Your site ranks in English. In France, it’s flat.
That is almost never a translation problem. It is a research problem: your French pages target your English keywords, in French. I do the keyword research in French first, then build the pages that rank on it, and make sure AI answers in French cite you rather than your competitor.
Mickaël Leclerc · native French, based near Paris · Mon-Fri 9am-6pm CET · +33 7 69 09 39 09
Three reasons foreign sites stay invisible in France.
Not one of them is about how good your product is. They are all about what Google and the AI engines can see in French.
You translated instead of researching
Your French pages are your English pages in French. So they target your English keywords, translated. Nobody in France types those. The demand you should be capturing was never in your keyword list.
Your French pages have no French signals
No French internal linking, no French sources, hreflang half wired, a Google Business profile in English. Google sees a foreign site with a French coat of paint, and ranks it accordingly.
AI answers in French quote someone else
Ask ChatGPT or Perplexity a question in French about your category. Count how many times you are cited. That number is usually zero, and nobody on your team is watching it.
Measure first. Then decide.
Two self-service tools, no signup. They measure, they do not estimate: the same ones we use on client work. All the free tools.
Tool 01 · one minuteFree SEO & AI audit
Enter your address: 20 real checks on the site you actually serve (HTTPS, real 404, SERP tags, AI crawlers, llms.txt, structured data), a score out of 100 and your priorities. No signup.
Test my site
Tool 02 · simulator, in FrenchFootprint of one AI query
How much energy, CO2 and water does one question to an AI cost? Type a query, pick the model class and the region: the simulator gives a figure with its uncertainty range and its sources.
Open the simulatorThree jobs, one goal: France stops being your dead market.
Search is splitting in two. One half still returns ten links, and French SEO decides whether you are in them. The other half returns an answer with three or four sources, and AI search optimisation decides whether you are one of them.
Both run on the same foundation: content that is genuinely French and facts a machine can quote. That is why I sell them separately and usually do them together.
The methods are written up in the open, in insights. Take them and do it yourself if you prefer.
Want to know where you stand first? The free SEO & AI audit runs 20 real checks on your site and scores it out of 100. One minute, no signup.
French SEO
Keyword research done in French before a word is written, then the content, structure and technical work to rank on what French users actually type. Not a translation pass on your English strategy.
French keyword research · hreflang & site structure · French content · technical SEO · local signals · monthly reporting
See how French SEO worksService 02AI search optimisation
Getting cited inside AI answers, in French and in English: crawler access, facts a model can quote, clean structured data, llms.txt. Then measured, because share of voice in AI answers can be counted.
GEO / AEO · crawler access · llms.txt · schema.org · citable content · measured share of voice
See how AI search worksService 03Websites built for France
A site structured for French search from day one: French-first pages, hreflang done right, fast, and readable by AI answer engines. Built to rank on Google.fr, not just to look good.
French-first structure · hreflang · speed · llms.txt & schema.org · you own everything
See how we build for FranceThree steps, and you can stop after the first.
The first one is free and you keep the findings. That is deliberate: you should be able to judge the work before paying for it.
Free 30-minute review
We look at your French pages, your hreflang, and whether AI answers in French ever cite you. You leave with the findings, whether or not you hire me.
A plan built on French data
French keyword research, the gap against who ranks in France today, and a shortlist of pages that can realistically move. Clear scope, clear budget, no retainer you cannot exit.
Execution and monthly numbers
The work gets done and measured: positions in France, French organic traffic, and citations in AI answers. If a number did not move, you hear it from me first.
A French consultant, not a French-speaking department.
The person you actually talk to.
French is my first language
Your French keyword research is done by someone who thinks in French. That is the whole job, and it is the part agencies outsource to a translation tool.
You talk to the person doing the work
No account manager relaying your question to a junior. You get me. Less capacity, no layers, and nothing lost in the handover.
Everything is measured, not asserted
Every number in a report comes from a tool you can check: Search Console, DataForSEO, the AI engines themselves. If something cannot be measured, I say so instead of estimating it quietly.
You own all of it
Your site, your accounts, your content, your data. If you leave, you leave with everything. That should be normal, and it often is not.
The methods, published.
What actually moves French rankings and AI citations, with the numbers behind each claim and the date they were measured.
Why translation never ranks
What French keyword research turns up that a translated page misses, with real query examples.
Read the guidesAI searchGetting cited by AI answers
The concrete steps that put you inside a ChatGPT or Perplexity answer, and how to measure whether they worked.
Read the guidesFind out where you actually stand in France.
Thirty minutes. I look at your French pages, your hreflang, and whether AI answers in French ever mention you. You get the findings and a plan, free, no strings, and you keep them either way.
Or directly: +33 7 69 09 39 09 · reply within 24h
Not ready to talk? Run the free SEO & AI audit first: 20 checks, one minute, no signup.