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For business cards or standard leaflets, your customers find online printers first. These websites show a price in three clicks and hold the first page for almost every everyday product. I'll be frank: you won't beat them on those products, neither on Google nor on price. Your workshop can do something else. A special paper, a finish, an unusual format, a deadline met, advice before the proof is signed off. I build your website around those specialities, so the buyer who needs them finds you and asks you for a quote.
15 years in SEO
4 books on SEO and GEO
200+ sites tracked every day
1M / month visits to my e-commerce site
They trusted me with their visibility
Darty
Eurofins
Cegid
EBP
CNP Assurances
Ingram MicroSeven results, only one workshop you can walk into
A producer is looking for a printer for bottle labels near Cognac. The top six lines are online printers, a comparison site, a directory and a guide. Your workshop, which does gold foiling on site, is in seventh place. Move it up.
Fig. 1. Seven results for bottle labels. Six are selling a price. (The producer wanted to feel the paper before ordering. Only one result had a workshop to visit.)
What this means for you. I put on your pages what an ordering website can't write: your finishes, your runs, your proof and the person who answers.
SEO for a printer is the work that makes your workshop visible on Google when a business, a local authority or an agency looks for a specific print job. It relies on one page per speciality and product, on past work described with its specifications, on an up-to-date Google Business Profile and a simple quote request. It's measured by the quote requests received for the jobs you want to produce, not by the number of visitors.
The problem
For “flyer printing” or “cheap business cards”, the first page is made up of websites that pool orders from all over France on large machines. They show an instant price and deliver everywhere. On these searches, an independent workshop has neither the room nor any interest in competing with them.
Many printers' websites present their machinery, with models and formats. It's a legitimate source of pride. Buyers, though, don't type the name of a press. They type what they want to get: an adhesive label, a carton, a sewn book, a banner.
Online printers give a price straight away. On your website, people often have to write to a general address and wait. For a custom job, an instant price is impossible, and buyers understand that. They at least want to know what to send you and when you'll reply.
An audit, for real
The site below doesn't exist, but its flaws do: they're the five I spot most often. Hover over a number.
All your printing needs
From a simple flyer to a catalogue, we bring all your ideas to life with passion and know-how.
Contact usFig. 2. Fictional site, reconstructed. Any resemblance to yours would be a good reason to call me.
What your customers type
Here are six plausible searches for a print workshop. They serve as examples. The real list depends on your machines and specialities, and I draw it up during the audit.
What works
I start from what sets you apart: labels, packaging, books, large format, fine stationery. Each speciality has its own page, with the materials, quantities, finishes and sectors you serve. That's where price stops being the only criterion.
Each product that's profitable for you has its own page, written in the customer's words rather than the workshop's. It says what it's for, the options, the files expected and the turnaround. I leave aside the products you can't make at online websites' prices.
A short form per product asks for the essentials: quantity, format, preferred paper, date. It lets people attach a file. The page states the response time you actually meet. A quote returned quickly reduces the advantage of a price displayed online.
A photo gallery with no text teaches Google nothing. Each job becomes a short case sheet: the customer's need, the material, the finish, the quantity, the turnaround. A buyer with a similar project recognises themselves and calls you.
Your profile shows the workshop, opening hours and reviews from business customers. Your website explains what you do before starting the press: file checks, the proof, sign-off. An automated ordering website rarely provides that service.
What costs dearly
That phrase puts you in competition with everyone, including low-price websites. Two or three specialities named at the top of the page attract requests closer to what you like to produce.
Creating a hundred standard product pages with a price won't get you ahead of them. You'll spend time on it and attract customers who compare down to the cent.
“Four-colour double-sided, matt lamination, scoring” speaks to an agency buyer. The shopkeeper doesn't understand. Each technical term should be explained in one sentence, with a photo if possible.
Customers don't know which format to send or what margins to allow. They send an unusable file, or they give up. A clear page on file preparation avoids back-and-forth and answers real searches.
The method
Four steps. I start with the jobs that keep the workshop running at a decent margin, not with the whole catalogue.
One-minute test
Five frank questions to find out whether support makes sense in your situation. Sometimes the answer is no, and I'll tell you.
What it brings in
A ranking doesn't pay a salary. What counts is what it brings: enquiries, customers, revenue. Move your page up and see what it could bring in.
Example assumptions, open to challenge: 250 searches a month for specialist printing in your region, 4% of visitors make an enquiry, one enquiry in three is signed (this varies a lot from one trade to another), €3,000 per customer. Click-through rates by position are rough estimates, and they've been shifting since Google started showing AI answers above the results. Redo the calculation with your numbers
Possible revenue€0
Close to home
Charente has a long history with paper and print. Angoulême lives with books, comics and images. Cognac keeps a whole chain of label, carton and packaging suppliers busy for its bottles. A local workshop can therefore write pages for both sectors, in their own words, on top of pages for shops and village councils. I live between Cognac and Paris, I know the département, and I build your pages for those buyers.
Authors, small publishers, schools and studios need short, carefully made print runs: albums, posters, exhibition catalogues. If you take on this work, a page says so with formats, papers and minimum quantities. These customers are looking for someone to talk to, not a shopping basket.
Spirits houses, producers and their suppliers order labels and packaging where the finish matters as much as the design. If your workshop can do foiling, embossing or speciality papers, show it on dedicated pages. Only name a client if they give you permission.
In the département's villages, people look for a printer for a newsletter, fête posters, a menu, a banner. These customers want someone to talk to and local collection. Your Google Business Profile and a page on your local deliveries meet that need.
Beyond Google
Buyers now describe their entire project to an AI such as ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude or Mistral before looking for a workshop. For example: “I make liqueurs near Cognac, I need two thousand adhesive labels with gold foiling that survive an ice bucket. Which printer should I contact?”. The AI explains the constraints, then sometimes cites a few workshops.
It relies on what those workshops have written: materials, finishes, quantities, sectors served. A printer whose website says “adhesive bottle labels, gold foiling, short and medium runs” gives it a ready-made answer. “Your printing partner for three generations” doesn't tell it what you can do.
Question asked to an AII make liqueurs near Cognac. I need two thousand adhesive labels with gold foiling. Which printer should I contact?
Three leads for these labels:
Fig. 3. Reconstruction, names hidden. This is the spot we aim for: on the list, with the most precise description.
Three typical cases
These three workshops are made up for the example. They illustrate three ways to get started. I build your plan once the audit is done.
It prints for shops and associations in its town and sees customers leaving for online websites.
It works for a few large clients and wants to widen its customer base.
Its website presents the machines and mostly receives price requests for standard products.
In practice
Pricing
The fee depends on four things. I give you a precise amount after a free first thirty-minute conversation.
Fancy a game?
A brochure website that hasn't changed in ten years is a set of undead pages. Grab the piece, slide it into the slot, and watch them fall.
INSERT COINSLIDE THE COIN INTO THE SLOT
Fig. 4. Sixteen seconds. Five of the undead, including an article from 2014.
Together, let's devour your competitors.
One by one, and in order. Every spot gained makes the next one easier to take: that's why it keeps growing. See the method
Who you're talking to
My name is Kévin Papot. More than fifteen years in the job, four co-written books, and the Newp agency, co-founded in Charente. I also run my own online shops, in France and internationally: one of them went from zero to a million visits a month.
Before we talk tags, we talk margin, average basket and profitability. When you book a call, I'm the one who picks up.
FAQ
On standard products, no. They have a huge number of pages and prices your workshop can't match. I won't take you there. On a speciality, a finish, advice or a town, your page can show up, because those websites answer them poorly.
For a simple, repeat product, a starting price or a price table avoids requests that go nowhere. For a custom job, explain what makes the price vary: quantity, paper, finish, turnaround. You decide product by product.
Not necessarily. A calculator is expensive to build and drags you back into price comparison. A short form and a quick reply are often enough. If you sell a lot of repeat products, the question is worth looking at with your numbers.
Only if you have products that can be ordered without discussion, and someone to handle the orders. I run my own online shops and I know the work involved. For a specialist workshop, the quote request is often still the right tool.
What you give me, and nothing else. You tell me your current labels and what they cover. I present them without explaining their criteria and without vague wording about ecology. You proofread that part before it goes live.
With their agreement. Some clients agree to be named, others don't. In that case, I describe the sector, the material and the finish without giving a name. The photo of the printed object must also be approved, especially for packaging that hasn't been released yet.
Do the maths with your numbers. A label or packaging customer reorders several times a year, sometimes for years. A few serious enquiries a month can be enough. If your speciality is almost never searched for, the audit will show it and I'll tell you.
You give me the material: what the machine does, its limits, customers' common mistakes. I ask the questions and structure the page. The Newp team can write from your answers. Your workshop manager proofreads, so that no promise goes beyond what you can deliver.
Both, depending on the case. Many agencies look for a reliable printer for their clients. A “you're an agency or a designer” page explains your file formats, proofs and turnaround times. It doesn't stop you from also serving customers directly.
I'm not a printer. I've co-written four books, so I've been on the side of the person waiting for their copies. My trade has been SEO for fifteen years. You explain your machines and your customers to me, and I find out what those customers type.
See also
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Together we look at where you stand on Google and in AI, and what should change first.
