How to Find Local Businesses With Broken or Down Websites

A business whose website is down is one of the warmest leads a web designer can find. They already decided a website was worth paying for. It just stopped working, and in many cases the owner has no idea. Every customer who taps "Website" on their Google listing hits an error page and moves on to a competitor.

This guide shows you how to find these businesses by hand, how to confirm the site is really down (so you don't embarrass yourself), and how Locasly speeds up the whole process.

What counts as a broken or down website?

Before you start, know what you're looking for. These are the most common signs:

What you see	What it usually means
"This site can't be reached" or "server not found"	The domain expired or its DNS settings are broken
The page spins and times out	The hosting server is offline or overloaded
500, 502, 503 or similar error page	The server or the site's software is failing
"Account suspended" or a hosting company's default page	Hosting bill unpaid or the account was shut down
A parked page full of ads, or "this domain is for sale"	The domain lapsed and someone else picked it up
A big "Your connection is not private" warning	The SSL certificate expired or is misconfigured

Any of these means the business is losing customers right now. The last one isn't technically "down," but most visitors will leave at the warning screen, so treat it the same way.

What you'll need

• A browser and your phone
• A spreadsheet, or a lead tracker
• About 45 minutes for one niche in one city (or a few minutes with Locasly)

Step 1: Pick a niche and a city

Choose one type of business in one area, like "dentists in Fresno" or "roofers in Tampa." Service businesses with high-value jobs (HVAC, plumbing, roofing, dental, legal) are ideal, because a single new customer can cover your fee.

With Locasly: enter the city, a radius, and the category. Locasly pulls around 120 businesses from Google Maps in seconds.

Step 2: Collect the website links from Google Maps

Search your niche and city on Google Maps. Open each listing and copy the website link into your spreadsheet along with the business name, phone number, rating, and review count. Skip listings with no website for now (they're a separate kind of lead).

This is the slowest part by hand. Expect to spend most of your time here.

With Locasly: every result already has its website link, phone, and details attached, and you can export the list as a CSV.

Step 3: Open every website and check if it loads

Click through each link and give it about ten seconds. Mark each one as working, slow, or broken, and note exactly what you saw using the table above. A screenshot of the error is useful later, so grab one.

With Locasly: website status is checked automatically. Businesses whose site is down are flagged right in the results, so you can filter straight to them.

Step 4: Double-check that it's really down

This step matters. Telling an owner their site is broken when it's fine for everyone else kills your credibility. Before you reach out:

1. Try again later. Sites can have brief outages. Recheck a few hours later or the next day.
2. Try another network. Open it on your phone with Wi-Fi turned off.
3. Try both versions of the address. Check with and without "www" and with "https://".
4. Use an outside checker. Free tools like Down for Everyone or Just Me test the site from a different location.

If it fails every check, you have a confirmed lead.

Step 5: Confirm the business is still open

A dead website sometimes means a dead business. Look at the Google listing: are there reviews from the past few weeks? Are the hours current? Is it marked "permanently closed"? If you can, call during business hours. A busy business with a broken site is your ideal prospect.

Step 6: Score the sites that do load

While you're here, don't ignore the sites that technically work. Run them through PageSpeed Insights. Google considers a score of 90 or above good, 50 to 89 needs improvement, and under 50 poor (source). A site that takes forever to load on a phone loses customers almost as surely as one that's down.

With Locasly: each business gets a 0–100 lead score built from PageSpeed performance, WCAG accessibility errors, and website status. Sort by score to see the weakest sites first.

Step 7: Build a replacement mockup

Don't just tell them their site is broken. Show them what it could look like. A simple one-page mockup with their name, services, location, and a big call button is far more convincing than a description.

With Locasly: generate a tailored one-page mockup from a template using the business's name, category, and location. It comes with a public share link you can send or show on your phone.

Step 8: Reach out with the problem and the fix

Keep your message short and helpful. Lead with what you found, then offer the solution:

"Hi Maria, I was looking up dentists in Fresno and noticed the website link on your Google listing shows an error page. Anyone who taps it right now can't reach you. I put together a quick replacement so you can see what it could look like: [mockup link]. Want me to get it live for you?"

Call, walk in, or email, whichever fits the business. Locasly gives you outreach scripts and AI-written openers to copy into your own email, tap-to-dial with call logging, and a pipeline to track who you've contacted and who needs a follow-up.

Manual vs. Locasly at a glance

Task	By hand	With Locasly
Build the list	Open Maps listings one at a time	About 120 businesses in seconds
Find down sites	Click every link and wait	Flagged automatically
Score working sites	Run PageSpeed one URL at a time	0–100 lead score per business
Make a mockup	Build it yourself	Generated from a template with a share link
Track outreach	Spreadsheet	Built-in pipeline and CSV export

Ready to skip the clicking? Try Locasly free during launch. It runs in your browser and takes about two minutes to set up.

FAQ

Why are businesses with down websites good leads?

They've already paid for a website once, so you don't have to convince them they need one. Many owners don't know their site is broken, so a polite heads-up plus a ready-made replacement often gets a warm response.

How do I know if a website is down for everyone or just me?

Check it on a different network (like your phone on mobile data), try again a few hours later, and use a free outside checker such as Down for Everyone or Just Me. If it fails all three, it's almost certainly down.

Should I tell the owner their site is down even if they don't hire me?

Yes. It's a genuinely useful heads-up, it builds trust, and owners often remember the person who told them. Some will come back later or refer you.

Can Locasly fix or host the broken website?

No. Locasly finds businesses with down or weak sites, scores them, and builds a pitch mockup with a share link. You build and host the final site with your own tools.