UK Business Truth Report 2027: 1 in 4 Limited Companies Can Be Found by Their Registered Name

Data last verified: 2 November 2026. Figures re-checked against their primary sources under the Whito rolling re-verification programme.

Last Updated on November 3, 2026

On 2 November 2026 we drew 568 UK limited companies at random from Companies House, across 10 everyday sectors and 10 cities, and searched for each one by its registered name and city. We found the company’s own website for 141 of them (25%). Only 33 of the 568 (5.8%) could be found that way and showed a price.

We call this the register-name test: if a customer, a supplier or a lender starts from the name on the register, can they find the business, check who it is, and see what it charges? For three in four limited companies in our sample, the answer was no at the first step.

The main numbers

• 141 of 568 companies (25%) had their own website on the first page of a Bing search for their registered name and city.
• 196 of the 427 we could not find (46%) did show up on a directory, social media or review site in the same search.
• Of the 141 websites we found, 50 (35%) showed the company’s registered number, which UK companies are required to show on their websites.
• Of the 141 websites, 33 (23%) showed any price in pounds for their own service.
• Solicitors were the easiest to find (30 of 59). Domestic builders (4 of 56) and dental companies (4 of 60) were the hardest.

Found: who turned up when we searched their registered name

Each row is the share of companies whose own website came up on the first page of results. Around 60 companies per sector.

By city the spread was narrower. With about 60 companies per city, differences of less than about 15 points could be chance, so read this table as a rough guide only.

Cardiff has fewer companies in the sample (35) because 26 companies we drew were registered at the Companies House default address, a PO box in Cardiff (CF14 8LH) or Belfast (BT1 9DY). That address tells you nothing about where a company trades, so we left those companies out of the city results.

Trusted: what the websites we found actually show

For the 141 companies with a website, we read the home page plus up to six linked pages about contact, prices, services, terms or privacy.

Almost every site gave a way to get in touch. Far fewer gave a buyer a way to check the business. Under regulation 25 of the Company, Limited Liability Partnership and Business (Names and Trading Disclosures) Regulations 2015, a company’s website must show its registered number, its registered office address and the part of the UK where it is registered. We found the number on 50 of 141 sites. A missing number on the pages we read does not prove a breach: it may sit on a page we did not open.

Priced: almost nobody shows what they charge

We counted a price only when a pound figure sat next to the company’s own service, such as a call-out fee, a treatment, a legal fee or a service charge. We did not count shop prices for products, general “a new roof typically costs” ranges, finance offers or property prices.

33 of 141 websites passed. Across the full sample that is 33 of 568 companies (5.8%) where a customer could find the business from its registered name and see a price.

Why so many limited companies are hard to find

The register name is often not the name on the van or the shop sign. Many companies trade under a different brand. Others are not shopfronts at all: a dental company might be one dentist’s own company for associate work, and a building company might be a site contractor that never sells to the public. So this is not a count of businesses with no website. It is a count of how often the name on the official record leads you to the business.

That gap matters. Anyone who starts from the official record, such as a supplier running a credit check or a buyer checking who they are dealing with, hits the same gap. If the register name does not lead anywhere, the business is harder to check.

What to do if you run a limited company

• Search your registered name and your town. If your site does not come up, put the registered name on your site, word for word, next to your trading name.
• Show your company number, registered office and where you are registered in the footer. It is a legal requirement and it is the quickest trust check a buyer can make. Our guide to the company number rule explains what to show.
• Publish at least one price, even a “from” price. Only 23% of the sites we found did this.
• Run a free Whito Visibility Check to see what a buyer, or an AI assistant, finds about you.

How we did it

1. Frame. Companies House advanced company search, read 2 November 2026: active private limited companies incorporated on or before 31 October 2023, with one of 10 SIC codes (43220 plumbing and heating, 43210 electrical, 43910 roofing, 41202 domestic building, 96020 hair and beauty, 86230 dental, 69102 solicitors, 69201 accountants, 68310 estate agents, 45200 vehicle repair) and a registered office in one of 10 cities. 75,249 companies matched.
2. Sample. Six companies per sector and city, drawn at random with a fixed seed so the draw can be repeated. We drew 656 and rejected 62 whose registered postcode was outside the city (for example a “London Road” in another town). We set aside the 26 at the Companies House default address. That left 568.
3. Search. A Bing UK search for the company name in quotes (without “Limited”) plus the city. A result counted as a candidate when its web address contained the distinctive words of the company name.
4. Confirm. We opened each candidate and kept it only if the page showed the company name, its registered number or its registered office postcode, and was not a company-data or directory site. We excluded seven name matches that clearly belonged to a different business.
5. Read. On confirmed sites we read the home page and up to six linked pages, and recorded each signal as shown or not shown.

Limits. One search engine, one day. Only limited companies are on the register, so sole traders and partnerships are not included. SIC codes are chosen by companies and are not always accurate. Signals were detected by reading page text, so a phone number shown only as an image, or a price inside a PDF, would be missed. Small cells (six companies per sector and city) are not reported on their own. We name no company in this report.

Download the data

The anonymised file has one row per company: sector, city, whether we found its website, and each signal as 1 or 0. Signals are 0 where we found no website. No company names or numbers. Free to use with credit to Whito. Download the CSV.

For the wider picture, see how many businesses the UK has.

Related Whito research

• The Whito Truth Index: our earlier checks on how UK businesses are found, trusted and priced.
• Company numbers on UK trade websites: a separate October check of 113 limited trade and dental sites.
• The 60-Day Line: how many big UK firms agree supplier terms longer than 60 days.

Questions

How easy is it to find a UK limited company online by its registered name?

In Whito’s check on 2 November 2026, a Bing search for the registered company name and its city found the company’s own website for 141 of 568 randomly drawn UK limited companies (25%). Solicitors were the easiest to find (30 of 59); domestic builders and dental companies were the hardest (4 of 56 and 4 of 60).

Do UK company websites show their company number?

Of the 141 company websites we found and confirmed, 50 (35%) showed the company’s own registered number on the pages we read. UK companies must show their registered number, registered office address and part of the UK where they are registered on their websites (regulation 25 of the 2015 trading disclosure regulations).

How many UK businesses publish prices on their website?

Of the 141 confirmed company websites, 33 (23%) showed a price in pounds for their own service on the home page or the price, service, about or contact pages linked from it. Across the whole sample that is 33 of 568 companies (5.8%).

Sources

• Companies House, Advanced company search, read 2 November 2026.
• legislation.gov.uk, SI 2015/17, regulation 25, read 2 November 2026.
• Companies House, Registrar’s Rules, Volume 6: Nomination of Default Address, read 2 November 2026.
• Bing UK search results and company websites, read 2 November 2026 (Whito collection).

Jacob Whitmore

Whito is an independent UK research publisher. We publish research on how UK businesses are found, trusted and priced: what they cost to market, how their sectors work, and who actually gets recommended. Studies are free to read, every figure carries the date it was checked, and nobody pays to appear.

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