Is a Google Business Profile free?

Yes. Creating and verifying a Google Business Profile is free, and every local business should have one. It puts you on Google Maps and in the local results when people search for what you do nearby.

Did Google remove its free websites?

Yes. Google shut down the free websites it generated from Business Profiles (business.site addresses) on March 1, 2024. Visitors were redirected to the profile until June 10, 2024, and after that the old links stopped working. Google now points business owners to third-party website builders instead.

Can customers find me with just a Google Business Profile?

They can find you - that is what the profile is for. The problem is the next step: when a customer compares three or four nearby businesses, the ones with a real website give them photos of past work, services, service area, and a quote form. A profile with no website gives them a phone number and whatever reviews you have so far. Discovery and convincing are two different jobs.

What should a local service business website include?

The essentials: what you do and where, photos of real work, a way to request a quote that goes straight to your inbox, your reviews, and a phone number that is easy to tap on mobile. It should load fast and carry your own domain name, which also gives you a professional email address.

Do I own my Google Business Profile?

No. You manage it, but Google controls the platform. Google can change how profiles look, what shows up, and which features exist at any time - it has done so repeatedly, including removing the free websites entirely in 2024. A website on your own domain is the one online asset you fully own.

RunCabin Blog · For new owners

Is a Google Business Profile enough, or do you need a website?

June 12, 2026 · 6 min read

Short answer: you need both, because they do different jobs. Your Google Business Profile gets you noticed - it puts you on the map, literally. Your website gets you chosen - it is where a customer who found three nearby businesses decides which one to call. New owners are constantly told "a free Google profile is enough to start," and as far as it goes, that advice is fine. It just stops one step before the part where the customer picks you.

What the Google Business Profile actually does

A Google Business Profile (the listing that shows up in Google Maps and in the local "map pack" results) is free, and it is genuinely the first thing any local business should set up. It handles discovery: someone searches "plumber near me" or "house painter in your town," and your name, reviews, hours, and phone number can appear.

If you do nothing else this week, claim and verify your profile, pick the right categories, and add real photos. That part of the standard advice is correct.

Where the profile stops

Here is the moment the profile does not cover. A homeowner searches, finds three businesses, and opens all three. Now they are not discovering anymore - they are comparing. They want to see photos of actual jobs, what services you cover, whether you work in their area, and an easy way to request a quote without making a phone call at 9pm.

A business with a real website answers all of that. A profile with no website offers a phone number and whatever reviews have accumulated so far. When the work being purchased costs hundreds or thousands of dollars, most people keep comparing until something convinces them. That convincing is your website's job.

One line sums up the division of labor better than anything we have written ourselves: your Google profile helps you get noticed; your website helps you get chosen.

"But Google gives you a free website" - not anymore

For years there was a real counter-argument: Google would generate a simple free website from your Business Profile, hosted at a business.site address. That option is gone. Google shut down those free websites on March 1, 2024. Visitors who hit the old links were redirected to the bare profile until June 10, 2024, and after that the links simply stopped working. Google's own guidance to affected owners was to go build a site with a third-party website builder.

So the path the "free is enough" advice used to lean on now ends with Google itself telling you to get a real website.

The part nobody mentions: you don't own your profile

You manage your Google Business Profile, but you do not own it. Google controls the platform and can change how it works, what it shows, and which features exist - at any time, without asking. The free-website shutdown is the proof case: owners who treated business.site as their web presence woke up to dead links and a migration deadline.

A website on your own domain is different. The domain is registered to you. Cancel any provider and the domain stays yours. It is the one piece of your online presence that no platform can take away, restyle, or sunset.

What a trade website actually needs

The good news: a local service business does not need a big site. It needs five things done well:

What you do and where - your services and your service area, stated plainly.
Photos of real work - before/after shots beat stock photos every time.
A quote form that reaches you instantly - inquiries should land in your inbox, not in a portal you forget to check.
Your reviews - pull the proof you already earned into the place where people are deciding.
A tap-to-call phone number - most of this traffic is on phones.

Then you connect the two halves: put your website link on your Google profile. Google's local results favor complete, consistent listings, and customers who click through land somewhere that closes the deal. The profile feeds the site; the site converts what the profile attracts.

The order of operations for a new owner

Claim and verify your Google Business Profile. Free, do it today.
Get a simple website live on your own domain - services, photos, quote form.
Link the site from your profile, and ask every happy customer for a Google review.

That whole stack used to take weeks and a four-figure invoice. It does not anymore. RunCabin builds the website part for you - your name, your work, your city, with a quote form straight to your inbox - for $39.99/mo with no setup fee, and you change anything afterward just by asking the AI in plain English. Most owners are live the same day.

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