ORIGINAL RESEARCH

Research & Small-Business Website Studies

Stamm Web Creations uses this section for structured studies that begin with a defined question, a fixed review method, and recorded evidence. It is not a second blog archive, and it is not where service pages get repackaged as “research.”

Two 2026 small-business website benchmarks are now published: Wichita and Kansas City. Both review 50 businesses using the same ten visible-site criteria, while each report keeps its own sample rules, findings, methodology, and limitations.

Public Evidence | Fixed Criteria | Aggregate Reporting | Methods & Limitations Disclosed

WHY THIS SECTION EXISTS

Service Pages Explain What We Do. Research Should Tell You Something New.

A research page earns its place only if the evidence changes, sharpens, or challenges what we thought going in. A city name, a few search results, and generic recommendations do not qualify.

01 / A Narrow Question

Start With Something That Can Actually Be Observed

Define something that can be observed consistently before looking for an answer.

02 / The Same Rule

Keep the Definition Stable Across the Sample

Use the same operational definition across the sample instead of moving the goalposts when a site is complicated.

03 / Findings Before Pitch

Let an Inconvenient Result Survive

Publish what the evidence says even when the result is less dramatic or less convenient than the marketing story.

04 / Boundaries

Say What the Study Cannot Prove

State what the study did not measure so readers do not mistake observation for causation.

If a report could have been written without collecting the underlying evidence, it probably does not belong in this section.

WICHITA BENCHMARK

2026 Wichita Small-Business Website Benchmark

Fifty Wichita-area websites. Five business sectors. Ten observable website signals. Two discovery cohorts. One narrow question: what can a customer clearly see before deciding whether to trust and contact the business?

The report is useful because it does not manufacture a local crisis. It documents where the sample was strong, where visible evidence thinned out, and how owners can run the same questions against their own site.

25 Directory + 25 Open-Market Sites

The final sample balances 25 WIBA-directory businesses with 25 independently discovered open-market businesses.

One Fixed 10-Point Rubric

Every qualifying site was reviewed against the same ten yes-or-no operational definitions.

A Result That Was Not Predetermined

The basics were stronger than expected. The more useful differences appeared in the evidence behind the offer.

Aggregate Findings, Not Public Scorecards

The public report publishes aggregate patterns and methodology, not a winner-and-loser scorecard.

KANSAS CITY BENCHMARK

KC50: 2026 Kansas City Small-Business Website Benchmark

Fifty Kansas City-metro small-business websites. Twenty-five from Kansas and twenty-five from Missouri. Twenty-five chamber-directory selections and twenty-five open-market selections. The same ten visible-site criteria used in the Wichita benchmark.

The useful gap was concrete proof: 31 of 50 showed visible work, product, or experience evidence; 35 of 50 showed third-party or customer trust proof; and 44 of 50 presented a distinct primary action.

25 Kansas + 25 Missouri

The KC50 sample is balanced across the state line: 25 Kansas businesses and 25 Missouri businesses.

25 Chamber + 25 Open-Market

The sample also balances 25 chamber-directory selections with 25 independently discovered open-market businesses.

31 of 50 Showed Concrete Proof

Under the shared rubric, 31 of 50 sites showed visible work, product, or experience evidence.

35 of 50 Showed Trust Proof

Third-party or customer trust proof appeared on 35 of 50 sites; 44 of 50 also presented a distinct primary action.

RESEARCH STANDARD

What Has to Be True Before We Call Something Research

Every report published here should be able to answer five questions before anyone sees the headline.

QUESTION

Start With a Defined Study Question

What are we trying to observe?

SAMPLE

Make the Selection Rule Visible

How were candidates found, included, excluded, and replaced?

DEFINITIONS

Use Operational Definitions

What exactly counts as observed, not observed, included, or excluded?

EVIDENCE

Record Evidence Before Writing the Story

What was recorded before the totals, patterns, and conclusions were written?

LIMITS

Publish the Boundaries With the Findings

What did the study not measure, and which conclusions would go beyond the evidence?

The standard is designed to keep marketing conclusions downstream from the evidence, not the other way around.

HOW TO READ THESE REPORTS

Seven Things We Publish So the Numbers Can Be Checked

A useful benchmark should make its rules visible enough that a skeptical reader can understand where the numbers came from. These are the seven pieces we expect each public report to disclose.

Review Date

When the public evidence was reviewed and, when relevant, when the study was last updated.

Sampling Frame

The directory, search process, dataset, geography, or other source from which candidates were drawn.

Inclusion and Exclusion Rules

The written rules that determined which candidates counted and which did not.

Operational Definitions

The definitions used to turn a messy real-world page into a consistent observation.

Sample Size and Structure

How many observations were included and how the sample was divided when multiple cohorts or sectors were used.

Limitations

What the research cannot establish, including outcomes or causes that were never measured.

Commercial Disclosure

Who conducted the work, whether there is a commercial interest, and whether any outside organization sponsored or endorsed it.

IMPORTANT

Methodology Is Part of the Result

A headline without the review date, sample rules, definitions, and limitations is easier to market but harder to trust.

FROM QUESTION TO PUBLICATION

How a Stamm Study Gets Published

Define the Question and Freeze the Rules

Write the question, candidate source, exclusions, review window, and scoring definitions before the final pattern is known.

Review the Evidence Consistently

Apply the same rules to qualifying observations. Do not rewrite the rubric to rescue or punish an awkward example.

Record the Working Data Before the Narrative

Keep the names, URLs, scores, evidence notes, and exceptions in a private working record before aggregating the public totals.

Publish Findings With Their Boundaries

Publish the useful pattern, the method that produced it, the limitations, and enough context for a reader to interpret the result responsibly.

RESEARCH FAQ

Questions We Want Readers to Ask

Is this the same as a case study?

No. A research report describes patterns across a defined sample. A case study documents measured work and outcomes from a specific client account.

Is this the same as a website or SEO audit?

No. An audit diagnoses one website using its own pages, search data, technical condition, and business priorities. Research asks a narrower question across a group of observations.

Is the research section designed to rank for service keywords?

No. The purpose of this section is to house original evidence and methodology. Commercial service intent stays on the service and market pages built for it.

Do businesses pay to be included?

No business paid to appear in either 2026 benchmark. If a future study is sponsored, funded, or commissioned by an outside organization, that relationship should be disclosed on the report.

Are individual business names and scores published?

Normally, no. Aggregate patterns are more useful than turning the research into a public ranking table. Individual identities or scorecards would require a separate reason, review, and appropriate permission.

Can a study prove rankings, leads, or revenue?

Only if the study actually measures them. A website-observation benchmark cannot prove rankings, traffic, leads, conversion, revenue, or causation when those outcomes were not part of the data.

Why not publish a new “study” every month?

Because volume is not the goal. A new report should have a distinct question, enough observations, and enough information gain to justify another permanent URL.

Who conducts the research?

Stamm Web Creations conducts the research independently unless a report states otherwise. Stamm is a commercial web design and SEO business, which is disclosed rather than hidden.

CURRENT RESEARCH

Read the Wichita and Kansas City Benchmarks

The Wichita benchmark established the shared ten-point visible-site method. KC50 applies that same framework to a separate 50-business Kansas City-metro sample split across Kansas and Missouri.

Both reports publish aggregate findings, methodology, and limitations rather than public winner-and-loser scorecards. If you are looking for measured results from client work instead of market-level observation, use the case studies.

Research describes a sample. Case studies document client outcomes. Audits diagnose one website.