SEO and GEO in Montreal without a fake map pin

SEO in Montreal is still mostly pages + reputation + a profile that matches the door. GEO is the same pages, written so a model can cite them without inventing your hours. AERVIO does not treat those as two products. We treat them as one system with the CRM and the site.

Google documents this plainly in its guide to creating helpful content and, later, in notes on generative AI features: you do not need a new file format to “show up in AI.” You need the same quality bar, in public HTML.

What local actually weights

For queries with a map pack — “seo montreal”, “web development near me”, a trade + neighbourhood — Google still leans on:

• Google Business Profile categories and completeness
• Reviews (velocity and, more painfully, whether they sound like clients)
• Proximity to the searcher
• Consistency of name, address, phone (NAP)

We will not create a pin on a downtown mail-drop to game proximity. AERVIO’s own NAP is AERVIO, Montreal, QC, hello@aervio.io, +1 438-498-3913. Service area is Canada. That is also what /montreal, /quebec, and /canada say, on purpose.

If you do have a storefront, GBP is operations: hours, photos from the room, categories that match the offer, and a person who answers the questions tab. It is not a once-a-year “SEO task.”

Technical SEO we actually touch

Before content, the boring list:

• One canonical per URL, not four demo homes
• Titles and H1s that match the offer (not “Rayo Template” leftovers)
• `sitemap.xml` and `robots.txt` that agree
• Language: `en-CA` / `fr-CA`, not a mystery `en`
• Internal links with words a human would tap
• Images with alt that describes the object, not “img_0123”
• INP/LCP on money pages (Web Vitals)

Framework wars are downstream. Next.js vs WordPress is about editors. Crawlers want HTML.

GEO: write a sentence a model can steal

AI Overviews and similar surfaces prefer self-contained claims: who, where, how to start, what you will not do. A paragraph that says “we offer a wide range of digital solutions to clients worldwide” cannot be cited. A paragraph that says “Discovery is a call in Montreal hours, weekdays 9–17 ET, then a written proposal; we do not blast rented lists” can.

Practices we use:

• Answer first, then proof
• Tables for decisions (stack, CRM, IT)
• Hours, phone, language on pages that sell
• Author is the studio, with a real contact, not a stock headshot
• No fake case-study percentages

We do not buy “mentions” in third-party AI tools. Google has said chasing inauthentic mentions is unhelpful. Measurement for us is Search Console queries, calls, and CRM sources — not a vanity AI dashboard.

Content clusters beat orphan posts

This Insights section is a cluster on purpose:

• System: site + CRM + search
• Build: Next or WordPress, CRM
• Quebec: Bill 96, French article
• Run: Hands-off IT, IT bench, 365/Azure, hardening

Orphan “5 tips for SEO in 2024” posts are how templates fill archives. They do not build topical authority.

French is a ranking and a legal surface

If the public site is for Quebec consumers, French-first is often the requirement, not a courtesy. Hreflang must point at equivalent URLs, not at `/fr` as a junk drawer. Editors must be able to ship a French change without waiting for a plugin to “sync.” Details live in Bill 96 and the CMS.

English pages still matter for buyers who search in English — including out-of-province. We do not auto-translate and hope.

What a 90-day slice looks like

Days 1–15: crawl, Search Console, GBP (if any), NAP audit, index bloat from template routes.

Days 16–45: one service page that sales recognises, one location page that does not copy the homepage, technical fixes, internal links from the homepage and services.

Days 46–90: two Insights pieces that answer questions from real calls, not keyword tools alone; form-to-CRM so we can see which URL started the conversation.

Retainers after that are measurement and the next page. We do not reset the strategy every quarter to look busy.

Sources we trust more than rumours

• Google Search Central, not Twitter screenshots
• Your Search Console and call logs
• Sales’ last ten conversations
• Official Quebec language and privacy pages when the question is legal

If a tactic needs a fake address, a PBN, or a rented list, it is not on the table. Write hello@aervio.io with the query you wish you ranked for and the URL that currently ranks. We will tell you if the page type even matches.

Page types Google actually shows for these jobs

Before we write, we search the query in Montreal (VPN off if we are in Montreal) and note the page type in the top organic slots:

If the SERP is law firms, we will not outrank them with a blog. We will not try. We will pick a query where a studio page is a reasonable result. That is SXO, not surrender.

Internal links that are not a footer

Every Insights URL should earn two links from pages that sell, and should send people to services, contact, and one sibling article. Anchor text is the name of the thing: “Hands-off IT,” not “click here.” Orphan posts are how templates look busy and rank for nothing.

The homepage should not link to twenty equals. It should link to the offer and to one or two notes that explain the offer. This cluster is built that way.

Search Console before folklore

First login we want: property on the real domain, last 16 months if they exist, pages that return 404 from the template era, queries with impressions and no clicks (title/description mismatch). We export. We do not screenshot a line chart and call it strategy.

If you have never verified Search Console, that is day one — not month four of “content.”

Reviews without scripts

We will not write your reviews. We will ask you to ask people who paid you, after a result, in the language they were served. A pile of five-star English reviews on a French-first business looks like a different company. GBP is operations; stuffing it is a policy risk.

The query you want, plus the URL that ranks today, is still the brief.

Questions

Can you guarantee page-one rankings?

No honest studio can. We can guarantee a crawlable site, consistent NAP, pages a reviewer could quote, and measurement. Rankings move with competitors and Google.

Do we need a downtown office for Maps?

If you have a storefront, we use it. If you are a service-area business like AERVIO, we do not drop a fake pin. Montreal is the hub; Canada is served.

What is GEO in your mouth?

Writing pages so Google AI Overviews and other answer engines can lift a self-contained claim. Same URLs as SEO. Not a second site, not an llms.txt superstition.