Business Profile or website?

For clinics, practices, trades, studios and venues that live on enquiries: what the free Google listing does better than any website, what it cannot hold, what Google has already switched off, and how the two work together.

The short answer

A Google Business Profile is free and wins the map: it puts you in local results on Search and Maps, shows your reviews and puts a call button in front of people nearby. It is not a website. Google switched off profile websites in March 2024, the description stops at 750 characters, and Google can update your listing from other sources. A website is where you explain each service, take enquiries and bookings into your own systems, and measure what becomes a customer. Google also reads it to build your profile. Most businesses that live on enquiries need both.

By Yannis Spanenburg, founder of Proof of Pixel. Facts checked on 7 October 2026.

Side by side

	Google Business Profile	Website
Where it shows	The map and the business panel on Google Search and Maps	The ordinary search results, AI answers that cite pages, and every link, ad and email you send
What decides the ranking	Relevance, distance and prominence. Google says there is no way to pay for a better local ranking	Google's web ranking, page by page: what each page says and how well it works for visitors
Room to explain the offer	A 750-character description with no links, a services list, photos and posts. Posts are archived after six months unless dated	A page for every service, treatment or area, with your team, FAQs, proof and prices if you choose
Taking enquiries	The call button, your website link and, in select regions, WhatsApp or text. Google's own chat ended on 31 July 2024	Forms with your own qualifying questions that post straight into your inbox and CRM
Bookings	Reserve with Google in certain countries, through a supported provider who may charge you, or booking links that send people to your site or your provider	Your own booking flow, with confirmations and reminders sent from your own systems
Reviews	Google reviews show on Search and Maps and count toward prominence. Offering anything in return for a review is prohibited	You can show them, but Google gives no review stars in results for reviews of your own business
Who controls it	Google: it can update details from other sources, publish suggested edits and suspend profiles that break its guidelines	You: the domain, the words, the structure, and where every enquiry lands
What you can measure	Taps: call-button clicks, website clicks and direction requests. Completed bookings only through a provider	Every form, call and booking as an event, tied to its source and to what happened next in the CRM
Features Google has retired	Profile websites on 5 March 2024; chat, call history and quote requests on 31 July 2024	None. Google can rank your site lower, but it cannot switch it off

Checked on 7 October 2026 in Google Business Profile Help, Google Search Central and Google Analytics Help. Google has since replaced its 2024 page on the end of profile websites, so that source is the archived copy from 5 March 2024. Reserve with Google, WhatsApp and text chat are not available in every country.

Who should pick which

A profile alone will do if

You have just started and need the phone to ring this month
You offer one simple service in one area, and people choose on distance and reviews
Every enquiry is a phone call that someone answers
You accept that every detail about you lives on a page Google controls

You need the website too if

You offer several services or treatments, each searched for on its own
Enquiries need qualifying before anyone calls back
You take bookings and want them in your own calendar and CRM
You run ads or email, or want to know which channel brings customers

What the profile does better

For anyone searching nearby, the profile is the front door. Google ranks local results on three things: relevance, how well a profile matches the search; distance from the person searching; and prominence, how well-known the business is, including how many websites link to it and how many reviews it has. Google says there is no way to request or pay for a better local ranking.

The profile also puts your reviews, hours, photos and a call button exactly where people decide, and Google lets you manage it at no charge. A business without a verified, complete profile is missing from the map, and a website alone does not put it there.

What a profile cannot hold

A profile is a listing, not a place to make your case. The description stops at 750 characters and may not contain links, posts are archived after six months unless they carry a date range, and the services list is a list. A clinic with eight treatments, a firm with four practice areas or a builder who works in twelve towns has more to say than that, and people search for each of those separately.

The enquiry itself is the bigger gap. From a profile, people can call, tap through to your website or, in select regions, send a WhatsApp or text message. Google's own chat was switched off on 31 July 2024, along with call history and quote requests. Bookings run through Reserve with Google, only in certain countries and through a supported scheduling provider who may charge you, or through booking links that send people to your site or your provider anyway.

A website is where you ask the questions that matter before a call back, such as treatment, budget, timing or cover, under your own privacy policy, and where the answer lands straight in your inbox, calendar and CRM.

Google reads your website to build the profile

The two are not separate. Google says it compiles profile information from several sources, starting with crawled web content such as a business's official website, and that it can detect category information from your website. Prominence, one of its three local ranking factors, counts how many websites link to your business.

Your website also settles disputes. When a user suggests an edit to your profile and you do not respond within four days, Google may publish it if it is supported by other public information, such as your business website. A site that shows the same name, address, phone number and hours as the profile, and lets Googlebot in, keeps the listing accurate. LocalBusiness structured data hands Google your hours and departments in a format it reads directly.

Google has switched profile features off before

On 5 March 2024 Google turned off the free websites it had built from Business Profiles, the ones on business.site and negocio.site addresses. Visitors were sent to the profile until 10 June 2024; after that they got a Page not found error, and the old addresses were removed from the website field.

On 31 July 2024 the profile's chat and call history went too, and with them the option for customers to request a quote. Businesses had until 30 August 2024 to download their records. Google may also suspend or disable profiles that do not follow its guidelines, and getting one back means an appeal.

None of that is a reason to skip the profile. It is a reason not to make it the only place your business exists online.

What people do after reading your reviews

BrightLocal's 2026 Local Consumer Review Survey asked 1,002 US adults what they do after reading positive reviews of a local business. The most common answer was to check the business's website, at 54%, up from 32% when BrightLocal last asked in 2019. Fewer went straight to contacting the business or booking an appointment, 20% each. Respondents could pick several answers.

The same survey found that 45% had used ChatGPT or other AI tools for local recommendations, up from 6% a year earlier. Those tools can only repeat what they can read. The survey is American and self-reported, but it points one way: the profile starts the decision, and many people finish it on your site.

Measure the profile and the site together

The profile's performance report counts taps: clicks on the call button, clicks on the website link, direction requests, and completed bookings only when they run through a provider. It cannot tell you which call became a patient or a job. Google Analytics can now link to your Business Profiles and show those metrics beside your site data, for the last six months.

Add campaign tags to the website link on the profile so those visits are labelled in Analytics, track every form, call and booking on the site as an event, and feed what happened next back from your CRM. Then you can see whether the map brings customers, not just clicks.

We build websites, so weigh our view accordingly. What we build for businesses that live on enquiries is the part a profile cannot hold: the service pages, the enquiry and booking flow into your own systems, the tracking, and the details kept in step with the profile.

Questions about Business Profile vs website

Is a Google Business Profile enough for a small business?

For a new business with one simple service, it can be enough to start: it is free, it puts you on the map and it brings calls. Once you offer several services, need to qualify enquiries or take bookings, you need a website as well, because the profile has no room to explain the offer and Google, not you, controls it.

Can you have a Google Business Profile without a website?

Yes. Google's guidelines ask for a phone number that connects to your business or a website that represents it, so a phone number is enough to be listed. Customers can only find the profile once you have verified it.

What happened to Google Business Profile websites?

Google turned them off on 5 March 2024. Visitors to business.site and negocio.site addresses were redirected to the profile until 10 June 2024, then got a Page not found error, and those addresses were removed from the website field. Google no longer builds websites from profiles.

Does a website help my Google Business Profile rank?

It can. Google names relevance, distance and prominence as the main local ranking factors, and prominence includes how many websites link to your business. Google also builds profile information from crawled web content such as your official website. It does not publish how much each factor counts, and nothing changes the distance.

Can customers book an appointment through my Google Business Profile?

In certain countries, yes, through Reserve with Google and a supported scheduling provider, who may charge you. Otherwise you add booking links that send people to your site or your provider. Google only reports completed bookings made through a provider; custom links get no performance data.

Can I show my Google reviews on my website?

Yes, and it helps visitors who arrive from elsewhere. Google will not show review stars in search results for them, though: reviews a business controls about itself, including an embedded Google reviews widget, are not eligible. Never offer anything in return for a review; Google prohibits it.

What should my website have if I already have a profile?

A page for each service, treatment or area you want to be found for; the same name, address, phone number and hours as the profile; a short form or booking that lands in your own systems; real reviews; LocalBusiness structured data; and nothing blocking Googlebot. Point the profile's website link at the page for that location.

How do I know whether the profile or the website brings customers?

The profile reports taps on the call button, the website link and directions. Link it to Google Analytics, tag the website link with campaign parameters, and track forms, calls and bookings on the site as events tied to your CRM. Analytics only shows the last six months of profile data.

Is Google Business Profile free?

Yes. Google lets you manage your profile at no charge and says there is no way to pay for a better local ranking. Location-based ads are a separate, paid product.

Does a website matter for ChatGPT and AI search?

Yes, and more people use them. In BrightLocal's 2026 survey of US adults, 45% had used ChatGPT or other AI tools for local recommendations, up from 6% a year earlier. Those tools answer from what they can read: a profile gives them your basics, a website gives them each service in your own words.