Cossette Roofing
A full website rebuild and bilingual AEO campaign made Cossette Roofing the AI-cited authority for roofing across the Gatineau-Ottawa cross-border market — covering 34 of 50 buying-intent prompts and 36 keywords in Google's top 10.
Opening narrative
A 20-year-established roofing company with new ownership and zero AI visibility in a bilingual cross-border market.
Client introduction
Cossette Roofing (toiturescossette.ca) is a long-standing roofing contractor based in Gatineau, Quebec, RBQ-licensed (5697-7788-01), serving the Outaouais region and the Ottawa side of the border. Under new ownership by Vincent Detillieux, the company carries 20+ years of regional reputation, BBB accreditation, GAF Factory Certification, and full bilingual French/English service capability across residential, commercial flat roofing, metal roofing, elastomeric membrane, and 24/7 emergency response.
The problem
The problem: despite the legacy reputation, the brand was effectively invisible in AI search. Outaouais and Ottawa-Gatineau homeowners asking ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews, or Gemini “Who does emergency roof repair in Gatineau?” “Best roofing company in Hull, Quebec?” “Who installs metal roofing on homes in Gatineau and Ottawa?” — Cossette did not appear in the answer. The cross-border Quebec-Ontario footprint, the bilingual capability, and the 20-year track record were all real assets — but none of them were findable by AI engines.
Market complexity
This is a complex market: French-language search behavior in Gatineau, English-language search behavior in Ottawa, distinct provincial regulations (RBQ in Quebec, separate licensing in Ontario), and a competitive landscape of established Ottawa-side roofers with deeper SEO investment.
What we Worked on
Engagement scope
Intleacht AI Systems rebuilt toiturescossette.ca from the ground up using the 7-Pillar AI Visibility Framework. Every page was rewritten for AI extraction in both languages, schema deployed across the site, location pages built for the entire Outaouais and Ottawa-Gatineau cross-border footprint (Gatineau, Hull, Aylmer, Embrun, Orléans, Clarence-Rockland, Cornwall), and the brand’s RBQ licensing, GAF certification, and BBB accreditation surfaced as AI-extractable trust signals. Cossette signed up for the Intleacht AI Visibility Program producing 8 SEO + 16 AEO articles per month, fully bilingual.
Headline result
The result: 34 of 50 tracked AI prompts now cite Cossette Roofing, with 33% average visibility where they appear and 36 keywords in Google’s top 10 across both Quebec and Ontario search markets.
The Results
AI Visibility (Across the major AI engines)
- AI visibility achieved on the majority of tracked buying-intent prompts in the regional roofing category
- Category leadership on the cross-border queries — the rare contractor genuinely serving both Quebec and Ontario homeowners
- Strong share-of-voice positioning on emergency repair, metal roofing, flat roofing, and certified-contractor queries
- Authority signals (RBQ license, GAF certification, BBB accreditation, 20+ years in business) now consistently surfaced to AI engines
- Coverage spanning every topic cluster relevant to a regional roofing buyer — local visibility, service area coverage, emergency repair, flat roofing, metal roofing, shingle roofing, materials, certifications, commercial roofing, and quoting process
Traditional SEO (Google) — Quebec + Ontario markets
- Multiple keywords ranking in the top 3 across both provincial markets
- Substantial share of tracked keywords ranking in the top 10
- #1 desktop ranking on a high-value commercial-grade specialty service
- Top 5 rankings across the core Gatineau service set
- Strong backlink profile and broad referring domain footprint
- Zero technical SEO issues — clean site audit
The Impact
Before
Before the rebuild, Cossette Roofing had a 20-year reputation that simply did not translate to digital authority. New ownership had inherited a brand with deep regional roots but no AI visibility in a cross-border, bilingual market where most of the search competition is well-funded, English-first, Ottawa-side.
After
After the rebuild, Cossette is the cited authority for the most defensible queries in the market — the cross-border ones. Cossette is the rare contractor that genuinely serves both sides of the river, and AI engines now reflect that. When a homeowner in Embrun, Cornwall, or Orléans asks for a roofer that covers their area from the Gatineau side, Cossette is named first. When someone asks specifically for a GAF Factory-Certified or RBQ-licensed roofer, Cossette is in the answer.
The campaign generated
The campaign generated:
- A defensible cross-border position in a bilingual market most competitors can’t serve
- AI visibility on the buying-intent emergency queries (24/7 emergency, leak repair, ice dam damage) that drive same-day phone calls
- Authority signals (RBQ license, GAF certification, BBB accreditation, 20+ years in business) now surfaced consistently to AI engines
- A continuous content engine producing 24 articles per month in both French and English
Why It Matters
Market context
The Outaouais–Ottawa region is one of the most linguistically and regulatorily complex roofing markets in North America. A homeowner in Gatineau searches in French for a Quebec RBQ-licensed roofer. A homeowner in Ottawa searches in English for an Ontario-licensed contractor. Most local roofers serve only one side. AI engines, until recently, had no clear way to identify the contractors who genuinely cover both.
Why Cossette wins
Cossette Roofing now is that contractor — not because they advertised it, but because their website was rebuilt to be the source AI engines cite when the question is bilingual, cross-border, and trust-led. A 20-year reputation that lived offline now lives in the answer ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews, and Gemini give homeowners across the entire Outaouais–Ottawa region.
Methodology framing
This is what the 7-Pillar AI Visibility Framework does. It rebuilds your website into the 7-Pillar AI Visibility Foundation — the asset AI engines cite, even in bilingual, cross-jurisdictional, multi-province markets where most local SEO playbooks fail. The Cossette Roofing results are the proof that legacy reputation can be re-engineered into AI-cited authority.