A Few Blocks Free sample

Do you need a website if you have a Google Business Profile?

Short answer: yes, but it doesn’t need to be big. A single page that matches your Google listing covers most of what a website does for a local business.

What your Google listing already does

Your Google Business Profile is the box that shows up when someone searches your name or something like “tacos near me”. It holds your hours, address, phone, photos and reviews, and it appears on Google Maps. For most local businesses it’s the most important thing they have online. Keep it, and keep it up to date.

What it can’t do

The listing has a website button, and people use it. They tap through to see the full menu or price list, check if you take walk-ins, or find the order link. If there’s no website, the button isn’t there. If the button goes to a Facebook page, people land on a page with ads and suggestions for other businesses.

Google also uses websites when it builds a listing. It can suggest changes to your listing based on what it finds on the web, and a website that says the same thing as your listing helps keep those details right.

And Google isn’t the only place people ask anymore. AI assistants like ChatGPT and Gemini answer questions like “where can I get dosa near College Park” by reading websites. A business with no website gives them less to go on.

The smallest website that does the job

One page is enough for a lot of businesses. It should have:

  • Your hours, address and phone, at the top
  • Your menu or prices as text, not a photo or a PDF
  • A few good photos
  • Your order or booking link
  • The same name, address and phone as your Google listing, written the same way
  • Structured data, a block of code that tells search engines your hours, address and type of business

Keeping it current

The usual worry is that a website is one more thing to update. If your hours or prices change, you change them in two places: your listing and your site. On a one-page site with an editor, that takes a minute. If you never want to touch it, a monthly plan can handle both for you.

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