WedStay Vendor Website Report · Live benchmark
The State of the Wedding Vendor Website, 2026
WedStay keeps a website address on file for the wedding vendors on its platform, and it runs a free scorer that grades any wedding business site on nine on-page checks. This report puts the two together: the same nine checks, run across the vendors we list, published as trade averages and never as a named business.
As of 24 September 2026, the published aggregates cover 204 websites across 5 trades. Here is what they score, where each trade loses points, and what to fix first.
- Average score
- 71
- Websites measured
- 204
- Fail meta description
- 74%
Out of 100, weighted by sample size.
Across 5 published trades.
The most common failed check.
- The measured average is 71 out of 100 across 204 websites.
- Meta description is the check most often failed: 74% of the sites measured.
- Wedding planners score highest at 73; wedding photographers lowest at 69.
- Every figure is an aggregate over at least 20 sites. No individual score, rank or name appears anywhere.
Method
How this report is built
Every vendor listed on WedStay can keep a website on file. We take each active listing with one, fetch the page that address points to, and run the nine checks the free scorer runs: the same code, the same weights, the same score out of 100 a visitor would get by typing the address in themselves. One page per site.
The results are stored per vendor and published only as trade aggregates: an average, a median, the middle half of scores, and the share of sites failing each check. A trade is published only once at least 20 of its sites have been scored. No individual score, rank or name appears anywhere. A vendor who asks whether their site is in the scan gets a straight answer: every active vendor with a website on file is included, and only ever inside an aggregate.
Read these numbers with three things in mind: A site that redirects to a page on another platform is scored on the page it lands on, because that is what a couple lands on too. A website shared by two listed vendors counts once for each. And the sample is the active vendors on WedStay, not the industry; the scorer treats every site the same, but who is in the sample is who chose to list with us.
Measured 24 September 2026. 204 websites across 5 trades have cleared the floor; every tracked trade is published.
01 · The picture
What a wedding vendor website scores
Across every published trade, the sample-weighted average is 71 out of 100. The checks are not exotic: a title, a description, one heading, a viewport tag, a padlock, alt text, a schema block, a light page and a way to get in touch. A site can pass all nine in an afternoon. In every published trade, more than half of the sites measured fall short of it.
- Average score
- 71
- Websites measured
- 204
- Trades published
- 5
- Highest: wedding planners
- 73
- Lowest: wedding photographers
- 69
- Fail meta description
- 74%
Weighted by how many sites each trade contributed.
Measured 24 September 2026.
Of 5 tracked. A trade needs 20 scored sites.
The best-scoring trade average.
The lowest-scoring trade average.
The single most common failure.
02 · Trade by trade
Where each trade lands
Each bar is one trade's average; the tick is its median, and the range beneath it is the middle half of that trade's sites. Every trade links to its own scorer, which shows the same benchmark beside a visitor's live result.
Middle half scored 60 to 83, across 23 websites, measured 24 September 2026.
Most failed check: Meta description, 65% of these sites. Score a wedding planner site
Middle half scored 60 to 85, across 78 websites, measured 24 September 2026.
Most failed check: Meta description, 73% of these sites. Score a wedding caterer site
Middle half scored 60 to 81, across 36 websites, measured 24 September 2026.
Most failed check: Meta description, 78% of these sites. Score a wedding hair and makeup artist site
Middle half scored 60 to 85, across 36 websites, measured 24 September 2026.
Most failed check: Meta description, 75% of these sites. Score a wedding florist site
Middle half scored 58 to 85, across 31 websites, measured 24 September 2026.
Most failed check: Meta description, 77% of these sites. Score a wedding photographer site
03 · What fails
The checks wedding vendor websites fail most
Weighted across every published trade, these are the checks the most sites fail. None of them needs a rebuild, and each is worth real points on the nine-check scale.
1. Meta description
74%A description of 120 to 155 characters is the two lines under your title in search results. Write it for the couple, not the engine.
2. H1 heading
57%One H1 heading per page, with real words. It tells a search engine what the page is about and tells a couple they are in the right place.
3. Title tag
52%One title per page, 30 to 60 characters, naming what you do and where. It is the headline of your search result.
04 · The nine checks
What the score measures
Nine on-page signals, weighted to 100. Each is something you can verify in your own source code and fix without a developer. There are no invented authority numbers here and no estimate of traffic.
- Title tag, 15 points. Present and 30 to 60 characters.
- Meta description, 15 points. Present and 120 to 155 characters.
- Mobile viewport, 15 points. A viewport meta tag so phones render the page correctly.
- H1 heading, 10 points. Exactly one, with real text.
- HTTPS, 10 points. The page loads over a secure connection.
- Image alt text, 10 points. At least 80% of images describe themselves.
- Structured data, 10 points. Any schema.org JSON-LD block.
- Page weight, 10 points. The page is under 3 MB.
- Contact affordance, 5 points. A phone link, an email link, or a form.
05 · Score yours
Score your own site against your trade
Each scorer runs the same nine checks and, where the trade has cleared the floor, shows its benchmark beside your result. Free, no account, about ten seconds.
Questions
This report, answered
- How were these websites scored?
- With the same nine on-page checks as the free scorer at thewedstay.com/vendor-seo-score, run against the website each vendor has on file with WedStay: the title tag, the meta description, one H1, a mobile viewport, HTTPS, image alt text, a schema.org block, page weight under 3 MB, and a visible way to make contact. One page per site, the same weights, the same score out of 100 a visitor gets.
- Is my website in this report?
- Every active vendor on WedStay with a website on file is included in the scan, and appears only inside a trade aggregate: one row in an average, never published, ranked or named on its own. If you want your own number, run the free scorer; it uses the identical checks.
- Why is my trade not in the report?
- A trade appears only once at least 20 of its websites have been scored. Below that, an average would say more about a handful of businesses than about the trade, so nothing is published until the sample clears the floor.
- Why do these numbers differ from other SEO tools?
- The nine checks look only at what is on the page and only report what you can verify in your own source code. They do not estimate domain authority, backlinks or traffic, because those are estimates rather than things you can check yourself. Treat the score as a checklist, not a ranking.
- How often is this updated?
- Every figure on this page carries the date it was measured, and the page regenerates within about an hour of a new scan. When a trade is rescanned, its numbers move and its date moves with them.
- Can I use these numbers?
- Yes. The figures are published under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license (CC BY 4.0). Quote them, chart them or build on them, and credit WedStay with a link back to this page.
The WedStay Collective
Fix the nine, then get found by the couples already here
The free scorer tells you the biggest fix on your page. A free WedStay profile gives you all nine, written out, and puts your business in front of the couples searching WedStay every month.
Free to create. You choose later whether to publish.
Prefer to talk it through first? Schedule a call with our Vendor Success Director. No pressure, no obligation.