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An orange plow truck pushes snow off a street in a storm in Northampton, Massachusetts

Study · October 2026

What American snow removal websites leave out

87%of the US snow removal websites we read don't say how fast they'll replyCanada: 87%

Pick your metroSee Canada and the US side by side

The short version

We read the websites of 1,233 snow removal companies in 11 US snow markets this fall, from the Twin Cities to Boston and Denver. They leave out the same things Canadian sites do, almost to the point.

Published October 30, 2026 · Sites read October 22 to 29 · By Figured Media

  1. 87%don't say how fast they'll replyCanada 87%
  2. 75%show no price, not even a rangeCanada 74%
  3. 50%never mention insuranceCanada 51%
  4. 29%show no customer reviews on their own siteCanada 41%

Only 52 of 1,233 answer all four. In Canada it was 52 of 1,247. The good news: about 4 in 5 already have a quote form. People can reach these companies. They just aren't given a reason to pick one.

The US picture

Four questions, and how many sites get through

Before they call, a buyer wants four answers: what others say, proof you're insured, a rough price and how fast you'll reply. We took every site we read and asked each question in turn.

  1. 1,233 sites we read
  2. 871 show customer reviewsMost US sites get this one right
  3. 464 also mention insuranceHalf of the rest drop out here
  4. 158 also show a pricePrice is where most stop
  5. 52 also say how fast they replyAnswer all four

Same four questions as our Canadian study. Asked in any order, the last number is the same: 52 sites answer all four.

Pick your metro

How firms near you compare

Tap a city on the map or pick it from the list. Each number sits next to the US as a whole and Canada.

Canada Colorado Chicago NY suburbs Cleveland Twin Cities Boston Philadelphia Detroit Milwaukee Hartford Baltimore Providence Rochester Buffalo Grand Rapids Springfield Syracuse Madison Erie Denver Colorado Springs
Dot size: sites we readDarker: more sites answer one or none of the fourRing: shown with its region

Where Chicago ranks among the 12 areas

  • Overall4th of 12
  • Reply times9th of 12
  • Prices2nd of 12
  • Insurance7th of 12
  • Reviews4th of 12
  • Gallery pages1st of 12

1st means the fewest sites leave it out. Each dot is one area, best on the left.

Ice-covered rocks on the Lake Michigan shore in Chicago, the skyline far off
  • Best of 12 on gallery pages

Chicago

165 sites read

Covers Cook, DuPage, Kane, Lake, McHenry and Will counties, plus northwest Indiana.

33%have no gallery or project page, against 40% across the US and 44% in Canada

7 of 165answer all four questions

Share of sites that

  • don't say how fast they reply89% All US 87%Canada 87%
  • show no price71% All US 75%Canada 74%
  • never mention insurance49% All US 50%Canada 51%
  • show no customer reviews26% All US 29%Canada 41%
  • have no gallery or project page33% All US 40%Canada 44%

Next door: share that answer one or none of the four

  • Chicago47%
  • Milwaukee54%
  • Detroit57%

Metro by metro

Where buyers learn the least

The share of sites that answer one or none of the four questions. Denver firms say the most. Detroit firms say the least.

All US 49%Canada 55%

  1. Detroit82 sites57%
  2. Milwaukee63 sites54%
  3. Boston105 sites53%
  4. New York suburbs119 sites51%
  5. Cleveland109 sites49%
  6. Chicago165 sites47%
  7. Philadelphia96 sites47%
  8. Twin Cities106 sites43%
  9. Denver68 sites37%

Smaller markets, grouped by region

  1. Southern New EnglandHartford, New Haven, Providence and Springfield55%
  2. Upstate New York and ErieBuffalo, Rochester, Syracuse and Erie, PA49%
  3. Four smaller marketsBaltimore, Grand Rapids, Colorado Springs and Madison49%

We show a metro on its own when we read 60 or more of its sites. Metros follow local news markets, so Boston takes in Worcester County and southern New Hampshire, and Cleveland takes in Akron and Canton.

Show every metro's numbers
MetroSitesNo reply timeNo insuranceNo priceNo reviewsOne or none
Detroit8287%54%79%44%57%
Milwaukee6387%62%71%27%54%
Boston10591%51%80%31%53%
New York suburbs11990%45%82%27%51%
Cleveland10986%56%73%25%49%
Chicago16589%49%71%26%47%
Philadelphia9688%48%79%28%47%
Twin Cities10685%47%73%22%43%
Denver6884%44%62%25%37%
Southern New England11682%47%85%35%55%
Upstate New York and Erie9891%41%71%39%49%
Four smaller markets10583%58%71%28%49%
All US1,23387%50%75%29%49%

Canada and the US side by side

Cross the border and almost nothing changes

We read 1,247 Canadian snow removal sites the same way two weeks earlier. Reply times, prices and insurance land within two points of each other. Two things differ: US sites are more likely to show reviews, and fewer show an old year in the footer.

Footer year: of the sites that show one. Canada counts English and French sites. English-language Canadian sites alone come out within 5 points on every row.

Read what Canadian snow removal websites leave out

Show Canada and US numbers
CanadaUS
No reply time87% (1,088 of 1,247)87% (1,070 of 1,233)
No price74% (928 of 1,247)75% (927 of 1,233)
No mention of insurance51% (636 of 1,247)50% (614 of 1,233)
No gallery or project page44% (545 of 1,247)40% (495 of 1,233)
Answer one or none of the four55% (679 of 1,247)49% (608 of 1,233)
No customer reviews41% (510 of 1,247)29% (362 of 1,233)
Footer year 2024 or older22% (188 of 863)16% (135 of 839)
A cyclist crosses a snowy intersection at night in Minneapolis under red traffic lights

Almost every site lists a phone number. Only about 1 in 8 says when you'll hear back.

For owners

What to fix before the next storm

None of this needs a new website. Most of it is an afternoon.

  1. 01

    Say when you'll answer

    Put one line next to your form and phone number: "We reply within one business day." Then keep the promise.

  2. 02

    Say you're insured

    Say "fully insured" and name your general liability and workers' comp coverage. Property managers and HOAs often ask for a certificate of insurance, so offer it.

  3. 03

    Give a price or a range

    A per-push or seasonal price for driveways, or a range for commercial lots with what moves it up or down.

  4. 04

    Keep your reviews on the page

    Most US sites already do this. Three good ones with a first name and a town beat a link to Google.

  5. 05

    Show your own work

    40% of sites have no page like this. A page of your trucks on real lots after real storms. Phone photos are fine.

  6. 06

    Update the footer year

    Then check the phone number, the service area and this season's dates while you're in there.

Want to see how your own site does on the four questions?

Check your snow removal website for free

Our snow removal work

We build websites for snow removal companies

If you'd rather hand this off, here are three snow removal sites we designed, for residential plowing and for commercial snow and ice work.

Compare all three on our snow removal page
The Nightshift Snow Co. homepage: a pickup plows a driveway at night under the headline "You sleep. We plow."

Nightshift Snow Co.

Residential snow removal

The page opens buried in snow. A plow blade wipes it clear and the headline lands.

See the Nightshift snow removal design
The GRIT Snow & Ice homepage: blue 3D letters on black ice under the headline "Nobody slips on our watch."

GRIT Snow & Ice

Commercial snow and ice management

Four blue 3D letters skid on black ice until a salt truck passes and they finally grip.

See the GRIT snow removal design
The Wintergrade Snow & Ice homepage: a parking lot at night seen from above, under the headline "Open by 6 AM. Every storm. On record."

Wintergrade Snow & Ice

Commercial snow and ice management

A live storm on a real lot, seen from a drone at night, until the fleet rolls in and clears it.

See the Wintergrade snow removal design

How we did it

  1. The companies

    In October 2026 we built a list of 1,359 snow removal companies in 11 US snow markets, town by town, from web and map searches: Greater Boston, Chicago, Colorado's Front Range, upstate New York and Erie, Michigan, Northeast Ohio, the New York suburbs, Philadelphia and Baltimore, southern New England, the Twin Cities, and Milwaukee and Madison. It leans toward established firms with crews, trucks or commercial work. One-truck operators are mostly not on it. 1,261 of them had a website we could read.

  2. Two readers

    On October 22 and 23, our own page reader went through each site: the homepage and up to 15 more pages. It's built to skip anything it isn't sure of. On October 29 we read every site again with a second reader: the homepage plus up to 3 more pages (contact, about, reviews or snow pages). Both use the word lists from our Canadian study, plus US terms like workers' comp and general liability. We count something as there if either reader found it.

  3. What we counted

    1,233 sites, the ones both readers could open and read. We left out 6 sites whose homepage shows almost no text, and 22 that blocked us, were down or had moved by October 29. By state: Illinois 150, New York 139, Michigan 109, Ohio 109, Massachusetts 103, Minnesota 97, Colorado 91, Pennsylvania 90, Wisconsin 87, Connecticut 80, New Jersey 46, Maryland 40, Rhode Island 35, New Hampshire 25, Delaware 16, Indiana 15 and unknown 1.

  4. Metros

    A metro is the area one local news desk covers, so Boston takes in Worcester County and southern New Hampshire, Cleveland takes in Akron and Canton, and Philadelphia takes in the Lehigh Valley and Wilmington. We show a metro on its own when we read 60 or more of its sites. The rest are grouped by region.

  5. Canada

    The Canadian numbers come from our study of 1,247 Canadian snow removal websites, read on October 17 and 28 with the same two readers and the same rules. 195 of those sites are in French.

  6. Limits

    We read the words on the page. Words inside images or PDFs, and some widgets that load late, can be missed. The check also showed our readers sometimes count things that don't really count, like a dollar figure that isn't a price (a budget drop-down, an insurance claim, a sales total). So if anything, the real share of sites leaving these things out is a little higher than we report, most of all for price. Websites change all the time, and these numbers describe late October 2026. We studied bigger and mid-size firms. The smallest operators may look different.

The second check

Readers miss things. So we picked 50 sites at random and checked each one again, slowly: page by page, saving the page and the exact words behind every answer. An AI agent did this from a written brief, without seeing what the readers had said. 50 sites could be read and are among the 1,233 we counted. Where the readers and the check disagreed, we opened the page and read the words ourselves.

The rule

We only publish a number if, on the checked sites where our readers found nothing, the second check also found nothing at least 9 times out of 10.

What we countedReaders found nothingCheck agreed
Reply time4847 (98%)
Insurance2625 (96%)
Price4040 (100%)
Reviews1514 (93%)
Gallery or project page2323 (100%)
Copyright year 2024 or older66 (100%)
One or none of the four2525 (100%)

Use the numbers

The summary numbers are free to use. Please link to this page. We don't name any company, and we won't share which sites we read.

See every number by metro

Want the charts or a PDF for a story? Email us and we'll send them

Cite this study

Figured Media (2026). What American snow removal websites leave out. https://figuredmedia.com/research/us-snow-removal-websites-2026/

Photo credits

Photos by Nic McPhee, Chad Davis and Chris Isett, CC BY-SA 2.0.

Photos by katie hargrave, Erik Drost and Laura Swiecicki, CC BY 2.0.

Photos by Wyu0989, R0uge, Michael Barera and Andre Carrotflower, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Photos by Daniel Case and Sailko, CC BY-SA 3.0.

Photo by Wheeler Cowperthwaite, CC BY 4.0.

All from Wikimedia Commons. Names on vehicles and signs are blurred.