Rank for what your customers actually type.
Most Lagos businesses are invisible for the searches that matter to them. The fix is unglamorous: correct technical setup, a real local presence, and pages that answer the query better than the competition.
What is included
- Keyword research against real Lagos search demand
- Technical audit and fixes: speed, indexing, structured data
- Google Business Profile setup and ongoing management
- Location and service pages that target specific terms
- Local citations and link work, no bought links
- Monthly reporting in plain language, not a dashboard screenshot
How it runs
- 01
Audit
Where you rank now, what is broken, what is worth chasing.
- 02
Fix
Technical issues first, because content on a slow site does not rank.
- 03
Build
Pages and content aimed at the terms with real intent behind them.
- 04
Report
Monthly, with rankings, traffic, and what changed.
How search works for a business in Lagos
Most searches worth having are local and specific. Someone types a service and a place, or a problem and a place, and what they see is shaped by how close you are, how complete your Google Business Profile is, and whether a page on your site answers that exact question better than the alternatives.
So the work runs in that order. Fix whatever stops pages being crawled and indexed, because content on a broken or slow site does not rank. Get the Business Profile complete, correctly categorised and collecting reviews. Then build pages aimed at the terms with real buying intent, one page per intent rather than one page trying to cover everything.
Progress is uneven. Technical fixes can show within weeks. Competitive local terms take months of content and steady link work. Anyone promising a specific position by a specific date is selling something they do not control.
Reporting is in plain language: what you rank for now next to last month, what those positions brought in, and what I changed. Not a dashboard screenshot with the numbers cropped out.
Vocabulary
The words you will hear, in plain English
Search work is sold with a vocabulary most buyers are never given. None of it is complicated, and knowing it is the difference between judging a proposal and nodding at one.
- Indexing
- Whether a page is in Google's list at all. A page that is not indexed cannot rank, however good it is, and this is where a technical audit starts.
- Search intent
- What somebody actually wants from a query. A person typing a service and an area wants to hire. A person typing a question wants an answer. The same page rarely serves both.
- Google Business Profile
- The free listing that puts a business in the map results. For a local business it frequently matters more than the website itself.
- Citations
- Your name, address and phone number listed consistently across directories. Inconsistency between them is a common and quietly expensive problem.
- Core Web Vitals
- Google's measurements of how a page loads and behaves for real visitors. They are measured on real devices, which is why they punish heavy pages here harder than elsewhere.
- Backlinks
- Other sites linking to yours. A small number from places that are genuinely relevant beats a large number bought in bulk, which is a liability rather than an asset.
- Structured data
- Machine readable facts about the business, its services and its reviews, added to the page so a search engine does not have to guess them.
- Cannibalisation
- Two of your own pages competing for the same term, so neither wins. It is the usual reason a site with more pages ranks worse than one with fewer.
Where the work goes
Local search and ordinary search are not the same job
Most businesses in Lagos want to be found by somebody nearby who is ready to buy. That is a different problem from ranking an article, and the two are routinely sold as one thing.
| What is being compared | Local search | Nationwide organic |
|---|---|---|
| What is being searched | A service and a place, or a service with somewhere implied by where the phone is. | A question, a comparison, or a product with no place attached. |
| What appears | The map pack first, then the ordinary results under it. | Ordinary results, often under whatever Google answers directly at the top. |
| What moves it | A complete and correctly categorised Business Profile, consistent listings, reviews, and pages that name the areas served. | Depth and quality of content, the site's technical health, and links from other sites. |
| How fast | Profile and listing work can show in weeks. | Months, and longer in a competitive category. |
| Worth it when | Customers come to you, or you go to them within a city. | What you sell can be bought from anywhere, or you want to be found while somebody is still researching. |
Local search
- What is being searched
- A service and a place, or a service with somewhere implied by where the phone is.
- What appears
- The map pack first, then the ordinary results under it.
- What moves it
- A complete and correctly categorised Business Profile, consistent listings, reviews, and pages that name the areas served.
- How fast
- Profile and listing work can show in weeks.
- Worth it when
- Customers come to you, or you go to them within a city.
Nationwide organic
- What is being searched
- A question, a comparison, or a product with no place attached.
- What appears
- Ordinary results, often under whatever Google answers directly at the top.
- What moves it
- Depth and quality of content, the site's technical health, and links from other sites.
- How fast
- Months, and longer in a competitive category.
- Worth it when
- What you sell can be bought from anywhere, or you want to be found while somebody is still researching.
Groundwork
What has to be in place first
None of these are optional extras. They are the things that have to exist before content and link work have anything to stand on.
- Google Search Console verified on the live domain
- Analytics installed, and recording a real enquiry as a conversion
- One version of the site reachable, with the others redirected to it
- A Google Business Profile claimed, categorised and verified
- Every page indexable, with nothing important blocked by robots.txt
- A sitemap that updates itself when pages are added
- Page titles and descriptions that are unique across the whole site
- An address and phone number written identically everywhere they appear
Common questions
All questionsHow long before SEO shows results?
Technical fixes often show within weeks. Competitive local terms usually take months. The honest answer depends on what already ranks and how much stands between you and the top of the page.
Do you guarantee a number one ranking?
No, and nobody who understands the work will. Google does not sell positions and does not publish how it ranks. What I commit to is the work itself and reporting you can check.
Do you buy backlinks?
No. Bought links are the quickest route to a manual penalty. Links here come from real listings, local citations and work that is worth mentioning.
What is a Google Business Profile worth?
For a local business, often more than the website in the first months. It is free, it decides whether you appear in the map results, and most profiles in Lagos are half filled in.
No obligation
Tell me what you need.
Four questions, and you pick how I come back to you. If what you need is not something I should be doing, I will tell you that instead of quoting for it.
- A reply the same working day
- Prices are published, so nothing is quoted higher because of who asked
- No contract and nothing to pay to get a quote
- What gets built is yours to own and take anywhere