Google Maps in The Gambia is the cheapest marketing available to any business here, and most businesses do not have it. It costs nothing, it takes about twenty minutes of actual work, and it puts you in front of somebody who is already looking for what you sell and is close enough to walk in.
Getting on Google Maps in The Gambia is also the thing people give up on halfway, because verification has become stricter and the listing does not appear immediately. So this covers the whole route: getting listed, getting verified, filling in the parts that decide whether you show up at all, and what to do when the listing exists and nobody can find it.
On this page
Why this matters more here than a website does at first
That heading will read oddly from a company that builds websites, but it is true and worth saying: Google Maps in The Gambia will bring most businesses more enquiries in the first month than a new website will.
When somebody searches for a business near them, the map results appear above everything else. A business with a complete profile appears there. A business with a beautiful website and no profile does not, and no amount of work on the website changes that, because the map results are not drawn from websites. They are drawn from profiles.
There is a second reason it matters here specifically. Addresses in The Gambia are often descriptive rather than numbered, and directions are given by landmark. A map pin does the job that a street address does elsewhere. For a customer trying to find you for the first time, the pin is more useful than the address on your business card.
And the third: it is free, and it works whether or not you have a website at all. If you are choosing where to spend the first twenty minutes, spend it here, then read about what a website adds on top.
The five steps
1. Check whether you are already there
Search your business name on Google Maps before creating anything. A surprising number of businesses already have a listing that somebody else created, or that Google generated from other sources.
If it exists, you claim it rather than creating a second one. Two listings for the same business split your reviews and confuse the map, and merging them later is slow.
2. Create or claim the profile
Go to Google Business Profile and either add your business or select the existing listing and choose to claim it. You need a Google account, which is free.
Use the name as it appears on your sign. Not the name plus what you do, not the name plus your area. Adding words to make it look better in search is against Google’s rules and is one of the reasons listings get suspended.
3. Choose the right category
This is the setting that most decides whether you appear, and most people pick it in two seconds and never revisit it.
The primary category is how Google decides which searches you are a candidate for. Pick the most specific one that genuinely describes you, then add secondary categories for the rest. A garage that repairs cars and sells tyres should be an auto repair shop first and a tyre shop second, not something vague that covers both.
4. Verify
The step that stops people, covered on its own below.
5. Fill it in completely
Also below, because it is where the value actually is and where almost every listing is half empty.
Verification, and what it now asks for
Verification is how Google satisfies itself that the business exists and that you run it. Postcard verification used to be the normal route. It is now much more common to be asked for a video, and that is what to expect.
The requirement is a single continuous recording, made live rather than uploaded from your gallery, and it has to show three things:
Where you are. Start outside. Show the street, neighbouring buildings, and anything that establishes the location, then walk towards your premises without stopping the recording.
That it is you. Your permanent signage with the business name on it, clearly readable.
That you operate there. Something only the person running the business would have: opening the till, unlocking a back room, your tools and equipment, stock, keys.
Google’s own instructions are on the video verification help page, and they are worth reading before you record rather than after a rejection.
Three practical points that cause most failures here. Do it in daylight, because a dark recording gets rejected. Do not stop and restart, because it must be one unedited take. And if you are a business without a shopfront, such as a plumber or a builder, you are a service area business: you show your vehicle, your equipment and your paperwork instead, and you set a service area rather than an address.
The parts most people leave empty
A verified but empty profile is a pin on a map. A complete one is a search result that answers a question. The difference is about twenty minutes.
Opening hours, including the exceptions. Set the normal hours, then set the special hours for public holidays. “Open” against your name in a search result at eight in the evening is worth more than any other single field.
The phone number, as a number. The one that is actually answered. If two people answer different numbers, use the one somebody picks up.
Photographs, and more than three. The outside of the building so people recognise it, the inside, the product or the work, and the team. Take them on a phone in daylight. This is the field that most affects whether somebody chooses you over the listing above yours, and most Gambian listings have one blurry photo or none.
The description. What you do, who for, and where. Plainly. This is not the place for slogans.
Products and services, with prices. Almost nobody fills this in, and it is the one that answers the question people are actually asking. Our review of Gambian business websites found that prices are the thing nobody publishes, and the profile is a free place to publish them.
Messaging, only if you will answer it. Turning on messages and leaving them unread is worse than leaving it off, because Google shows your response rate and customers see it.
Ask for reviews, from real customers, one at a time. Never buy them and never post them yourself. Reply to every one, including the bad ones, especially the bad ones, because the reply is read by everybody who comes after.
Google Maps in The Gambia without a street address
This is the question that stops more Gambian businesses than verification does, and the answer is better than most people expect.
Addresses here are often descriptive. “Opposite the mosque, Kairaba Avenue” is how everybody gives directions and it is not a form a mapping system was built for. Two routes around it.
If customers come to you, drop the pin by hand. During setup you can move the map marker yourself. Stand outside your premises, open the map on your phone, and place the pin where you are actually standing rather than where the search suggested. The pin is what people navigate to, and a pin that is right matters more than an address line that reads well.
For the address itself, use what a taxi driver would understand: the road, the nearest recognised landmark, and the settlement. Write it the way you would say it out loud.
If you go to customers, do not use an address at all. Builders, plumbers, electricians, caterers, mobile mechanics and delivery businesses are service area businesses. You hide your address, which if you work from home is what you wanted anyway, and instead list the areas you cover: Serrekunda, Kanifing, Bakau, Fajara, Kololi, Brikama, whatever is true.
Be honest about the areas. Listing the whole country when you work in one district gets you calls you cannot serve and, eventually, reviews from people you disappointed.
Verification works differently for these. Instead of filming a shopfront you film your vehicle with signage if it has any, your tools and equipment, paperwork with the business name on it, and materials or stock. Google is establishing that the business exists and that you run it, not that you have a building.
One thing that catches people out: setting up Google Maps in The Gambia for a home based business does not put your home address in front of the public if you choose the service area option. Google keeps it for verification and shows only your coverage. That is worth knowing before deciding the whole thing is not for you.
When the listing does not show
Four reasons, and they are distinguishable.
It is not verified yet. Unverified listings show poorly or not at all. Check the status in the dashboard rather than assuming, because a failed verification does not always announce itself.
It is suspended. Usually because the name has extra words in it, the category was wrong, or the address does not match what the video showed. There is an appeal process and it works, but fix the underlying thing first or the appeal fails too.
You are searching from the wrong place. Map results depend heavily on where the person searching is. Searching from your own desk, signed into the account that owns the listing, tells you nothing. Ask somebody across town to search and tell you what they see.
You are there, but below others. This is not a fault, it is competition. The listings above you are usually more complete, have more photographs and more reviews. That is the work, and it is the work that never finishes.
One more that catches people: your website not appearing in search is a separate problem from your map listing. A business can rank on the map and be invisible in the ordinary results, or the reverse. They are different systems and they are fixed differently.
What to do after you are listed
Most people finish at verification and never open the profile again. Three things keep it working, and together they are about ten minutes a month.
Answer the questions section before anybody asks. The profile has a questions and answers area, and anyone can answer, including people who do not work for you and do not know. You are allowed to post your own questions and answer them yourself, and you should. Put up the five things customers always ask: what you charge, whether you deliver, what hours you keep at the weekend, whether you take card, and where to park. An empty questions section eventually fills up with somebody else’s guesses.
Post when something changes. Google lets you publish short updates that appear on the profile: new opening hours over a holiday, a service you have added, a price change. They do not last forever, which is the point. A profile with a recent post looks like a business that is trading, and a profile untouched for two years looks closed even when it is not.
Keep the hours honest, especially the exceptions. Somebody who drives across town because the profile said open, and finds a locked door, leaves a review about it. Set the special hours before Koriteh, Tobaski and the public holidays rather than after.
The one that matters most over time is reviews. Ask every satisfied customer, one at a time, in person or by message, and never all at once, because a sudden burst looks manufactured. Reply to every review you get. The reply is not for the person who wrote it, who has already made up their mind. It is for the next twenty people reading, who are deciding whether you sound like somebody they want to deal with.
Frequently asked questions
Is Google Business Profile free in The Gambia?
Yes. Creating a profile, being verified and appearing on Google Maps costs nothing. Google sells advertising alongside the results, but the listing itself is free and always has been. Anybody charging you a fee to create one is charging for their time, which is legitimate, but the listing is not the thing you are paying for.
How long does verification take?
A video review is usually a few days, and can be a week or two if it goes to a manual check. If you are rejected you can record again. The most common reasons here are recording in poor light, stopping and restarting the recording, and signage that cannot be read clearly.
Can I list a business with no shopfront?
Yes, as a service area business. Plumbers, electricians, builders, caterers and mobile mechanics all qualify. You set the areas you cover instead of a public address, and verification shows your vehicle, tools and paperwork rather than a building.
Do I need a website to be on Google Maps?
No, and this is the reason to do the profile first. A profile works on its own, and a business with no website at all can appear on the map, take calls and get directions. A website then gives you somewhere to send people who want more than the profile holds, which is most of what customers ask.
Why can I see my listing but my customers cannot?
Because you are signed into the account that owns it, which shows you your own listing regardless. Ask somebody else, in a different part of town, on their own phone. If they cannot find it, it is either unverified, suspended, or simply below other listings for that search.
Should I put my prices on the profile?
Yes, in the products and services sections. People searching for a business in The Gambia are frequently searching for a price and finding nothing, so a published figure is a real advantage. It also filters out enquiries that were never going to buy.
What happens if somebody else claimed my business?
You request access through the profile, and Google contacts the current owner. If they do not respond within a set period, control passes to you. It is slow but it works. Do not create a second listing in the meantime, because two listings for one business is a harder problem than a slow transfer.
Where to start
Search your own business name on Google Maps in The Gambia, on somebody else’s phone, right now. What you see is what a customer sees.
If nothing is there, create the profile today and record the verification video in daylight tomorrow. If something is there but half empty, spend twenty minutes filling in hours, photographs and prices, which is the highest return twenty minutes available to most businesses here.
If you would rather it was done properly and once, see what we do for clients.
