Study — June 2026
The state of Greater Montréal SMB websites
I analysed 2,563 businesses across six sectors and six cities. The problem is not only missing sites: it is the speed of the ones that exist.
In June 2026 I extracted 2,948 business listings from Greater Montréal, then kept the 2,563 that belonged to the six sectors published here. 433 had no website, or only a social page.
Of the 2,130 remaining sites, the median mobile performance score was 60 out of 100, and 24% scored under 50. The most common platform was WordPress, with 847 sites.
The figures below are aggregates. No business is named. The method and limits are at the bottom of the page, because a study without a method is a sales argument.
2,563
listings analysed
17%
with no site
60
median mobile score
24%
of sites under 50
The six sectors, in numbers
“No site” means no website or only a social profile. Platform percentages are calculated on existing sites.
| Sector | Listings | No site | WordPress | Wix / SQSP / GoDaddy | Mobile | < 50 | Analytics |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Restaurants | 471 | 90 (19%) | 129 / 381 | 75 | 61 | 21% | 43% |
| Beauty and tattoo | 500 | 114 (23%) | 116 / 386 | 94 | 59 | 28% | 46% |
| Health clinics | 344 | 46 (13%) | 140 / 298 | 52 | 58 | 27% | 63% |
| Professional firms | 306 | 75 (25%) | 108 / 231 | 37 | 64 | 17% | 59% |
| Rental property | 251 | 33 (13%) | 96 / 218 | 26 | 55 | 38% | 60% |
| Contractors and trades | 691 | 75 (11%) | 258 / 616 | 97 | 62 | 19% | 57% |
| Total | 2,563 | 433 (17%) | 847 / 2,130 | 381 | 60 | 24% | 53% |
Median mobile score, by sector
PageSpeed Insights mobile score, 0 to 100. One run per homepage.
Share of sites under 50, by sector
Scale from 0 to 40%.
What the numbers say
One business in six has no site yet
433 of 2,563 businesses had no website, or only a social page. For a business without a site, the Google listing does the work until a competitor has one.
The real gap is speed
The median mobile score is 60 out of 100, and 24% of sites score under 50. A score under 50 signals a slow page on a phone; it is not a ranking grade, it is a symptom. A page that takes four seconds to appear loses the person before they call.
Rental property is the slowest sector
A median score of 55, and 38% of sites under 50. Renters search in the evening, on their phone. A slow availability page turns a visit into a bounce.
WordPress dominates, and that is not the problem
847 of 2,130 sites (40%) run WordPress. The platform can do the job well. The problem is the same as everywhere else: a site installed and then left without updates.
Half the sites can measure their traffic
53% of sites carry an analytics tag. The tag does not say whether anyone reads the numbers; it only says the site could answer the question “where do the enquiries come from?”.
What it means for your business
- Measure load time on a phone, not on your laptop.
- Look at the form conversion rate, not just the number of visits.
- If you run WordPress, check updates and plugins before redesigning anything.
- If you have no site, a simple fast page beats a social profile on its own.
- If you pay a monthly plan, ask what gets updated, and how often.
Method
Listings were extracted on 8 June 2026 with Google Places API (New), using each sector’s French queries in six cities: Montréal, Laval, Longueuil, Brossard, Repentigny and Pointe-Claire. 2,948 listings were extracted; 2,563 belong to the six published sectors. Other verticals, including fitness, auto repair and pest control, are not in this study.
Speed is the Google PageSpeed Insights mobile performance score, one run per homepage. A score was obtained for 2,030 of the 2,130 sites; the rest were unreachable or returned no score. Platform is detected in the HTML (generator tags, asset hosts). “No site” means no website or only a social profile. Analytics tags include Google Analytics, Tag Manager, Meta pixel, Plausible and Umami.
Limits
- One run per site, in June 2026: scores change with time, hosting and updates.
- Platform detection misses hand-built sites and installs without a signature. The “unknown” category is therefore common.
- Aggregates say nothing about one particular business. They show a sector trend, not a verdict on a site.
- No business is named. Raw data is not published because it contains names and addresses.
Study by Molveau Studio. Published 22 October 2026.
The sector guides
Each sector has its guide: what matters on a restaurant, clinic, salon or contractor site.
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