Local SEO Consultant, France

SIRET, trade names and the name on the profile

French businesses carry several names at once. The legal name registered with the company, the trade name used on invoices and the enseigne painted above the shop can all differ, and the company itself may be a holding with operating subsidiaries underneath. Google asks for the name customers see in the real world, which is usually the enseigne, without extra keywords or town names added to it.

Each physical site also has its own SIRET in the national business register, with its own address. Company data sites copy that register, and some directories copy those sites, so an old establishment that was never closed in the register can keep reappearing as a phantom listing. My first task is to match every Google profile to a live establishment and flag:

• Profiles for sites that closed or moved but still show as open
• Establishments that trade but have no profile, or two competing ones
• Addresses in the register that differ from the shop front, for example after a move within the same commune
• Profile names that mix the legal form, such as SAS or SARL, with the brand in some places but not others

Verification deserves planning too. The method is Google's choice, and it can include filming the shop front, the inside of the premises and evidence that you run the business. A firm working from a shared office or a home address needs to plan this before applying, because a rejected attempt slows everything down. Updating the official register is a matter for your accountant or legal advisor; I make sure the listings follow it.

CEDEX, hamlets and merged communes on the map

French postal addresses include details that help mail but confuse maps. A CEDEX code routes post to large recipients and is not a place anyone can visit. A postal box line says nothing about where your counter is. Both belong on letterheads, not in a profile address, which should show the street, number and commune where customers actually arrive.

Other patterns need care too:

• Hamlets and named localities in rural areas, where the street name is missing or informal and the pin often lands in the village center instead of at your gate.
• Business and industrial zones, where geocoding stops at the zone entrance and a unit number or building letter decides whether the delivery driver or customer finds you.
• Merged communes, created when neighboring towns combined, so older listings still show the former town name and postcode beside the new one.
• Paris, Lyon and Marseille, where the arrondissement shapes how people search and each one has its own postcode.
• Bis and ter numbers, which some directories drop, moving the pin to the neighboring building.

Access notes such as building, staircase, floor or entry code belong on the location page, not in the address field. For businesses that serve customers at their premises, such as plumbers, cleaners or home care providers, the profile can hide the street address and list the communes or departments actually covered. A micro-entrepreneur working from home usually should. Details on structured data that matches each address are on my schema markup consulting page.

Franchise networks, branch pages and directories

Franchising is a familiar model in French retail, food, real estate, home services and personal care. Each franchisee is usually its own company with its own SIREN, while the brand belongs to the franchisor. That split creates practical questions about listings that the franchise agreement often leaves vague:

• Who owns each Google profile, and who keeps access when a franchisee leaves the network
• Which fields head office controls, such as name, categories and brand photos, and which the local owner manages, such as hours, posts and review replies
• Whose legal details appear on the location page, given that each operating company has its own publisher information to show; your lawyer should confirm what each page must state

I write these rules down and set user roles to match, following the method on my multi-location local SEO page.

Location pages follow the same discipline. A page for every commune within reach, with the same text and a new town name, is a doorway page and can weaken the whole site. A page earns its place when it serves a real establishment or a genuinely covered area and says something specific: the team, parking, opening exceptions, local services or projects you are allowed to mention.

Directories still matter as sources of consistent data. PagesJaunes, the business listings kept by chambers of commerce and chambers of trades, sector federations, booking platforms and the data aggregators that feed car navigation and map apps should all carry the same establishment details. I prioritize the ones that rank for your services or feed other platforms, rather than chasing every listing.

Reviews under French and EU consumer rules

Reviews influence which business a nearby customer picks, which makes them a target for shortcuts. I do not create, buy, reward or filter reviews, and I do not recommend asking only customers who seem happy. Google's policies prohibit these practices, and French and EU consumer rules treat fake or misleading reviews as unfair practice.

French consumer law also sets transparency duties for businesses that collect or display reviews, such as explaining whether reviews are checked and how. If you show reviews on your own website, for example through a widget, those duties may apply to you. The French consumer protection authority has made misleading reviews an enforcement topic. Your legal advisor should confirm what applies to your setup; I design the process so it is easy to explain.

A sound routine looks like this:

• Every customer receives the same short request after the visit, delivery or job, by SMS or email, with a direct link.
• Each establishment appoints one person to send requests and answer reviews.
• Replies are written in natural French, use the formal vous, thank the customer and never reveal personal or health details, which matters for clinics, pharmacies and care services.
• Negative reviews get a calm public answer and a private follow-up, never a counter-attack.
• Reviews that break platform rules are reported through the platform's process, not disputed in public.

For networks, a monthly look at review volume and response time per establishment shows where a manager needs support. The French wording is always produced or revised by native speakers, since a stiff, translated reply can do more harm than silence.

Calls, WhatsApp and visits: measuring each establishment

Local search succeeds when someone calls, books, writes or walks in. The measurement plan therefore follows the customer's action for each establishment:

• Profile interactions, from calls and route requests to website visits, read profile by profile instead of as one network figure.
• Campaign parameters on each profile's website link, isolating map-driven visits from the rest of organic search.
• Call tracking that keeps your known number as the main listing number, with a tracking number added where the profile allows it. Customers in France expect an ordinary landline or mobile number; a surcharged service number can put callers off.
• WhatsApp and SMS clicks from location pages, recorded as events, for businesses whose customers prefer to write.
• CRM fields that store the establishment and source of every inquiry, so a call from the Lille profile is credited to Lille.

Analytics on your own site depends on the consent visitors give, under CNIL guidance, so some page visits will be missing; the configuration itself is for your DPO or privacy counsel to approve. Profile data and CRM records do not depend on site cookies, which keeps the picture usable.

Reports compare establishments, explain what changed and list the next actions. They do not promise map positions, because proximity, competition and Google's own systems decide those. All work is delivered remotely. The broader search plan sits on my SEO consultant page for France, how AI assistants describe your sites is covered on the AI search optimization page for France, and the France overview lists my other services.