How to put your business on Google Maps in Nigeria: claim, create and verify it

This guide covers the setup itself: deciding who owns the listing, claiming or creating it, entering a Nigerian address Google can use, and getting through verification. If your profile already exists and is simply not appearing, start with our diagnosis of why a business is not showing on Google Maps in Nigeria. If you are in Lagos and want to know how to rank once you are listed, read our guide to appearing on Google Maps in Lagos. The steps below apply from Kano to Calabar.

Adding a place versus owning a profile

Putting a business on Google Maps properly means owning a verified Google Business Profile, not just adding the business as a place. Google Maps lets any user add a missing place, and Google says it shows publicly once added, but the person who adds it does not manage it. Only a verified Business Profile lets the owner control the hours, address, photos and replies to reviews.

That is Tunde’s situation, and it is common. A customer, a delivery rider or a well-meaning cousin adds the shop, and the business now exists on Maps with details nobody at the business chose. The fix is not to add it again. It is to claim the listing that is already there, which the next sections cover.

Which Google account should own the profile

The profile should be owned by a Google account the business itself controls, because whoever owns that account owns the listing. Google says a Google account is needed to sign up and that it can be a Gmail address or any other email address, so a personal Gmail works. The question is not whether it works but whose it is.

The most common setup problem we see is not technical at all. A nephew, a web designer or a former employee created the profile on their own account, then moved to Abuja, changed phones or stopped answering. A Business Profile created on someone else’s Gmail is a family heirloom: everyone agrees it belongs to the business, and nobody can open it.

• Use an account the owner signs in to. A dedicated Gmail for the business is sensible. Keep the password and recovery phone number with the owner.
• Add a second owner or a manager. Google says a profile can have several owners but only one primary owner. Owners have full control, including adding users. Managers have almost the same access but cannot add or remove users or remove the profile. Invite people from People and access in the profile settings; each person needs their own Google account.
• Give an agency manager access, not ownership. Anyone helping with the profile, us included, can do the work as a manager. Ownership stays with the business.

Search first, then claim or request access

Before creating anything, search Google Maps for the business name and city, because a listing may already exist and Google says there should be only one profile per business. Creating a second one does not replace the first; it gives Google two versions of the same shop to choose between.

• If the listing exists and is unclaimed: on a computer, select Claim this business, then Manage now. On the Google Maps app, open the listing, tap About, then Claim this business. You take over the existing listing rather than starting a rival one.
• If someone else already verified it: go to business.google.com/add, enter the name and address and choose the business. When Google says someone else may manage the profile, select Request access and submit the form.
• What happens next: Google emails the current owner, who has 3 days to respond. If they approve, you can manage the profile. If they do not respond, Google says you may be given the option to claim it, although it also says that option is not always available. If they deny the request, you can still suggest edits or appeal.

For a business that serves customers at their location and has no storefront, Google handles ownership transfers through its support team rather than the request form.

Creating the profile, step by step

A new profile is created at business.google.com/add by entering the business name, choosing a category, saying whether customers visit the location, and adding contact details before verification. It takes well under an hour on a phone, and most of that time is spent deciding on the category.

1. Name. Use the name on the signboard and the invoices. Google’s guidelines forbid adding taglines, services, locations or keywords to the name, and legal suffixes such as LTD only appear where the business uses them in the real world. “Tunde Prints” is a name. “Tunde Prints Best Printing Press Ibadan Dugbe” is a suspension waiting to happen.
2. Primary category. Choose the most specific one that describes the main business. A printing shop is a printing service, not a stationery store, even if it sells envelopes.
3. Location. Say whether customers come to you. If they do, enter the address. If you travel to them, as a plumber, caterer or mobile hairdresser does, the address is hidden and you list a service area instead.
4. Contact details. Add a phone number that is answered during the hours you list, and a website if you have one.
5. Verification. Google then shows the verification options for the profile, covered below.

Nigerian addresses without street numbers

A business whose address has no street number can still be listed, because Google says that when an address lacks a street number or the system cannot find it, the location can be pinned directly on the map. This describes a large share of shops, plazas and compounds in Nigeria, and it is the step that most often goes quietly wrong.

• Write the address as precisely as it exists. Street, area and city, with the shop or suite number on the second line. Google accepts suite and floor numbers. It does not accept P.O. boxes, and it says address lines should not carry keywords or anything unrelated to the physical location.
• Then move the pin by hand. Zoom in on a phone and place it on the entrance, not the road and not the compound next door. In the profile this is under Edit profile, then Location, then Adjust.
• Do not use a virtual office. Google says a rented mailing address the business does not operate from is not eligible. A co-working space qualifies only with clear signage, customers received during business hours and staff on site.
• Keep a signboard up. Google says businesses showing their address should maintain permanent fixed signage with the business name. It also matters for verification, which usually asks you to show it.
• Service-area businesses hide the address. Google’s guidelines say a business that does not serve customers at its address should hide it and list the areas served, and that a service area should not normally reach beyond about two hours of driving from the base. A Lagos caterer listing Kano as a service area is ambitious, and Google is not going to take it seriously.

Verification: what to expect

Verification is the step that makes the profile appear on Maps, and Google decides which methods each business is offered; the method cannot be changed. The options Google lists include a phone call or text, email, a live video call, a postcard and a recorded video, and some businesses are asked to complete more than one.

Three rules from Google’s help pages save the most time:

• Use video if it is offered. Google recommends video verification where a business is eligible. The rules for the recording are strict, and they are set out in the verification section of our Lagos guide; they apply unchanged across Nigeria.
• Allow up to five business days. Google says verification reviews take up to 5 business days and occasionally longer. A live video call is only available during the business hours you have listed.
• Do not edit while you wait. If a postcard is the method, Google says most codes arrive within 14 days and expire after 30. Editing the name, address or category, or requesting a new code, while waiting can invalidate the one in the post.

The first week after verification

Once verified, the profile should be completed straight away, because Google says complete and accurate information makes a business more likely to appear in local results. Being on Maps and being found on Maps are different achievements.

• Add opening hours you actually keep, a short description of what the business does, and photos of the signboard, the entrance and the inside.
• Ask every customer for a review, not only the happy ones. Google’s rules forbid filtering by rating, and our guide to getting more Google reviews in Nigeria covers the WhatsApp link that does most of the work.
• Keep the name, phone number and address identical on the profile, Instagram, invoices and the website.
• Settle into the weekly habits in our Google Business Profile optimization guide: photos, replies and posts.

When not to pay anyone for this

A single-location Nigerian business does not need to pay anyone to put itself on Google Maps, because Google states that a business can be added or claimed at no charge and the setup is an afternoon of work. Anyone selling “Google registration” is selling a free form with a delivery fee attached.

We sell SEO, and we have just spent a whole article explaining how to skip us for the first step. Our accountant has been informed and is coping.

Paying for help starts to make sense later: when a crowded category means every competitor is already verified, when several branches each need their own profile and review routine, or when the website and the pages around the profile are what decide who wins. That is ongoing work. Our Lagos and Abuja services cover it, the pricing page sets out the plans, and our guide to what SEO costs in Nigeria gives market rates in naira so you can compare anyone’s quote, ours included.

Maps is also not for every business. A seller who ships nationwide and takes every order on Instagram has customers who do not search by location, and a perfect profile will not change that.

The full checklist

A Nigerian business can be put on Google Maps by working through seven steps in order, from choosing the owning account to the first review request.

1. Choose the Google account that will own the profile. Use a Google account the business controls, not one belonging to a relative, designer or employee who may leave. Write down which account it is.
2. Search Google Maps for the business name and city. If a listing already exists, select Claim this business. If Google says someone else manages it, select Request access instead of creating a second profile.
3. Create the profile at business.google.com/add. Enter the name exactly as it appears on the signboard, choose the most specific primary category, and decide whether customers visit the location.
4. Enter the address or the service area. A business with premises customers visit enters its address and pins the entrance. A business that travels to customers hides its address and lists the areas it serves.
5. Complete the verification method Google offers. Google decides which methods are available. Complete the one shown, then avoid editing the name, address or category until the review is finished.
6. Add a second owner or a manager. Invite a second trusted person through People and access so the business is not locked out if one account is lost.
7. Complete the profile and start asking for reviews. Add hours, a phone number that is answered, photos and a description, then ask every customer for a Google review.

Tunde claimed the listing someone else had added, moved the pin to his side of the road and corrected the hours. He verified it from the shop and made his daughter a manager, on her own account, so the profile is no longer kept in one phone. The driver found the shop on the first attempt. The man on WhatsApp has since offered to “upgrade” the listing for ₦30,000, which Tunde regards as a discount.