byImprint

The town edition · August 2026

The State of the Squamish Surface

How Squamish looks to the customers trying to find it. This summer I checked every open business in town, one by one, in a normal browser. I live here. No business is named on this page.

Squamish shows up for its businesses.

125,298
public Google reviews across town. People here talk about what they find.
Imprint town read, August 2026
4.69
the average rating. Squamish mostly loves its businesses.
Imprint town read, August 2026
568
businesses reviewed so far this year. The conversation is current.
Imprint town read, August 2026
18%
cannot be booked, ordered from, or reached the way their own pages promise.
Imprint town read, August 2026

The town is better than its websites.

How the read was done

One by one, in a normal browser, the way a customer arrives.

In August 2026 I checked every business in Squamish I could find: 889 discovered, 12 closed or gone, 877 open. 716 of them were read in a real browser, on a desktop and on a phone, doing what a customer does: find it, open it, read it, tap call, tap book.

Anything that failed was checked again later before it counted. When a shared platform had a bad day, I tested other sites on the same platform first, so nobody gets blamed for their software. Nothing counted that cannot be reproduced.

The rules this page keeps

No business is named. Not the strong ones, not the broken ones. Aggregate numbers only, always.

Every figure is reproducible. Each one traces to the read's records, available on request.

I live here. This is my town reading its own reflection, not a survey done from somewhere else.

The whole town, one screen

Every dot is a business. No dot has a name.

Source: Imprint town read, August 2026. Every figure reproducible on request.

One summer, 877 businesses, every front door tried.

Exhibit A

Where the customer path breaks

Of 877 open Squamish businesses: 122 have no real website at all; 160 have a website that is dead, or where booking and contact paths are broken; 51 break on a phone; 56 show phone numbers that conflict or misdial; and 17 have a domain that is expired, parked, or unreachable.

No real website at all122
Website dead, or booking and contact paths broken160
Breaks on a phone51
Phone numbers that conflict or misdial56
Domains expired, parked, or unreachable17

Counts of open Squamish businesses, categories overlapping. Source: Imprint town read, 716 browser audits, August 2026. Every figure reproducible from the read's records on request.

Exhibit B

What 716 real-browser audits came back with

Of 716 real-browser audits: 399 came back clear, the path works; 61 were severity 3, worth an hour; 68 were severity 4, losing real customers; and 44 were severity 5, the door is closed. A further 96 audits confirmed no real website, and 48 recorded a status without a severity verdict.

Clear: the path works399
Severity 3: worth an hour61
Severity 4: losing real customers68
Severity 5: the door is closed44

Audited open businesses; a further 96 audits confirmed no real website to audit, and 48 recorded a status without a severity verdict. Source: Imprint town read, August 2026.

The severe end is not cosmetic. Across town there are phone links that dial a Manhattan office tower, menus that open onto gambling portals, booking buttons that lead nowhere, and domains that expired while the shop stayed busy. Every one of them is invisible from behind the counter, because the owner never has to find the business the way a customer does: from outside.

No sector is immune.

Exhibit C

Severity 4 and 5, by category

By category, severity 4 and 5 findings among open businesses: Electrician 4 of 14; Day care center 3 of 11; Naturopathic practitioner 3 of 12; House cleaning service 2 of 10; Restaurant 2 of 18; Coffee shop 1 of 10; Construction company 1 of 11; Gym 1 of 11; Auto repair shop 1 of 12; Massage therapist 1 of 20; Real estate agency 0 of 18; Plumber 0 of 12; Real estate agent 0 of 11; Website designer 0 of 10.

Electrician4 of 14
Day care center3 of 11
Naturopathic practitioner3 of 12
House cleaning service2 of 10
Restaurant2 of 18
Coffee shop1 of 10
Construction company1 of 11
Gym1 of 11
Auto repair shop1 of 12
Massage therapist1 of 20
Real estate agency0 of 18
Plumber0 of 12
Real estate agent0 of 11
Website designer0 of 10

Every dot is one open business in the category; a filled dot carries a severity 4 or 5 finding. Counts, not percentages: the samples are small and honest about it. Source: Imprint town read, August 2026.

Talking back

Customers keep writing. Most of the town never writes back.

393
businesses hold thirty or more public reviews.
Imprint town read, August 2026
216
of those have never replied to a single one.
Imprint town read, August 2026
60%
of businesses with review activity have never answered a review.
Imprint town read, August 2026
114
Google profiles sit unclaimed, wide open to anyone who claims them.
Imprint town read, August 2026

Half the town runs clean.

399 audited businesses came back clear: found, loaded, readable, bookable on the first tap.

One phone number everywhere. The same number on the website, on Google, and on the door.

A site that opens on a phone in seconds. No dead plugin, no giant image nobody waited for.

A booking or contact path that works on the first tap. The button someone taps actually goes somewhere.

A claimed Google profile someone tends. Someone owns it, and answers what shows up there.

Replies to reviews, even short ones. A line is enough. Silence reads as nobody home.

None of this is marketing. It is the shop being swept.

Most of what is broken in Squamish is not a marketing problem. It is maintenance: a lapsed domain, a disconnected platform, a link nobody tapped after the rebuild.

I read public surfaces for a living, and I live here. This page is what the town looks like from the sidewalk, published so the town can see it too. The read repeats; the numbers will change; the rule about names never will.

If a field note reached you

The note is real, and it stops with you.

A field note names one thing between you and your customers that was visibly broken the morning the note was handed over, and the smallest way to fix it. It comes from the same read as every number on this page.

How it works

The note is free, and it stops there. One finding, one fix, recorded in 24 seconds. No list, no follow-ups, nothing published about your business.

If you want more, that part is paid. It starts with a one-page plan, priced. Then the full read: everything a customer can see of your business, with every fix in order.

And if you want it off your plate, I do the big fixes myself.

The next step

Text me your name and your business, and I will come back to you myself. That is the whole ask.

James Hutchings, Imprint, Squamish, BC. No mailing list, no sequence. One conversation, if you want one.