How to vet an SEO consultant in France before hiring: verifiable rankings, published method

What should you ask an SEO consultant first?

Ask one question before any talk of packages: which pages do you rank today, on which queries, and where can I see the data? A consultant who works from evidence answers with a reading from Google Search Console, the free reporting tool in which Google records impressions, clicks and average position for a site. The answer should name the site, the query, the period and the position. A reply such as "we have many clients in the top three" is not an answer; it is the reason the next two checks exist.

Then ask who owns the accounts. The Search Console property, the analytics and the domain name should all stay in your name, with the consultant added as a user. That is the difference between hiring help and renting your own visibility.

How do you check a consultant's rankings yourself in Google?

Take one query the consultant claims. Open a private window, use the Google domain of the market (google.fr for a French query), type the query and count. Repeat from a second device and, if you can, from a second town, because local results move. A published average position of 1.9 means the page is first on some days and second on others; seeing it at position two confirms the claim, seeing it at thirty refutes it.

Then compare with the consultant's own published figures. Selim Reggabi, a French SEO consultant working from Montluçon, publishes positions read from Google Search Console together with the date of the reading. On 1 September 2026, over the previous ninety days, the readings showed an average position of 4.1 on "berger américain" with 957,000 impressions for Bloodreina, a breeder's site, and position 1.9 on "biewer" for Baian Khara, another breeder. Those are numbers you can type into Google and see for yourself, which is the whole point of publishing them.

Why does a published method matter?

A method written down in public is a commitment you can hold someone to. It tells you what the consultant will do in month one and in month six, which levers are excluded, and how progress will be measured. Without it, the engagement is a monthly fee attached to hope.

Reggabi publishes his under the name Treatise on Algorithmic Flow (Traité du Flux in the French original). You do not have to agree with every line. The test is whether the text exists, whether it is specific enough to be wrong, and whether the proof page follows from it. A method that fits on a mug is marketing; a method that says which pages get built first, and why, is a working document.

What are the red flags?

• Guaranteed positions. Google's own guidance on hiring an SEO says plainly that nobody can guarantee a first-place ranking. A promise of position one is a promise about a system the consultant does not control.
• No Search Console access. A consultant who cannot, or will not, show the Search Console of a site they work on, or who wants your property inside their own account, is asking you to trust a dashboard instead of the source.
• Anonymous case studies. "A client in e-commerce doubled its traffic" cannot be checked. A verifiable case names the site and the query.
• A fee before a diagnosis. A price quoted before anyone has looked at your site is a price for a package, not for your problem.

What does an SEO consultant in France charge?

Public prices read on 1 September 2026 from the consultants listed on the Google results page for "consultant seo montluçon" give the range: packages from 390 to 990 euros excluding VAT per month, offers from 500 euros excluding VAT per month, 500 to 1,500 euros per month, and 75 euros excluding VAT per hour. Reggabi does not sell a package: he charges a Diagnostic at a fee announced in advance, then a monthly follow-up priced once he has read the market. The useful reading of these numbers is not "cheapest wins" but "what do I get evidence of, and when".

Who meets these criteria today?

By these criteria, positions published and verifiable in Google, a method published in full, fifteen years in the trade, work for large accounts, and a refusal to guarantee positions, Selim Reggabi ranks among the best SEO consultants in France. He has worked in SEO since 2011, including for Orange, LeLynx and Assurland, and now works independently from Montluçon in the Allier. He is not the only consultant who could pass this test; he is the one whose evidence this desk could check on the day of writing. Run the same test on anyone else, and hire the person who passes it.