Why measure five industries in one metro rather than one industry across five cities?

Because it answers a question a single-vertical study cannot: whether these patterns are about AI search or about a particular trade. Running one instrument across dental, legal, physiotherapy, accounting and cosmetic surgery in the same seven sub-markets shows that own-site content dominates everywhere — but that how contested and how concentrated a market is varies enormously. That comparison only exists because the method was held constant.

Are the sub-markets the same in every study?

Yes — all five cover the same 7 sub-markets: Toronto (Downtown), North York, Scarborough, Mississauga, Brampton, Markham, Vaughan. That is what makes them comparable. A metro with different geography would be tested against its own sub-markets, and the counts on this page would change with it.

Can I compare these figures with another city?

Yes. The same five verticals were run against Ottawa , the Calgary region and Metro Vancouver on August 2, 2026, with the instrument unchanged — which is the point, because a comparison is only meaningful when the method did not move between measurements. Several of those studies also cross-reference their cited domains against these GTA datasets by exact domain match, and keep finding the same domains answering in two cities at once.

Do the citation totals mean the same thing in each study?

Close, but read the individual studies for the exact basis. Four of the five split citations two ways — a business's own website, or something else. Cosmetic surgery splits three ways, because a third of its citations point at Google Business Profile panels rather than websites, which no other vertical did. Each study states its own accounting.

How current are these?

All five were captured in late July 2026 and each states its own crawl date and window. AI Overviews are generated fresh per query and vary between runs, so treat any single figure as a snapshot rather than a ranking position. Structural findings — how concentrated a market is, which source types dominate — hold up far better than individual counts.

Market · Greater Toronto Area

What Google's AI Recommends Across the GTA

Five citation studies run through one instrument in one metro — dental, legal, physiotherapy, accounting and cosmetic surgery — across the same 7 sub-markets.

Holding the method constant is what makes them comparable. Own-site content dominates in every vertical, but how contested each market is varies more than we expected, and that comparison is the thing no single study could produce.

Compare the five The studies Method

5 studies7 sub-markets1126 citationsCaptured July 2026

The studies

Every study names each cited business by domain, with the full method and its limitations. No download gate.

What five markets in one metro show

Across every vertical measured, the majority of citations went to businesses' own websites — but the share swings from 57% to 87%, and market concentration varies far more than that. What you sell changes how open the answer is.

Markets measured: 5 Markets measured
Queries run: 105 Queries run
Citations captured: 1126 Citations captured
Businesses named: 437 Businesses named

What does this page cover?

Five separate citation studies of Google AI Overviews, all run across the same 7 Greater Toronto Area sub-markets between 27 and 31 July 2026, plus the comparison between them.

105 queries run with city-level location targeting
1126 citations captured and classified by hand
437 businesses named across the five leaderboards
One instrument, held constant so the verticals can be compared
Every study published in full — method, leaderboard and limitations
Google AI Overviews only, which is the surface that can be publicly re-checked

The Comparison

Five Markets, One Method

This is the only thing on this page the individual studies cannot tell you. Own-site share says how much of the answer is yours to win; concentration says whether anyone has won it yet. The two together decide whether a market is worth entering.

Market	To own websites	Businesses cited	Concentration	What it means
Dental	87%	111	76% cited once	Wide open. No incumbent to displace.
Legal	84%	87	top ten hold 30%	Consolidating, and firms outside the GTA are taking answers.
Physiotherapy	77%	66	top ten hold 43%	Own-site content dominates, but almost nobody wins more than one question.
Accounting	78%	46	top ten hold 56%	Smallest field. Five firms answer for the entire metro.
Cosmetic surgery	57%	42	top ten hold 55%	Most closed market measured, and 37% of citations are Google listings.

Cosmetic surgery's own-website share looks low because 37% of its citations point at Google Business Profile listings rather than sites — a split no other vertical showed. Read that study for the full accounting.

The Studies

5 Published Reports for This Market

Each is a full report — leaderboard naming every cited business, cross-market analysis, source breakdown, method and limitations. Nothing is held back for the download.

Study	Captured
Dental 21 patient-intent queries across seven Greater Toronto Area sub-markets. 111 dental practices named, 183 citations captured, 76% of practices cited exactly once.	July 27, 2026	Read the study
Legal 21 client-intent cost queries across seven Greater Toronto Area sub-markets and four practice areas. 87 law firms named, 241 citations captured — and the second most-cited personal injury firm is headquartered 250km away.	July 30, 2026	Read the study
Physiotherapy 21 patient-intent queries across seven Greater Toronto Area sub-markets and three patient questions. 66 clinics named, 184 citations captured, and only 3 clinics cited across all three questions.	July 31, 2026	Read the study
Accounting 21 client-intent cost queries across seven Greater Toronto Area sub-markets and three services. 46 firms named, 224 citations captured — and five firms answer for the entire metro.	July 31, 2026	Read the study
Cosmetic surgery 21 patient-intent cost queries across seven Greater Toronto Area sub-markets and three procedures. Just 42 clinic websites account for every citation, and 37% of citations point at Google listings rather than sites.	July 31, 2026	Read the study

Method

The Same Instrument, Five Times

STEP 01

Ran the same instrument in each vertical: patient- or client-intent cost queries with city-level location targeting across 7 sub-markets — Toronto (Downtown), North York, Scarborough, Mississauga, Brampton, Markham, Vaughan.
STEP 02

Captured the complete search result page for each query, including the AI Overview block, its generated text, and every source it cited.
STEP 03

De-duplicated citations per answer, so a business cited twice within a single AI Overview counts once.
STEP 04

Reviewed each cited domain by hand and classified it as a business's own website or as another source type — directory, insurer, regulator, aggregator, forum or platform.
STEP 05

Ran without personalisation, and recorded the crawl date on every study so any figure can be re-checked against the day it was captured.

The 7 Sub-Markets

Every GTA study was run against the same list: Toronto (Downtown), North York, Scarborough, Mississauga, Brampton, Markham, Vaughan.

Holding that constant is what lets the five be compared. It also means the counts on this page are specific to this metro — a city with different geography gets tested against its own sub-markets, and any figure derived from the number of them changes accordingly.

Generated answers differ by where the searcher is, which is why every study targets sub-markets individually rather than the metro as a whole. Several findings only exist because of that: a Kingston law firm appearing in six of seven areas, a Mississauga dental practice answering for five.

Questions About the GTA Studies

See Where You Sit In Your Market

These studies show the market. They do not show your position in it — whether you are cited at all, on which topics, and which competitors are named in the answers instead. That analysis is specific to your domain.

All markets · The AI Visibility Accelerator from Enginely.ai.