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

No. You don't need a website to create, verify or show a Google Business Profile. Google's own guidelines ask you to provide a phone number that connects to your business location or a website that represents it, so the website field is optional (Guidelines for representing your business on Google). Still, for most businesses that want customers from Google, the answer to "do I need a website if I have a Google Business Profile" is yes. The profile gets you onto the map. A website lets you compete in the normal web results too, and it gives customers somewhere to check you out before they call.

Below you'll find a decision table for each type of business, the smallest website worth building, and the order to do things in over 30 days. If you want the next local search guides, get the free SEO Brief newsletter for small business owners. New guides by email, the day they come out.

Is a Google Business Profile enough for my small business?

It depends on how your customers find you and what they need to see before they buy. Use this table to find your case.

Your business	Is the profile alone enough?	Why
Brand new, testing demand	Yes, for the first few weeks	The profile is free and quick. Get it verified first, then build the site.
Restaurant or café with walk-in trade	Close to enough, but you'll miss searches	People search "near me", read reviews and check the menu. A simple site still helps with events, private bookings and searches outside the map.
Salon or barber	Not quite	Clients want prices, services and photos of the work. A site holds a full price list and lets you link a booking tool.
Home service: plumber, roofer, HVAC, cleaner	No	Customers search for a specific job ("water heater replacement", "roof leak repair") in a specific town. You need a page for each main service.
Practice: dentist, lawyer, accountant, physio	No	People check credentials, team, treatments or practice areas and fees before booking. Trust takes more than a profile.
Online business or SaaS	No	Google says you can create a profile if your business "either has a physical location that customers can visit, or travels to customers where they are" (Guidelines for representing your business on Google). An online-only business doesn't fit that, so the website is your shop.

The pattern is simple. The more a customer needs to compare, read or trust before contacting you, the more you need a website.

What the profile does well, and where it stops

A Google Business Profile is your listing on Google Search and Maps. It is very good at a few things:

Showing you in the map results for local searches.
Getting calls, direction requests and website clicks with one tap.
Collecting and showing reviews.
Showing hours, photos, services and posts.

Google says local results depend on three things: relevance, distance and prominence (Tips to improve your local ranking on Google). Your profile feeds all three. But it stops in a few places:

Searches without a map. Many searches show normal web results above the map or instead of it, especially for questions and specific jobs. A profile mostly competes in the map results, not in the normal web results. To show up there, you need a web page.
Room to explain. A profile has short fields. You can't explain a process, show a full price list, answer twenty common questions or describe each service in detail.
Control. Google decides how the profile looks, which fields exist and what it shows. Other people can suggest edits to your listing. You can't change the layout or add a page.
Prominence. On the same help page, Google defines prominence as how well-known a business is, and lists how many websites link to your business among the things it looks at, along with reviews. Without a website, those links can only point at your listing, not at a site you own.

For the full setup of the profile itself, see our Google Business Profile checklist for service businesses.

Can you use Google Business Profile without a website?

Yes. Google's guidelines let you give a phone number that connects to your business location instead of a website (same Google guidelines page). If you haven't set up your profile yet, follow our guide on how to put your business on Google for free.

Two things to know before you rely on it.

The free Google website no longer exists

Many pages still tell owners to "use the free website Google gives you". That tool is gone. Websites built with Google Business Profiles (the ones ending in .business.site) were shut down in March 2024. Visitors were redirected to the profile until June 10, 2024, and after that the old address stopped working (Search Engine Journal).

If your profile, business cards, van or ads still point to a .business.site address, that link is dead. Fix it today.

All your eggs in one basket

With a profile only, you don't own your main channel. It lives on Google's platform, under Google's rules. Google can suspend or disable a profile, and its help page says that when a profile is removed, "the public can't go to the profile" (Fix suspended or disabled profiles, Google Business Profile Help). Rules and features change too. The free website tool proves it: owners who depended on it had to rebuild.

A website you control keeps working while a profile problem gets sorted out. Customers who search your business name can still find your phone number.

Only have a Google profile and wondering which pages to build first? Join the free SEO Brief newsletter for plain-English guides for owners who run their own site. New guides by email, the day they come out.

What a website adds that Google can read

A website isn't a box to tick. It gives Google more to understand about you. These are the parts that matter most for a small local business:

Service pages. One page per main service tells Google, and customers, exactly what you do. "Boiler repair in Leeds" on its own page is clearer than one line in a profile.
Areas you serve. A page or section that names the towns you cover. Only write what's true and useful for each place.
Name, address and phone, the same everywhere. Use exactly the same business name, address and phone number on your site, your profile and directories. Mismatches confuse customers and make your details harder to trust.
Proof. Licenses, insurance, qualifications, photos of real jobs, team names. This is what makes a visitor call you instead of the next result.
A link both ways. Put your website in the profile's website field, and your address and phone on the site. That helps Google connect the two.

One honest note: Google doesn't publish a rule that says "a website boosts your Maps ranking by X". Its help page names links from websites and reviews as part of prominence, and says "businesses with complete and accurate info are more likely to show up in local search results" (Tips to improve your local ranking on Google). Beyond that, the idea that a good site lifts your map ranking is a theory that many local SEO specialists share. It is not a documented fact.

The smallest website worth building: 4 to 6 pages

You don't need a big site. You need a few pages that answer what your customers ask before they call.

The base, for any local business:

Home: what you do, where, and how to contact you, near the top.
Services: one page per main service if they're different jobs, or one clear page if you do one thing.
Areas served or location: towns covered, or your address with a map and parking details.
About: who you are, how long you've traded, licenses or qualifications.
Contact: phone, form, hours, address. Same details as your profile.
Reviews or FAQ (optional): answers to the questions you hear every week.

What changes by trade:

Plumber, roofer, HVAC: one page per job type (repairs, installs, emergency call-outs) and an emergency phone number at the top of every page. Customers search the job, not your name. Our checklist of pages an HVAC website should have shows the full set for a trade business.
Dentist: one page per treatment people search for (implants, whitening, emergency dentist), new patient information, insurance or fee information, and the team with qualifications.
Restaurant: the menu as text, not only a photo or PDF, so Google can read it. Add opening hours, booking or ordering, and private events if you take them.
Salon or barber: a full price list, a booking link, and a gallery of your own work.

Already have a few of these pages? Run one of them through the free SEO audit in our Claude connector to see what it's missing before you write the rest.

What it costs. Prices change often, so check the official pages. Here is what they said on November 10, 2026:

Wix has a free plan, and paid plans when you need more (Wix plans).
Squarespace has no free plan. Every site starts with a 14-day free trial, then a monthly or yearly paid plan (Squarespace pricing).
Google Sites lets you build a site with your Google account and use your own domain name for it (Use a custom domain for your site, Google Sites Help).

Whatever builder you pick, buy your own domain name so your address stays yours if you change tools. What matters is the pages, not the tool.

The 30-day order: profile first, then website

Do things in this order. Each step builds on the last.

Days 1 to 7: finish the profile. Pick the right primary category, add services, hours, service area or address, photos, and a short description. Start the verification if it isn't done. Our guide to verifying your business on Google Maps covers each method.
Days 3 to 10: ask for reviews. Ask your last ten happy customers. Google says "more reviews and positive ratings can help your business's local ranking" (Tips to improve your local ranking on Google).
Days 8 to 20: build the 4 to 6 pages. Write the home page and service pages first. Use the same name, address and phone as the profile.
Day 21: connect them. Add the website address to your profile. Replace any old .business.site link everywhere: profile, social accounts, invoices, ads.
Day 22: add the site to Google Search Console. It's free and shows whether Google has found your pages and which searches show your site (Search Console). If nothing appears after a few weeks, read why a new website isn't showing on Google.
Days 23 to 30: fill the gaps. Look at the questions customers ask on the phone. Each common question can become an FAQ answer or a new page.

FAQ

Can I rank on Google Maps without a website?

Yes. A verified profile can appear in Maps without a website. Google ranks map results on relevance, distance and prominence, and counts links from websites as part of prominence. So a profile alone usually has less to work with than a profile plus a site.

What happened to the free website from Google Business Profile?

Google shut down websites built with Business Profiles in March 2024. Visitors were redirected to the profile until June 10, 2024. After that, .business.site addresses stopped working. You need another website builder now.

Is a Facebook page enough instead of a website?

It's better than nothing, but it has the same problem as a profile alone: you don't control the platform, and a social page doesn't give you service pages that can show up for specific searches. Use it alongside a website, not instead of one.

What is the cheapest way to get a website for my local business?

Start with a builder that has a free plan or trial, plus your own domain name, and check the builder's pricing page for current terms. Begin with four pages: home, services, contact and about. You can move to a paid plan later if you need booking, online orders or more design control.

What to do today

Open your Google Business Profile and check the website field. If it shows a .business.site address or is empty, note it.
Find the row of the table above that matches your business and decide: profile only for now, or profile plus website.
Write down your 4 to 6 pages, including one page for each main service customers search for.
Check that your name, address and phone number match exactly on your profile, social pages and any directory you're listed in.
If you already have a page, check it with the free audit in our Claude connector. It shows what to fix on the page you have, before you build more. Then get the free SEO Brief newsletter for the next local guides. New guides by email, the day they come out.