Construction contractor directories in Quebec: getting your listing right

Where people look for construction companies

There is no single construction directory in Quebec, but several places where people look for you. Each one shows something different, and none proves everything.

What makes the difference is consistency: the same name, the same trades and the same licence number everywhere. A client comparing one listing with another should find the same company.

What a good company listing contains

1. The company name, as your clients know it and as it appears in the enterprise register, identical on all your listings and documents.
2. Your trades and specialties, stated precisely. "Flat roofing" or "excavation and earthworks" helps more than a plain "construction".
3. Your RBQ licence subcategories and licence number, in the format "Licence RBQ : XXXX-XXXX-XX".
4. The regions you serve, by city or RCM (regional county municipality), without exaggerating: a realistic radius beats a list you cannot serve.
5. The types of jobs you accept: residential, commercial, institutional, small or large projects, subcontracting accepted or not.
6. Contact details that get answered: a monitored phone, an email that is checked, business hours shown.
7. A few past projects in photos that reflect reality, with two sentences per job. No client names without their consent.
8. A note that your documents are available on request: Revenu Québec attestation, CNESST proof, insurance. See a subcontractor's documents.

Your RBQ licence number: an obligation, not an option

The Building Act requires licence holders to display their number on several media. According to the RBQ (Régie du bâtiment du Québec), it must appear on your estimates, quotes, contracts, statements of account and invoices, on any form of advertising (business cards included), on your website and on your business social media. It must also appear on job site signs bearing the company name and on vehicles displaying the company name. The format is "Licence RBQ : XXXX-XXXX-XX". To check a licence before citing it, see our guide to the RBQ registry.

Promotional items (pens, mugs) are not covered, nor are members of the CMEQ or the CMMTQ, identified by their corporation's logo, nor contractors established outside Quebec. For the phone directory, the RBQ specifies that the number must be shown as soon as the nature of the services or the field of activity appears in the message: to be safe, apply the same logic to an online listing that presents your services. Confirm with the RBQ for your situation.

Listing mistakes that cost you leads

• Licence missing or illegible. It is also a breach of an obligation.
• A different name from one source to another. The trade name and the legal name should be recognizably the same.
• A Google listing name stuffed with keywords. Google requires the name to match the business's real name and excludes slogans, phone numbers, web addresses, geographic information and service descriptions.
• A home address displayed when you don't receive clients. Google asks businesses that travel to their clients to hide the address and set a service area.
• A service area that is too vague or too large. Google recommends staying precise and keeping the whole area within two hours' drive of the business.
• A phone number nobody answers. Google requires a number the business controls directly, preferably the local number rather than a call centre.
• Generic or heavily retouched photos. According to Google, the image must stay true to reality.
• A listing never updated. Regions, specialties, contact people: review it every season.

Local SEO, the short version

According to Google, nearby search results rely mainly on relevance (how well your listing matches the query), distance and prominence (taking into account, among other things, the sites that link to you and the reviews you receive). Google states that there is no way to pay to rank higher in these results. Here is the order of work:

Where SubmitX Network fits in: a directory on the way

SubmitX Network is a construction network for Quebec, designed as a directory of profiles searchable by region, trade and radius. It has eight profile types: construction company, subcontractor, supplier, equipment, event or training, economic partner, technology partner and individual. Sign-up and the profile are free, and SubmitX sells neither contact details nor client leads. No SubmitX account is required.

The network is closed. Quebec's 17 administrative regions are on a waitlist and none is open: it opens region by region, once there are enough profiles for a first search to return results. In the meantime, you can join the companies waitlist and prepare your profile with the list in this article. You will be notified when your region opens.

A fast track exists to save time: you give your website address and, after proof that the site belongs to you, SubmitX reads a few of its pages (respecting the robots.txt file) and suggests a listing. The listing goes to the team for review and is never published automatically. Your licence number is compared with the RBQ's public registry of active licences, with the labels "found in the registry" or "verified", which do not replace an approval by the RBQ. When a request comes in, the SubmitX software takes over on the quoting side: AI prepares a draft, and you approve it before it goes out.