How the Ohio directory checks websites
CowerxBot tried to open all 4990 listed websites in a browser. It follows each site’s rules for automated visits and waits at least a second between requests. 3621 sites loaded; 1369 did not. Of these, 775 had no working website when we checked: the address failed, the server returned an error, or the site was a holding page. The other 594 sites blocked our bot or did not finish loading. We make no claims about features on sites we could not load.
Browser checks across Ohio: to .
For sites we could load, we are 95% sure the true share with tap-to-call is between 76% and 79%. This range does not cover sites we could not load.
Which businesses appear here?
We match each trade to the business category in Overture Maps or the business type named in its website code. A construction company appears under plumbers only if its name or website code also identifies it as a plumber. We leave out businesses with signs of a chain, franchise or kiosk, and businesses that appear to share an owner with another listing. These signs include shared brands and websites. We do not verify ownership. Only businesses whose homepages answered a website check and passed our name and trade checks appear here. A trade needs at least eight such businesses for its own page. The percentages include every site we could load in that county and trade, including businesses left out of the list. We count emergency mentions only when we saved the page text. A mention records words on the site; it does not verify that the business is available now.
Do sites we could not load change the numbers?
Our earlier check read website code without a browser, from Sep 25, 2026 to Sep 27, 2026. In that check, 0 of the 594 blocked or unfinished sites answered. 0% had a phone link in their code. Among 3365 sites that later loaded in a browser, 48% had a phone link in that earlier check.
The browser check found tap-to-call links on 77.9% of the sites it could load. A browser can find links the earlier code check missed. To estimate the missing results, we used sites checked both ways: we compared browser results for sites with and without a phone link in the earlier code check. We applied those two rates to blocked or unfinished sites with the same earlier result. For sites without an earlier result, we used the overall browser rate. That gives an estimated 77.9% across loaded and blocked or unfinished sites together. This assumes missing sites behave like sites with the same earlier result; it is not another measurement. Sites with no working website when we checked are left out of this estimate. Small local counts make the numbers less certain. Each trade page gives its own 95% range, which covers sampling uncertainty among loaded sites, not missing website checks.
What the site tags mean
Each listing has one check date for its site tags. These are our observations on that date. They describe what CowerxBot found on the homepage, not promises about the business. Some listed sites answered our earlier website check but did not load in the browser. Those listings have no browser feature tags.
- Site has tap-to-call
- We found a telephone link on the homepage. We did not call it.
- Site has a contact form
- We found a form with a field for entering information on the homepage. We did not send a message or test whether the form works.
- Site has a booking link
- We found a booking link on the homepage. We did not make a booking.
- Site uses https
- The homepage loaded over an encrypted connection (https). This does not prove that the business or everything on its site is safe.
- Site mentions 24-hour or emergency service
- We found words about 24-hour or emergency service in the homepage text. We did not check current availability.
- Phone number matches website
- The listed phone number also appeared in the homepage’s text or telephone links. We did not call the number.
Missing here does not mean absent elsewhere on the site. These checks do not verify current availability, response time, service quality, or ownership.