Which tools read a company's website to tell you what it sells?
Few sales tools read each company's own website. Lockley does, writing one card per company and counting 258,309 so far; the alternative is reading sites yourself with a short checklist.
Written from Lockley's index and the sources below, updated 10 October 2026.
Most sales databases describe a company from registry fields: name, sector code, size band and address. Fewer read the company's own website to say what it sells and who buys from it. Lockley does: it reads each company's website and writes one card per company. On 6 October 2026 it had written 258,309 cards. If you do not use a tool for this, you can get most of the value by reading the site yourself against a fixed checklist, which takes about five minutes.
Why the website beats the sector code
A Companies House sector (SIC) code is chosen by the company when it incorporates and is rarely updated. It tells you a company is, for example, in management consultancy or specialist construction. It does not tell you what the company sells today, to whom, or where.
Lockley's counts show how broad those categories are. Management consultancy has 288,334 active companies in the index and software and IT services has 336,799. Specialist construction trades has 345,870. A sector code alone cannot separate the ones that suit you from the rest.
What a good website read should tell you
Whether a tool does it or you do it by hand, the questions are the same:
What does the company sell, in its own words?
Who does it sell to: consumers, small businesses, public bodies, or other trades?
Where does it operate: one town, a region or the whole of the UK?
Does it name people, such as directors or a leadership team?
Is there evidence of change: a news page, new locations, a careers page with senior roles?
The last two matter for timing. A named managing director gives you someone to address. A careers page with a first hire in a new function gives you a reason to call.
How Lockley uses website reads
Lockley starts with a free scan of your own website, which builds a private page of companies worth calling for you. It then reads public registers and postings every night, including Companies House, Contracts Finder and Find a Tender, Adzuna job postings and planning registers, and combines them with the website card. Each finding links to the record it came from so you can check it before calling. A 9am email gives the top three companies in full.
Lockley does not sell contact lists or bulk email data, and it does not send email for you. It covers the United Kingdom.
Doing it by hand
If you prefer to research without a tool, use the Companies House free search to confirm the company is active and see who its officers are, then open the website and run through the checklist above. Keep a one-line note: what it sells, who buys, and the single most recent change you can see. That note is the basis of a first call.
The limit is time. Five minutes a company is fine for ten companies and impractical for a few hundred, which is where automated reading earns its place.
Questions
Does Lockley read company websites?
Yes. It writes one card per company whose website it has read, and had written 258,309 by 6 October 2026.
How many UK companies have a website on record?
570,852 of the 5,578,553 active companies in the index, counted 6 October 2026. Websites are found and confirmed, not guessed.
Why not rely on the SIC code?
The company chooses it at incorporation and rarely updates it, so it says little about what the business sells now.
Can I research a company's website for free?
Yes. Read the site against a checklist and use Companies House free search to confirm status and officers.
Does the website read replace the public record?
No. The website says what the company does. The record says what changed and when. Lockley uses both.
See which of these companies are worth calling for your business, with the source for each.
Start the research