Local SEO in Nice and the Alpes-Maritimes
Getting found on Google without paying for every visitor
Someone types your trade followed by "Nice". Three businesses appear on the map. My job is to make you one of them.
Where it's actually decided
On a phone, the first thing a local search shows is a map with three businesses. That's where most of the calls come from. The rest of the page comes after, and plenty of people never get there.
What a position is actually worth
Clicks on a Google search are not shared out evenly. They collapse as you go down the page. Here is the share of clicks each position receives, according to the published studies:
Share of clicks each position receives
And for a local business, there is something better than first place.
The three businesses shown on the map each receive between 15 and 18% of clicks. Added together, they take more than the top organic result — and they sit above it on the screen.
That is why I always start with your Google listing, before your website.
What that means in practice
Take a round number. Say 400 people a month search for your trade in Nice on their phone. Using the shares above, the same search gives you:
400 searches × the click share of each position. Check the arithmetic yourself — it fits on a napkin.
Same trade, same city, same month. The only thing that changes is the position. And 400 is only an example: the real search volume for your trade is something I give you in the free diagnosis.
Where these figures come from: the click-through-rate-by-position meta-analysis published by First Page Sage (updated May 2025), which aggregates studies from Backlinko, Sistrix and BrightLocal among others. These are cross-industry averages, measured mainly on English-language markets. They describe how people click on Google — not a result I am promising you. No position can be guaranteed, by me or by anyone.
What I actually do
In this order, because it's the order that pays back fastest.
1Your Google listing
Exact categories, service area, hours, photos, description, services listed one by one. Most listings I look at are half filled in, and the missing half is what decides whether you appear on the map.
2Your reviews
How many reviews you have matters as much as the score. We set up a simple way to ask every satisfied customer, without it costing you time, and we reply to the ones that come in, including the bad ones.
3One page per service, one per town
A single "our services" page ranks for nothing. A page per job and per town you cover, written to be read by a human, is what gets you found on specific searches.
4The site itself
Loading speed on mobile, headings, structure, a tappable phone number. Nothing spectacular, but a site that's slow or unreadable on a phone loses customers before it ever has them.
How long it takes: the real answer
SEO isn't a switch. Here's an honest order of magnitude, not a promise:
- Weeks 1 to 4: the Google listing and reviews. This moves fastest, because it's what most businesses have done worst.
- Months 2 to 4: the pages on your site. Google takes time to find them, then to decide whether they deserve showing.
- Beyond that: it's maintenance. Reviews, new pages, competitors moving.
If someone promises you first place in three weeks, they're selling you either disguised advertising or nothing at all. I'd rather lose a client at this point than after three months.
SEO or advertising? They answer different needs
Google advertising
You appear at the top tomorrow. You pay per visitor. Stop paying and you vanish the same day.
Useful when: you need calls now, or you want to test whether a service interests people before investing.
SEO
You won't appear for several months. After that, each call costs you nothing. And it doesn't stop if you skip a month's budget.
Useful when: you're building for the long run and you're tired of paying for every customer who finds you.
In practice many businesses run a small advertising budget while the SEO builds, then cut the advertising back once the free calls arrive. It isn't compulsory, just what works best when cash is tight.
Free, no commitment
I look at where you stand, and I tell you
Give me your trade and your town. I run the search a customer would run, and send you what I saw:
- Whether you appear on the map, and where
- Who appears instead of you, and what they have that you don't
- What's missing from your Google listing, point by point
- The searches you should appear on and are absent from
Written plainly, no trade vocabulary. If you'd rather fix it yourself from the list, do. That's fine by me.
Questions I get asked
Do you guarantee first position?
No, and be wary of anyone who does. Google doesn't sell places in the natural results. What I can do is fix what's stopping you appearing, and show you what moves.
Do I need a new website?
Usually not. We start with the Google listing, the reviews and the pages you already have. Rebuilding only makes sense if the site is genuinely unusable, and then I'll tell you, with reasons.
What does it cost?
It depends on your trade and how many towns you're targeting, so I can't put an honest price on a web page. The free diagnosis gives me enough to quote you a precise figure, and you can say no.
Does it work for my trade?
If your customers find you by searching Google, yes. If you live purely on word of mouth and tenders, your money is honestly better spent elsewhere, and I'll say so rather than take the budget.
Do you have SEO results to show?
Not published yet. The case study I have online is about Google advertising: it's here, with the figures and their limits. I'd rather tell you that straight than post screenshots without context.