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Research · Ongoing study

How Nigerian businesses really perform online

We're a software company focused on development, infrastructure and research. This is the study we're running now: why, what we ask, and exactly what we measure.

Measured December 2026 to April 2027Published May 2027Businesses named only with their permission

Why this study

Most small and growing businesses in Nigeria are found on Instagram and WhatsApp, not on Google. Many have no website. Many that do have one that's slow on a phone, has no padlock, or is quietly offline.

So we're measuring it. We run real sites for a group of businesses, collect the same numbers from each one every month, and publish what the group's numbers show.

  • Live sites, not a surveyNumbers from sites people actually visit
  • The same every monthOne set of measures, from December to April
  • No extra work for themMost of it is collected automatically
  • Published in MayThe overall picture, with businesses named only by permission

Three questions, measured on real sites

Each one is answered by a handful of plain measures. No opinions, no self-reported answers.

01Discovery

Where do customers come from?

Which search engines, social platforms and messaging apps send people, how up to date each search engine's view of the site is, and which pages they land on.

Traffic sourcesSearch engine crawlingEntry pagesBusiness email
02Devices

How does it perform as it's used?

Speed and stability on every kind of device, browser and network, on quiet days and busy ones. A heavy page spends your visitor's data.

Device mixCore Web VitalsCache hit ratioPage weight
03Security

What attacks it, and what stops it?

Where threats come from, what they target, which defences turn them away, and how often the site is actually up.

Threat originAttack vectorsMitigation methodUptime

Exactly what we measure

Fifteen measures in three groups. Nothing here needs extra work from the businesses taking part.

MeasureWhat it meansSourceHow oftenQuestion
Has a websiteYes, a social page only, or noneQuick lookOnceDiscovery
Business emailAn address on their own domain, or a free one like GmailQuick lookOnceDiscovery
Traffic sourcesOrganic search, social (Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, X), WhatsApp, referrals and directOur networkMonthlyDiscovery
Search engine coverageWhich search engines crawl the site, how often and which pagesOur networkMonthlyDiscovery
Entry and top pagesWhere people arrive and what they read, matched to where they came fromOur networkMonthlyDiscovery
Device mixPhone, tablet or computer, plus operating system and browserOur networkMonthlyDevices
Mobile speed scoreGoogle's mobile test, out of 100PageSpeed InsightsOnce, then monthlyDevices
Real-visitor speedCore Web Vitals (LCP, INP, CLS) and time to first byte, by device and pageOur networkMonthlyDevices
Behaviour as visits growSpeed on busy days against quiet ones, and how much is served from the network (cache hit ratio)Our networkMonthlyDevices
Page weightThe total size of the page, and the data it costs a visitorPageSpeed InsightsOnceDevices
Padlock (HTTPS)Does the address start with httpsQuick lookOnceSecurity
Threat originWhere malicious requests come from, by country and network, and how much is automatedOur networkMonthlySecurity
Attack vectorsWhat they target: login and admin paths, exploit paths, form spam, scanners, credential stuffingOur networkMonthlySecurity
Mitigation by methodFirewall rules, managed challenge, rate limiting or bot filtering, and which did the most workOur networkMonthlySecurity
Uptime and recoveryThe share of the month the site was online, incidents and time to recoverMonitoringMonthlySecurity

Quick look is a one-minute check of each business online. Our network is the infrastructure the sites run on, which measures traffic as it passes through, with no tracking cookies.

The method

Four steps, kept deliberately light so every number in the report is true.

  1. 1Look

    A quick check of each business online: website, mobile speed, page weight, padlock and email.

  2. 2Build and run

    Sites built or rebuilt, and moved onto infrastructure we manage.

  3. 3Measure

    The same numbers from every site, every month, from December to April.

  4. 4Publish

    The overall picture in May, as a short report here and in Research articles.

Where we are

The study window opens in December. Until then, we're building sites and moving them across.

Sites built and movedStudy window: measured monthlyPublishedNow
OctNovDecJanFebMarAprMay

Who's taking part

Professional servicesClinicsRetail and brandsMore to come

Businesses are named only with their permission.

The kinds of site in the study

Business sitesService showcasesProduct cataloguesEvent and seminar pagesLanding pages

A catalogue shows products with prices and a way to order by WhatsApp, call or email. Full online stores with a cart and checkout are not part of this study.

Numbers so far

Businesses looked at
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With no website
–
Failing Google's mobile test
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Median load time, sites we run
–
Threats blocked
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Visitors from Instagram vs Google
–

Filled in as the study runs. The first monthly numbers arrive in December.

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