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The Philadelphia Front Door Index: 339 Businesses, Seven Professions
We scored 339 independent Philadelphia businesses in seven professions on what a new customer can see online. No profession averages even half marks, and almost none explains the first visit.
We checked what a new customer can see online for 339 independent Philadelphia businesses in seven professions, from salons and plumbers to eye doctors and pediatricians, and found the same pattern almost everywhere: businesses have paid to be found and booked, and very few have built anything to explain the first visit or bring a customer back.
At a glance
- 339 independent businesses, seven professions, one city. In October 2026 osNOVA scored hair salons, HVAC contractors, plumbers, optometrists, dermatologists, pediatric practices and physical therapy clinics on the same nine parts of their front door, using only what any customer can see.
- No profession averages even half marks. Average scores run from 2.0 of 9 for plumbers to 3.8 for salons, and not one of the 242 working websites scored above 7.
- Between a fifth and a third of businesses have no working website of their own, rising to 38% among pediatric practices, where 10 of 15 independent offices have none at all.
- Almost no one explains the first visit. Outside salons, at most one site in five tells a new customer what to expect and what the cancellation policy is; among optometrists and dermatologists the figure is zero.
- Each profession is strong where its industry sells software and weak where it would take a paragraph. Eye doctors and dermatologists let patients book online about 70% of the time but almost never post a price, while plumbers advertise 24-hour service on two-thirds of their sites and show a price on 11%.
How the professions compare
Salons lead and plumbers trail, but the spread is narrow: every profession sits below half marks, and the best site in the whole study scored 7 of 9.
Read across a row and each profession has a signature strength: salons post prices, eye and skin doctors book online, HVAC contractors sell maintenance plans and pediatric practices offer patient portals. Read down the first-visit column and nearly every profession goes pale.
Many of these businesses are well reviewed; two HVAC firms with more than 100 Google reviews each send searchers to dead web addresses, and most independent pediatricians appear only in hospital directories that make them look like part of a larger system.
What every profession gets wrong
The first visit is a mystery. The item that asks whether a site explains what happens at a first visit and states its cancellation or arrival policy scored 0% among optometrists and dermatologists, 3% among plumbers, 5% among HVAC contractors and 6% among physical therapists. Salons (32%) and pediatric practices (20%) did better, largely because their booking apps and patient forms carry a policy by default. A single paragraph closes this gap, and it sits at the moment research says matters most: when a new customer decides whether the risk of trying someone unfamiliar is worth it.
The return visit is left to chance in the professions that depend on it most. Optometry runs on the annual exam and dermatology on the yearly skin check, yet 1 of 37 optometry sites and 1 of 13 dermatology sites mention any recall, membership or loyalty program. HVAC is the exception: 51% of contractors sell a maintenance plan, often with a published price, because the industry has turned the tune-up into a subscription.
Prices hide where customers fear them most. Salons post prices on 78% of sites. Trades and health practices, where customers are most anxious about cost, mostly do not: 11% of plumbers, 12% of physical therapy clinics, 8% of dermatologists and 7% of pediatric practices show any price at all. The optometrists who do post a self-pay exam price range from $49 to $145 within the same city, which shows how much a single number can help a patient compare.
Google and the website disagree. Hours on the website match the Google profile for fewer than half of businesses in every profession we could check except optometry (68%), and several auditors found phone numbers that differ between the site and Google, often call-tracking numbers that a customer cannot tell from a mistake.
Read down the first-visit column and nearly every profession goes pale.
Profession by profession
Hair salons (99 verified, 68 working sites)
The strongest front doors in the study, with prices (78%) and online booking (72%) common, and the weakest finish: only 19% give clients a reason to come back. The full report is What 100 Philadelphia Salon Websites Reveal About Winning and Keeping Clients.
HVAC contractors (55 verified, 39 working sites)
Every working site has a tap-to-call number, 72% explain financing and 51% sell a maintenance plan, yet only 31% have a scheduler that loads and 5% explain what a first visit costs and how it works. Membership prices are public while the service-call fee, the first number a new customer actually pays, usually is not. Two highly rated firms, with 122 and 177 Google reviews, send searchers to dead web addresses.
Bright spots: a page listing typical price ranges for every common job, from a $150 diagnostic minimum to a mini-split installation; a written promise that the quote is the total, with no overtime or after-hours fees; a service-request form that accepts a photo or short video of the problem; an exact after-hours window (Monday to Saturday, 6 to 11 pm) instead of a vague "24/7."
Plumbers (46 verified, 36 working sites)
The lowest average score in the study, 2.0 of 9. Two-thirds advertise emergency service and 89% list a service area, but only 11% show a price, 19% let a customer request a time online and 31% print a license or registration number, even though nearly every site calls itself licensed and insured. About 14 sites use "Book now" language, while only 5 have a scheduler that works; the rest send the button to the phone, a contact form or nowhere.
Bright spots: flat online prices with a bookable slot (drain cleaning $100 for an hour); four published price tiers explaining what each covers; a plumbing-only membership with no overtime rates for members; an on-time guarantee that waives the service fee when the technician is late; "Text a Plumber" buttons that let a customer send a photo of the problem.
Optometry (48 verified, 37 working sites)
The best-kept basics: 68% of sites have hours that match Google and 70% let patients book or request a time online. The gaps are elsewhere, since none explains a first visit together with a cancellation policy, 22% show any price and only one site offers a membership or recall program in a business built on the annual exam. One vendor's template runs ten of the 37 sites, spreading the same leftover placeholders across practices.
Bright spots: an insurance page that promises to check benefits before the visit so patients "know your number before you walk in"; self-pay exam prices posted by five practices; separate booking calendars for a routine exam and a dilation visit; a first-visit page that warns patients they may be dilated and should bring sunglasses and a driver.
Dermatology (21 verified, 13 working sites; small sample)
Most of the city's dermatologists now work inside hospital systems or regional groups, so few independents remain. Those that do have invested in booking (69% have a working scheduler) and patient portals (77%), yet none explains a first visit together with a policy, one posts a price and every site checked had at least one visible error.
Bright spots: a homepage that leads with "Skip the 6-month wait" and a button to see today's openings; a booking page that states same-day availability and a $50 no-show fee beside the button; a loyalty program that rewards patients for arriving on time; photo-based consults with a plan by the next day.
Pediatric practices (26 verified, 15 working sites; small sample)
Independent pediatricians are scarce, and 10 of the 15 we verified have no website of their own, appearing only in hospital directories or on booking marketplaces. No site offers texting or chat, no independent site lets a new family book a first visit online and one scheduler we tested reported "No Locations Found." Hours could not be compared with Google for this group.
Bright spots: after-hours calls answered by a physician with a promised 15-minute callback for emergencies; an "Early Access" link that lets parents book a sick visit at night; a well-child page listing every checkup age from newborn to 19; a health center that posts its uninsured visit fee by income.
Physical therapy (44 verified, 34 working sites)
Chains dominate search results, and the independents that remain split along payment lines: nine of the ten working schedulers belong to cash-pay or out-of-network clinics, while insurance-based clinics stop at "call us." Three in four sites post no hours or hours that disagree with Google, and only 12% show a price, including most of the clinics whose pitch is avoiding insurance.
Bright spots: exact cash prices for an evaluation and follow-up, in clinic and at home; an FAQ that explains Pennsylvania's direct-access rule precisely (no prescription needed for up to 30 days); a first-visit page giving the evaluation length, arrival time and a 36-hour cancellation policy; supervised exercise memberships for patients after discharge.
Fix it this week, whatever you do
About this research
On October 12 and 13, 2026, osNOVA reviewed independent and locally owned businesses in seven professions within Philadelphia city limits, excluding chains, franchises and hospital or university systems. We checked only public information (websites, Google profiles and the first screen of booking pages) with no calls, form submissions or bookings. Businesses were found through Google Maps and web searches across more than a dozen neighborhoods per profession. Working websites were scored on nine items; samples for dermatology (21) and pediatrics (26) are small because few independents remain, and pediatric hours could not be checked. The fact checks for broken elements used different thresholds across professions, so those rates are reported within each profession rather than compared. Because the samples favor businesses that rank well in search, the true share with these gaps is likely higher.
Sources
- osNOVA Front Door Audit, Philadelphia, October 2026 (salons, HVAC, plumbing, optometry, dermatology, pediatrics, physical therapy).
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