SEO Checklist for Nigerian Business Websites

1. Technical foundations

Nothing else matters if Google cannot crawl, render and index your pages quickly.

• One indexable version of the site - pick www or non-www and redirect the other.
• HTTPS everywhere, with no mixed-content warnings.
• A self-referencing canonical URL on every page.
• An accurate sitemap.xml submitted in Google Search Console, plus a robots.txt that does not block anything important.
• Compressed, correctly sized images and lazy loading below the fold.

2. Page-level metadata

Every page needs its own title under about 60 characters and a description under about 160, both written for a human deciding whether to click. Duplicated or auto-generated metadata across a site is one of the most common issues we find during audits.

3. Local search

For Nigerian businesses serving specific cities, local signals do heavy lifting: a complete Google Business Profile, consistent name, address and phone number across directories, city-specific service pages with genuinely different content, and LocalBusiness or Service structured data.

4. Content that matches intent

Rank for what customers actually type. 'Website development company in Lagos' is a different intent from 'how much does a website cost' - the first needs a service page, the second needs a guide. Build one page per intent rather than stuffing everything into the homepage.

5. Measure and iterate

Connect Google Search Console and check it at least weekly. The fastest wins usually sit at positions 11-20: pages that already rank on page two and only need stronger content, internal links or a clearer title to reach page one.

Frequently asked