Local search
Website vs Google Business Profile: do you need both?
A Google Business Profile is free and gets you onto the map. A website is where people decide whether to trust you and how to reach you. They do different jobs, and each is weaker without the other.
Updated · By AltaSmith, Calgary
The short answer
You can run a local business on a Google Business Profile alone, and many do. But it can’t do everything a website does, so most local businesses are better off with both. If you can only do one today, do the profile first. It’s free, and it’s how most people nearby will find you. Our step-by-step guide to setting up Google Business Profile and Yelp shows how.
What each one does
| Google Business Profile | Website | |
|---|---|---|
| Cost | Free | Build price plus a monthly care plan |
| Shows you on Google Maps and the local results | Yes — this is what it’s for | Not by itself |
| Hours, phone, directions, reviews, photos | Yes | You control how they’re presented |
| Explains each service and how you work | Briefly | As fully as you like |
| Shows pricing guidance, licences, and past work | Limited | Yes |
| Captures enquiries with a quote or booking form | No — only calls, messages, and directions | Yes |
| You control the content and design | Partly; Google decides the layout | Fully |
| Gives AI assistants a full source to describe you | One input among several | Yes — and it’s yours |
What a profile can’t do alone
- Collect leads. A profile has no quote form. People can call, message, or get directions, and that’s it.
- Explain and prove. There’s little room for detailed services, pricing guidance, licences, case studies, or an FAQ.
- Belong to you. Google can change the layout, features, or rules at any time. A website is the one place you control end to end.
- Be the verification. When someone finds you through a map result or an AI answer, checking your website is the usual next step. BrightLocal’s 2026 survey found most people keep researching after reading reviews.
What to do, in order
- Claim and complete your Google Business Profile: accurate details, your service area, real photos, your services.
- Ask every happy customer for a review, steadily. A few recent, real reviews beat a burst of old ones.
- Add a Bing Places listing, which Copilot and Bing draw on.
- Build a website that matches the profile and gives visitors somewhere to get a quote.
Business in a Box ($750, added to any website package) sets up your Google Business Profile and Bing Places alongside the site so they agree from day one. See what’s included, or read what a trades website needs.
Common questions
Yes. Google doesn’t require a website to create or verify a profile, and it will still list your business on Search and Maps with your hours, photos, reviews, phone number, and directions.
If money is tight and you serve a local area, complete your free Google Business Profile first: accurate details, real photos, and a habit of asking happy customers for reviews. Then build the website, so the profile has somewhere good to send people.
Not directly, but AI assistants draw on the same signals: your profile, reviews, directory listings, and your own website. Consistent business details across all of them, and a site with clear service pages, make it easier for an assistant to describe you correctly.
It’s worth doing. Microsoft Copilot and Bing use Bing’s data, and a Bing Places listing costs nothing. Business in a Box sets up both your Google Business Profile and Bing Places.
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