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Montréal local SEO: ranking in two languages

How Montréal businesses rank on Google in French and English: Business Profile rules, bilingual pages with hreflang, borough pages, reviews and language law.

October 21, 20266 min read

To rank locally in Montréal you have to win in two languages at once, in a market where the searcher's borough changes what Google shows. The businesses that do it well have four things in place: a complete and accurate Google Business Profile, separate French and English pages that are properly linked to each other, content that reflects the areas they actually serve, and a steady flow of reviews in both languages. If you run an English-first business, there's a fifth: a French version that is at least as good as the English one, because Quebec law requires it. Here's how to put each piece in place.

Why Montréal is harder than most markets

Two languages, one customer base. According to the Office québécois de la langue française's analysis of the 2021 census, 56.7% of workers on the island of Montréal used French most often at work, 31.3% used English and 10.6% used both equally. Statistics Canada reported that 69.8% of Montréal's population could hold a conversation in two or more languages. The same customer might search "heat pump installation" on their work laptop and "installation thermopompe" on their phone.

Distance carries real weight. Google says local results are ranked on relevance (how well your profile matches the search), distance (how far you are from the searcher) and prominence (how well-known your business is). On a dense island, a search from the Plateau and a search from Pointe-Claire can return different businesses for the same words.

Competition is dense. In most trades, dozens of businesses chase the same searches. Details that barely matter in a smaller city (exact category, holiday hours, photos, review replies) decide who shows up here.

Start with your Google Business Profile

For local searches, Google shows the map and Business Profiles before websites. Your profile is often the first thing a customer sees.

Do this

Verify the profile. Google says verification confirms you're authorized to represent the business.
Fill in everything: a precise primary category, relevant secondary categories, hours including holidays, attributes, services and a description.
Upload real photos of your team, vehicles, jobs and premises. Google lists photos among its own tips for local ranking.
Reply to reviews, good and bad. Google notes that replying shows customers you value their feedback.

Avoid this

Keyword-stuffed names. Google's guidelines say your name must reflect your real-world name and that adding unnecessary information isn't permitted. "Smith Plumbing" is fine; "Smith Plumbing Montreal 24/7 Emergency Plumber" can get the profile suspended.
Both language versions in the name. The guidelines prohibit repeating the same name in multiple languages or scripts. Use the name on your sign.
A virtual office in a better neighbourhood. Google says a rented mailing address with no staff on site isn't eligible, and P.O. boxes aren't either.
Duplicate profiles. There should be one profile per location.

If you travel to customers (cleaning, renovation, repairs), you're a service-area business: Google asks you to hide your address and list the areas you serve instead.

And one thing Google says flatly: there's no way to pay for a better local ranking.

A bilingual site Google can read

Plenty of Montréal sites are bilingual only on the surface: a widget that machine-translates the page in the browser, or a site that swaps languages based on the visitor's browser settings. Both cause problems.

One URL per language

Google recommends separate URLs for each language version, connected with hreflang annotations. It also explains that Googlebot mostly crawls from US-based IP addresses and doesn't send a language preference with its requests. If your site picks the language automatically, Google may never see, index or rank one of your versions.

What that looks like in practice:

/en/services/emergency-plumbing and /fr/services/plomberie-urgence, as two real pages.
A visible language switch, with no forced redirect.
hreflang on every page. Google's rules: each version must list itself and every other version, the annotations must point both ways or they're ignored, and URLs must be fully qualified with https.

Adapt, don't just translate

People don't search with literal translations. An English speaker might type "general contractor", "renovation company" or "home renovations"; a French speaker might type "entrepreneur général" or "rénovation résidentielle". Do keyword research separately in each language and write each page for its reader.

The French-language rules

Under article 52 of Quebec's Charter of the French language, commercial publications must be in French, and the OQLF states that this includes those published on websites and social media. The Regulation respecting the language of commerce and business allows a version in another language, as long as the French version is available on terms of accessibility and quality at least equal to it. The OQLF does enforce this: a 2022 notice reported a company paying a $1,500 fine after pleading guilty over its website content. For an English-first business, the practical rule is simple: French can't be the thin version.

Borough pages: only when they're real

It's tempting to build "Plumber Westmount", "Plumber NDG", "Plumber Lachine" with identical text and a swapped place name. Google calls this doorway abuse: pages created to rank for similar searches that funnel visitors to one destination. It's a violation of its spam policies.

A page for an area makes sense when it has something specific to that area:

jobs completed there, with photos;
real local context (older Plateau triplexes, downtown office towers, Griffintown condos);
the team or location that serves it;
reviews from customers there.

Otherwise, one clear "Areas we serve" page plus strong service pages will do better.

Reviews in both languages

Prominence, Google's third factor, is built largely on reviews. In Montréal:

Ask for a review after every finished job, by text or email, with a direct link.
Let customers write in their own language, and reply in the language of the review.
Never pay for reviews or filter them. Answer criticism calmly and with facts.

A steady stream of recent reviews beats twenty in one month and none after.

Local links and mentions

Links from Montréal organizations add to your prominence:

chambers of commerce and trade associations;
the commercial development association (SDC) for your street;
suppliers, partners and commercial clients with a "partners" page;
neighbourhood media in both languages.

Relevance beats volume. One link from your trade association is worth more than a hundred obscure directories.

Track what's happening

In your Business Profile: calls, direction requests and website clicks.
In Search Console: filter queries to see how much traffic comes in French versus English, and confirm both language versions of your key pages are indexed.
In your CRM or call log: which channel the customers who actually sign came from.

Plan in months, not weeks. Google says some changes take effect in hours and others take several months. In a market this crowded, consistency beats any trick.

Where to start this week

Verify and complete your Business Profile; clean up the name if it contains keywords.
Check that every important page exists in both languages at its own URL.
Have your hreflang tags checked.
Set up an automatic review request after each job.
Delete or properly build out any copy-paste borough pages.

Bilingual local SEO is at the core of our digital marketing service: Business Profile, service pages in both languages, hreflang and reporting on what's working. We also build bilingual websites where each language has its own pages from day one.