Why I created Berlin for Her: a directory for Berlin’s local businesses

In today's world, having a website doesn't mean people will find you. Having an Instagram account doesn't mean people will see your posts either, and I sometimes think that competing for visibility there has become even worse. You can spend hours creating something, post it, and watch it disappear into a sea of other content almost immediately.

What I'm trying to say is that being great at what you do certainly doesn't guarantee that you'll appear when someone searches for exactly the service you offer. And for small and local businesses, getting discovered online has become a challenge of its own. There are thousands of businesses competing for visibility, search results are crowded, social media algorithms decide what gets shown and to whom, and now the way people search is changing once again because of AI.

So, the rules of the game have changed.

Today, you don't only have to think about SEO (Search Engine Optimisation), but also AEO (Answer Engine Optimisation).

Maybe you haven't heard the term AEO yet, but you have almost certainly experienced it. You've seen it when you start a search on Google and, instead of simply getting the familiar list of websites, you are increasingly presented with an AI-generated answer first, while the traditional links compete for attention further down the page. Or perhaps you've already started asking ChatGPT or another AI tool the questions you would previously have typed into Google.

I've written more about AEO on my personal website, so if you're interested in understanding the subject in more detail, you can read that article What Is AEO? And Why Your Website Needs to Be Read by AI.

For now, the important thing to understand is quite simple: AEO is about how businesses, services and information are understood and surfaced by AI-powered search and answer engines. And if you're a small business owner who is already trying to actually run a business, this is yet another thing you're somehow expected to understand.

At some point, you have to actually run your business

This is the part I keep coming back to.

Let's say you're a photographer. You probably became a photographer because you're good at photography, not because you wanted to spend your evenings learning about keywords, search intent, structured data, backlinks, Instagram algorithms and how large language models retrieve information.

The same goes for a yoga teacher, a therapist, a ceramic artist, a hairdresser, a doula, a designer, a lawyer, a baker or someone who has just opened a tiny café somewhere in Berlin.

You started your business because there was something you wanted to do.

But somewhere along the way, running a business also started to mean becoming your own photographer, copywriter, social media manager, SEO specialist, content creator, advertising manager and, apparently now, AEO specialist.

Of course, you can learn all of these things. Many of us do. But there are only so many hours in a day, and every hour spent trying to convince an algorithm that your business deserves to be seen is an hour you're not spending doing the thing your business actually exists to do.

And even after doing all of that, there is no guarantee that the person looking for you will actually find you.

That, to me, is the real problem.

Somewhere in Berlin, someone is searching for exactly what you do. And in your own language!

I find this thought fascinating.

At this very moment, someone could be searching for an English-speaking family photographer in Berlin. Someone else might be trying to find a doula who speaks Polish. Another person may be looking for a ceramics workshop in Kreuzberg, a therapist who can work with them in their native language, someone who can make a birthday cake, a local electrician, a yoga class, a lawyer that speaks Croatian, a designer or a place where they simply feel comfortable walking through the door.

And the person or business they are looking for might already exist. Maybe they're only three streets away. But the two never meet.

Not because the business isn't good enough. Not because there isn't demand. Simply because one person couldn't find the other.

This is where I think we need to rethink what online visibility actually means.

What if there was another way to be discovered?

Businesses already have their own ways of being found. Some have strong websites, some have built wonderful communities on social media, some rely heavily on recommendations and word of mouth, and many use a combination of all of these.

A local directory doesn't need to replace any of that.

Instead, it can create another path between someone who is searching and someone who offers exactly what they need.

And this is where the idea for this directory really starts to make sense to me.

What if, alongside all the other ways we search, there was a smaller and more relevant place specifically for discovering what is available around us?

A place where someone can say: I'm in Berlin. This is what I'm looking for. This is the area I'm in. This is the language I speak. Who is out there?

Suddenly, discovery becomes much more human.

You don't necessarily have to know the name of the business before you begin searching. You don't have to know which Instagram account to follow or which exact combination of words Google wants from you. You start with your need, and from there you discover the people who might be able to help.

And that is really what I want this platform to be about: discovery.

Being searchable is different from being known

There is an important difference between the two.

If someone already knows your business name, finding you online is relatively easy. They can type your name into Google, Instagram or wherever else you happen to be.

The harder question is: how does someone find you when they don't know you exist yet?

That's where categories, locations, languages and clear descriptions of services become valuable.

You might not know that a particular photographer exists, but you know you're looking for family photography in your part of Berlin. You might not know the name of a particular therapist, but you know which language you'd like your sessions to be in. You might not know which small business makes the thing you're searching for, but you know what you need.

A structured local directory gives people another way to make that connection.

And I want to be very clear about something: this isn't meant to replace Google, Instagram, your website, your Google Business Profile or your own SEO work. All of those things are still important.

This is simply another door through which somebody can find you.

And in an online world where getting through the first door is becoming increasingly difficult, I think having another one matters.

But there is another part of this idea that I find even more interesting

If every small business tries to solve the visibility problem alone, then every small business has to build its own audience.

You build yours. I build mine. The photographer builds hers. The yoga teacher builds hers. The designer builds hers. We are all standing on our individual little islands shouting: "Hello! I'm over here!"

But what happens when we connect those islands?

Someone might come to the directory looking for a photographer and discover a makeup artist. Someone looking for prenatal yoga might discover a doula. Someone searching for a designer might notice a local printing studio. Someone might come because a friend shared one particular business and leave having discovered three others.

One person's visibility starts creating visibility for someone else.

And this is the part that no individual SEO strategy can quite recreate in the same way: community-driven discovery.

Instead of every business starting from zero, we begin building something together. Every new business makes the directory a little more useful. Every person who shares it creates another possible path to everyone else. Every search has the potential to introduce someone to a business they didn't know existed five minutes earlier.

There is something wonderfully simple about that.

Berlin doesn't have a shortage of interesting businesses, talented people or useful services. What we sometimes have is a shortage of good ways to find them.

So perhaps the answer isn't always to shout louder.

Perhaps sometimes the answer is to stand together, make ourselves easier to find, and give people a better place to look.

Because somewhere out there, someone may already be searching for exactly what you do.

They just need a way to find you.

So, welcome to Berlin for Her. Have a look around, discover who's already here, and if you have a business of your own, add yourself to the directory. And if you know someone who should be here too, bring her along.

The more of us there are, the easier it becomes to find each other.