Google Business Profile vs a website: do you need both?

What each one does

They do different jobs. The profile gets you found in the map results. The website is where people decide, and the one piece you control.

The two also feed each other. Google says prominence, one of its three local ranking factors, partly depends on how many websites link to your business and how many reviews you have. A website of your own is the natural place for those links to point.

What our research shows about businesses without a website

Between August 24 and September 11, 2026, we ran 757 Google searches for a trade plus a city and classified 12,921 businesses. We only counted established ones: operating, in the U.S., with 5 to 400 Google reviews and a rating of 4.3 or higher. Full method and numbers are in our State of American Trades Websites report.

16.8% had no website. That includes profiles that link only to a social media page. Another 17.6% had a weak website: built on a basic free builder template, or failing a basic check, such as not loading, no HTTPS, not set up for phones, a parked domain or almost no content. 65.6% had a working site.

The split by trade is the interesting part:

Two readings, and both are our interpretation, not something the data proves. First, a profile alone clearly works for some businesses. Nearly half of well-reviewed auto repair shops in our data have no site, and they still have the reviews. Their customers often drive past, search the shop's name, and call. Second, the trades where homeowners plan the job and compare quotes, like roofing, almost all have a website. A roof is a big purchase, and people want to see more than a map pin before they let someone on it.

The weak-website column matters too. About 1 in 6 of these businesses had a weak site, and by our definition that includes sites that don't load at all. In our view, a profile that sends customers to a dead page is worse than a profile with no website link.

Profile first: the order we'd follow

If you have nothing online today, do it in this order. Each step is useful on its own, and none of them wastes the one before it.

1. Create and verify the Google Business Profile. Pick the right primary category, set your service area, add hours and photos of real jobs. Google's guidelines tell service-area businesses to hide their address, for example a plumber who works from home. Our Google Business Profile checklist has the steps in order.
2. Start asking every customer for a review. More reviews and positive ratings can help your local ranking, according to Google. Our guide to getting more Google reviews has the wording.
3. Answer the phone. A profile's main job is to make it ring.
4. Add a website when one of the signs below applies. Then link it from the profile.

Five signs the profile isn't enough anymore

Our view, in rough order of how often we think it applies to a small trade business:

1. Your customers compare quotes before they call. Roofing, remodeling, painting, fencing and HVAC installs are planned. The homeowner looks at three companies, and the one that shows past projects, explains the process and looks established gets the call. A profile holds photos and a short description. A website can show the whole job.
2. You want to start paid ads. A Google Ads search campaign sends each click to a web page. Sending paid clicks to a page that doesn't answer "can this company do my job?" wastes the budget. Our Google Ads guide has the break-even math.
3. You offer more than one or two main services, or cover several towns. Google says relevance is how well a profile matches what someone searched for. One listing only holds so much. A website can have a page for water heaters, one for drain cleaning, and one naming the towns you serve.
4. Most of your work comes from referrals. A referred customer looks you up before calling. If all they find is a map pin, some will call the other name they were given. A simple site that confirms you're real and shows your work keeps that referral.
5. You can't afford to disappear. Google can suspend a profile that doesn't follow its guidelines, and then the public can't see it until an appeal succeeds. Google also changes the product. It turned off the free websites it used to offer with Business Profiles in March 2024 and redirected them only until June 10, 2024. It ended Business Profile chat on July 31, 2024. A website on a domain you own keeps working when those things happen.

If none of those apply, because you're booked from repeat customers and people find your shop by driving past, the profile may be enough for now. Keep it complete, and check it every month.

If you have both, make them agree

The profile and the website should tell the same story. A customer who sees one phone number on Maps and another on your site will wonder which one works.

• Same business name, phone number and service area on both.
• Put your website address in the profile's website field, and make sure the link works. Test it on your phone.
• Put the same services on both, in the same words customers use.
• Use your job photos in both places. Photos on the profile and project pages on the site come from the same camera roll.
• Keep the website simple and fast. It needs to show a tappable phone number on the first screen. Our guides on what a contractor website needs and the call button cover the details.

What a first website should cost you

A first site for a trade business doesn't need to be big. Five pages covers it: home, services, service area, photos of your work, and contact. What matters is that you own the domain, that the phone number is tappable, and that the site loads on a phone.

Costs vary a lot with how you get it built. Our website cost calculator compares doing it yourself, hiring a freelancer and paying monthly, over three years. Whichever you choose, register the domain in your business's name. Our domain names guide explains why.

Next step: search your business name on Google from your phone. If the profile shows up verified, with reviews and a working phone number, you've done the part that matters most. Then go through the five signs above and count how many apply to you.