Someone in Lagos searches for a mechanic from Lekki, and a colleague types the same words from Ikeja. They see different workshops. A restaurant owner in Nairobi finds the same thing between Westlands and Kilimani. So what does it take to be the profile that gets chosen in each place?
The short answer: no single trick decides it. Profiles that get chosen tend to share five ordinary traits. They are unique per location, precise about what they do, accurate about opening hours, supported by reviews requested from every customer in the same way, and watched for changes nobody approved. This guide covers each one, then shows how to read your visibility neighbourhood by neighbourhood and how to organise the work over 30 days.
Why the same search changes from Lekki to Ikeja
Google explains that local results depend on relevance, distance and prominence (official tips to improve your local ranking). Relevance is how well your profile matches the words typed. Distance is how far the searcher is from you. Prominence is how well known and trusted the business appears, including reviews and complete information.
Distance is the factor owners forget most. Lagos and Nairobi are large, spread-out cities where people move between districts every day. Someone searching from Victoria Island sees different businesses from someone in Surulere, and the same is true between Westlands and Eastlands. Your competitor is therefore not one profile. It is whichever profiles appear around each area where your customers live or work.
A ten minute test before you change anything
Pick the search a customer would type, such as “barber”, “car repair” or “restaurant”. Run it from three neighbourhoods and note the first five profiles in each list. Look at them as a customer would: are hours filled in, are photos recent, do reviews get replies, does the phone number look reachable? Keep your notes. They are your starting point, and you will repeat the test in a month.
Fix the profile: location, category, services and hours
Work through these in order, because each one builds on the last. Before starting, search for your business name on Google Maps. If two profiles appear, or one shows an old address or number, resolve that first, because duplicates split reviews and confuse customers.
One profile per location, with the pin on the real entrance
Every place where you receive customers has its own profile, with its own address, phone number, hours and reviews. Two shops in Abuja and Lagos mean two profiles. In cities where addresses can be hard to follow, check that the pin sits on the actual entrance and add a landmark that a first-time visitor can recognise. If you travel to customers and have no public premises, read Google’s rules on service areas first, because they work differently.
The primary category
The primary category tells Google which searches your profile can answer. Many businesses pick a broad one when they sign up and never revisit it, even after the business has narrowed or grown. Open the profile editor, find the primary category and choose the most specific option in Google’s list for what you do today. Add secondary categories only for services you really provide.
One point settles a common doubt. Correcting a category is a change to a data field, and Google reads the published value whether you changed it from the profile or with a management tool. What counts is what ends up on the profile, not the route. Nobody can promise how far a position will move, because that depends on your area and your competition.
Services in the words customers use
List each service the way a customer would say it: “braiding”, “oil change”, “catering for events”, “airport pickup”. Say what each one includes and, where you can, give a price or a duration. An exact price is not required. Describing a service well beats leaving it blank, and beats promising something that nobody confirms on the phone.
Hours and local holidays
Wrong hours are the main cause of wasted visits, and wasted visits become avoidable bad reviews. Enter regular hours, then special hours for every day your schedule changes, including public holidays, local festivals and early closures. Check the official calendar for the year before entering dates, and do not rely on memory. In the editor, find the hours section and the special hours option, although the exact labels may vary by device. A short post on the profile also helps when a closure is unusual.
Reviews, WhatsApp and edits you did not make
Google’s policies discourage asking only satisfied customers for reviews and prohibit discounts, gifts or any other incentive. Ask every customer in the same way, and read the current wording of the policy because it can change. Since WhatsApp is the main contact channel for many businesses in Nigeria and Kenya, a direct review link sent after a delivery or a job is easier to use than a poster nobody scans. Give the request to one named person, because a task that depends on everyone remembering tends to stop happening.
Google has not said that replying to reviews improves your position. The value is trust, because future customers read your replies. For a complaint, thank the reviewer, acknowledge the problem without arguing, and offer a direct contact to sort it out. With LocalEdge Lite, AVI drafts a reply matched to the tone and language of the review, and you read, adjust and publish it yourself.
Your profile can also change without you doing anything. According to Google’s help documentation updated in September 2026 (Search Engine Roundtable, 23/09/2026), the owner is notified of some suggested edits, by email or in the product, and has four days to accept or reject them. If the owner does not respond, Google may publish the edit when other public information supports it, and it may apply some changes without prior review. Check your profile at regular intervals, especially before busy periods. Guardian, an optional feature in LocalEdge, alerts you when it detects a change and shows the exact difference with a button to fix it. It does not stop anyone proposing an edit. It tells you so you can react, and Lite includes a 15 day trial.
Reading your visibility map neighbourhood by neighbourhood
A visibility map, also called a heatmap, shows the position your profile reaches for one search from several points around your business. Each search gives a different map, so “barber” and “braiding salon” will not match. Keep one map per search so you can compare later. To see your starting point before changing anything, you can scan your profile’s visibility on the map.
Sort what you see into three kinds of area. Strong areas are where you appear near the top, so no urgency. Weak areas are where you appear but far from the first places, and this is usually your biggest opportunity. Empty areas are where you do not appear, which may be a real gap or simply districts where you have no customers and no plan to serve them.
For a weak area, compare your profile with the ones ranking first there: category, number and freshness of reviews, photos, hours. Copying a competitor does not set you apart and may describe services you do not offer. Use the comparison to fill the gaps in your own profile with true information. A map does not measure sales or calls and guarantees no future position. It is a snapshot at one moment. The map is not part of Lite, it is in the Solo plan. If you run one business and want profile, reviews and the map in one place, LocalEdge for single businesses, with one-off payment covers it, and the price for the Africa zone is the one shown on the product page.
If you manage profiles for several clients
For an agency in Lagos, Abuja or Nairobi, the simplest way to open a conversation is to show an owner what they cannot see themselves. Before a first meeting, a visibility scan for each prospect shows in which districts the profile appears and where it does not. Choose one sector you know and start with a handful of businesses rather than a whole city. For the agency side in Nigeria, see our reference article for agencies in Nigeria.
Once a client signs, LocalEdge for agencies, with one-off payment lets you work on many profiles from one dashboard: bulk review replies with AVI drafts that you check, adjust and publish, bulk posts and photos, and PDF reports for each client. In reports, separate what you control from what you do not. You control corrected profiles, accurate hours, handled reviews and added photos. You do not control the exact position on the map. Promising a position is the quickest way to lose a client’s trust, so repeat the scan after a few months and show the difference without promising a result.
A 30 day plan and a final checklist
For the wider picture, read our complete guide to local SEO in Nigeria and Kenya. Then follow this order, whether you work alone or in an agency.
- Week 1: run the test search from three neighbourhoods, note the first five profiles in each, scan your profile and resolve any duplicates.
- Week 2: correct the primary category, complete services in customers’ words, enter regular and special hours, and add recent photos.
- Week 3: set up the review request on WhatsApp with one responsible person and one identical message, then reply to pending reviews.
- Week 4: open the profile on a phone as a customer would, check for suggested edits, repeat the same search from the same neighbourhoods and compare with week 1.
- One profile per location, with no duplicates.
- Pin placed on the real entrance, with a recognisable landmark.
- Most specific primary category, with secondary categories you really cover.
- Services described in customers’ words.
- Regular and special hours checked against the official calendar.
- Recent photos of the exterior, interior and finished work.
- Phone number or link that someone actually answers.
- The same review request for every customer, with nothing offered in return.
- Regular checks for edits proposed by others.
A profile does not need to be perfect. It needs to be accurate, complete and watched. To see where yours stands without any commitment, open LocalEdge Lite, free and with no credit card and look at your GBP Score.
