FAQ

SEO (Search Engine Optimization), or organic search optimization, covers the techniques that improve a website's position in the unpaid results of search engines such as Google. It rests on three pillars: technical foundations (speed, indexing, structure), content (relevance to what users search for) and authority (backlinks, brand awareness).

GEO, or Generative Engine Optimization, aims to make a brand visible and cited in the answers of conversational AI tools: ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Claude or Google's AI Overviews. It relies on clear, factual content, direct answers to questions, structured data and a consistent brand presence on trusted sources.

SEO aims to rank pages in a list of links; GEO aims to have AI tools reuse and cite your information in the answers they write. The two are complementary: a well-ranked website is more often used as a source by AI, but GEO also requires content structured as questions and answers, precise definitions and authority signals across the web.

An LLM can mention a brand for two reasons: because it appears in its training data, or because it finds it through a web search while answering. To be cited, you need to publish clear content that directly answers your customers' questions, structure your pages (explicit headings, FAQs, Schema.org structured data), increase mentions of your brand on reliable sources (press, business directories, reviews, partner websites) and let AI crawlers access your website. That is the whole purpose of GEO.

Each assistant relies on its own sources: ChatGPT uses Bing's index and its OAI-SearchBot crawler, among others, Perplexity uses its PerplexityBot crawler, Claude its Claude-SearchBot crawler, while Gemini and Google AI Overviews rely on Google's index. The practical levers: rank well on both Google and Bing, allow these crawlers in your robots.txt file, keep your Google Business Profile up to date, earn reviews and citations on reference websites, and publish factual, dated pages that are easy to extract. Regularly monitoring AI answers then lets you measure and improve your visibility.

SEA (Search Engine Advertising) refers to paid advertising on search engines, mainly through Google Ads. Advertisers bid on keywords and generally pay per click (CPC). SEA generates qualified traffic as soon as campaigns go live, which makes it ideal for a launch, a promotion or a highly competitive market.

SMA (Social Media Advertising) refers to paid advertising on social networks: LinkedIn, Meta (Facebook, Instagram), TikTok, YouTube and others. Its strength is precise targeting by profile, interests, job title or industry, which is particularly useful in B2B on LinkedIn or to build brand awareness in B2C.

SEA delivers immediate results but stops as soon as the budget is cut; SEO takes several months but builds lasting traffic with no cost per click. The most effective strategy often combines both: SEA to generate leads quickly and test which keywords convert, SEO to gradually reduce dependence on advertising.

The first effects of an SEO strategy are usually visible within 3 to 6 months, and significant results within 6 to 12 months. This timeframe depends on the age of the website, the competition on the targeted keywords and how regularly new content is published.

The Google Partner badge is a selective certification: only around 500 agencies in France hold it. Google awards it only to agencies that meet demanding, continuously monitored criteria: strong performance on the campaigns they manage (an optimization score of at least 70%), a minimum advertising spend over 90 days and at least half of their strategic staff certified in Google Ads. For advertisers, it guarantees that their campaigns are entrusted to a team that is trained, monitored and recognized by Google. Kardinal T is a certified Google Partner agency.

Display advertising refers to visual ads shown on websites, apps and video platforms: banners, images, animated or video formats. Ad space is bought from ad networks or through platforms such as the Google Display Network, often programmatically, and billed per thousand impressions (CPM) or per click. Display is mainly used to build brand awareness and to retarget a website's visitors.

IAB formats are the ad sizes and standards defined by the IAB (Interactive Advertising Bureau), the international online advertising organization. They ensure that the same creative is accepted by most websites and ad networks. The most common are the medium rectangle (300 × 250 pixels), the leaderboard (728 × 90), the skyscraper (160 × 600), the half page (300 × 600) and the mobile banner (320 × 50). The IAB also defines video advertising standards such as VAST.

Pre-roll is a video ad played before the content a user has chosen to watch, for example on YouTube or on catch-up TV platforms. It can be non-skippable, or skippable after 5 seconds, like YouTube in-stream ads. Its effectiveness depends on the very first seconds: the message and the brand must appear immediately.

Retargeting is the practice of showing ads to users who have already visited a website or interacted with a brand without completing the desired action (purchase, quote request, sign-up). It relies on the audiences of advertising platforms (Google Ads, Meta, LinkedIn) and can be personalized according to the pages viewed. It is one of the most profitable levers for converting hesitant visitors, provided their consent is collected in line with the GDPR.

Traffic management is the day-to-day management of online advertising campaigns: allocating budgets across channels (Google Ads, social networks, display), adjusting bids, testing ads and analyzing performance to maximize return on investment.

Conversion rate optimization (CRO) aims to increase the share of visitors who take a useful action: quote request, purchase, sign-up, phone call. It relies on data analysis (Google Analytics, heatmaps), usability improvements and A/B testing on key pages.

Copywriting, known in French agencies as conception-rédaction, is the job of coming up with the concept of a campaign and writing its copy: taglines, slogans, messages, scripts and website content. The copywriter works hand in hand with the art director so that the idea, the words and the visuals all serve the same message.

A persona is a fictional but realistic portrait of a typical customer, built from real data: profile, goals, pain points, information and buying habits. It helps tailor messages, content and the choice of communication channels to each target audience.

A marketing insight is a deep truth about the customer: a need, a frustration, a motivation or a belief, often unspoken, that explains their behavior. Expressed from the customer's point of view, for example "I want to eat well, but I don't have time to cook during the week", it serves as the starting point for a strategy or a campaign. The more accurate the insight, the more the message resonates with its audience and feels obvious to them.

Positioning defines the place a brand wants to occupy in its customers' minds compared with its competitors: who it speaks to and how it is different. Branding is the set of means that express this positioning: name, logo, visual identity, tone of voice, values and brand experience.

A marketing audit takes stock of a company's communication: brand image, website, online visibility, content, competition and the performance of past actions. It identifies priorities and lays the groundwork for a strategy based on objective findings.

Art direction defines and safeguards the visual universe of a brand or a campaign: colors, typefaces, images, layout and graphic style. The art director ensures consistency across all media, from the website to posters and videos.

Brand guidelines (or a brand style guide) are the reference document that sets the rules for using a brand's visual identity: logo variations, color palette, typefaces, imagery and application examples. They keep communication consistent, whichever supplier produces the materials.

The logo (or logotype) is the graphic sign that identifies a brand. The visual identity is broader: it includes the logo, colors, typefaces, pictograms, photographic style and the way all these elements combine across different media.

Artwork production consists of adapting an approved design to all the required formats and media (posters, brochures, web banners, roll-up banners, social networks) and preparing technically compliant files for printing or digital distribution.

Print production management covers the production of a printed item or object: choosing paper and finishes, consulting printers, checking proofs and making sure everything complies with the brief through to delivery.

Web design is the design of the look and visual organization of a website or an app: layout, information hierarchy, colors, buttons and mobile adaptation. Good web design combines aesthetics, readability and commercial effectiveness.

Kardinal T produces four main types of video, from scriptwriting to post-production:

• Traditional filming and editing: corporate films, commercials, interviews, event filming and drone footage, shot in real conditions then edited and color graded, such as Eiffage's safety film or Demathieu Bard's real estate showcase video.
• Motion design: animated text, shapes, icons and key figures, ideal for explaining a service, an offer or a process in a few seconds.
• 2D animation: animated illustrations and characters that tell a story in a graphic style unique to the brand, such as the saga of three animated monsters created for Cotélib.
• 3D: modeling and animation of products, buildings or environments, to show what cannot be filmed, such as the 3D film for Latécoère's LiFi project or Elter's video combining 3D and illustration.

These techniques can be combined in the same film. See our video productions

They are three successive stages in writing a video. The synopsis summarizes the story and the intent in a few lines. The script details the sequence of events, the dialogue and the voice-over. The storyboard then illustrates each shot as drawn panels, so the film can be visualized before shooting.

A storyboard is a series of drawings or images that shows, shot by shot, how a video unfolds: framing, action, camera movements, text and sound. It is used to validate the film with the client and to prepare the shoot or the animation without surprises.

Motion design is the animation of graphic elements: text, shapes, icons, illustrations or logos. It is ideal for explaining a complex service or product simply, bringing key figures to life or creating short content for social networks.

Event filming is the video recording of a real event: conference, convention, trade show, interview or seminar. It can be shot with multiple cameras, complemented by drone footage, then edited for later or live broadcast.

An aftermovie is a short, fast-paced video produced after an event to convey its atmosphere and highlights. It extends the event's visibility on social networks and serves as promotional material for the next edition.

Editing consists of selecting and assembling the filmed sequences to build the story. Post-production covers all the stages that follow: color grading, sound mixing, graphic overlays, special effects and 3D animation.

A wireframe is a simplified black-and-white diagram showing the structure of a web page or an app screen: placement of menus, content blocks, buttons and forms. It is used to validate how information is organized before working on the graphic design.

The wireframe defines the structure of a page without any graphic design. The mockup applies the final design: colors, typefaces, images. The prototype makes the mockup clickable to simulate navigation and test the user journey before development.

UX (User Experience) aims to make a website simple, intuitive and pleasant to use. It focuses on ease of navigation, clarity of content, accessibility and smooth user journeys, with a concrete goal: helping users find information and take action.

UX (User Experience) concerns the overall experience and the logic of user journeys: can the user easily reach their goal? UI (User Interface) concerns the visible interface: buttons, colors, icons, typefaces. UX defines how it works, UI how it looks.

A showcase website presents a company, its services and its work, with the aim of generating leads or quote requests. An e-commerce website also makes it possible to sell online: product catalog, shopping cart, secure payment, stock and order management.

Generative AI refers to artificial intelligence capable of producing text, images, code or audio from a natural-language request. In business, it is used to automate repetitive tasks, assist with writing, create conversational assistants or make faster use of internal documents.

An LLM (Large Language Model) is an artificial intelligence trained on huge volumes of text to understand and produce natural language. GPT (used by ChatGPT), Claude, Gemini, Mistral and Llama are LLMs. They answer questions, write, summarize, translate and write code. When connected to a search engine or to a company's documents (RAG), they draw on up-to-date information.

RAG (Retrieval-Augmented Generation) is a technique that allows an AI to answer based on a company's own documents: catalogs, procedures, knowledge bases. Answers are therefore more reliable, up to date and tailored to the business, without retraining the model.

A web service (or API) is a program that allows two applications to exchange data automatically over the internet. It is used, for example, to connect a website to a CRM, an ERP, a payment tool or business software.

The W3C (World Wide Web Consortium) is the international body that defines web standards such as HTML, CSS and the WCAG accessibility guidelines. Founded in 1994 by Tim Berners-Lee, the inventor of the web, it ensures that websites work the same way across all browsers and devices. Following W3C standards improves a website's compatibility, accessibility and search rankings.

The GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) governs the collection and use of personal data in Europe. A compliant website clearly informs its visitors, obtains their consent for non-essential cookies and secures the data it collects, which avoids penalties and builds trust.

Kardinal T is a marketing and communication agency based in Toulouse and Paris. It supports companies throughout France, on both online and offline campaigns. Contact us

Kardinal T offers an integrated service: marketing and editorial consulting, art direction and graphic design, video production, website and artificial intelligence development, and organic and paid traffic acquisition (SEO, GEO, SEA, SMA). The agency works from strategy through to graphic and technical execution. Discover our services

Kardinal T works with more than 80 clients and has a strong specialization in industry, aeronautics, space and defense (Airbus, Thales, Dassault, Safran, Latécoère, GIFAS, the French Civil Aviation Authority (DGAC) and the French Air Force). The agency also works for digital companies (Navblue, Skywise, Innov ATM), food (Danone, Poulet de Loué, Newrest), banking and finance (Crédit Agricole, Groupe Yrcam), healthcare (Pierre Fabre, IUCT Oncopole), energy (Total, Vinci Energies), agritech, construction (Eiffage, Demathieu Bard), sport (Stade Toulousain) and non-profit organizations (Fondation Latécoère, LPO, Lazare). See our work

Kardinal T has worked for Airbus, Thales, Dassault, Safran, Latécoère, Potez Aéronautique, Renault, Volvo, Danone, BIC, Pierre Fabre, Crédit Agricole, Total, Vinci Energies, Eiffage, GLS, Newrest, Facom, Mecachrome, Stade Toulousain, La Dépêche du Midi, the DGAC and the French Air Force, among others. The agency also supports SMEs, start-ups and non-profits such as Flying Whales, Tracto-Lock, Le Moulin du Pivert, Lazare and the LPO. A selection of case studies is available in the portfolio. Explore our case studies

Yes. Kardinal T supports both B2B and B2C companies, from defining their marketing strategy to producing and distributing their communication campaigns.