Getting found across the 19 boroughs: bilingual local search

Start with a realistic service area

The short answer: your service area should match the areas where you are profitable, not the whole island. An area that is too broad weakens your relevance and exposes you to enquiries you will turn down.

To define it, look at your last 12 months of customers and plot them on a map. You will often see a core of three to six boroughs where most sales are concentrated. Add the neighbouring areas you can reach without crossing the island at rush hour.

A profitability calculation by area

Suppose a home service earns $350 of margin per visit. If a trip to a distant area adds an hour of technician time paid at $45 and $20 in vehicle and parking costs, the margin falls to $285. If that area also takes more quoting time, it can become marginal. Run this calculation for your main areas; it decides your service area better than any hunch.

Our Coverage page describes the 19 boroughs and the agglomeration's municipalities, and what each one can change for your marketing.

The Google Business Profile, French first

The Google listing is often the first impression you make, even before your website. In Montréal, it should be written in French first.

Points to check:

1. The name. Your real name, as it appears on your sign and documents, with no added keywords. A reminder: according to the OQLF, a business name must include a French generic term; see our guide on the Charter and your marketing.
2. The primary category. The one that best describes your main activity, then a few relevant secondary categories.
3. Services. The complete list, with a short French description for each.
4. The description. What you do, for whom and where, in a few natural sentences.
5. The service area. The areas defined in the previous step.
6. Photos. Your real teams, your real projects, your real storefront. Stock photos don't help.
7. Hours. Accurate, including public holidays.

Precise service pages, in both languages

One page per important service, in French and English, does more for your visibility than a home page that lists everything. Each page should answer the questions a customer asks before calling:

• What does the service include, and what doesn't it include?
• For what type of customer or building?
• How long does it take?
• What is the price range, if you can publish it?
• How do I reach you?

Linking the French and English versions properly

Every French page should have an English equivalent with the same level of detail, and the two should be linked with hreflang markup. That markup tells Google they are the same page in two languages, so it shows the right version to the right visitor. Without it, your two versions can compete with each other. Our French-first website service includes this work.

Area pages: helpful or harmful

Area pages are helpful when they describe a concrete reality, and harmful when they repeat the same text with a different neighbourhood name. Google treats such repetitive pages as doorway pages, and they can hurt the whole site.

A good area page contains at least one of these:

• projects actually completed in the area, with photos;
• characteristics of the buildings or customers that change how you work;
• practical constraints: parking, access, hours;
• questions specific to customers in that area.

If you can't write anything like that for a borough, don't create the page. Mention it in your service area and on a single coverage page instead.

Reviews: consistency and replies

Reviews affect both your visibility and the customer's decision. What matters is their consistency, their content and your replies.

A simple routine:

1. After each job, send a short message, in French or English depending on the customer, with the link to your listing.
2. Ask the customer to mention the service they received, without dictating what to write.
3. Reply to every review, in the language of the review, in a few sentences.
4. For a negative review, reply calmly, acknowledge the problem if it is real and offer to continue offline.

Never buy reviews and never write them for your customers. It goes against Google's rules and against the trust you want to build.

Measure what matters

Measure what turns into customers, not what flatters. The most useful indicators:

Compare each month with the same period the year before, since many Montréal sectors are seasonal.

The mistakes that cost the most

• A fake address to look present in an area: risk of the listing being suspended.
• Keywords in the listing name: against the rules and often reported by competitors.
• An English-only listing: you lose a large share of customers who search in French.
• Nineteen identical pages: no value to customers, a risk for the site.
• No replies to reviews: a silence that gets noticed.

Where to start

If you do only one thing this month, complete your Google listing in French. If you do two, set up enquiry tracking. For a full plan, read our guide to the 90-day growth plan or reach us through the Contact page.