I remember when I was invited to work with a small company “Learning Questa” in Lagos Nigeria, then I just completed my 1-year national service, NYSC which stands for (National Youth Service Corps), a para-military service to the Nation which is compulsory for all Nigerian graduates to participate in and get a certificate of participation which is required by Nigerian employers.
I was deployed to a state in the far north of Nigeria (Sokoto State) and after my NYSC program was complete, the company (Learning Questa), an educational consultancy firm, which I re-designed their website in 2016 during my final year in the University wanted me to come in and work with them to help manage their online presence.
I have never been to the company before since I worked remotely on the website redesign, and I was wondering what the company looked like. I tried a google search with the company’s name to see if I could find images or videos from the building or the environment, but nothing was found.
So, later in February 2018, I blindly travelled to Lagos Nigeria for the first time to resume work with the company without knowing what the company looked like.
During my resumption at work, one of the first things I did was to add the company as a place to the Google’s maps directory, then I just completed the Google’s Digital Skills for Africa program, and I learnt about the impact of “Google my business” listing on business visibility. I started sharing photos from the company, writing posts and updating the listing with relevant information and events from the company, few reviews started coming in from people who have visited the company’s location, and the company’s organic reach online was on the rise.
Since then, I have encouraged business owners to put their business locations on the Google maps, as it will not only give their businesses an organic reach but also guide people who may find it difficult to locate their business to do so using the google map app.
As a freelance web designer, I add businesses which I design websites for on the map, using their google account and walk them through on how to manage their listings. Profound Educational Services is one of those businesses.
Also, Nigerians that own businesses outside the country who gets referred to contact me for their website designs have also had their businesses listed by me in the various locations they run their businesses abroad, a few examples of these businesses are:
- ApproUnity a France based agro-servicing company owned by a Nigerian living in France.
- ViewPoint Immigration Services, a Canada based immigration services company. etc.
Most times when people ask for directions to the company I work for, I proudly tell them to enter “Learning Questa” on the map, and they will get guided directions to the location.
Apart from adding new places to Google maps, people who see the places I review, add or edit have asked questions and tried to get recommendations about a place, and responding to them has been very fulfilling because I am very sure it has helped them in making decisions about those places.
Adding new places that never existed on Google map is the most interesting thing I have done as a Local Guide!