How to Put Your Shop on Google Maps (Nigeria, 2026)

Open Google Maps on your phone and search for your own shop by name.

There is a reasonable chance it is already there. Not because you put it there — because Google builds listings from its own data, from delivery addresses, from what other people have searched for and tagged. Thousands of Nigerian shops are already sitting on Google Maps with a pin their owner never dropped, sometimes with the wrong phone number, sometimes marked "permanently closed" by a stranger who walked past on a public holiday.

If that is your shop, you do not need to create anything. You need to claim what already exists — and creating a second listing instead is the most expensive mistake in this whole process.

If it is not there at all, that is the more common case, and it is worth fixing. A customer standing in Ikeja typing "phone accessories near me" is a customer with money in their hand and no loyalty yet. Whoever appears on that map gets the walk-in. Right now, in most Nigerian markets, that is nobody — which means the bar is low.

This is free. It takes about forty-five minutes. And there is one prerequisite that nobody mentions until you are halfway through, so let us start there.

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Before You Start: The Signboard Problem

Google no longer takes your word for it that your shop exists. For most new listings in Nigeria, verification now means recording a video, live, on your phone, standing at your shop.

And Google's own requirements say the video must show permanent signage carrying your business name.

Read that again, because it is the part that decides whether the rest of this guide is worth your time. A printed banner tied to a rail is not permanent signage. A shop number painted on a shutter is not your business name. If your shop is identified only as "Shop 42" inside a plaza, you will record the video, wait five days, and be rejected — with no clear explanation of why.

So the honest first step is not a Google account. It is a signboard.

If you do not have one, get one made before you start this process. It is worth having regardless of Google — a customer who was told "the shop after the one selling generators" needs to be able to confirm they have arrived. Once the sign is up, come back to this guide.

Everything else you need:

• A phone. Android is easiest, and it is what most people reading this are holding.
• A Google account you control. Not one that came with a second-hand phone.
• To be physically at the shop when you do the verification part. This cannot be done from home.
• WiFi if you have access to any. The verification video is a real upload.

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Step 1: Check If Your Shop Is Already There

Before creating anything, search your business name in Google Maps. Try the shop name, then the shop name plus the market or area.

If something comes up, open it and look for "Claim this business" or "Own this business?" That is the path you want. Claiming means taking control of a listing that already has whatever history, reviews and search traffic it has accumulated.

If you create a fresh listing while an old one exists, you end up with two entries for one shop. They compete with each other, Google usually shows the older one, and the phone number your customers see is the one you cannot edit. Merging them afterwards is a support process, in English, with no timeline. Avoid it by looking first.

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Step 2: Create the Listing

If nothing exists, go to google.com/business in your phone browser and tap "Manage now."

Check whose account you are signed in to. Google will either ask you to log in or show you a list of accounts already on the phone. Look at the email address on screen. On shared and second-hand phones this is frequently somebody else's account — sometimes the person who sold you the phone. A business profile created under their email belongs to their email, and getting it back is not simple.

Then Google asks for your business name. Type it slowly and watch the suggestions that appear underneath — this is the second place an existing listing will surface. If yours appears, tap it and claim rather than continuing.

Next comes the category, and this one matters more than it looks. Google picks which searches show your shop based largely on this single choice, and you must select from Google's own fixed list — you cannot type your own. There is rarely a perfect match for how a Nigerian trader would describe their business, so pick the closest and move on:

You can add secondary categories later, once the listing is live. Do not spend twenty minutes here.

After the category, Google asks whether customers can visit you at a location. For a shop, the answer is yes.

The address is where Nigerian businesses struggle, because Google's form was built for street numbers and your address may be "Shop 42, Ojoo Plaza, Alaba International Market." Put the shop number and plaza name together in the first address line, the road or market in the next, then the area, the LGA and the state in the fields Google provides. It does not have to be beautiful. It has to be findable.

Google will then show a map with a pin it guessed, and ask you to confirm the position. Drag it. Inside a large market the guess often lands on the wrong building, or on the middle of the complex. If the map is too crowded to read, zoom out until you find a landmark you can see from the road — a junction, a filling station, the market gate — and work back from there.

Skip the question about serving customers outside your location. That one is for businesses that travel to the customer, like plumbers and delivery services. It reads like it means "do you also have other customers," which is why so many shop owners answer yes and end up with a hidden address.

Finally, the phone number. Use the number your WhatsApp is on. Google built that field for a landline; in Nigeria it is your actual sales channel, and a customer who finds you on Maps will message it before they call it.

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Step 3: The Verification Video

Your listing now exists, but nobody can see it. Verification is what makes it public, and it works differently from everything you just did.

The video is recorded inside the Google Maps app — not the browser you have been using, and not on a computer. Open the Maps app on the same phone, signed into the same account, find your business profile, and tap "Get verified," then "Business video."

This app switch throws people. If you are following along and cannot find the option in your browser, that is not you doing it wrong. It is not there.

What Google asks for:

The order that works: start outside, far enough back that the street and your neighbours are visible. Walk in towards your shop with the sign in frame and hold it steady for a few seconds — do not rush past it. Then step inside, show the shelves, and finish by doing something only the owner would do. Open the till. Unlock a display case. Pick up stock and put it back.

Film in daylight. Walk slowly. Say nothing — audio is not assessed and talking makes people hurry.

Then Google plays it back and asks you to submit. Review takes up to five working days.

During those five days, do not start the process again. The most common way traders end up with duplicate listings is assuming the first attempt failed because nothing happened by Wednesday.

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Step 4: Fill It In Properly

Once you are approved, a verified profile with nothing in it still does not do much. Three things are worth the extra ten minutes:

Opening hours. This is the field that most affects whether somebody actually walks over. "Open now" is a filter people use constantly, and a shop with no hours listed gets skipped by it entirely.

Photos. The shop front, so people recognise it when they arrive. Inside, so they can see the range. A few of your actual products. Photos taken on a phone in good light are completely fine.

Reviews. Ask the customers who already like you. Google weighs reviews heavily in what it shows first, and in most Nigerian markets your competitors have none — so five genuine reviews puts you ahead of the entire street. Ask in person, at the point of sale, when someone is happy. Do not pay for reviews; Google removes them and it damages the listing.

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What Usually Goes Wrong

Two listings for one shop. Always search before you create. Claim, do not duplicate.

The wrong Google account. Check the email on screen before you continue, especially on a phone you bought used.

No permanent signage. Not fixable inside the process. Get the sign made first.

A video that is too short. Thirty seconds feels long when you are filming. It is not enough. Aim for ninety.

A pin in the wrong place. Customers arrive at the wrong building and leave. Drag it yourself; do not accept Google's guess inside a market.

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What It Costs You

Nothing, except the forty-five minutes and — if you do not have one — a signboard.

There are people who will offer to do this for you for money. There is nothing here they can do that you cannot, and handing over your business profile means handing over the Google account that controls it. Do it yourself.

Being findable is the first half. The second half is that the shop is actually worth finding when the customer arrives — that the product they saw is in stock, that the price you quoted is the price you charge, and that you know at the end of the day what came in and what went out. That part is what MyTreda is for, and if your records currently live in an exercise book, that is a different problem worth reading about.

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Google changes this process regularly. This guide reflects how it worked in August 2026 — if a screen looks different from what is described here, the button names are usually still the same. MyTreda is not affiliated with Google.