Field audit / 04.09.2026 / N = 127

The Sherborne Digital Report 2026

We audited 127 independently owned businesses across Sherborne and its surrounding villages to measure how they show up online.

Every business was checked the same way. First its Google Business Profile, then its website if one was linked from that profile. We only measured what a customer would actually run into: whether the business can be found, whether the basic details are there, and whether anything has been touched in the last two years.

Each one gets a score out of 100 across four pillars. What follows is the picture across the whole town.

No individual business is named anywhere in this report. If yours is in the sample, you can ask for your own results free of charge.

Sample
127 businesses
Area
DT9 and villages within 6 miles
Collected
4 September 2026
Sources
Google Places, live homepages

Median overall score across four weighted pillars.

64 of 127 businesses scored below 50.

48 profiles returned fewer than five photos.

45 of 107 websites had no structured data.

01 / 05

Where Sherborne stands

The median business scored 49. Half the sample sat below the 50-point line.

One dot represents one independently owned business. Scores combine findability, speed, basics and freshness.
Overall score distribution for 127 businesses
Score bandBusinessesShare
Below 506450%
50 or above63Not stated
02 / 05

The Google layer

Every business had a Google Business Profile. Coverage was universal. Completeness was not.

Profile found
Share of the full 127-business sample with each profile gap.
Google Business Profile findings for 127 businesses
FindingBusinessesShare
Profile found127 of 127100%
No website linked2016%
Fewer than 5 photos4838%
Fewer than 10 reviews4535%
No opening hours listed97%
03 / 05

The website layer

107 businesses had a website linked from the profile. Basic location, contact and technical signals were often missing.

Share of the 107 businesses with a website linked from their Google Business Profile. The unreachable site is shown as a count.
Website findings for 107 businesses with a linked site
FindingBusinessesShare
No address or postcode on the homepage4037%
No structured data4542%
No meta description3028%
No phone number on the homepage2826%
Not visibly updated in 2+ years2422%
Not on HTTPS98%
No mobile viewport tag44%
Site completely unreachable1Not stated
04 / 05

The review gap

Sherborne businesses are rated highly. The typical volume of evidence is much thinner.

Median rating

Median review count

Well liked, under-reviewed.45 businesses had fewer than 10 reviews.

The median Google rating was 4.9 and the median review count was 21. Forty-five businesses, 35 per cent of the sample, had fewer than 10 reviews.
05 / 05

How we measured this

A repeatable snapshot of public profile and website signals. The score is diagnostic, not a verdict.

The 100-point score gives 30 points to findability, 30 to speed, 25 to basics and 15 to freshness.

Sample: 127 independently owned businesses. DT9 and villages within approximately 6 miles of Sherborne. Collected 4 September 2026. National chains, public bodies and The Artist Studio clients excluded.

  1. Businesses were matched using Google Places text search with a 15km location bias, then spot-checked by hand.
  2. “No website” means no website linked from the Google Business Profile. A business may have a site that is not linked there.
  3. Freshness is inferred from the footer copyright year, which is a proxy and an imperfect one.
  4. Profile data is a snapshot taken on 4 September 2026.
  5. Photo counts reflect what the API returned, which is capped.
  6. The 100-point weighting is our judgement, not an industry standard.
  7. No individual business is named anywhere in this report.

Any business in the sample can request its own results free of charge

We will send your line of the data with a short plain-English explanation of what it means. No pitch attached.

Request your results