Quick Answer: Yes, your small business needs a website if you want to win work from people who don’t already know you. A Google Business Profile gets you onto Google Maps, and every local business should have one. But it’s a short listing on Google’s terms. A website explains what you do, gives you pages that can show up for the services you offer, and sits on an address you own. You want both, and you should start with the free one.
It’s a fair question. Your Google listing is free, it shows your phone number and your reviews, and customers are already finding you through it. So why pay for anything else?
Plenty of good businesses run for years on word of mouth and a Google listing. I won’t pretend you can’t. But there are some clear limits to it, and it helps to know where they are.
What can a Google Business Profile do?
Quite a lot, for nothing. It puts your business on Google Maps and in local search, with your phone number, hours, photos, services and reviews. People can ring you or get directions in one tap.
If somebody near you searches for what you do, your listing is your chance of appearing in the local results. Google says those results are mainly based on relevance, distance and prominence.
If you haven’t got one, stop reading and set up your Google Business Profile. It’s the first thing I’d do.
What can’t a Google listing do?
This is where it runs out of road.
- It can’t tell your whole story. Your description has a 750-character limit. That’s about a paragraph, and it can’t include links or sales messages.
- It only reaches so far. Distance is one of the main things Google looks at, so your listing tends to get weaker the further someone is from your base. A website page can talk about the work you do across your whole area.
- It isn’t much help away from Google. Someone who hears about you and goes looking wants somewhere to land, and I’d expect AI tools like ChatGPT to have more to go on when there are pages about you to read.
- It can’t take a proper enquiry. A website can ask what the job is, where it is and when they need it, then send it straight to your phone.
Do you actually control your Google listing?
Not fully, and this surprises people.
Anyone can suggest an edit to your listing, and Google may change your details based on user reports or other sources. For some suggested edits, it notifies you and gives you 4 days to accept or reject them. Your own changes get reviewed too, which usually takes minutes but can take up to 30 days.
Your listing can also be suspended if Google thinks you’ve broken its rules. If that’s the only place you exist online, you’ve suddenly got nothing.
Google can also change what its listings offer. It used to let businesses build a free website from their profile, then shut those sites down in March 2024. People who’d relied on them lost them.
Your domain is yours. If you ever change provider, your web address comes with you.
Does a website help your Google listing?
Yes, in a couple of ways.
Google says prominence is partly based on how many websites link to you. Other sites have something to link to when you’ve got a website. Your site also helps keep your details right. If someone suggests a change to your listing and you don’t respond, Google may publish it if public information such as your website supports it. So your site gives Google something accurate to check against.
Then there’s the customer. Picture someone comparing three businesses on Google Maps. Two have a tidy website showing real photos and clear services. One has a listing and a Facebook link. Which one feels like the safe choice?
Can a Facebook page replace a website?
Not really. It’s useful, but it has the same problem as your listing: it’s someone else’s platform and someone else’s rules. Your posts also scroll out of sight, and some people won’t have an account.
Keep it if your customers use it, and link it to your website.
Who can get away without a website?
You might not need one yet if:
- You’re fully booked from word of mouth and plan to stay that way.
- You’re just testing an idea and haven’t got your first customers.
- You’re the only one doing what you do around here, and everyone knows you.
If any of those change, or you start to notice competitors winning work you’d have got, that’s your cue.
What should a small business website have?
Less than you’d think. A handful of pages is plenty for most local businesses, as long as they do the job:
- What you do and where you do it, obvious within a few seconds
- A separate section for each main service
- Real photos of your work and your reviews
- A phone number and a short contact form that work properly on a phone
It needs to be quick, and it needs to be set up so Google and AI tools can read it. If you’re wondering about budget, here’s what a small business website costs in the UK.
So what should you do first?
Do it in this order:
- Set up your Google Business Profile, because it’s free and it works.
- Start collecting Google reviews from every customer.
- Put a proper website behind it, and link the two together.
That’s the order I’d do it in.
Want both sorted in one go?
That’s what Digimill does for local businesses across Lancashire and Yorkshire. I build your website, set up your Google listing and connect the two, then keep the website running. You get on with the job.
Tell me about your business and I’ll build you a free preview of what your site could look like, with nothing to pay unless you go ahead.