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

For most local trades, the Google listing brings in more customers than the website ever will. A website does not replace it. It backs it up. If you have to choose where to spend the next month, spend it on your listing and your reviews. Then the question is what a website adds that the listing cannot.

We sell websites, so take that opening as the honest answer it is rather than the convenient one. Here is how to decide for your own business.

What the listing already does well

• It is where people find you. Someone searching for a plumber nearby sees the map and three listings before they see a single website.
• It carries your reviews, and reviews count directly in local results.
• It is free and takes an afternoon to set up properly.
• It answers the quick questions: are you open, how far away are you, what is the number.

What a website adds that the listing cannot

Room to make the case. A listing gives you a short description and a photo grid. A website lets you show finished jobs with an explanation, list prices or price ranges, explain what is and is not included, and answer the questions you get asked on every call. For any job worth more than a few hundred pounds, customers want that before they ring.

Something you control. Google decides how your listing looks and can change it, suspend it or let a stranger suggest edits to it. Your website says exactly what you put on it, and nobody else can alter it.

A way to get in touch without ringing. Plenty of customers search at 10pm and will not call then. A form or a booking link catches them; a listing with only a phone number loses them to whoever had one.

Something to check you against. Customers increasingly look a business up in more than one place before they decide, including asking an AI assistant. A website with your services, areas and prices written out gives all of those something accurate to read.

What our London data shows

In our study of 8,783 London businesses, those with a working website had a median of 23 Google reviews, against 14 for those without. The gap held in all ten trades we tested.

It is tempting to read that as proof a website gets you reviews. It is not. The most likely explanation is that the same kind of owner who keeps a website working also keeps the listing tidy and asks for reviews. The useful lesson is about the habit, not the website.

The exception was driving instructors, where the website made no difference at all: 45 reviews with one, 44 without. When the reviews come naturally, the website is not what drives them.

When you can honestly skip the website

• Your diary is full from word of mouth and repeat customers.
• Almost every job comes in by phone, from people who found your listing.
• The work is small, quick and similar each time, so nobody needs convincing before they ring.
• You would not keep a website up to date, and a stale one does more harm than none.

That last point is not a throwaway. In our study of 8,616 working London websites, one in five looked visibly dated. A site with a 2016 copyright and an old phone number makes a worse impression than a strong listing on its own.

When you almost certainly need one

• Your jobs are big enough that people compare two or three businesses before deciding.
• You want to show your work, explain your prices or list the areas you cover.
• You want enquiries from people who will not phone.
• Your Google listing has been suspended before, or you rely on it for everything and would have nothing if it went.

The order to do it in

1. Fix the listing. Correct categories, real service areas, accurate hours, your own photos.
2. Ask for reviews. Your last ten happy customers, with the direct link.
3. Then the website, linked from the listing, saying the same name, number and areas.

If you already have a site and are not sure it is helping, our free website checker will tell you whether it is working, secure and readable on a phone.

Questions about this study