Independent quarterly SEO audit and ranking of Ottawa businesses across 12 industries — methodology published, application open.
An independent, methodology-driven quarterly ranking of Ottawa businesses across 12 industries — measured on the same 11 criteria Google itself uses to rank local businesses. Updated every quarter. No paid placement. Application open to any Ottawa business.
This is not a directory. It is a real ranking based on a real audit run by Ottawa SEO Inc. — the senior team that has performed audits on 500+ businesses since 2014.
- Lawyers & Law Firms - Dental Clinics - Medical Clinics & Family Doctors - HVAC Contractors - Plumbers - Roofing Contractors - Real Estate Agents - Restaurants - Accountants & CPAs - Personal Injury Lawyers - Cleaning Companies - Renovation Contractors
| Criterion | Weight | What we measure | |---|---|---| | Google Business Profile completeness | 15% | Categories, hours, photos, services, posts, attributes | | Review volume + recency | 12% | 90-day review velocity weighted over 24-month total | | Average rating | 8% | Weighted by total review volume | | Website Core Web Vitals | 12% | LCP, CLS, INP per Google PageSpeed Insights | | On-page SEO (title/meta/H1/schema) | 10% | 15-point on-page audit pass rate | | Local citation consistency (NAP) | 8% | Name/Address/Phone consistency across top 30 directories | | Backlink profile | 10% | Referring domains + Domain Rating per Ahrefs/Moz | | Content depth | 10% | Average word count + topical breadth across service pages | | HTTPS + security headers | 5% | TLS, HSTS, security header coverage | | Mobile-first usability | 5% | Mobile Lighthouse score | | Schema markup coverage | 5% | LocalBusiness, Service, FAQPage, Review schema present |
**How we rank:** every quarter, our team runs the audit above against every public-facing Ottawa business that has either (a) opted in via the application form below, or (b) been nominated by a third party. We do not accept payment for placement — businesses paying for our SEO services are flagged in the published list with a "*client" disclosure.
**Why this matters:** local-search visibility is a direct revenue driver. The businesses that score above 80/100 on this audit consistently appear in Google's top-3 local-pack results — and Local SEO Guide's industry studies show top-3 local-pack positions capture 70%+ of click-through traffic for commercial-intent queries.
Ottawa businesses can apply for inclusion in the next quarterly ranking. Application is free and includes a complimentary 15-point SEO audit regardless of whether your score qualifies for top-10 placement.
Apply via the free SEO audit form → — mention "leaderboard application" in the form.
No. We do not accept payment for placement. Businesses currently using our SEO services are flagged with a transparent disclosure in their listing.
Quarterly — every January, April, July, and October.
Submit a free 15-point SEO audit at /audits/ and mention leaderboard application in the form. We'll add you to the next-quarter audit roster.
Yes — every applicant receives their full audit report by email regardless of ranking outcome.