Google Business Profile vs a Website: Which Does Your Business Need?
“I’ve got my business on Google — do I still need a website?” It’s one of the questions we hear most from new business owners, and it deserves a straight answer rather than a sales pitch.
The straight answer: they do different jobs, and you want both. Here’s why.
What each one actually does
Think about how a customer finds a plumber. They search “plumber near me”, Google shows the map with three or four listings — that’s the Google Business Profile doing its job. Then, before calling anyone, they look each candidate over: reviews, photos, and almost always a click through to the website to see prices, areas covered, and whether the whole thing feels legitimate. That’s the website’s job.
In short: the profile gets you found; the website gets you chosen.
| Google Business Profile | Website | |
|---|---|---|
| Appears in Maps and local results | ✅ | Indirectly (helps the profile rank) |
| You control the design and content | Partly — Google decides the layout | ✅ Completely |
| Shows your full services and prices | Limited fields | ✅ As much as you like |
| Builds trust with detail and story | Limited | ✅ This is where trust is won |
| Belongs to you | ❌ It’s Google’s platform | ✅ Yours |
| Cost | Free | Varies — we’ve broken it down here |
Why the profile alone isn’t enough
A Google Business Profile is essential — if you haven’t set yours up properly, do that first; here’s our step-by-step guide. But relying on it alone has three problems:
1. You don’t control it. Google decides what the listing looks like, what’s shown first, and what changes next month. Listings can be suspended by mistake, edits can be suggested by the public, and you have no appeal beyond Google’s own process. Everything you build there is built on rented land.
2. It’s a comparison format. Your profile is always displayed next to your competitors’. It’s literally a line-up. The website is the one place a customer considers you on your own, with no rival one tap away.
3. It answers “who’s nearby?” but not “can I trust them?” Hours, phone number, reviews — great. But the questions that convert a searcher into a caller — what exactly do you do? what does it roughly cost? who are you? — need more room than a listing gives you. When a profile has no website behind it, a chunk of would-be customers quietly moves on to one that does.
Why a website alone isn’t enough either
Flip it round: a lovely website with no Google Business Profile is invisible for the searches that matter most to a local business. “Near me” searches show the map first, and you can’t appear on that map without a profile. The profile is also where your reviews live — and reviews are the single biggest factor in being picked.
So this isn’t a versus at all. The profile is your shop window on Google’s high street; the website is the shop.
The good news: the pair is cheaper than you think
The profile is free. And the website — historically the expensive half — doesn’t have to cost anything either. Here’s our interest, openly declared: we build professional websites for UK businesses free, directly from their Google Business Profile. Your services, photos, opening hours and reviews become a proper website on a free .co.uk domain, and the only thing you pay is £20/month hosting. If your profile’s already set up, most of the work is done — claim your free website here.
Profile gets you found. Website gets you chosen. Have both, link them together, and you’re ahead of half the businesses in town.