Local SEO in Quebec: Get Found by French Searchers

Local SEO in Quebec: a customer who types "plombier Mascouche" and one who types "plumber Mascouche" are running two different searches, and a business that only speaks English can only show up in one of them. I'm Marven Salgado, founder of Social Influence in Mascouche, and I run ads and local SEO for small businesses across Greater Montréal. A situation I see often is a solid business with a decent English website and an English Google Business Profile that doesn't appear when someone searches in French. Translating a few pages rarely fixes that. Each language needs pages and profile wording built around the words its own searchers type.

Local SEO in Quebec: why searching in French changes how you get found

Google matches local results to the language of the query, so a search for "plombier Mascouche" brings up French pages from businesses serving that area.

Search "plumber Mascouche" and Google looks for English pages instead. The language set on the searcher's phone can also shape what appears in Google Maps and the local pack. If your website and your Google Business Profile only use English, you're missing from the French version of the search, and a French-only business with English-speaking customers has the same gap in reverse. Some people mix both languages in a single search, which is one more reason to cover each one properly.

Covering both means French page titles, French service descriptions and a profile that answers questions the way local customers ask them. That work sits at the centre of the local SEO I do in Montréal and the towns around it.

Google Business Profile in French: categories, services and reviews

Google Business Profile in French starts with a well-chosen primary category, your services listed in French and in English, and a reply to every review in the language the reviewer used.

You have one profile, so write it in French first and add English where you also serve anglophone customers. The primary category tells Google what kind of business you are, so pick it carefully before you add services. Keep your hours and address accurate. Write the description and your posts in plain French that a customer would want to read, with no lists of keywords, and upload real photos of your storefront and your team.

Ask your customers for reviews and answer each one in their language: French for a French review, English for an English one. A reply in the reviewer's language tells the next person reading that you'll serve them in theirs.

A complete profile puts your hours, services and phone number in front of someone on Google Maps, and that's where calls from Google Maps come from. If you'd rather not manage the profile yourself, this is the Google Business Profile work I take on for owners.

Business name, address and phone consistency across directories

Business name, address and phone number need to match exactly everywhere you're listed, because Google cross-checks them, and a mismatch gives it less reason to trust your profile in local searches.

I treat this like bookkeeping: pick one exact format and use it everywhere. If your Google Business Profile says "123 Rue Principale, Mascouche, QC," don't let Yelp or Pages Jaunes say "123 Principale St." Check your listings on Bing Places, Yelp, Pages Jaunes (Yellow Pages), your chamber of commerce and your Facebook page, and correct any old address left over from a previous location. Directories update slowly and old data lingers, so I run a quick audit every few months.

AI Overviews and ChatGPT draw on the same public business information when someone asks them for a recommendation nearby, so a name or phone number that changes from one listing to the next can end up in their answers too.

French service and neighbourhood pages that match real local searches

French service and neighbourhood pages should use the words people type, such as "déneigement Repentigny" or "plombier Rivière-des-Prairies," with a page for each main service and area you cover.

People also search by region. A contractor based in Terrebonne might serve a good part of Lanaudière, and another business might cover the Rive-Nord, the Rive-Sud or the Laurentides, so use those names on the page the way locals write them. Put the city or region in the page title and headings where it reads naturally.

Write the French page in Quebec French from the start. A page translated word for word from English tends to miss the terms people here search with, and readers notice.

Accents, apostrophes and URLs in French keywords

Keep accents and apostrophes in your page titles, headings and body text, where people read them, and strip them from the URL slug. A page titled "Électricien à Repentigny" gets the slug electricien-repentigny, which avoids broken links and encoding errors in some browsers and ad platforms.

Apostrophes cause the same trouble. For words like "aujourd'hui" or place names with "l'", I swap the apostrophe for a hyphen or drop it from the slug. I never let the CMS generate these slugs without checking them first. A clean, readable URL is easier to trust, and it gives Google a plain description of the page.

FR/EN page pairs and hreflang for a bilingual Quebec audience

FR/EN page pairs give each language its own URL and its own content, linked to each other, so Google can show French searchers the French version and English searchers the English one.

Quebec's language rules push you toward French first, and customers around Montréal search in both languages, so each version needs content written for people searching in that language, with the terms and place names they use. I link the two versions near the top of each page so a visitor can switch in one click.

Then I add hreflang annotations in the head of each page. The French page lists itself and its English twin, the English page does the same, and Google uses that pairing to decide which version to show to whom. Set up this way, the pair doesn't look like duplicate content, and each page can appear in the results for its own language without competing with its twin.

Loi 96 and Loi 25: what they change on local pages, forms and tracking

Loi 96 and Loi 25 change two things on local pages: the French version has to be complete and easy to reach, and your forms and tracking have to respect visitors' consent.

Under Loi 96, a Quebec business's website needs a French version, and that version can't be an afterthought added to an English site. These are the checks I run on every local page:

1. The French version is complete, as easy to reach as the English one, and says the same thing, menus and forms included.
2. Forms ask only for the information you need, with clear consent wording that explains why you're asking.
3. Tracking tools such as GA4 or the Meta pixel are disclosed in plain French, and anything that can identify, locate or profile a visitor stays off until they agree.

I also review cookie banners and third-party scripts, since Loi 25 expects visitors to know what's being collected about them. For the rules that apply to your own business, confirm with the Office québécois de la langue française (Loi 96), the Commission d'accès à l'information (Loi 25) or a lawyer.

A local SEO checklist for a Quebec small business

A local SEO checklist for a Quebec small business covers your profile, your pages and the legal basics, in both languages. This is the one I work from:

• Write your Google Business Profile in French first, with the right primary category, services in both languages, accurate hours and real photos.
• Ask customers for reviews and reply to each one in the language it was written in.
• Use one exact format for your name, address and phone number on your website, your profile and every directory, and correct old addresses.
• Build a French page for each main service and area, with the city or region in the title and headings.
• Keep accents in titles and text, and strip them from URL slugs.
• Pair each French page with its English version, link the two, and add hreflang in both directions.
• Make sure the French version is complete, your forms ask only for what you need, and tracking waits for consent.
• Check that the site loads quickly on a phone.
• Recheck your directory listings every few months.

You don't need a big budget to start. Fix your profile, write one solid French service page and cover the Loi 96 and Loi 25 basics, then add pages as you go. None of this guarantees a spot in the local pack, but it gives Google accurate, consistent information about your business in both languages. If you'd like me to look at where your own business stands, send me a note through the contact form or ask for a quote.