One way to use Local Lead Finder. Local Lead Finder is a $10 Google Sheets template I built that turns any Google Maps search into a lead list: every business, with phone, website, rating and reviews. This post is one use case for it: getting web design clients from local businesses. I ran it for real with the template. Other ways to use it are listed at the end, or see all 18 lead generation ideas.
You can build a good website. What you don’t have is anyone to build one for. Search “how to get clients for web design” and page 1 is YouTube videos, Reddit and Quora threads, and agency blogs with the same list: tell friends and family, put a profile on Upwork or Fiverr, post your work on LinkedIn, send video audits, build a mockup before you pitch. Google’s own AI answer even says to search Google Maps for local businesses with a weak website. None of them show you the list. Which businesses, in which town, and which ones to call first? The other routes cost you either way: bidding against everyone else on a freelance marketplace, or paying a lead service for names you can’t check.
So this page is the list part, done for real. I ran four searches with Local Lead Finder, a $10 Google Sheet I built that pulls every business on Google Maps into a spreadsheet: hair salons in Chattanooga, plumbers in Boise and dentists in Spokane. They gave me four lists of web design leads, each with a different reason to say yes. You’ll leave with all four, the order I’d work them in, and the message I’d send each one.
TL;DR
- Four real lists: 38 booking-page salons, 131 salons with no website, 16 plumbers with no website, 31 under-reviewed dentists.
- Work them warmest first: the 38 salons already pay for booking software and just lack a site of their own.
- Don’t pitch “you need a website” to dentists: only 15 of 225 in Spokane have none, so pitch reviews.
Who this is for
- Freelance web designer: you get four lists of local businesses with a specific reason to want a site, not a cold list of “small businesses”.
- Someone getting their first web design client: you get a short first list and a message to send, instead of waiting on Upwork bids.
- Web design agency owner: you can see which industries and towns have the biggest gap before you spend a week on outreach.
- Local SEO freelancer: the 31 dentists with great ratings and few reviews are a ready-made list for review and profile work.
- Website builder for small businesses: you see exactly what each business lists as its website on Google: its own site, a booking page, a Facebook page or nothing.
Before you start
- A Google Places API (New) key
- Local Lead Finder set up in your Google Drive
- Local Lead Finder itself
- A city you can work, and one kind of business to start with
- One or two sites you’ve built that you can show
- A short message that says what you build and asks one question
Don’t have a Places API key yet? How to get one free. Haven’t set up the sheet? Setup takes 5 minutes.
Where web design clients actually are
Every row Local Lead Finder writes has a name, phone, address, rating, number of reviews and a Website column. The Website column is whatever the business put in its Google profile. That one column tells you most of what you need to know about a web design lead.
Here’s how much it changes by industry, from the searches I ran:
- Hair salons, Chattanooga: 131 of 325 list no website. 40%.
- Plumbers, Boise: 16 of 98. 16%.
- Dentists, Spokane: 15 of 225. 7%.
So the industry you pick decides the pitch. Salons are missing websites. Dentists almost all have one, and are missing reviews. I wrote up the full counts in How Many Small Businesses Don’t Have a Website?
From those searches, here are the four lists I’d actually work, in the order I’d work them.
List 1: 38 salons whose only website is a booking page
The “hair salon” search around Chattanooga ran across 73 areas and found 325 salons. 38 of them list a booking page as their website: GlossGenius 23, Vagaro 7, Booksy 4, Square 2, Fresha 1, StyleSeat 1.
I counted them with one formula per app:
=SUMPRODUCT(REGEXMATCH('hair salon (AREAS)'!I2:I326,"(?i)glossgenius"))
Why I’d start here: these salons already pay for software, already take bookings online and already care how they look online. You’re not selling them on going online. You’re offering the missing piece, a site with their name on it and a Book button that goes to the page they already use.
The message I’d send (from How to Sell Websites To Salons):
Hi! I saw your Google listing goes straight to your GlossGenius page. It’s great for booking, but it isn’t really a website of your own that Google can rank. I build simple one-page websites for salons, with your photos, your prices and a Book button that goes to the booking page you already use. Nothing to switch. Want me to send you a quick mockup?
Swap “GlossGenius” for whatever that salon’s Website cell shows.
List 2: 131 salons with no website at all
Same search, same 325 salons. 131 list no website. I counted them with:
=COUNTIFS('hair salon (AREAS)'!A2:A,"<>",'hair salon (AREAS)'!I2:I,"")
These aren’t the bad salons. 117 of the 131 are rated 4.5 or higher, and 37 have 50 or more reviews. Customers like them. They just have nowhere to send people.
Start outside the city. In Chattanooga itself, 56 of 176 salons have no website. A few miles out it flips:
- East Ridge: 11 of 13
- Soddy-Daisy: 9 of 13
- Signal Mountain: 6 of 9
Then sort by reviews so the busiest salons come first:
=QUERY('hair salon (AREAS)'!A1:J326,"select A, D, E, B, J where I is null and A is not null order by E desc",1)
HAIR PALACE BEAUTY has a 5.0 rating, 689 reviews and no website listed. That’s the first call I’d make on this list. Check the rows above and around it first: Signal Mountain Village (890 reviews) and Creek Plantation Village (402) sit at the top and have names that sound more like a shopping center or a community than a salon.
Why second: it’s the biggest list, but the coldest. Some of these owners chose not to have a site. The pitch is their reviews, not “you need a website”:
Hi! You’ve got [number] Google reviews and a great rating, but there’s no website on your listing for people to click. I build simple one-page sites for salons: your photos, your prices, your phone number. Want me to send you a quick mockup?
Full write-up: How to Find Local Businesses Without Websites.
List 3: 16 Boise plumbers with no website
A different trade, a different city. “Plumber” across 42 Boise-area areas found 98 plumbers. Google Maps in my browser showed me 20 for the same search.
16 of the 98 list no website. All 98 have a phone number. And 25 have fewer than 20 reviews, 14 of them rated 5.0. Those are small or new plumbers that a plain Maps search doesn’t show you, because the list stops before it gets to them.
Why third: it’s a short list, and plumbers are busy people who answer the phone, not email. With no website there’s no contact form anyway. I’d text or call, and keep it about jobs:
Hi! I found you on Google Maps but there’s no website on your listing. I build simple one-page sites for plumbers: your services, your service area and a big call button. Want me to send you a quick mockup?
By the time you get here you’ve probably built a salon site or two, and a second trade shows you can do more than one kind of business. Full write-up: Where to Get Local Leads.
List 4: 31 dentists with great ratings and few reviews
“Dentist” across 59 Spokane areas found 225 dentists. Only 15 have no website, so “you need a website” is the wrong pitch. The gap is reviews: the median Spokane dentist has 209.
I filtered for rated 4.8 or higher with fewer than 50 reviews:
=COUNTIFS('dentist (AREAS)'!D2:D,">=4.8",'dentist (AREAS)'!E2:E,"<50")
That’s 31 practices.
Why last: dentists have money, but they already have a site, so you’re selling a redesign, a better Google profile or a site that asks happy patients to leave a review. That’s an easier sale once you have a few sites to show. The best lead on the list is Northview Family Dental - Lidgerwood: 5.0 rating, 23 reviews, while the same practice’s Westview office has 2,042. They already know what reviews do for them.
Hi! Your Lidgerwood office has a 5.0 rating but 23 Google reviews, and your Westview office has over 2,000. I build sites that make it easy for happy patients to leave a review. Want me to show you what that could look like?
Full write-up: Local Lead Generation for Web Designers.
The order, and why
- 38 booking-page salons. Warmest. They already pay for software and want to look good online.
- 131 no-website salons. Biggest list. Start in the small towns, sort by reviews.
- 16 no-website plumbers. Short list, a new trade, call or text.
- 31 under-reviewed dentists. Bigger clients, a harder pitch. Go once you have work to show.
You don’t need all four cities. Run the same searches in your own city and you’ll get your own four lists. The Website column works the same way everywhere.
Clean it before you pitch
- An empty Website cell isn’t proof. It means the business didn’t list a site on Google. Search the name before you pitch.
- Neighborhood names pull in junk. The Spokane dentist search found a dentist in Dartford, England and Fort George Wright Cemetery. Check the addresses.
- Barbershops, chains and salon suites. The salon search had 16 barbershops, 16 chains and 6 salon suite buildings. Chains decide at headquarters, and suite stylists each run their own business. Take them out.
- Names that don’t fit. Ogata Construction Co came back from the plumber search. It may do plumbing; it’s not called a plumber.
Step by step
- Get a free Google Places API key and set up Local Lead Finder.
- Put your city in SETTINGS > Region and run Find Areas. Wait for it to finish.
- Search one kind of business you’d like to build for, like “hair salon”.
- Read the Website column: booking pages, social pages, nothing, or their own site.
- Count each group with
COUNTIFSandREGEXMATCH, and sort the leads by reviews. - Clean the list: barbershops, chains, junk from neighborhood names, out-of-area rows.
- Set your message as the WhatsApp message in SETTINGS, work down the warmest list first, and mark each one Outreached.
- Run the next search (“plumber”, “dentist”) and do it again. Outreached rows stay green in every future search.
Common pitfalls
- Starting with the biggest list: 131 no-website salons looks better than 38, but it’s the coldest. Start with the 38 booking-page salons.
- Pitching websites to businesses that have them: 210 of 225 Spokane dentists have a website. Pitch the review gap instead.
- Treating an empty Website cell as no website: it only means nothing is listed on Google. Search the name before you send a mockup.
- Calling the top row blind: two of the top three no-website “salons” were Villages that may not be salons at all. Check before you call.
- Searching before Find Areas finishes: it takes a minute or two. Wait until the AREAS tab is filled before you search.
- Not marking Outreached: without it you’ll pitch the same business twice when you run your next search. Outreached rows turn green and stay green.
- Running big regions without checking the cost: each area is one Places API request per results page. The sheet shows the most a search could cost before it runs.
Learn the Google Sheets formulas in this post
-
3 Ways to Count in Google Sheets: the counting behind the
COUNTIFSthat finds 131 salons with no website and 31 under-reviewed dentists. - How To Sort A Filter: sort each list by reviews so the busiest businesses come first.
- 200 REGEXMATCH Examples in Google Sheets: the pattern matching that finds “glossgenius” or “vagaro” in the Website column.
- How to Create a CRM in google sheets w/ Dashboard: a next step for tracking who you pitched, who wants a mockup and who said no.
Better Sheets has hundreds more tutorials like these. If you want to get better at Google Sheets, join Better Sheets.
Other ways to use Local Lead Finder
- How to Find Social Media Management Clients: salons using Facebook as their website: for social media managers looking for businesses that already post.
- How to Get More Google Reviews for Local Businesses (side business): for reputation and local SEO freelancers looking for local clients.
- Google Sheets CRM for Leads: Pipeline, Follow-Ups, No Repeats: for anyone who wants to track every pitch in the same sheet.
- How to Get Bookkeeping Clients: 25 small plumbers in Boise: for bookkeepers, VAs and answering services looking for small trades clients.
All 18, grouped by who they’re for: Lead generation ideas: 18 local businesses to sell to.
FAQ
How do I get web design clients?
Start with a list where every business has a reason to say yes. Around Chattanooga, 38 of 325 salons list a booking page as their only website, so they already take bookings online and just need a site of their own. Pitch them first, then the businesses with no website at all.
How do I get clients for web design with no experience?
Start with the warmest, simplest list: salons whose only website is a booking page. A one-page site with their photos, prices and a Book button is a small first project, and it gives you something to show the next salon.
How do I get clients for web design for free?
The searches themselves can be free: Google gives up to 1,000 Places API searches a month free on your own key. The sheet is $10, and free for Better Sheets lifetime members. After that it’s your time: messaging down the list.
What kind of businesses need a website most?
In my searches it changed a lot by industry: 40% of Chattanooga hair salons list no website on Google, 16% of Boise plumbers and 7% of Spokane dentists. It’s one city per industry, so run your own city to see your own numbers.
Does an empty Website column mean the business has no website?
No. It means they didn’t list one on their Google profile. Some have a site and never added it, so search the name before you pitch.
Should I pitch businesses that already have a website?
Not with “you need a website.” Pitch whatever they’re missing. For Spokane dentists that was reviews: 31 are rated 4.8 or higher with fewer than 50 reviews, while the median practice has 209.
Is Local Lead Finder a scraper?
No. It uses Google’s official Places API with your own key, and writes the results into your own Google Sheet.
Get the sheet
Local Lead Finder is $10, and free for Better Sheets lifetime members. Pick a region, type a keyword, and every result lands in its own tab with a phone number, a website column and a one-click WhatsApp link.
