AI Visibility Report
Who Google's AI Recommends for Accountants in Ottawa
A citation study of Google AI Overviews across seven Ottawa sub-markets and three services — small-business tax, personal tax preparation and monthly bookkeeping — measuring which firms AI-generated answers name and cite.
21 client-intent fee queries. 234 citations captured. Only 21 Ottawa firms cited in the entire city, and every provider domain opened individually to read the address it publishes.
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The finding in one sentence
Only 35% of citations in Ottawa's AI answers about accounting fees point to an Ottawa firm. The rest go to firms in other cities, to Reddit and the CRA, and to national tax-prep chains — the highest non-provider share of any vertical we have measured.
- Ottawa firms cited, city-wide
- 21 Ottawa firms cited, city-wide
- Citations to Ottawa firms
- 35% Citations to Ottawa firms
- Citations to non-providers
- 24% Citations to non-providers
- Citations to Google listings
- 6% Citations to Google listings
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What did this study measure?
We ran 21 client-intent fee queries through Google across seven Ottawa sub-markets — what an accountant charges for small-business taxes, what personal tax preparation costs, and what a bookkeeper costs per month — and recorded every source cited by the AI Overview each one returned.
- 20 of 21 queries returned an AI Overview; the miss was the bookkeeping question in Hunt Club
- 234 citations captured, de-duplicated so a firm cited twice in one answer counts once
- 35% pointed at Ottawa firm websites, 27% at firms headquartered elsewhere, 24% at non-providers, 8% at firms publishing no address and 6% at Google listings
- Only 21 distinct Ottawa firms were named across the entire city
- Every provider domain opened by hand and its published head-office address read from the firm's own contact page
- Single point in time — captured August 2, 2026, and generated answers vary between runs
This measures Google AI Overviews only. It does not measure ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini or Copilot, which use different retrieval systems and require separate tracking.
Four Findings
Ottawa firms are a minority in Ottawa's own answers. Of 234 citations, 82 (35%) point to a firm with a verified Ottawa address. 64 (27%) point to firms headquartered elsewhere — Mississauga, Oakville, Calgary, Regina, Winnipeg, Vancouver, even Irvine, California. A further 18 (8%) go to firms that publish no address at all.
A quarter of every answer is not a provider. 57 citations (24%) go to Reddit, the CRA, H&R Block, Quora, lead-generation marketplaces and community tax clinics. Reddit alone was cited 16 times — more than any accounting firm in the city except one. In our Ottawa dental and cosmetic surgery studies the equivalent figure was 8%.
Your Google listing does almost nothing here. Only 6% of citations were Google Business Profile panels, against 31–38% in dentistry, physiotherapy and cosmetic surgery. Accounting is decided on published content — a page that actually states what you charge — not on a listing.
Personal tax is the weakest service. Only 28% of personal-tax citations go to an Ottawa firm. H&R Block, the CRA and Reddit take the question instead. Small-business tax is the strongest at 41%, and bookkeeping sits between at 37%.
The Three Services
Three Services, Three Different Fights
Every citation in every AI Overview was classified by hand, and every provider domain was verified by opening the firm's own website and reading the published address. The result is unusually clear: each question loses ground to a different competitor.
Share of citations pointing to an Ottawa firm's own website
Small-business tax
41%- Citations
- 80
- Most cited
- bbatax.ca (7), cgatax.com (6), accountingimpots.ca (4)
The strongest service, and the only one where listings took nothing at all. 39% still goes to firms headquartered in other cities.
Bookkeeping
37%- Citations
- 67
- Most cited
- plugcpa.com (5), cgatax.com (5), hataccounting.com (4)
46% of this question goes to firms outside Ottawa — the highest out-of-market share of the three. Bookkeeping is delivered remotely, and the answers reflect that.
Personal tax
28%- Citations
- 87
- Most cited
- solidtax.ca (7), bbatax.ca (4), accountingimpots.ca (3)
The weakest. 38% goes to non-providers — H&R Block, the CRA and Reddit — and 11% to Google listings, the only service where listings feature at all.
Based on 234 citations across 20 AI Overviews, captured August 2, 2026.
Firms From Other Cities
23 Firms, 64 Citations, 27% of the Market
Each domain below was opened and its published head-office address recorded. None publishes an Ottawa head office. They are winning Ottawa fee questions from Mississauga, Oakville, Toronto, Calgary, Regina, Winnipeg, Vancouver, Sarnia, Windsor, Kitchener, Cobourg, New Liskeard, Saint-Hubert and California.
| Firm domain | Verified head office | Ottawa citations | Sub-markets | Also in our GTA study |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| maxprofinancials.ca | Calgary, AB | 7 | 7 | yes — 10 GTA citations |
| insightscpa.ca | Mississauga, ON | 7 | 5 | yes — 15 GTA citations |
| bestax.ca | Mississauga, ON | 6 | 6 | yes — 11 GTA citations |
| ontariotaxteam.ca | Oakville, ON | 6 | 6 | yes — 7 GTA citations |
| premiumbookkeeping.ca | New Liskeard, ON | 5 | 5 | yes — 6 GTA citations |
| accountingtoronto.ca | Toronto, ON | 4 | 4 | yes — 7 GTA citations |
| accountantpartners.com | Irvine, CA (USA) | 3 | 3 | yes — 2 GTA citations |
| customcpa.ca | Regina, SK | 3 | 3 | yes — 5 GTA citations |
| gondaliyacpa.ca | Toronto, ON | 3 | 3 | yes — 17 GTA citations |
| goraimpots.com | Saint-Hubert, QC | 3 | 3 | yes — 2 GTA citations |
| ontariotaxaccounting.ca | Toronto (Scarborough), ON | 3 | 3 | yes — 8 GTA citations |
| everstonecpa.com | Abbotsford, BC | 2 | 2 | no |
| fluentbook.ca | British Columbia (remote) | 2 | 2 | yes — 3 GTA citations |
| abmtax.ca | Winnipeg, MB | 1 | 1 | no |
| flowfi.com | Los Angeles, CA (USA) | 1 | 1 | no |
| genesacpa.com | Vancouver, BC | 1 | 1 | no |
| hqenterprise.ca | Cobourg, ON | 1 | 1 | no |
| mbaccountinggroup.com | USA / Europe | 1 | 1 | no |
| online-accountant.ca | Edmonton, AB | 1 | 1 | no |
| primestandard.ca | Toronto, ON | 1 | 1 | no |
| sbtax.ca | Windsor, ON | 1 | 1 | no |
| taxtown.ca | Sarnia, ON | 1 | 1 | no |
| theacctaxco.com | Kitchener, ON | 1 | 1 | yes — 4 GTA citations |
gondaliyacpa.ca publishes a list of a dozen Ontario addresses that includes an Ottawa one; the majority of the addresses on that list are residential, so we treat its Toronto head office as its location rather than counting it as a local practice.
Reported Separately
Firms That Publish No Address At All
A further 18 citations (8%) go to firms whose websites name no city and no street address. We do not classify these as local or non-local; we report them separately rather than guess.
| Firm domain | What the site publishes | Ottawa citations | Sub-markets |
|---|---|---|---|
| outsourcebookkeeping.ca | no address; 289 (Hamilton/Niagara) phone | 6 | 6 |
| evolvefinance.ca | no address; remote, Toronto + Ottawa phone lines | 5 | 5 |
| tohme-accounting.com | no address; 613 phone, markets Toronto + Ottawa | 5 | 5 |
| bomcas.ca | no address; Alberta hub implied | 1 | 1 |
| taxontime.net | no address published | 1 | 1 |
The Citation Leaderboard
Every Ottawa Firm Cited, Ranked
All 21 Ottawa accounting firms cited across the 21 queries analysed — the full list is short enough to print in its entirety, which is itself the finding. Ranked by how many generated answers cited the firm's own website. Head-office addresses were read from each firm's own site, not inferred.
Showing all 21 cited firms
| # | Firm domain | Sub-market | Citations | Sub-mkts | Services won | Missing services |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | cgatax.com | Ottawa — 1419 Carling Ave (+ Kemptville) | 12 | 7 | Bookkeeping, Personal tax, Small-business tax | — |
| 2 | bbatax.ca | Ottawa — 307C Richmond Rd | 11 | 7 | Personal tax, Small-business tax | Bookkeeping |
| 3 | solidtax.ca | Ottawa — 1390 Prince of Wales Dr | 8 | 7 | Personal tax, Small-business tax | Bookkeeping |
| 4 | accountingimpots.ca | Ottawa — no street address published | 7 | 5 | Personal tax, Small-business tax | Bookkeeping |
| 5 | plugcpa.com | Ottawa — 78 George St (+ Toronto) | 5 | 5 | Bookkeeping | Small-business tax, Personal tax |
| 6 | ovapc.ca | Ottawa Valley — no street address published | 5 | 3 | Personal tax, Small-business tax | Bookkeeping |
| 7 | hataccounting.com | Ottawa (Kanata) — 300 March Rd | 4 | 4 | Bookkeeping | Small-business tax, Personal tax |
| 8 | numetricacity.ca | Ottawa — 436 Gilmour St | 4 | 4 | Bookkeeping, Personal tax, Small-business tax | — |
| 9 | boyer-boyer.com | Ottawa — 1 Rothwell Dr | 3 | 3 | Small-business tax | Personal tax, Bookkeeping |
| 10 | ottawabookkeeping.ca | Ottawa — no street address published | 3 | 3 | Bookkeeping | Small-business tax, Personal tax |
| 11 | sopabookkeeping.com | Ottawa — 1889 Baseline Rd | 3 | 3 | Bookkeeping | Small-business tax, Personal tax |
| 12 | zenbooks.ca | Ottawa — 78 George St | 3 | 3 | Bookkeeping | Small-business tax, Personal tax |
| 13 | nourdan.com | Ottawa (Orléans) — 422 Sultan St | 3 | 2 | Personal tax, Small-business tax | Bookkeeping |
| 14 | beckltd.com | Ottawa (Manotick) — 1143 Clapp Lane | 2 | 2 | Small-business tax | Personal tax, Bookkeeping |
| 15 | huntclubtax.ca | Ottawa — 1183 Hunt Club Rd | 2 | 1 | Personal tax, Small-business tax | Bookkeeping |
| 16 | kanatatax.ca | Ottawa (Carp/Kanata) — 110 Westhunt Dr | 2 | 1 | Personal tax, Small-business tax | Bookkeeping |
| 17 | barrhaventax.com | Ottawa (Nepean) — 16 Kinetic Way | 1 | 1 | Small-business tax | Personal tax, Bookkeeping |
| 18 | bcg-financial.com | Ottawa — 302 Waverley St | 1 | 1 | Personal tax | Small-business tax, Bookkeeping |
| 19 | canadianpayrollandtaxservices.com | Ottawa — 1910 St. Laurent Blvd | 1 | 1 | Personal tax | Small-business tax, Bookkeeping |
| 20 | envolta.ca | Ottawa — 1183 Hunt Club Rd (now redirects to Peterborough parent) | 1 | 1 | Small-business tax | Personal tax, Bookkeeping |
| 21 | smithandwestcpa.com | Ottawa — 460 West Hunt Club Rd | 1 | 1 | Small-business tax | Personal tax, Bookkeeping |
Bar length is scaled to the highest citation count in the study. Repeat citations of the same domain within a single answer are counted once. envolta.ca now redirects to a Peterborough-headquartered parent while its Ottawa location page remains live; it is counted as Ottawa on the strength of that address. Captured August 2, 2026.
Found your firm in that table — or didn't?
Either way, this report shows the market rather than what to do about it. The AI Visibility Accelerator is the fixed-price programme that acts on these findings: 13 weeks, a published price, and the same 21 queries re-measured three times afterwards.
The Same Firms, Two Cities
17 Domains Appear in Both Ottawa and Toronto
In July 2026 we ran this identical method across seven Greater Toronto Area sub-markets. These 17 domains appear in both datasets — the same firms answering fee questions in two cities 450 km apart. The traffic runs both ways: bbatax.ca is an Ottawa firm at 307C Richmond Road, and it is a cited source across five Greater Toronto Area sub-markets.
| Firm domain | Ottawa citations | GTA citations | Verified head office |
|---|---|---|---|
| insightscpa.ca | 7 | 15 | Mississauga, ON |
| gondaliyacpa.ca | 3 | 17 | Toronto, ON |
| bbatax.ca | 11 | 6 | Ottawa — 307C Richmond Rd |
| maxprofinancials.ca | 7 | 10 | Calgary, AB |
| bestax.ca | 6 | 11 | Mississauga, ON |
| ontariotaxteam.ca | 6 | 7 | Oakville, ON |
| outsourcebookkeeping.ca | 6 | 7 | No address; 289 (Hamilton/Niagara) phone |
| premiumbookkeeping.ca | 5 | 6 | New Liskeard, ON |
| accountingtoronto.ca | 4 | 7 | Toronto, ON |
| ontariotaxaccounting.ca | 3 | 8 | Toronto (Scarborough), ON |
| tohme-accounting.com | 5 | 4 | No address; 613 phone, markets Toronto and Ottawa |
| customcpa.ca | 3 | 5 | Regina, SK |
| accountantpartners.com | 3 | 2 | Irvine, CA (USA) |
| goraimpots.com | 3 | 2 | Saint-Hubert, QC |
| fluentbook.ca | 2 | 3 | British Columbia (remote) |
| bomcas.ca | 1 | 10 | No address; Alberta hub implied |
| theacctaxco.com | 1 | 4 | Kitchener, ON |
An Ottawa practice with the right published content is already taking Toronto's answers. Nothing about geography prevents it; the constraint is content.
Sub-Market Detail
Out-of-Market Firms Are Present Everywhere
In Kanata and Barrhaven, firms from other cities are cited more often than Ottawa firms. Nepean and Vanier are the only sub-markets where local firms hold a clear lead.
| Sub-market | AI Overviews | Ottawa firm citations | Out-of-market citations | Distinct Ottawa firms |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ottawa (Central) | 3/3 | 12 | 10 | 9 |
| Kanata | 3/3 | 11 | 12 | 8 |
| Nepean | 3/3 | 14 | 7 | 12 |
| Orléans | 3/3 | 10 | 10 | 9 |
| Barrhaven | 3/3 | 10 | 12 | 8 |
| Vanier | 3/3 | 14 | 8 | 10 |
| Hunt Club | 2/3 | 11 | 5 | 9 |
Where Else the Citations Go
Reddit Is the Most-Cited Source in the Study
57 citations (24%) went to something that is not an accounting firm. Where no firm has published a usable fee range, Google quotes the public discussion of one instead.
| Source | What it is | Citations |
|---|---|---|
| reddit.com | Community forum | 16 |
| hrblock.ca | National tax-prep chain | 8 |
| canada.ca | Government (CRA) | 7 |
| en.bankeo.ca | Lead-generation marketplace | 5 |
| quora.com | Q&A forum | 4 |
| ca.indeed.com | Salary / job aggregator | 2 |
| bark.com | Lead-generation marketplace | 2 |
| olympiabenefits.com | Benefits provider | 2 |
| facebook.com | Social platform | 2 |
| quickbooks.intuit.com | Accounting software | 1 |
| centre-ebo.com | Non-profit tax clinic | 1 |
| hrblock.com.au | National tax-prep chain (Australia) | 1 |
| nrocrc.org | Community resource centre | 1 |
| hrblock.com | National tax-prep chain (US) | 1 |
| crcoc.ca | Community resource centre | 1 |
| cscvanier.com | Community service centre | 1 |
| libertytax.ca | National tax-prep chain | 1 |
| 211north.ca | Information and referral service | 1 |
Method
Proof, Not Promises
- STEP 01
Ran 21 client-intent fee queries through Google with city-level location targeting across seven Ottawa sub-markets: Ottawa Central, Kanata, Nepean, Orléans, Barrhaven, Vanier and Hunt Club.
- STEP 02
Tested each sub-market with the same three questions — small-business tax, personal tax preparation and monthly bookkeeping, so every area was asked identical questions.
- STEP 03
Captured the complete search result page for each query, including the AI Overview block, its generated text, and every source it cited.
- STEP 04
De-duplicated citations per answer, so a firm cited twice within a single AI Overview counts once.
- STEP 05
Opened every provider domain individually and read its published head-office address from the firm's own contact page. Firms with a verified Ottawa address are counted as local; firms with a verified address elsewhere are counted as out-of-market and that city is named; firms publishing no address are reported in a third group rather than guessed at.
- STEP 06
Counted government, forums, national tax-prep chains, software vendors, salary aggregators, lead-generation marketplaces and non-profit tax clinics as non-provider sources, and Google Business Profile panels separately.
- STEP 07
Crawled on August 2, 2026 without personalisation, and recorded the crawl window so any figure can be re-checked against the day it was captured.
Limitations
This is a single-point-in-time snapshot. AI Overviews are generated fresh per query and vary between runs, so exact citation lists will differ if re-run; trends require repeated sampling. Firm identification is by website domain, and where a group operates several sites each is counted separately unless the study states a merge.
One of the 21 queries — the bookkeeping question in Hunt Club — returned no AI Overview and contributes no citations. Only fee-intent questions were tested; audit, advisory, incorporation and cross-border queries may behave differently. One domain, envolta.ca, now redirects to a Peterborough-headquartered parent while its Ottawa location page remains live; it is counted as Ottawa on the strength of that address.
AI Overviews reach the largest audience of any AI answer surface — no login, no app, shown to anyone searching Google — so this is the widest-reach measurement available. It is not the whole picture, and a business performing well here may perform differently elsewhere. Every figure comes from search results captured on the date stated and can be independently checked by running the same queries yourself.
Where Your Firm Sits
This report shows the market. It does not show your position in it — whether you are cited at all, on which services, and which competitor is being quoted in your place. That analysis is specific to your firm, and we produce it individually.
Accounting is, on this evidence, the most winnable of the five Ottawa verticals we have measured. Only 21 firms in the entire city are cited. Almost two thirds of the market is being answered by someone who is not an Ottawa firm. And the mechanism is unusually plain: 6% of citations are listings, so this is not won with review counts or map pins — it is won by publishing the fee answer that Google is currently taking from Reddit.
The work that follows from this report is a fixed-price engagement: the AI Visibility Accelerator. Thirteen weeks, a published price, and three separate measurements against these same queries after publication.
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This report is provided for information. Firm and business names appear because they were cited in publicly generated search results on the date stated; inclusion or absence is not an assessment of professional competence, service quality or standing. Nothing here is tax, accounting, legal or financial advice. Head-office locations were read from each firm’s own published website on August 2, 2026 and may change. Figures describe what Google’s systems returned on August 2, 2026 and may change.
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