises, because corporate teams run those sites and local owners have little say over them. Where one business appeared more than once, we counted its website once. The result was 203 unique independent websites.
• One automated visit per homepage. A script requested each homepage on October 8, retrying once if the connection failed, identified itself as TLG Marketing research, and read the page as the server delivered it, without running JavaScript. It recorded whether the site loaded, whether it used HTTPS, and which basic elements were present. We kept the measurements and discarded the pages.

In all, 42 sites could not be checked fairly by an automated visit: 30 blocked automated visitors, 11 drew their whole page with JavaScript, and 1 refused the connection. We excluded them instead of guessing, which left 161 testable sites. Of those, 142 loaded a working homepage. Every percentage in the table below is out of those 142 reachable sites.

What we found

The first problem is the most basic one: 17 of the 161 testable website links (11%) led nowhere useful.

• Dead (10 sites). The domain no longer existed (6 sites), the homepage returned an error (3) or the server refused to connect (1).
• Abandoned (2 sites). One showed a “coming soon” page, and one forwarded to its website provider’s own homepage, a typical sign of a lapsed subscription.
• Compromised (5 sites). Four domains now serve or forward visitors to online gambling sites, and one business homepage was stuffed with gambling links. This usually happens when a domain registration lapses and a spammer buys it, or when an outdated site gets hacked.

Two more domains forwarded straight to an online ordering page, which works for customers but leaves the business without a website of its own. Among the sites that did load, the security and mobile basics were in good shape. The gaps showed up in the details that help Google understand a local business and help a customer act.

A few other results stood out. On 37 sites (26%), the phone number on the page could not be tapped to call. On 62 sites (44%), the page text did not include the city with a Long Beach ZIP code. Of the page titles, 11 began with the word “Home,” and 2 of those consisted of that word alone. Where a copyright year was readable (90 sites), 12 (13%) showed 2023 or earlier.

Food and drink businesses made up 88 of the 142 reachable sites, the only category large enough to report on its own. Half of them (44 sites) linked to an online ordering, delivery or reservation tool, with Toast the most common (22 of all 142 reachable sites). They were less likely than all other categories combined (54 sites) to have a meta description (67% against 89%) or a contact-type form (27% against 50%).

What it means for a Long Beach business

None of these fixes requires a redesign. Each one maps to a finding above, and most are small edits in any modern site builder.

• Click your own website link everywhere it appears. With 11% of listed links broken, start with your Google Business Profile, Yelp, social bios and map listings. Turn on auto-renew for your domain and keep your contact email at the registrar current, so a lapsed renewal can’t hand your address to a spammer.
• Add LocalBusiness structured data. Only 39% of reachable sites had it. Google’s Search Central documentation explains the format: your business type, name, address, phone and hours in a small block of code. Some builders add it once you fill in the business details in site settings. Check the result with Google’s Rich Results Test or the Schema.org validator.
• Make the phone number tappable. Turn it into a link that starts with tel: (for example, tel:+15625550100) so a customer on a phone can call with one tap. Of the sites we checked, 37 were one small edit away from this.
• Give every visitor a next step. Across the reachable sites, 30% of homepages had no call link, no form and no booking or ordering link. Pick the action you want most, whether that is calling, booking, ordering or asking for a quote, and put it near the top of the page.
• Put your full address in plain text. On 44% of sites, the page text did not show the city and ZIP code (for example, Long Beach, CA 90814). Write it out in the footer or contact block exactly as it appears on your Google Business Profile, instead of only inside an image or a map embed.
• Write a meta description. In all, 35 sites (25%) had none, which leaves the snippet under your link in search results to chance. One or two plain sentences on what you offer and where will do.
• Finish the HTTPS job and the housekeeping. Of the reachable sites, 12 still answered on plain http:// without forwarding to the secure version, and some footers still showed a copyright year from 2023 or earlier. Both are quick fixes that tell visitors the site is maintained.

If you’re unsure where your own site stands, an SEO audit checks these items and the pages beyond the homepage.

Limitations

This study describes independent Long Beach businesses listed in OpenStreetMap with a website. It is a useful snapshot with real limits:

• Coverage. OpenStreetMap is incomplete. Businesses appear when volunteers map them, so the sample skews toward busy commercial streets and toward restaurants, cafes and bars. It is not a random sample of every business in the city.
• Homepage only. A contact form, booking link or address on another page was not counted.
• No JavaScript. Anything added to the page by JavaScript, such as some form and booking widgets, was missed. The “has it” figures are floors and the “missing” figures are ceilings.
• One snapshot. Each site was checked once, on one date. Our test machine connected from outside the United States, which would distort speed measurements, so we did not report page speed.
• Exclusions and patterns. The 42 sites we could not check may differ from the rest. Parked pages, spam and copyright years were detected with text patterns, so the counts of compromised sites are a minimum.
• Small groups. Health, retail, professional services and other categories each had fewer than 30 reachable sites, too few to report separately.

Using this data

Journalists, researchers and list-makers are welcome to cite these figures. Please credit “TLG Marketing audit of 203 independent Long Beach business websites listed in OpenStreetMap, October 2026” and state the base, for example “of the 142 reachable sites.” For the full methodology and category tables, email info@tlgmarketing.com.

TLG Marketing is a Long Beach agency at 356 Redondo Ave. If your homepage missed several of these checks, our website design team can fix the basics, and our local SEO service keeps your listings and structured data accurate.