Do You Need a Website If You Have a Google Business Profile?

That doesn't make your Google Business Profile less important. It's free, it's often the first thing a customer sees, and it does some jobs better than any website can. The two work as a team. This guide covers what each one does well, what a profile can't do, how customers actually choose, and the honest cases where a profile on its own is enough.

What your Google Business Profile does well

Your profile is the card that appears when someone searches for your business or for what you do nearby. It puts your name, reviews, opening hours, photos, directions and a call button right on the search page and in Google Maps. Many people never scroll past it:

6 in 10

Around 6 in 10 Google searches end without a click to a website.

So your profile is doing real work even when nobody clicks through. It's the best tool you have for:

• Being found on Google Maps when people search for your trade nearby.
• Showing your reviews, one of the first things people look at.
• Opening hours and directions, kept up to date in one place.
• A one-tap call button on every phone.
• Photos, from you and from your customers.

Keep every field filled in, add real photos, and reply to your reviews. None of that costs anything, and a website doesn't replace it.

What a Google profile can't do

A profile is built for quick facts. It isn't built to persuade someone to choose you over the next business on the list. It can't:

• Explain each service properly. You get a short description and a services list, not a page for each job you do.
• Show your prices in detail. You can add simple prices to services, but not packages, options or what's included.
• Ask the questions you need answered. Quote and booking requests only work through the tools Google supports, on Google's terms.
• Look the way you want. Google decides the layout, and members of the public can suggest edits to your details and add their own photos.
• Belong to you. Your profile lives on Google, under Google's rules. Profiles can be suspended, and features can change or disappear.

That last point has already happened once. Google turned off websites made with Business Profiles in March 2024 [2], and businesses that relied on those free one-page sites lost them.

Google's own rules point the same way. Its guidelines say the website you link should represent your actual business [3]. And when Google decides how prominent a business is in local results, it looks at things like how many websites link to your business and how many reviews you have [4].

How customers really choose: Maps, reviews, then your website

Picture someone with a leaking boiler, or looking for somewhere to eat tonight. They search, see three or four businesses on the map, and open the ones with good reviews. Then, very often, they tap ‘Website’:

54%

54% of US consumers check a business's website after reading its positive reviews, up from 32% in 2019.

The reviews told them you're good. Now they want to know if you're right for them. On your website they're checking:

• that you do the exact job they need, not just the category
• that you cover their area
• roughly what it will cost
• photos of real work, not stock images
• how quickly they can get you, and how to get in touch
• that you're a real, established business

If your website answers those questions quickly on a phone, they call. If there's no website, or it's slow and out of date, the next business on the map is one tap away.

Profile or website: what each one does

The short version: your profile wins you the click, and your website wins you the call. You need both working together.

AI assistants read the web, not just your profile

More and more people ask an AI assistant for a recommendation:

6% → 45%

Use of ChatGPT and other AI tools for local business recommendations jumped from 6% to 45% in a year among US consumers.

When someone asks one of these tools for ‘a good electrician near me’, the answer is built from what it can read online. Your profile gives it the basics. A website that clearly lists your services, the areas you cover, your prices and answers to common questions gives it far more to go on. It's the same information that helps a human customer decide.

When a Google profile alone is enough

We build websites, so you might expect us to say you always need one. You don't. A profile on its own can be enough if:

• you're booked up months ahead by word of mouth and don't want more work
• you offer one simple service, and customers only need your number and hours
• you're just starting out and testing whether there's demand
• your budget right now is zero. Then put all your effort into your profile: every field, real photos, and a reply to every review.

You wouldn't be alone, especially in the trades:

78%

78% of UK businesses have a website. Construction is lowest, at 65%.

But read that the other way round, too: most of the businesses you compete with already have one. When a customer compares you side by side on the map, the business with a clear website usually looks like the safer choice.

Make your website and profile work together

A website helps most when it picks up where your profile leaves off. Check these:

• Use exactly the same business name, address and phone number on both.
• Put your website address in your profile's website field, and make sure the page it opens loads fast.
• Put a call button at the top of every page, so nobody has to hunt for your number.
• Give each main service its own page or section, in the words customers use.
• Show prices, or at least ‘from’ prices.
• Use real photos of your work, your premises and your team.
• Link to your Google reviews instead of copying them onto the page.
• List the areas you cover, by name.

What it costs

A one-page site that does all of the above is our Launch package: £590 to build plus £39/month for Essential care (3-month minimum), live in 5 working days. That's £707 minimum in total and £1,058 for the first year, including hosting, your domain registered in your name, and 30 minutes of changes a month. Northpin Studio is not VAT-registered, so no VAT is added.

See every package on our pricing page, or compare market prices in our guide to what a small business website costs. Running a restaurant or café? See what a restaurant website needs to get bookings.

Questions people ask

Does Google still give you a free website?

No. Google turned off websites made with Business Profiles in March 2024 [2]. If your profile still links to an old business.site address, replace it with a real website.

Is a Facebook page enough instead of a website?

Keep it, and link to it from your website. But you don't own that page, and the platform decides who sees your posts. Your website is the one place online that's fully yours.

Will a website get me higher on Google Maps?

It can help, but nobody can promise it. Google ranks local results on relevance, distance and prominence, and prominence includes how many websites link to your business [4]. Google itself says no one can guarantee a #1 ranking [5], so be wary of anyone who does.

Which page should my profile link to?

Usually your homepage. If you have more than one location, link each profile to that location's own page. Either way, the page should load fast and show your phone number at the top.