Websites built to rank in France, not just to look good
Most of my work is making existing sites rank in France. Sometimes the existing site is the problem. When that happens I build the new one, on the same principle: the keyword research comes before the design, not after it.
When a rebuild is the right call
Rarely, and I will say so. Rebuilding is the expensive answer, and most sites underperforming in France do not need one: they need French keyword research and content built on it. If that is your situation, French SEO is the page you want.
A rebuild earns its cost in a few specific cases:
- The site cannot host a proper French section without a fight, so every French page becomes a workaround.
- Core Web Vitals fail structurally, usually a page builder plus fifteen plugins, and fixing it costs more than replacing it.
- The stack blocks structured data or hreflang, which means both French SEO and AI citation are capped no matter how good the content is.
- You do not control your own site: no code access, no accounts, an agency holding the keys.
How I build
Static export, served from a CDN. No database to breach, no plugin to patch on a Friday night, and load times that pass Core Web Vitals because there is almost nothing to load. This site is built exactly that way: open your browser dev tools and check it rather than taking my word for it.
Bilingual from the first commit when the French market matters: two locales, hreflang wired both ways with a correct x-default, one structure per language rather than one translated on top of the other. Retrofitting that later is where the real cost sits.
AI search readiness is part of the build, not an upsell: valid schema.org reparsed by a script at build time, generated llms.txt, and AI crawlers explicitly allowed. Details on the AI search page.
Frequently asked questions
Do you build in WordPress?
Only when there is a real reason to, such as a team that already runs WordPress and needs to keep editing in it. By default I build static sites exported to a CDN: faster, nothing to patch, no plugin debt, and no database to compromise. If you need a CMS, we choose it based on who edits the site and how often, not on habit.
Can you rebuild only the French section of my site?
Often yes, and it is frequently the cheaper answer. If your English site performs well, replacing it makes no sense. Adding a properly structured French section on the same domain keeps the authority you have already built and limits the work to the part that is actually broken.
Do you work in English throughout the project?
Yes. All communication, documentation and handover in English; the French content itself written in French, because that is the point. You never have to review something you cannot read without knowing what it says: every French page comes with an English summary of what it targets and why.
How long does a website project take?
A focused bilingual site is usually four to eight weeks, most of which is content and French keyword research rather than design or code. The variable is how quickly decisions and source material come back from your side, so the timeline is agreed up front with the dependencies named.
Rebuild, or just better French pages?
Thirty minutes and an honest answer. If you do not need a rebuild, I will tell you so and point you at the cheaper fix instead.
Book a free 30-min reviewOr call directly: +33 7 69 09 39 09. You get me, not a queue.