7 SEO mistakes made by 70% of independent restaurants in 2025 (and how to fix them)

Oct 17, 2025

Independent restaurateurs must pay more attention than ever to their online visibility.

Nearly 90% of customers now choose their establishment via a local search on the internet. However, a recent study reveals that 73% of restaurants make local SEO errors that render them almost invisible when customers search for "restaurants near me," resulting in a loss of thousands of euros in revenue each month.

The good news: these common mistakes in local SEO are avoidable.

Here are the 7 most frequent mistakes observed in France in 2024–2025 among independent restaurants, along with recent data and practical advice to remedy them.

1) Not optimizing your Google Business Profile (Google My Business)

Google Business Profile (GBP, formerly Google My Business) registration is the local showcase of your restaurant on Google. Yet, many restaurateurs neglect it.

In France, more than one in two profiles is incomplete – 52.65% of establishments had not provided at least one basic piece of information (description, phone, hours, or website). According to a recent observation, 67% of restaurants even have an incomplete or poorly optimized Google profile.

This situation is particularly problematic since 88% of consumers consult local information online before choosing a restaurant.

In short, leaving fields empty (address, hours, menu, etc.) or failing to claim your profile equates to losing potential customers.

The consequences are direct: a poorly filled-out profile leads to incorrect or unlisted hours, uninviting visuals, and conflicting information with your website, ultimately resulting in a drop in ranking on Google.

Conversely, the effort is worth it: a complete profile generates up to 7× more clicks than a nearly empty profile, and a well-maintained business profile (updated hours, recent posts…) is 70% more likely to attract an on-site visit.

Let’s not forget that 92.4% of internet users access profiles via Google Maps (rather than web searches).

If your restaurant does not appear correctly there, you disappear in the eyes of most local customers – including in responses from voice assistants or AI, which draw their information from these local databases.

Here are our tips to correct the error:

Claim and complete 100% of your GBP profile. Fill in all important fields: exact address, phone number, up-to-date opening hours (including holiday exceptions), link to your website, menu, detailed description, etc. Total consistency between the profile and your website is essential to send the right signals to Google.
Enhance visuals and updates. Add attractive and professional photos (dishes, dining room, team) and update them regularly. Also publish news (events, promotions, seasonal menus) on your profile. These frequent updates show that your establishment is active – a dynamic profile enhances your local SEO.
Continuously verify information. Schedule a monthly check of your profile: hours, phone number, address, and menu must always be accurate. Bonus: complete and up-to-date profiles appear more often in the Local Pack (top 3 Google Maps), which captures a large share of user clicks.

2) Ignoring online customer reviews

Underestimating the importance of reviews is undoubtedly the most common and costly mistake.

The numbers speak for themselves: 93% of consumers read online reviews before choosing a restaurant, and 71% regard them with as much trust as personal recommendations.

On Google, reviews directly influence local SEO: a restaurant with many recent reviews and a high rating will rank better than a competitor with a nearly empty profile or poor rating.

In 2025, restaurants have the lowest average rating (3.6/5 in France), indicating significant room for improvement. In practical terms, a well-rated restaurant can see up to 60% more traffic than a poorly-rated restaurant, a huge impact on your dining room and revenue.

Despite this, many restaurateurs neglect managing their e-reputation. It's observed that 58% of restaurants have no strategy for collecting reviews, 72% never respond to negative reviews, and 45% do not encourage satisfied customers to leave a comment.

However, leaving a negative review unanswered tarnishes your image: internet users read management responses, and responding can even turn the situation around – about one-third of unhappy customers change their minds to positive after an appropriate response.

Neglecting your reviews means leaving complaints unanswered (in front of everyone) and missing the opportunity to thank your satisfied ambassadors. In extreme cases, some try to ignore the problem or, worse, buy fake reviews: a risky practice (detection, deletion, penalties) and disastrous for credibility.