Do I need a website if I already have a Google Business Profile?

Plenty of owners feel their Google profile already does the job. They have reviews, their hours are up and people call them from it. So why pay for a website on top?

Sometimes they're right, and I'll say when below. But for most businesses the two do different jobs, and the website makes the Google profile work better.

What does a Google Business Profile do well?

It's how people find local businesses. It puts you on Google Maps, shows your reviews, your hours and your phone number, and gives people a button to call or get directions. It's free. If you don't have one, set it up before you think about a website.

Google says local results are based mainly on three things: how well you match the search, how close you are and how well known you are. A complete profile with good reviews helps with all three.

What can't a Google Business Profile do?

• It isn't yours. Google decides the layout, what shows first and which photos appear. Customers can add their own photos of your business.
• Anyone can suggest changes to it. Customers, competitors and Google itself can propose new hours or a new phone number. Google's help pages now say that if you don't respond to a suggested edit within four days, it may go live, especially if public information like your website backs it up.
• It doesn't say much. There's room for a short description and a services list. There isn't room to explain what you do, what it costs, what a first visit is like or why someone should pick you over the place down the street.
• It doesn't come with a website anymore. Google used to make simple free sites from Business Profiles. It shut them down in 2024. The "Website" button now needs your own site to point to.

How does a website help your Google profile?

Google says how well you show up in regular web results counts toward how well known you are in local results. A website with your services, your area and your contact details gives Google more to match against searches like "dog groomer in Eagle Rock" or "math tutor near me."

It's also your backup when someone changes your profile. If your website says you close at 6 and a stranger suggests 4, Google has your own site to check against.

And it's where people go when they want more than a phone number. Someone comparing three cleaning services will click through to the ones with websites and read what they offer. The ones without a site are harder to choose.

When can you skip a website?

Honestly, sometimes you can:

• You're fully booked from word of mouth and repeat customers, and you're not trying to grow.
• You work for one or two big clients who already know you.
• You're testing an idea and don't know if it'll last the year.

If that's you, keep your Google profile complete and keep asking for reviews. Come back to a website when you want strangers to find you and pick you.

How should the two work together?

• Your profile's "Website" button goes to your site.
• Your business name, address, phone and hours are written the same way in both places.
• Your site has a clear way to call or contact you, so people who click through from Google don't have to go back.
• When something changes, you update both on the same day.