missed the 2.5-second mobile LCP benchmark
n=11,184 completed tests
Original research · snapshot 2026-08-26
State of Small Business Websites 2026. 11,432 domains measured.
Routeless tested live business homepages across 327 cities in 43 states. The median mobile LCP was 7.9 seconds, and 95.4% of completed tests missed the 2.5-second benchmark. These are measured lab results from the sampled sites, not estimates or claims about every US business.
- 11,432 unique domains after deduplication
- 11,184 successful mobile PageSpeed runs
- 327 US cities represented in the snapshot
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Executive findings
95.4%
63.1%
29.6%
8.4%
The measured gaps were operational, not cosmetic.
had no detectable homepage contact form
n=11,432 homepage observations
had no detectable analytics tag
n=11,432 homepage observations
had detectable online booking
n=11,432 homepage observations
Detection is based on machine-readable homepage evidence and can miss tools loaded through an unknown implementation. Performance is a mobile Lighthouse lab measure, not field data.
Finding 01 · mobile speed
95.4% of tested sites missed the 2.5-second LCP benchmark
Largest Contentful Paint measures when the largest visible element finishes rendering. Google calls 2.5 seconds or less “good.” The median in this sample was 7.9 seconds. That is a Lighthouse lab result for the 11,184 sites that completed a run; field performance varies by device, network, and visitor.
2.5sgood boundary
7.9ssample median
0s5s10s+
Routeless Website Benchmark • n=11,184 • 2026-08. This is mobile Lighthouse lab LCP for completed PageSpeed runs, not field performance for every visitor.
Homepage signals
63.1%
29.6%
22.1%
8.4%
A website can load and still leave the next step unclear.
We fetched each live homepage and looked for a short list of machine-detectable conversion and measurement signals. “Not detected” is deliberately narrower than “does not exist”: a form or analytics system hidden behind an unknown script may escape the detector.
No detectable contact form
n=11,432 valid homepage observations
No detectable analytics tag
n=11,432 valid homepage observations
No detectable structured data
n=11,432 valid homepage observations
Detectable online booking
n=11,432 valid homepage observations
Source: Routeless Website Benchmark · collected 2026-08-24 through 2026-08-25.
Platform comparison
WordPress and Wix had different distributions in this sample.
We detected 5,923 WordPress sites and 654 Wix sites. The platform comparison reports what appeared in this observational sample. It does not prove that choosing a CMS causes a specific speed or conversion result.
Inspect WordPress vs. Wix with the full denominators →
Planning a rebuild? Compare the 2026 website cost tiers →
Industry breakdowns
n=3,697
n=3,776
n=297
n=1,128
Three cohorts cleared the publication threshold.
Industry pages publish only when the latest snapshot contains enough valid observations. Smaller cohorts remain in the dataset pipeline rather than being presented as stable comparisons.
Dental websites
Median mobile LCP: 8.7s. Detectable contact form: 28.0%.
Law firm websites
Median mobile LCP: 7.3s. Detectable contact form: 48.3%.
HVAC websites
Median mobile LCP: 8.1s. Detectable contact form: 36.7%.
Plumbing websites
Median mobile LCP: 7.1s. Detectable contact form: 40.6%.
State and regional breakdowns
7.9s
8.3s
8.1s
7.7s
The city cohort covers 43 states and every Census region.
These geographic summaries report the median of city-level medians across the same 327-city launch cohort. Site-observation counts can include one domain in more than one city, so they are not presented as unique-domain totals.
Northeast
24 cities · median city LCP
Midwest
45 cities · median city LCP
South
134 cities · median city LCP
West
124 cities · median city LCP
View all 43 state summaries
| State | Cities | Site observations | Median city LCP | Median city score | Median city contact-form gap |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| AL | 6 | 209 | 8.0s | 61 | 60.6% |
| AR | 4 | 139 | 8.9s | 60 | 61.5% |
| AZ | 17 | 598 | 7.4s | 61 | 67.6% |
| CA | 47 | 2,095 | 7.5s | 62 | 65.1% |
| CO | 14 | 491 | 7.4s | 60 | 68.5% |
| CT | 6 | 209 | 7.9s | 63 | 57.8% |
| DE | 1 | 34 | 7.6s | 62 | 55.9% |
| FL | 33 | 1,503 | 7.9s | 60 | 61.1% |
| GA | 7 | 245 | 9.6s | 58 | 72.0% |
| IA | 3 | 106 | 8.8s | 64 | 69.4% |
| ID | 7 | 242 | 7.9s | 61 | 76.3% |
| IL | 3 | 105 | 8.0s | 59 | 70.0% |
| IN | 6 | 203 | 7.7s | 60 | 60.2% |
| KS | 3 | 150 | 9.1s | 61 | 61.1% |
| KY | 2 | 69 | 7.7s | 60 | 58.0% |
| LA | 1 | 56 | 7.4s | 61 | 73.2% |
| MA | 9 | 313 | 8.0s | 62 | 56.8% |
| MD | 2 | 70 | 9.0s | 61 | 71.2% |
| MI | 7 | 247 | 8.3s | 59 | 53.1% |
| MN | 8 | 312 | 9.0s | 58 | 66.7% |
| MO | 6 | 214 | 8.4s | 57 | 68.1% |
| MS | 2 | 66 | 7.6s | 63 | 69.7% |
| MT | 5 | 176 | 8.8s | 60 | 66.7% |
| NC | 14 | 523 | 7.8s | 60 | 63.9% |
| ND | 1 | 35 | 7.8s | 66 | 71.4% |
| NE | 1 | 31 | 8.4s | 58 | 61.3% |
| NJ | 3 | 113 | 7.7s | 62 | 60.5% |
| NM | 5 | 183 | 7.4s | 62 | 61.1% |
| NV | 2 | 75 | 7.5s | 61 | 62.9% |
| NY | 2 | 67 | 8.6s | 62 | 61.0% |
| OH | 3 | 95 | 8.2s | 58 | 60.0% |
| OK | 2 | 71 | 8.5s | 61 | 72.2% |
| OR | 5 | 209 | 9.5s | 64 | 69.2% |
| PA | 2 | 74 | 7.6s | 59 | 64.9% |
| RI | 2 | 103 | 9.1s | 60 | 66.7% |
| SC | 6 | 218 | 8.2s | 60 | 62.9% |
| SD | 1 | 35 | 9.6s | 59 | 74.3% |
| TN | 11 | 386 | 8.1s | 61 | 62.9% |
| TX | 40 | 2,039 | 8.1s | 60 | 64.8% |
| UT | 12 | 407 | 7.9s | 60 | 64.6% |
| VA | 3 | 102 | 7.2s | 64 | 61.3% |
| WA | 10 | 466 | 8.8s | 60 | 64.5% |
| WI | 3 | 104 | 7.5s | 59 | 63.9% |
Use the same instrument
Where does your website sit in the distribution?
Enter a public homepage. Routeless runs the same mobile PageSpeed and homepage checks, then places the result against this 11,432-domain snapshot.
Press and citation kit
Reuse the finding with the denominator attached.
Press-ready findings
- 95.4% of 11,184 completed mobile tests missed the 2.5-second LCP benchmark.
- 63.1% of 11,432 sampled homepages had no detectable contact form.
- 29.6% had no detectable analytics tag and 8.4% had detectable online booking.
Suggested citation
Routeless. “State of Small Business Websites 2026.” Routeless Business Website Benchmark, revision 2, 2026-08-26. https://www.routeless.io/website-benchmarks
Include the collection window and metric denominator when quoting a figure. Do not restate an observational difference as proof of causation.
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Mobile LCP benchmark
Homepage signals
Methodology and limits
Every percentage keeps its denominator.
Routeless deduplicated audited business domains within the stated batch, keeping the newest completed audit per domain. Homepage signal rates use only sites with a successful homepage fetch. Performance metrics use only sites with a successful mobile PageSpeed run. Each rate includes its numerator and denominator; missing observations are not counted as failures.
- Snapshot2026q3-2026-08-26-r2
- Collection window2026-08-24–2026-08-25
- Metric versionbenchmark-rollup-v1
- Public filesJSON · CSV
- Annual edition2026 · immutable snapshot · revision 2
Corrections policy
Report a reproducible data, labeling, or methodology error through the company contact page with the affected figure and source. Routeless does not overwrite a published snapshot silently. A material correction receives a new revision, dated correction note, regenerated downloads, and an explanation of whether the reported finding changed. Routine changes to a sampled website do not alter the historical observation.