100 Exeter Google searches: who actually makes page one?

On 5 October 2026 we ran 100 Google searches a local customer might type: “plumber Exeter”, “emergency electrician Exeter”, “best dentist Exeter”, “cheap cleaner Exeter” and so on, across ten trades and professions. Then we recorded every website on page one.

The question was simple. When someone in Exeter searches for what you do, who do they actually find?

Local businesses get about a third of page one

Across the 100 searches, the ordinary (non-ad) results on page one split like this:

On a typical search, only 3 of the 10results were a local business's own website. On 7 of the 100 searches there wasn't a single one.

The directories are everywhere

A handful of sites turned up again and again:

If you leave Google's own map and AI panels out of it, a directory held the top organic spot on more than half the searches (25 of the 46 where a website was first).

That's not all bad news. If your business has a good, reviewed profile on the directories in your trade, you're on page one more often than your own website alone would get you. But the directory sits between you and the customer, often next to your competitors, and some charge for the leads.

Half the searches showed an AI answer first

50 of the 100 searches showed a Google AI Overview, the written answer that sits above the results. It varied a lot by trade:

The wording mattered more than the trade. Every one of the ten “[trade] Exeter prices” searches showed an AI Overview, and 8 of the ten “reviews” searches did. The plain “[trade] Exeter” searches showed one only twice. When one appears, it's the first thing a customer reads, and it quotes whichever sites Google trusts to answer. Getting your site cited there is becoming its own job. We explain how in what AEO is and how to get recommended by AI search.

And the map?

Google showed a map of local businesses on 57 of the 100 searches. Our data records that a map appeared, but not which businesses were in it, so we can't tell you who wins it. What we can say is that on more than half of local searches the map is there, and that it's driven by your Google Business Profile and reviews more than by your website.

What this means for a local business

• Your website is one of several ways onto page one, and on most searches it's competing with directories for a few spots. Local sites did best on the plain searches: about 4 of the top 10 on “[trade] Exeter” and “[trade] near me Exeter”, against 2 on the “reviews” and “prices” searches. A site that clearly says what you do and where is how you win those.
• Keep your directory and Google profiles in good shape. They often rank where your site can't.
• Write for the questions.Price, “how long” and “do I need” questions are where the AI answers appear. A page that answers them plainly is a page Google can quote.

More on all of this on our SEO page. If you're an Exeter business, our page on web design in Exeter covers how we build for the searches your customers type.

How we did it

We ran 100 searches on google.co.uk on 5 October 2026: ten services (plumber, electrician, roofer, builder, landscape gardener, cleaner, accountant, solicitor, dentist, hairdresser), each with ten phrasings such as “near me”, “emergency”, “best” and “prices”, using a search-scraping service. Results are desktop, page one only, and set to the UK without an exact location, so the word “Exeter” in each search did the local work. Google personalises results, so your own searches will differ a little. We classed every website by hand. A few results were for other places called Exeter, and we counted those as off-target.