Type "sneakers shop in Accra" into Google and look at what comes first. Not a website. A map, with three shops pinned on it, each with a phone number, opening hours, photos and a button that says Directions. Buyers in Ghana search this way for almost everything: a boutique in Osu, a phone shop in Kumasi, a perfume seller in Tamale. If your shop is not on that map, the buyer never learns you exist.
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Getting on the map is free. It takes one evening, a phone, and the WhatsApp number you already use for orders. This guide walks through it step by step, then shows how to connect the map listing to your online shop so the buyer who finds you can also pay you.
What a Google Business Profile is
A Google Business Profile is the card Google shows for a business on Maps and at the top of search results. It carries your shop name, what you sell, where you are, your phone number, your photos and a link to your website. Google gives it to any real business for free. You do not need a registered company, a shop building or a website to have one, though a website link makes it work much harder for you.
The map listing does one job your Instagram page and WhatsApp status cannot: it puts you in front of strangers who are searching for what you sell right now. A status reaches people who already know you. The map reaches the person who moved to your area last week.
Before you start
- A Google account. The Gmail address you already use is fine. Use the one you will not lose, because the listing belongs to that account.
- Your shop name, written the way customers say it. "Dee's Glow" beats "Dee's Glow Skincare and Beauty Products Enterprise". Google may reject names stuffed with extra words.
- A phone number you answer. Your WhatsApp business number is ideal. Buyers call the number on the map.
- Five to ten photos of real products. Taken on your phone, in daylight, on a plain background. Not screenshots, not catalogue images from a supplier.
Step by step
- Open Google Maps on your phone and search for your shop name. If someone has already added it, tap it and choose "Claim this business". If not, tap your profile picture, then "Add your business".
- Enter the name exactly as customers know it.
- Choose a category. Pick the one a buyer would type: "Perfume store", "Hair extensions supplier", "Boutique", "Cell phone store", "Bakery". You can add more categories later. The first one matters most.
- Decide about your address. If you have a shop or a stall buyers can walk into, add the location. If you sell from home or deliver only, choose the option that says you deliver goods and services to customers, then hide your address. Google calls this a service-area business. You still appear on the map for your area without publishing your house.
- Add your phone number and your shop link. The website field is where your Makola shop address goes. This is the step most sellers skip, and it is the one that turns a map visit into an order.
- Verify. Google has to confirm the business is real. It will offer one method: often a short video call or a video recording where you show your shop, your products and something with your business name on it. Sometimes it is a phone call or an email code. Follow the method it gives you. Verification can take a few days.
- Add photos and opening hours. Do this the same day. A profile with no photos looks abandoned.
Why the shop link matters more than anything else on the profile
A buyer who finds you on the map has three ways to act: call, get directions, or open the website. Calls and directions are fine if you have a shop they can reach before you close. The website link works at eleven at night, for the buyer in a different town, for the customer who does not want to negotiate on the phone.
When that link opens a Makola shop, the buyer sees every product with a price, picks what they want, and pays with MTN MoMo, Telecel Cash, AT Money or a card. You get the order on WhatsApp with the payment already confirmed. No "how much?", no screenshot, no waiting. The map does the finding. The shop does the selling. If you do not have a shop link yet, opening a Makola store is free and takes about as long as this article took to read.
Keeping the listing alive
- Reply to every review, including the bad ones. A calm reply to a complaint convinces more buyers than ten five-star reviews with no words.
- Post once a week. A new product, a price, a delivery day. Profiles that post stay visible; profiles that go quiet sink.
- Ask happy customers for a review the day they receive their order. Send them the review link on WhatsApp. Two reviews a month is enough to pull ahead of most shops in your category.
- Keep the phone number and hours true. A buyer who calls a dead number does not try again.
Common questions
I sell only on WhatsApp and Instagram. Is this for me?
Especially for you. Your followers already know you. The map brings you the people who do not, and hands them a link where they can pay without trusting a stranger's MoMo number. See our guide to selling on WhatsApp in Ghana for how the two fit together.
Does it cost anything?
The Google Business Profile is free. Nobody from Google will call you to sell you a listing; anyone who does is not from Google. A Makola shop is also free to open on the Starter plan, with a small percentage per sale.
My shop moves, or I sell from markets on different days.
Use the service-area option and list the towns or areas you serve. Put your market days in the profile description and in a weekly post.
Someone else added my shop and I cannot edit it.
Search for it on Maps, open it, and look for "Own this business?" or "Claim this business". Google will verify you the same way as a new listing.
One evening, one listing, every buyer in your area. Open your free Makola store, put the link on your Google Business Profile, and let the map send you customers who have already decided to buy.