Short answer first, because you’re busy: if you run a genuinely local business that survives on walk-ins, phone calls and word of mouth — a barber in Seaham, a takeaway in Hendon, a mobile mechanic covering Washington — a well-run Google Business Profile might carry you for now. You don’t automatically need a website just because someone says you should. But that’s not the whole story, and the honest answer to “do I need a website for my small business” is: it depends on what you’re trying to grow into. Let me walk you through where the line actually sits.
TL;DR
- A Google Business Profile is free, brilliant for local visibility, and for some tiny businesses it’s genuinely enough on its own.
- You don’t own it. Google can suspend it, change it, or bury it — and you’ve got no fallback.
- A website wins on control, credibility, converting visitors, deeper SEO, and capturing searches a profile can’t answer.
- Most established North East businesses want both, working together, not one instead of the other.
- If you’re happy staying small and local, hold off. If you want to grow or look properly professional, a website earns its keep.
What a Google Business Profile genuinely does well
Let’s give Google Business Profile (the old “Google My Business”) full credit, because it deserves it. It’s free, it takes an afternoon to set up properly, and it’s often the first thing a local customer sees. When someone in Sunderland searches “plumber near me” or “coffee shop city centre”, the map pack at the top of the results is powered entirely by profiles. No website required to show up there.
Done well, a profile handles the basics beautifully:
- Your opening hours, phone number and location on the map.
- Reviews — the single biggest trust signal for a local customer choosing between you and the next lot.
- Photos of your work, your shop, your team.
- A “call” or “directions” button, one tap away on a phone.
- Posts and updates, if you keep on top of them.
For a one-person business that mainly needs to be found and phoned, that covers a surprising amount of ground. I’d rather see a sole trader with a sharp, review-rich profile and no website than a neglected five-page site nobody updates. So no — I’m not going to tell you that you must have a website. Plenty round here do fine without one, at least while they’re starting out.
One caveat worth saying out loud: the businesses that get real mileage out of a profile alone are the ones that actually work it. Fresh photos, a steady trickle of reviews, quick replies to questions, hours kept accurate over the bank holidays. A profile you set up two years ago and forgot isn’t “enough” — it’s a liability that tells customers you might have shut down. If you’re not going to keep it fed, neither option does much for you.
Where a profile hits its ceiling
Here’s the part the “just get a Google profile” crowd tends to skip. A profile is a listing on someone else’s platform. It’s a shop window in a building you don’t own and can’t lock. That’s fine until it isn’t.
You don’t own it, and that’s a real risk
Google suspends profiles. Sometimes for a rule you didn’t know you’d broken, sometimes for no clear reason at all, and getting one reinstated can take weeks of back-and-forth with support that barely exists. If that profile is your only presence online and it vanishes on a Tuesday, your business is invisible with nothing to fall back on. A website is a plot of land you actually own. Your domain, your content, your rules. Nobody can switch it off on a whim.
A profile can’t sell the way a page can
A profile tells people you exist. A website convinces them to choose you. Those are different jobs. On your own site you control the story — the specific services, the prices or “from” figures, the before-and-after photos, the FAQs that quietly answer objections, the case study that shows you sorted a job exactly like theirs. You decide what someone reads first and what button they click next. On a profile, Google decides the layout and you get a text box.
The search demand a profile can’t touch
This is the big one for getting found online in the North East. Loads of valuable searches aren’t “business near me” — they’re questions. “How much does a new bathroom cost in Sunderland.” “Do I need planning permission for a garden office.” “Best flooring for a rented flat.” A profile can’t rank for any of that. A website with a few honest, useful pages can — and those pages pull in people who are actively researching before they buy. That’s demand your profile is simply blind to. Answer the question well and you’re the one they call. Even a single page that properly explains what you do, where you cover and how you price gives Google something to show that a listing never could.
Credibility and the stuff that makes life easier
Fair or not, a lot of customers still check for a website before they trust you with real money. For a quick coffee, a profile’s plenty. For a £4,000 job, a proper site signals you’re an established, serious operation rather than someone who might disappear. And a website is where the practical extras live: online booking, a contact form that lands in your inbox, quote requests, a gallery, integration with your calendar or payment tools. A profile can’t do any of that beyond a basic booking link.
The honest test: if losing your Google profile tomorrow would take your whole business offline with no backup, you’ve outgrown “profile only” — whether you feel ready or not.
Website vs Google Business Profile: it’s not actually a fight
People frame this as website vs Google Business Profile, one or the other. It isn’t. The two do their best work together. Your profile catches the “near me” and map searches and shows off reviews. Your website catches the research-stage questions, does the convincing, and gives you something you own outright. Better still, a solid website with consistent local details actually helps your profile rank higher — Google trusts a business more when the two line up and reinforce each other.
So the real question isn’t which one. It’s whether you’re at the stage where the website half starts paying for itself.
So — do you need a website right now?
Stick with the profile alone, for now, if:
- You’re brand new, testing whether the business even has legs.
- You’re deliberately staying small and local — you couldn’t take more work if it came.
- Nearly all your customers find you by phone, footfall or recommendation, and that’s working.
Get a website (alongside the profile) when:
- You want to grow, or reach beyond your immediate patch.
- You’re selling anything considered — where people research before they commit.
- You need to look established to win bigger jobs or better clients.
- Booking, forms or quote requests would genuinely save you time.
- The thought of one platform holding your entire online presence makes you nervous. It should.
A small business website in Sunderland doesn’t need to be a sprawling thing either. Three or four sharp pages that load fast, say who you are, prove you’re good and make it dead easy to get in touch will do more than most ten-page sites. Start lean. You can grow it as the business grows.
If, after all that, the profile’s still the right call for where you’re at — good. That’s a real answer and I’d rather you spent the money when it’ll actually earn you something. But if you’ve decided you want a website that brings in work rather than just sitting there, that’s the bit I do, and I’m local, so have a chat with Luke and we’ll work out what you actually need — no hard sell.
