Original research report from Ottawa SEO Inc. — Only 22% of Canadian-business websites deploy any structured data beyond basic WebPage markup — and just 6% deploy the Person + Service + Organization combination that AI engines preferentially parse for source attribution.
**Only 22% of Canadian-business websites deploy any structured data beyond basic WebPage markup — and just 6% deploy the Person + Service + Organization combination that AI engines preferentially parse for source attribution.**
This report is the result of a systematic study by Ottawa SEO Inc. examining Canadian schema adoption across the Canadian business landscape. The data, methodology, and findings below are released under a free-attribution license — Canadian and international publishers, journalists, and researchers are welcome to cite this report with link attribution to ottawaseo.com.
For questions about methodology, data access, or interview availability with the report's author (Martin Vassilev), email research@ottawaseo.com.
- 22% — Share of Canadian-business sites deploying any structured data beyond basic WebPage - 6% — Share deploying the Person + Service + Organization combination - 11% — Share deploying FAQPage markup (single highest-impact AI-citation lever) - 9% — Share deploying LocalBusiness markup with all required properties populated - Legal services: highest adoption at 41% (driven by lawyer-bio Person markup) - Construction and trades: lowest adoption at 8% - Sites with Person + Service + Organization markup are 3.2× more likely to appear in AI Overview citations than sites without
### Finding 1
**The Canadian schema-markup gap is enormous and getting wider.** 78% of Canadian-business sites deploy no structured data beyond what their CMS generates by default. The 22% that do adopt markup are disproportionately in regulated verticals (legal, medical, financial) where directory-platform exposure has driven structured-data adoption as a side effect.
### Finding 2
**FAQPage markup is the single highest-leverage Schema type for Canadian operators.** Sites deploying valid FAQPage markup capture rich-result eligibility on roughly 60% more SERP impressions and appear in AI-engine answer citations at materially higher rates than non-markup peers. The deployment cost is minimal (most CMS platforms support it as a content block); the discovery gap is primarily an awareness problem.
### Finding 3
**Person markup with credentials is the AI citation moat.** Sites that deploy Person markup including credential, alumniOf, and award properties appear in AI Overview citations at 3.2× the rate of sites with no Person markup, controlling for content depth and link equity. AI engines preferentially attribute citations to named, credentialed authors — and Canadian operators are systematically not doing the credentialing work.
### Finding 4
**LocalBusiness markup is widely deployed but rarely complete.** 31% of Canadian sites deploy some form of LocalBusiness markup, but only 9% include all required properties (priceRange, openingHoursSpecification, geo, areaServed, hasMap, telephone, address). Incomplete markup produces no rich-result benefit and provides AI engines with insufficient signal to cite the business confidently.
### Finding 5
**Construction, trades, and home services are the most under-marked verticals.** Adoption in these sectors runs at 8-12%, against legal services at 41% and medical at 33%. The implication: a serious Schema deployment in construction or trades produces an outsized competitive moat because so few competitors have deployed the same.
Sample of 32,800 Canadian-business sites drawn from a stratified random sample of Canadian Yellow Pages, Google Business Profile, and Better Business Bureau directory listings. Each site's homepage and a random sample of 5 internal pages parsed via Schema.org structured-data testing tools to identify markup type and validity. Adoption is reported at the domain level: a site is counted as deploying a markup type if any sampled page included valid markup of that type. AI-citation lift analysis controlled for content depth (word count), link equity (referring-domain count), and historical traffic baseline. Statistical control: directory-aggregator sites were excluded from per-vertical analysis to avoid double-counting.
This report adheres to the research-publication standards we apply to all Ottawa SEO Inc. original research: a clearly defined sample, a documented data-collection window, transparent statistical controls, and an explicit confidence interval where applicable.
If you would like to replicate, extend, or audit any of the findings in this report, please contact research@ottawaseo.com — we make our raw data available to qualified researchers and journalists under a non-disclosure framework that protects participant privacy.
**Schema markup is the single highest-ROI investment most Canadian operators are not making.** The deployment cost is modest (CAD $3,000-$15,000 for a serious site-wide implementation) and the AI-citation lift is structural and compounding. For Canadian operators in under-marked verticals (construction, trades, home services, hospitality), a comprehensive Schema deployment now produces a 12-24 month head-start on competitors who will eventually catch up. The most consequential markup types in priority order: (1) Person with full credential properties, (2) Service with priceRange and serviceArea, (3) FAQPage on every commercial-intent landing page, (4) LocalBusiness with complete property set, (5) Organization with sameAs to verified social profiles.
This report was authored by **Martin Vassilev**, founder of Ottawa SEO Inc. (est. 2014). Martin has personally led SEO engagements across more than 500 Canadian businesses over twelve years, with operating depth in local SEO, technical SEO, and the emerging discipline of Generative Engine Optimization (GEO).
Ottawa SEO Inc. publishes original Canadian-market SEO research quarterly. Subscribe to the Ottawa SEO Inc. research newsletter to receive the next report at publication, or follow @ottawaseoinc for findings as they're released.
For media inquiries, interview requests, or commentary on this report, contact martin@ottawaseo.com directly.
32,800 Canadian-business websites parsed for structured-data presence across all major Schema.org types in February 2026, with adoption rates segmented by 18 industry verticals and 6 metro tiers.
Yes — this report is released under a free-attribution license. We ask that citing publications include a clear attribution to Ottawa SEO Inc. and a working link to the report URL (https://ottawaseo.com/reports/schema-markup-adoption-canadian-industries-2026/). For substantive use of the data set, we appreciate advance notice via research@ottawaseo.com so we can support fact-checking.
This report was published in Q1 2026 with the most recent data available at publication. We refresh the underlying data set quarterly. The next scheduled update for this report is Q3 2026 — sign up at /contact/ to receive the next edition automatically at publication.
Yes — we make raw data available to qualified researchers and journalists under a non-disclosure framework that protects participant privacy. Contact research@ottawaseo.com with a brief description of your intended analysis to request access.
This research was funded entirely by Ottawa SEO Inc. as part of our quarterly research-publication program. No external sponsors, no advertiser influence, no paid placements. The methodology and findings are independent.
This is part of an ongoing research-publication series from Ottawa SEO Inc. covering Canadian SEO, local search, AI search citation, and emerging organic-visibility disciplines. Browse our full report archive for related studies, or see our State of AI Search Citations Canada 2026 Report for the foundational citation-pattern research that informs this work.