For more than a decade now, businesses have received a slap on the face with paywall by business listings sites in Nigeria. Practically most, if not almost all, only allow businesses to list themselves by paying. Based on the fact that many businesses are just coming up or have little capital, this limits or makes it a barrier for them to get the visibility they need online.
To help solve this, we will be listing all the top free business listings sites in Nigeria where any business, both new and old, can list their services to get the necessary visibility they want and even get customer engagement such as leads from such sites.
Free Business Listing Sites in Nigeria
Google Business Profile
The very first free business listing site in Nigeria which any business can make use of to get maximum visibility online is the Google Business Profile. The Google Business Profile is an online service created by Google (owned by Alphabet). This is the number one business listing site in Nigeria that gives businesses the maximum visibility they need in the best possible way.
Google placed a specific section on their search engines to give businesses much more exposure than other mediums of visibility on search engines.
Any business can access this – you don’t need to pay. All you need to do is include your business name and the services it offers. Most importantly, you have to specify the address where the business is located. Within the period you register and input your address, Google will send you verification means to verify that your business is actually at that address.
Benefits include of Google Business Profile:
- Increased visibility and local SEO
- Customers can directly message you on this platform
- You can garner reviews from this platform
- Share anytime your business is running a discount or special promo – there’s a section where you can make announcements of these special offers, events, and promotions
- Tracking analytics of your business online – includes how many times people have seen your business, who have called your business, who have visited your business
- Option to include a link to your website, and this platform promotes people to visit your business website
- Passes a backlink (nofollow backlink)
Website: https://www.google.com/intl/en_ng/business/
Bing Places for Business
Bing Places for Business is just a version of Google Business Profile, but this time it’s by Bing, which is owned by Microsoft. It delivers almost 90% of everything that Google My Business delivers. You can list your business there – mention your name and include images of your business and where it’s located. After you input where you’re located, it asks you to verify that your business is actually there.
If you have a business already listed on Google Business Profile and you’re new to registering on Bing Places for Business, you can easily import all your business information from Google Business Profile straight into your Bing Places for Business Profile in under one minute. Instead of spending 20, 30, or even one hour to fill out all the necessary details, you can import the information from Google Business Profile.
Benefits include of Bing Places for Business:
- Improved online visibility, but only on Bing
- Your Bing Places for Business Profile will not get indexed into Google search engine
- People will find your business when they visit Bing and search related terms
- Space to include a link to your business website
- Gives you a nofollow backlink
Website: www.bingplaces.com/
Business Listing Nigeria (BLN)
This is the best free listing site after Bing Places for Business and Google Business Profile in Nigeria is Business Listing Nigeria (BLN). Any business, any category in Nigeria can list their business on the platform for free without any charges.
Benefits include of BLN:
- Track analytics of your business visibility
- Extra exposure of organic visibility
- Customers who find your business interesting can DM you straight from the platform and you receive the message via your email
- Space to add a link to your website and social media pages
- Gives a dofollow backlink to the website
- Include categories, business description, images, and more
- Approval takes 30 minutes to 1 hour after submission
Website: https://businesslistingnigeria.com.ng/create-places-2/
ConnectCiti.com
ConnectCiti.com has three tiers of business listings on their platform. Two are paid, while one business listing is free. It’s a very limited package where you can list your business for free but you have limited functionality – you’re only limited to list business in one category.
This site gives you the opportunity to specify which type of business you want to list – either an event, general business, or tourist place. You have to select the free package among the three listing packages. At the selection of the free listing, you’ll be asked to include:
- Your name
- A tagline (if you have one)
- Description about your business
- Images of your business (optional, but important)
- Email and phone number associated with your business
- Website URL (optional)
- Categories, prices, date you opened for business
- Address and state where your business is functioning
When you list your business on ConnectCiti.com, it automatically gets sent to pending state. At the time of this post, we couldn’t determine how many hours or days it takes before approval or rejection.
Website: https://connectciti.com/nigeria-business-directory-add-listing/?listing_type=place
Viscorner
Viscorner is also a place where you can list your business. It has a lot of categories, so if you think your business is in a category which might not be well known, you can be sure to find that in the provided field. It’s also free.
Information you can include:
- Description of your business
- Dates you registered your business
- Year you founded your business
- How many employees you have
- Website to your business
- Business YouTube channel
- Services you provide
- Location and qualifications in the field your business functions in
- Images
Website: https://viscorner.com/pro-registration/?wpforms_form_id=22242
Finelib.com
This site provides businesses with options to list their business. Information required includes:
- Business name
- Address, city, state
- Phone number, email address
- Business description
- Keywords you want your business to be associated with (helps in SEO)
They can tag the keywords you specify that you want your business to rank for on their platform and on search engine results pages.
Drawback: It doesn’t provide the option to include a direct link to your business website or social media platforms.
After submitting your business, it goes into a pending state where the admin personally goes through every information to ensure everything is correct and according to standard. At the time of this post, you could not determine the time needed before you get a response from the admin.
Website: https://www.finelib.com/add.php?category_id=1443
ConnectNigeria
ConnectNigeria is also a platform where you can list your business for free. First, you need to register an account – only then can you list your business.
Information accepted:
- Business name
- Description of your business
- Address, city, state
- Postal code
- URL to your business website
- Price, discount of any campaign you’re running
- Business description
- Image of your business
You have to select between job listing, event listing, or general business listing. All of this is done for free, though there’s no option for customers to directly message you. But they will find your contact email and address.
Website: https://www.connectnigeria.com/user-manager/listings/create/deals