Research · Auto repair
The website link that fails
A business can look open on Google and still send a customer to a website that failed its recorded validity check. That happened to nearly three in ten links we could check.
Nearly three in ten did not lead anywhere working when checked.
A missing website button is easy to notice. A failing one looks complete until somebody taps it. Of the links with a recorded check, 3,600 worked and 1,508 did not.
Why the link matters
The website button is often the next step after a customer checks reviews, opening hours, and location. It may lead to services, prices, directions, or a way to book. When the destination fails its check, that journey can end before the business gets a chance to explain what it offers.
How we got these numbers
We looked at matched, operational Google profiles for businesses categorized as auto repair and counted each profile once. Of 6,186 profiles with a website URL, 6,181 matched a website record by normalized URL.
A recorded validity check was available for 5,108 links. We counted a failure only when a check had been recorded and the website was marked invalid. The 1,073 matched links without a recorded check were excluded from the percentage.
An honest limitation: these are the profiles we chose to analyze, not a random sample of the industry. A failed check may reflect a temporary outage or an access restriction, so this does not prove that every link is permanently broken.
What to do about it
- Tap the button yourself. Test the website link from the live Google profile.
- Check after domain changes. A new website does not automatically update an old profile URL.
- Test on a phone. That is where many customers first open the link.
- Check it regularly. Hosting, certificates, and redirects can fail after a link was added.