UrbanTechFlow · Ottawa and Gatineau · Published October 19, 2026 · Updated October 19, 2026 · Checked October 11, 2026

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1,210 businesses in the Ottawa and Outaouais area, checked one by one

Between July and August 20, 2026, we checked 1,210 businesses on both sides of the river, one by one, most in Ottawa or the Outaouais. They came from public lists and from open map data, and we picked them because their web presence already looked weak. None of them is a contractor. Every figure on this page comes from our own check.

The headline: 393 did not show up on Google

Of the 1,210 businesses we checked, 393 did not show up on Google. That's 32.5%. We searched each one by its own name and town, and no Google business listing matched it.

The ones Google did show

For the others, our search found a matching Google listing. Among the 644 that also carried a rating, the median rating was 4.5 and the median number of reviews was 22. What those ratings say about reputation has its own post: great reviews that never reach the new customer.

What we withdrew on September 8, 2026

Our first write-up of this study, published in French, included figures on businesses without a website, with a comparison of the Ontario and Quebec sides. On September 8, 2026, we withdrew our figures on businesses without a website. The search service we used didn't always send back a site's address. When that field came back empty, our tool counted the business as having no website, even when it had one. A second check against Google Maps, through a service that does return each listing's website, showed the mistake.

We haven't replaced them with an estimate, because an estimate built on a broken measure is still broken. We'll publish a website figure only once we measure it with a source that returns each site's address.

Clarification published October 19, 2026

Rereading our own data, we found that the method published with these figures was wrong in several places. It appeared in the French version of this study and, in English, in our post on reviews. We have rewritten it below. The figures don't change, but they describe 1,210 businesses picked for a weak web presence, not the region's businesses as a whole.

Here is what the old description said, and what is true:

• "We start from public registries." 355 of the 1,210 came from no registry at all. They came from a category scan of open map data.
• "Permits, licences, authorisations." Our five public lists are Ottawa Public Health inspections, alcohol permits, daycares and driving schools. None of them holds construction permits, contractor licences or public contract awards.
• "We do not choose who enters the sample. The registry already decided." We did choose. A business from a public list only got in if open map data already showed it with no website, or didn't show it at all.
• "Regulated sectors and licensed trades are overrepresented." Not one of the 1,210 is a construction business.
• "Somebody looking for that service without knowing the company name." We searched each business by its own name and town.
• The old description dated all the data to August 20, 2026. Most of the Google checks ran in July 2026. The last ones ran on August 20, 2026, the day we closed the data.

How we picked the 1,210

Step one, the lists. We started from five public lists: two from Ottawa Public Health, one from the Government of Ontario and two from Quebec. Then we scanned Overture Maps by category. It's a free open map dataset, and it doesn't come from Google. The table shows where each business came from.

Step two, the filter. A business from one of the five lists only got in if Overture Maps already showed it with no website, or didn't show it at all. A business from the scan only got in if its Overture record listed no website. The filter was on purpose. We first gathered these businesses as possible clients, so we kept the ones whose web presence looked weak.

Overture Maps isn't Google. A business with no website in that open data could still have a full Google listing. That's why we then checked every one of the 1,210 on Google itself.

How we checked each one

Step three, Google. A program searched Google's business listings, the ones that also show on Google Maps, for each business by its name and town. If a listing came back with the same phone number, or with nearly the same name, the business counted as showing up. If none did, it counted as not showing up on Google. That's where the 393 come from.

What it means for a contractor

None of the 1,210 is a contractor, so this part is an example, not a finding. Picture two insulation companies in Orléans, with the same crews and the same quality of work. In October, a homeowner searches for attic insulation. The first shows up, with its listing, its photos and its reviews. The second doesn't show up at all. Over a year, the gap between them isn't skill. It's access. The customer doesn't choose the best company. He chooses among the ones he can see.

What the study does show is that the gap exists and can be measured. It doesn't say how many contractors are in that spot.

The study's median of 22 belongs to its 644 rated businesses, not to your trade. To put your own Google review count next to the median of others in your category, run the free check. At its second step, it asks for your business name, your town and your email.

Our program matched each business by its phone number or by nearly the same name. So a business whose Google listing showed both a different name and a different number from our list could be missed. Keeping one correct version of your name, number and hours, confirmed on Google and Bing, is part of our Foundation package.

The limits, in plain words

• Not a survey of every business in the region, and not a picture of contractors. The 1,210 were picked for a weak web presence, and none is a construction business. The 32.5% applies to them only.
• Mostly Ottawa and the Outaouais. Some, nearly all from the map scan, sit in neighbouring towns of Eastern Ontario and of Quebec beyond the Outaouais.
• The median rating and the median review count cover 644 of the 1,210. For the other businesses Google did show, no review count came back. Those are unknowns, not zeros, so we left them out of the math.
• A snapshot, not a film. The Google checks ran between July and August 20, 2026. A business may have created its listing since.
• We searched by name. A business listed on Google under a different name and a different phone number from our list would have counted as not showing up. The reverse can happen too: a nearly identical name could match another business's listing.
• Not showing up on Google isn't the same as struggling. A daycare with a waiting list can do fine without a listing. The question is whether someone who doesn't know a business yet can find it.
• Some rows are not local businesses. The lists and the map data carry errors that we kept as they were. They include Amazon parcel lockers, two city halls filed as hotels and a few public bodies. A few records filed under Ottawa sit far away, two of them holiday spots in Mexico and the Dominican Republic. Some big chain hotels counted as not showing up do have a Google listing: our search missed them.

Why we publish our own numbers

Most figures about getting found online come from somewhere else, often the United States, often several years old. These come mostly from Ottawa and the Outaouais, from the summer of 2026, with the method, its limits and its corrections on this page. We sell this kind of work ourselves, which is one more reason to show how our numbers were made.

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Questions about the study

Is this every business in Ottawa?

No. It's 1,210 businesses, most of them in Ottawa or the Outaouais, picked for a weak web presence, and none of them is a contractor.

Does "did not show up" mean the business has no Google listing?

Not necessarily. It means a search by its name and town brought back no matching listing. A listing under another name and another phone number would have been missed.