The Clark County Web Census | Impact Marketing KY

Clark County · a running count The Clark County Web Census.

One trade at a time, I check every locally-run business in the county the way a customer would: does the website Google hands them work, are the hours right, can they tap the phone number. The numbers go here, the method is written down, and nobody gets named.

Why a marketing company would count this

Because every round is a list of neighbors quietly losing customers to a dead link, and because I'd rather publish a real number than a slogan. The census is the same check I run in a free Blueprint Session, done for a whole trade at once, with the method written down so anybody can repeat it.

What I find becomes the pages on this site and the posts on my Facebook page. What I don't do is name anybody.

3D rendering for the Clark County Web Census: a lens over a grid of local storefronts

Round 1: Restaurants, cafés and food spots

August 2026 · 38 locally-run businesses checked.

19 of 38 (exactly half) have no working website: 13 have none I could find, 6 have a site that's dead, broken, or lapsed into a domain-parking ad page.
Two of those domains are serving ad-network parking scripts right now; the domain lapsed and somebody else is monetizing the traffic.
Of the 19 sites that load, 10 are missing their hours or contradict the listing sites, including 3 with flat-out conflicting hours between the restaurant's own page and major listing sites, checked the same day.
Of the 19 that load, 10 fail the 3-second phone test: 5 show a number you can't tap, 5 have no number on the page at all.
One website has a 'BUSINESS HOURS' heading with nothing under it. One coffee shop's domain no longer exists, and Google still hands it out as their website.

Read the round-1 write-up →

The Clark County Web Census method

Public sources only: Google, Maps, the major listing sites, and the business's own website if it loads. I don't log into anything and I don't call anybody. A site counts as working if it loads over a secure connection and shows the business.

Hours count as contradicting if the business's own page and a major listing site show different hours on the same day. The phone test is the one every site I build has to pass: is the number on the page, and is it a button. Where a source blocked me or only Facebook had the answer, I counted it as unverifiable, not as wrong.

Rounds to come

Contractors and home services next, then retail and shops, then personal services: salons, clinics, gyms. One round every month or two. Each gets its own numbers here and its own write-up on the blog.

Questions I actually get asked.

Do you name the businesses?

No, and I won't. This isn't about embarrassing neighbors. It's about what a customer runs into at 7 o'clock on a Friday night when the link Google hands them is dead. If you want to know whether your place is one of them, ask me and I'll tell you privately.

How do you check?

Public sources only, the same way a customer would find you: Google, Maps, the listing sites, your own website if it loads. I don't log into anything. Where a source blocked me or only Facebook had the answer, I counted it as unverifiable, not as wrong.

What's next?

Contractors and home services, then retail and shops, then personal services. One round every month or two, each with its own post and its own numbers here.

Why do this at all?

Because every round is a list of neighbors quietly losing customers to a dead link, and because it's the honest version of a marketing company's content: a real count, done the same way every time, with the method written down.

Want to know if your business is one of them?

Book the free Blueprint Session. No pitch, no charge. I'll look at your site, your Google listing and what your competitors are doing, and tell you plainly what I'd fix first. If you can do it yourself, I'll show you how, and if you don't need me yet, I'll say so.

Request Blueprint Session

Or just ask. Text me your business name and I'll look it up free, the same way I checked the others. No appointment, and I won't blow up your phone after.