Outfly, the company behind Track by Outfly, assessed 820 operating companies with live websites in September 2026, 628 of them in the UK. This report sets out what we found about positioning, proof and who runs marketing, how we found it, and its limits. Published 24 September 2026. Data gathered 21 September 2026.
On 30 percent of the 628 UK company websites Outfly assessed in September 2026, no wording about case studies, testimonials or clients was found (189 sites).
Keyword scan of the home page and up to six more pages. Client logos shown only as images were not counted.
31 percent of the UK company websites Outfly assessed had positioning rated generic or unclear (195 of 624 rated), and 24 percent had positioning rated sharp (148).
Rated by an AI model reading each site, on four levels: sharp, clear, generic, unclear.
No proof wording was found on 41 percent of startup websites (155 of 382), against 9 percent of scale-ups (7 of 76).
All countries. The scale-up group is small, so read the gap as direction rather than precise size.
Marketing was judged founder-led at 82 percent of startups (309 of 378), and resting on the founder or a single hire at 92 percent (349). At scale-ups the founder-led share was 9 percent (7 of 76).
All countries. Judged by an AI model from the website and LinkedIn company records.
Established SMEs had the least distinctive positioning: 47 percent were rated generic or unclear (107 of 227) and 15 percent sharp (33). 30 percent had a website rated dated or poor (67).
All countries.
Advertising tracking pixels were found on 75 of the 628 UK sites. On 28 of those (37 percent) positioning was rated generic or unclear, and on 19 (25 percent) no proof wording was found.
A pixel shows a site is set up to track advertising, not how much is spent. Detection was from page code only.
Each cell shows the share, then the count and the number of companies where a value was known. Company type was assigned by the AI assessment.
| Company type | Positioning generic or unclear | Positioning sharp | No proof wording found | Marketing founder-led | Founder or single hire | Site dated or poor | Ad pixel found |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Startups (382) | 31%(116 of 380) | 23%(87 of 380) | 41%(155 of 382) | 82%(309 of 378) | 92%(349 of 378) | 15%(58 of 381) | 13%(50 of 382) |
| Scale-ups (76) | 7%(5 of 76) | 62%(47 of 76) | 9%(7 of 76) | 9%(7 of 76) | 16%(12 of 76) | 1%(1 of 76) | 17%(13 of 76) |
| Established SMEs (227) | 47%(107 of 227) | 15%(33 of 227) | 18%(41 of 227) | 55%(121 of 221) | 63%(139 of 221) | 30%(67 of 227) | 14%(32 of 227) |
| Corporates (135) | 17%(23 of 132) | 29%(38 of 132) | 29%(39 of 135) | 6%(8 of 125) | 7%(9 of 125) | 8%(10 of 133) | 10%(14 of 135) |
| All companies (820) | 31%(251 of 815) | 25%(205 of 815) | 30%(242 of 820) | 56%(445 of 800) | 64%(509 of 800) | 17%(136 of 817) | 13%(109 of 820) |
| UK only (628) | 31%(195 of 624) | 24%(148 of 624) | 30%(189 of 628) | 61%(373 of 611) | 69%(421 of 611) | 18%(112 of 626) | 12%(75 of 628) |
If a buyer cannot tell why you are different, and cannot see that it has worked for anyone else, every other marketing investment pays back less. The two most basic fixes on this list, a sharper proposition and visible proof, were missing on a large share of the sites we looked at. Where to start depends on where growth has stalled: nobody is finding you, they find you and leave, paid costs more than it returns, or it used to work and now it does not.
Practical guides built on these findings: how to add proof without case studies, how to rewrite a proposition the business has outgrown (in the UK alone, 46 percent of 179 established SMEs had positioning rated generic or unclear), and why buyers trust scale-ups over startups.
We looked at 820 operating companies with live websites, 628 of them in the UK. They came from Outfly's own list of possible clients, so they are not a representative sample of UK business. On 21 September 2026 an AI model read each home page and up to six more pages, alongside Companies House and LinkedIn company records. Company type, positioning, site quality and marketing set-up are the model's judgement, not a human audit. "No proof" means no wording about case studies, testimonials, clients or reviews was found on those pages, so client logos shown only as images were missed. Advertising pixels were detected in page code only, so some will have been missed. Each figure counts only companies where a value was known, which is why the totals differ slightly between measures. No company or person is named, and the figures contain no personal data.
Positioning: the model chose one of four levels, sharp, clear, generic or unclear. The levels were named but not given written definitions, which is a limitation of this first edition.
Website quality: strong, adequate, dated or poor, on the same basis.
Marketing set-up: founder-led, first hire, small team or full function.
Company type: startup (up to Series A, founder-led, under about 50 people), scale-up (Series A or later, or revenue above £2m), established SME (10 to 250 people, trading more than five years, owner or MD led) or corporate (large companies, public bodies, associations, universities). Investors, accelerators and non-trading organisations were excluded.
Free to use for any purpose. Growth Gaps 2026 is released into the public domain under CC0 1.0: copy it, change it, chart it or republish it, with no permission and no credit needed. Data gathered 21 September 2026.
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