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Test my siteFrench SEO & AI search · Paris region, France
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.
5.0 on Google · 5 reviews
Mickaël Leclerc · native French, based near Paris · Mon-Sat 9am-9pm CET · +33 7 69 09 39 09
French SEO consultant · near Paris, France · free review, reply within 24h
Free tool
A free health check of your site, in one minute.
One self-service tool, no signup. It measures, it does not estimate: the same one I run on client work.
A real scan result
mkz-consulting.fr
89/100
- of French people read online reviews before choosing a provider
- 93%
- trust an AI answer alone when they decide, against 61% for reviews
- 9%
- to get a written, fixed quote, line by line
- 24h
- to measure the site you actually serve, no signup, score out of 100
- 1 min
Sources: Ifop for Guest Suite, January 2026, 1,003 French respondents · this site’s free audit tool.
The usual causes
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.
Translated, not researched
Your French pages are your English pages in French. So they target your English keywords, translated. Nobody in France types those. The demand that exists in France never made it into the 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
Put a French question about your category to ChatGPT or Perplexity, and the sources it cites are, most of the time, your competitors. It can be counted, and it rarely is.
What I do
Three 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.
Service 01
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 works
Service 02
AI 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 works
Service 03
Websites 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 FranceBoth 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.
Free SEO & AI auditThe 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.
How it runs
Three 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.
Google reviews
5.0 out of 5: the five reviews, as written.
Read on MKZ’s Google listing on 14 September 2026. Reviews are in French; the English is my translation, the original follows each one. Read them on Google.
“I recommend Mickaël 100%. A solid, experienced profile, with good communication and real proactivity. With Mickaël, it is simple and smooth 😉 For example, the SEO audit I ordered from him was clear and directly actionable.”
Original: « Je recommande Mickaël à 100 %. Profil solide et expérimenté, avec une bonne communication et une vraie proactivité. Avec Mickaël, c'est simple et fluide 😉 Par exemple, l'audit SEO que je lui ai commandé était clair et directement actionnable. »
“I wanted to use AI for my website without knowing where to start. Mickaël showed me how to use it concretely, for the copy, the pages and the SEO, explaining why each time. Today I do a good part of the updates myself.”
Original: « Je voulais utiliser l'IA pour mon site web sans savoir par où commencer. Mickaël m'a montré comment m'en servir concrètement, pour les textes, les pages et le référencement, en m'expliquant à chaque fois pourquoi. Aujourd'hui je fais une bonne partie des mises à jour moi-même. »
“I recommend Mickaël, a rare profile: a real technical background of 20 years in systems and cybersecurity, put to work for organic search. Crawl, semantic cocoon, Core Web Vitals, he masters every topic in depth. Clear talk, useful analyses, concrete deliverables focused on results. The results always follow.”
Original: « Je recommande Mickaël, c’est un profil rare : un vrai bagage technique de 20 ans en systèmes et cybersécurité, au service du référencement naturel. Crawl, cocon sémantique, Core Web Vitals, il maîtrise chaque sujet en profondeur. Un discours clair, des analyses utiles, des livrables concrets et orientés résultats. Les retours arrivent systématiquement. »
“Fast and effective service, that is all I asked for and I got it.”
Original: « Presta rapide et efficace c'est tout ce que je demandais et je l'ai eu. »
“Experienced professional, very good mindset, I recommend.”
Original: « Professionnel expérimenté, très bon mindset, je recommande »
The person you actually talk to.
Why me
A French consultant, not a French-speaking department.
Book a free 30-min reviewFrench 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.
Your questions
What people ask before they book.
Straight answers, including the ones that do not help me sell.
Can I just translate my English site into French and rank?
No, and this is the single most common reason foreign sites fail in France. Translation carries your English keywords across; it does not carry French search demand. French users phrase queries differently, use different intent words, and often search terms that have no direct English equivalent. The work is French keyword research done in French first, then content built on what people actually type.
Do you work with companies based outside France?
Yes, that is the main use case. Typical clients are UK, US, or European companies that already perform in English and need the French market to work: an existing site to adapt, a French subfolder or subdomain to set up, hreflang to get right, and French content that reads as if it was written in French, because it was.
How long does French SEO take to show results?
Nobody can give you an honest date without looking at your site and your French competitors first. A domain that already has authority in English usually moves faster in France than a brand new one, because domain-level signals carry over. What you get from me is a free 30-minute review, then a plan with dated steps and a monthly report that shows where things stand.
What is GEO and is it different from SEO?
GEO (Generative Engine Optimization), also called AEO (Answer Engine Optimization), is being cited inside AI answers rather than ranking in a list of links. It overlaps with SEO but adds specific work: letting AI crawlers in, publishing facts that can be quoted with a figure and a date, clean schema.org, and llms.txt. It matters in France because French-language AI answers have far fewer credible sources to pick from than English ones.
Are you an agency or a freelance consultant?
MKZ is a French company with one consultant doing the work: Mickaël Leclerc. You talk to the person running your account, not an account manager. That is slower to scale and faster to decide, and it is the reason the explanations you get are in plain English, from the person who did the work.
What if I am not ready to talk yet?
Run the free audit first: it checks the site you actually serve, in about a minute, with no signup, and returns a score out of 100 with your priorities. Then, if you want to go further, the 30-minute review is free and there is no commitment.
In the open
The methods, published.
What actually moves French rankings and AI citations, with the numbers behind each claim and the date they were measured.
French SEOWhy translation never ranksWhat French keyword research turns up that a translated page misses, with real query examples.Read the guides
AI searchGetting cited by AI answersThe concrete steps that put you inside a ChatGPT or Perplexity answer, and how to measure whether they worked.Read the guides
All insightsHow French search actually worksField notes on ranking in France and getting cited by AI answers. Written from inside the French market, with the numbers that back each claim and the date they were measured.Read the guidesWhere your site really stands in France, in thirty minutes.
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
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