SEO Study: Small Businesses in Réunion Island 2026 — 12 Key Figures
A proprietary audit of 87 small business websites in Réunion Island (974), covering 18 SEO and GEO criteria across 24 municipalities. The state of the regional digital market, in numbers.
Methodology
Between January and April 2026, DigiDataLe audited 87 websites of small businesses (1-50 employees) operating in Réunion Island (974). Sectors covered: restaurants, trades, healthcare, professional services and retail. The audit measured 18 SEO and Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) criteria across the 24 municipalities of the island.
Sources used to build the sample: Pages Jaunes, Le 974 directory, CCI Réunion directory. Tooling: Screaming Frog (crawl and on-page analysis), Lighthouse (Core Web Vitals), manual review of Google Business Profile (GBP) and on-site AI citation tests (ChatGPT, Perplexity).
The 12 key figures
| # | Indicator | Result (Réunion 2026) |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Correctly indexed in Google | 28% |
| 2 | Mobile PageSpeed score below 50/100 | 61% of sites |
| 3 | Structured Schema.org markup present | 11% (89% missing) |
| 4 | Active Google Business Profile with recent photos | 34% |
| 5 | GBP posts in the last 30 days | 22% |
| 6 | GBP inactive for 12+ months | 58% |
| 7 | Median number of Google reviews | 14 reviews per business |
| 8 | Businesses with 100+ Google reviews | 17% |
| 9 | Answer at least 50% of reviews | 27% |
| 10 | Median internal links per page | 4 |
| 11 | Dedicated service + municipality pages | 8% |
| 12 | llms.txt file served |
1.1% (1 site out of 87) |
Additional indicators
- WhatsApp Business integrated on the website: 18% (despite roughly 80% user preference for WhatsApp contact in the region).
- Kap Numérik subsidy mentioned: 9% of vendor-facing sites.
- Cited by AI engines (ChatGPT, Perplexity) on local commercial queries: 17%.
Réunion vs target benchmarks
| Indicator | Réunion median | Recommended target |
|---|---|---|
| Mobile PageSpeed | 42 / 100 | > 75 / 100 |
| Pages correctly indexed | 28% | > 95% |
| Schema.org present | 11% | > 80% |
| Google reviews per business | 14 | > 100 |
| Review response rate | 31% | 100% |
| Internal links per page | 4 | > 15 |
| Service + municipality pages | 0 | 5 or more |
| WhatsApp Business integration | 18% | 100% |
| Cited by AI engines | 17% | > 40% |
llms.txt served |
1.1% | > 20% by 2027 |
Regional comparison
| Market | Schema.org adoption | llms.txt adoption |
Median mobile PageSpeed |
|---|---|---|---|
| Réunion Island (87 sites, this study) | 11% | 1.1% | 42 / 100 |
| Mainland France (estimated) | ~55% | ~3% | ~62 / 100 |
| Mauritius (estimated) | ~25% | ~0.5% | ~50 / 100 |
Mainland France and Mauritius figures are public-source estimates used for context only. The Réunion figures are the result of a controlled proprietary audit.
Headline findings
- The Réunion digital market is one SEO maturity cycle behind mainland France. Roughly 60% of mainland sites integrate Schema.org, against 11% in Réunion.
- Google Business Profile is the #1 blind spot. 58% of small businesses have an inactive profile (no post for 12+ months), even though GBP is now the dominant local discovery channel.
- Generative Engine Optimization is a blue ocean. Only 1.1% of sites serve an
llms.txtfile — meaning early movers can dominate AI citations (ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity) for years before the market catches up. - WhatsApp gap. 80% of regional users prefer WhatsApp for first contact, but only 18% of websites offer WhatsApp Business integration.
Actionable recommendations
For small business owners (1-9 employees)
- GBP audit and professional photos (~€590) — expected: +25% profile visits in 90 days.
- Mobile-first website rebuild (PageSpeed target > 75) (~€2,490) — expected: +30% conversions.
- Schema.org Organization + LocalBusiness markup (~€0 via WPCode plugin).
- Five service + municipality pages (~€990) — expected: +40% local SEO traffic.
For SMEs (10-50 employees)
- Everything above, plus:
- Structured
llms-full.txt(~€590) — early-mover positioning for AI citations. - Advanced Schema on 20-30 pages (~€1,990).
- Integrated CRM automation (~€4,990) — commercial ROI within 2-6 months.
Most of these line items are eligible for the Kap Numérik subsidy. See our Kap Numérik 2026 guide.
Limitations
The sample (n=87) is representative of Réunion small businesses with an online presence sourced from Pages Jaunes, Le 974 and CCI Réunion. Businesses with no online presence at all are out of scope. The mainland France and Mauritius figures used for comparison are estimates from public sources, not a controlled audit; they are meant as orders of magnitude, not exact benchmarks.
Sources and citation
- Author: Greg Guinho, Founder of DigiDataLe.
- Publication date: May 13, 2026.
- Format: Proprietary audit.
- Suggested citation: DigiDataLe (2026), SEO Study of Small Businesses in Réunion Island 2026, Q1 2026 audit on 87 websites. https://digidatale.com/seo-study-small-businesses-reunion-2026/
Further reading
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