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

It is the single most useful free thing a local business can set up. Google's own page says creating a profile and listing your business on Google is free, and that you can share your hours and contact details, add photos, respond to reviews and publish posts about offers and events.

That listing is what appears on Google Maps and in the box of local results when someone searches for "plumber near me" or "tacos in the Heights". For a lot of customers it is the first thing they see. If you do not have one, set it up before you do anything else on this page.

A profile is a form with fields that Google chose. It holds your name, hours, photos, reviews and a short description. What it does not hold well is the thing that wins the job: a clear account of what you do, for whom, at what price, and why you rather than the three businesses listed beside you.

• No room for detail: a full menu with descriptions, a list of services with prices, the areas you cover, answers to the questions customers always ask.
• No design of your own: every listing looks the same, so the only things that set you apart are your photos and your reviews.
• No control: the layout, the features and what is shown can change whenever Google changes them.
• Little for people who already know you: they cannot book, order or collect points through a listing.

Google publishes how it ranks local results. Its guide to local ranking names three main factors: relevance (how well the profile matches the search), distance (how far the business is from the person searching) and prominence (how well known the business is). Under prominence, Google says it also considers how many websites link to your business and how many reviews you have. The same page says there is no way to request or pay for a better local ranking.

A website feeds those signals. It gives Google more to read about what you do, which helps relevance. It gives other sites, local directories and partners something to link to, which helps prominence. And it is the address you put in the profile's website field, so the listing has somewhere to send people who want more than the hours.

This is where most businesses lose people. The customer has seen your rating and your photos and is nearly convinced. They tap "Website" and get either nothing, a page that takes ages to load on their phone, or a site that has not been touched in years with an old phone number on it.

A good website at that moment answers the last questions: what exactly you do, what it costs, where you work, and how to book or call. It should look like the business the reviews describe. That is the job our builds are designed around.

Yes, and it is the fastest way to start. When you attach your Google listing to a request on our builder, we use what is already on it: your name, your category, your hours, your photos, your reviews and where you are. The site is built from that in about 20 minutes, and a designer checks it before you see it.

You do not have to retype anything you have already given Google. You can add a note for the designer, such as a service you want to lead with or something the listing gets wrong, and it is built in. Start with your listing.

Building it and showing it to you is free, with no card. To put it live on your own domain: $99 a month with hosting, the domain and changes included, $990 a year, or $1,499 once to own the site outright, with hosting and updates optional at $175 a year. The full list is on the pricing page.

Sometimes, for a while. A brand-new business with no budget, a mobile service that gets all its work from Maps, or a business where nearly every customer arrives by referral can live on the profile alone. Fill in every field, add real photos, ask happy customers for reviews and answer every review you get.

Once you find yourself explaining the same things over the phone again and again, or losing jobs to competitors who look more established online, the profile is no longer enough. That is usually the moment to add a website, and keep the profile pointing at it.