Promoting a business online looks like it requires a website, a team and a budget. It does not. It requires being in the places where people search for what you sell — and most small businesses are in none of them.
First of all: are you findable?
Run the test now. Search Google for your business name plus your city. Then search for the service you provide plus the city, without naming yourself. If you do not show up in the second search, that is where the money you are not getting is going.
A fixed place that is yours
A social media profile is rented: the platform decides who sees what you post, and changes that decision without notice. A website, even a simple one, is your own address. If a site feels too big right now, start with a single page — name, what you do, where you serve and how to reach you.
Being where the searching happens
People looking for a service rarely start on social media. They start in search. That means three listings worth more than months of posting:
- Google Business Profile, which puts you on the map;
- catalogues and search sites in your field;
- any local site — chamber of commerce, city guide — that will take your address.
Each of those listings also leaves a link pointing to you, and links pointing to you are one of the criteria for who shows up first in search.
Social media, in its proper role
It is there to keep in touch with people who already know you and to show finished work. To be discovered by people who do not know you yet, search is still the main road.
The short way
Listing the business place by place takes weeks. Magneth exists precisely to shorten that: you give the address and the listing is published across more than 100 search sites in our network, with a link to you on each one.
If your business is small and the budget is zero, see also how to promote a small business.
