You just started a business. Congratulations - that takes courage.
Now everyone has opinions about what you "need" to succeed online. A website. SEO. Social media on five platforms. Email marketing. Paid ads. A blog. Video content. A podcast, maybe?
It's exhausting just reading that list.
Here's the truth: most of it can wait. And some of it you might never need at all.
We've helped hundreds of small businesses launch their online presence. Here's what we've learned about what actually matters - in the order it matters.
Phase 1: The Non-Negotiables (First 2 Weeks)
Before you do anything else, nail these basics. Everything else builds on this foundation.
A Professional Website
You don't need anything fancy. You need:
- Your business name and what you do (clear in 5 seconds)
- How to contact you (phone, email, address if applicable)
- A way for people to reach out (contact form or booking link)
- Photos that look professional (your work, your team, or quality stock)
That's it. Five pages is plenty. Three might be enough.
What we've seen go wrong: Business owners spend months perfecting a 20-page website before launching. Meanwhile, customers are searching for their services and finding competitors instead. The business that launched a simple site three months ago is now ranking in Google while the "perfect" site is still in draft mode.
A simple, professional website beats a complicated mess every time. You can always add more later. Our approach gets most clients live within a week - because momentum matters more than perfection.
Google Business Profile
This is free and possibly the most important thing you'll do for local visibility.
When someone searches "plumber near me" or "dentist in [your city]," Google Business Profile is what determines whether you show up on the map. We've seen businesses double their phone calls within weeks of properly optimizing this one free tool.
Set it up completely:
- Accurate business name, address, phone
- Business hours (including holiday hours)
- Categories that match your services (you can add multiple)
- A few photos (exterior, interior, your work, your team)
- A description of what you do and who you serve
This takes an hour and pays dividends for years. We cover this in every package because it's that important.
Consistent Contact Information
Your name, address, and phone number should be identical everywhere: website, Google, social media, any directories.
This sounds trivial, but inconsistencies confuse both customers and search engines. We've diagnosed ranking problems that came down to one listing showing "Street" while another showed "St." - that's all it took to hurt visibility.
The technical term is NAP consistency (Name, Address, Phone). It matters because Google cross-references multiple sources to verify your business is legitimate. Mismatches create doubt.
Why these matter: When someone hears about you and looks you up, they need to find a professional presence and a way to contact you. That's the baseline for credibility. Without it, referrals fall through. Curious prospects bounce.
Phase 2: Building Visibility (Months 1-3)
Once the basics are solid, start building your visibility systematically.
Basic SEO Setup
You don't need an expensive SEO agency yet. You need:
- Page titles that describe what you do and where (e.g., "Emergency Plumbing Services | Seattle, WA")
- Your services listed clearly on your website with dedicated pages
- Your city/area mentioned naturally in your content
- Fast-loading pages that work well on mobile
This helps Google understand what you do and where you do it. We call this "foundational SEO" - it's not sexy, but it works. Learn more about how SEO works if you want to understand the details.
What most new businesses miss: They create a beautiful "Services" page that lists everything in one place. Better approach: create separate pages for each main service. A page for "Kitchen Remodeling" and another for "Bathroom Remodeling" will outrank a single "Our Services" page every time.
Start Collecting Reviews
Reviews are the social proof that builds trust before someone ever talks to you.
Ask every happy customer for a Google review. Make it easy - send them a direct link right after you complete a job while the experience is fresh.
Don't buy fake reviews. Don't offer incentives. Just ask genuinely satisfied customers.
Here's what we tell clients: Your first 10 reviews are the hardest. After that, you have social proof that makes new customers more likely to leave reviews too. Push through the awkward early phase.
Five good reviews beats zero reviews. Fifty beats five. Keep asking. The businesses that build review collection into their process - sending a follow-up text or email after every job - end up with hundreds of reviews within a year.
Social Media (Pick 1-2 Platforms)
You don't need to be everywhere. Pick the platforms where your customers actually spend time:
- Local service business? Facebook is probably enough
- Visual business (restaurant, salon, contractor)? Add Instagram
- B2B? LinkedIn might make sense
- Targeting younger demographics? Consider TikTok
The biggest mistake: Creating accounts on five platforms, posting twice, and abandoning them. An inactive social presence is worse than no presence. It looks like you went out of business.
Post occasionally. Share your work. Respond when people reach out. That's enough to start.
Why these matter: This is how people discover you and decide to trust you before they ever pick up the phone.
Phase 3: Growth Mode (Month 3+)
These are powerful tools, but they work better once you have a foundation:
Content Marketing
Blog posts, guides, videos - these help you rank for more search terms and establish expertise. But they take time to produce and time to work.
Start simple: one post per month answering questions your customers actually ask. "How much does a kitchen remodel cost?" "What's the difference between interior and exterior paint?" "How often should I service my HVAC?"
The insight most miss: Your FAQ knowledge is content gold. Every question a customer asks you in person is a question others are typing into Google. Answer it on your website, and you'll attract those searchers.
Paid Advertising
Google Ads and Facebook Ads can drive leads fast, but they also burn money fast if your website isn't ready to convert visitors.
What we've seen repeatedly: A new business spends $1,000 on Google Ads, gets 100 clicks, but their website has no clear call-to-action, no phone number above the fold, and takes 8 seconds to load. Result: 2 leads. They conclude "Google Ads don't work" when the real problem was the website.
Get your website right first. Then test ads with a small budget. See how we handle this - we don't run ads until the foundation is solid.
Email Marketing
Newsletters and follow-up sequences are great for staying in touch with leads and customers. But you need leads first.
Build your customer base, then add email to nurture and retain them. This becomes important once you have 100+ contacts who've opted in.
Why these can wait: They multiply results, but you need something to multiply first. Ads driving traffic to a bad website just wastes money. Email to an empty list accomplishes nothing.
Common Mistakes New Businesses Make
Doing Nothing
"I'll get a website when I have time" turns into months of missed opportunities. Every day without a professional online presence is a day potential customers can't find you - or find your competitors instead.
We had a client who waited 8 months to launch their website. When we finally got them online and started tracking, they discovered they'd been invisible for searches that now brought them 30+ leads per month. That's potentially 240 leads they missed while waiting.
Done is better than perfect. Launch something simple and improve it over time.
Doing Everything at Once
The opposite mistake: trying to launch a website, blog, podcast, and five social media accounts simultaneously.
You'll burn out, do everything poorly, or both.
Start with the essentials. Add one thing at a time as you build capacity.
DIY Everything to Save Money
Your time has value. If you spend 40 hours building a mediocre website, that's 40 hours you didn't spend on actual business development, meeting customers, or doing the work that brings in revenue.
Sometimes paying a professional is the cheaper option when you factor in your time and the quality difference. A $3,000 website that converts visitors is cheaper than a "free" DIY site that doesn't.
Hiring Too Many Vendors
One person for website, another for SEO, someone else for social media, a different agency for ads...
Now you're spending half your time managing vendors who don't talk to each other. Things fall through the cracks. Nobody owns the big picture. The SEO person optimizes for keywords the website doesn't support. The ad person drives traffic the site can't convert.
One partner who handles your entire online presence is often simpler and more effective than a patchwork of specialists. That's exactly why we built PresenceKit - to be that single partner.
Realistic Expectations
Let's be honest about how things work:
Website: Can be live in a week if you work with someone efficient. Most of our clients launch within 3-7 days.
Google Business Profile: Set up in an hour, starts showing results within weeks.
SEO results: 3-6 months to see meaningful movement in rankings. This is a long game - anyone promising page-one rankings in 30 days is either lying or using tactics that will get you penalized.
Reviews: Depends on how many customers you serve, but momentum builds over time. Consistent effort beats sporadic pushes.
Paid ads: Can generate leads immediately, but optimization takes 2-3 months. Early results tell you what's working; refined campaigns deliver ROI.
The businesses that succeed online aren't the ones who do everything fastest. They're the ones who do the right things consistently over time.
The Bottom Line
If you're just starting out, focus on:
- Week 1: Get a professional website live with the basics
- Week 2: Set up and optimize your Google Business Profile
- Month 1-3: Start collecting reviews and establish social presence
- Month 3+: Add content, consider ads, build from there
You don't need to do everything. You need to do the right things in the right order.
Need help getting started? That's exactly what we built PresenceKit for - helping new businesses launch their online presence without the overwhelm. We handle the website, Google profile, SEO, and everything else as one coordinated system.
See our packages or get in touch to talk through what makes sense for your business.
PresenceKit Team
Helping small businesses grow their online presence
