Free business website with Google: what still works

Does Google still make a free website for your business?

No. For a few years, Google let you turn a Business Profile into a small website with a few clicks. Those sites had web addresses ending in business.site. Google turned them off in March 2024.

Search Engine Journal quoted Google's notice: in March 2024, websites made with Google Business Profiles would be turned off, and visitors would be sent to your Business Profile instead. That redirect ran until June 10, 2024. After that date, the old address stopped working.

If your business had one of these sites, check the website link on your Business Profile. If it still points to a business.site address, it leads nowhere and you should replace it.

What can you still do for free with Google?

Two things, and they do different jobs.

• A Google Business Profile is the box that appears when someone searches for your business name or looks you up on Google Maps. It shows your address, hours, phone number, photos and reviews.
• Google Sites is Google's tool where you build simple pages by clicking and typing, then publish them.

What is a Google Business Profile, and is it free?

A Business Profile is Google's free listing for your business. Google says it lets you manage how your business shows up on Maps and Search at no cost. You can show your hours, website, phone number and location, post photos and videos, and collect and reply to reviews.

There is one rule to know. Google says businesses must have face to face contact with customers during stated hours to be eligible. A business that only works online, with no place customers can visit, is not eligible.

For a bakery, a dental practice or a joinery, this listing is often the first thing a new customer sees. It matters a great deal. But it is a listing, not a website. You cannot tell your story at length on it, show a full price list or take a booking the way you would on your own pages.

Can you build a website with Google Sites?

Yes. Google Sites lets you add text, images, Google files and videos, preview your pages and publish them. It works with a Google account, and the Google help pages we read show no charge for building a site. They also say you can use a custom URL, which means your own web address.

Google's help page says you must be the site's owner to connect a domain, you verify that you own the domain, and you can connect up to 5 domains to one site. The page says you can use a domain you already own, or buy a new one through a Google Workspace plan, which is a paid Google subscription for business email and tools. So the site itself costs nothing that we could find, but your own address does not come free. Check the current domain price with whoever sells it.

Google Sites is plain by design. It suits a handful of pages: who you are, what you do, where you are, how to reach you. It is not built for online booking or taking payments, and you have fewer choices over how it looks than on a paid builder.

How do you set up a free website and a profile together?

1. Claim or create your Business Profile and get it verified, so you control what it says.
2. Fill in every field: hours, phone number, address, what you do, and 10 or more of your own photos.
3. Build your site in Google Sites, or a builder of your choice, with the same name, address and phone number as your profile.
4. Put your website address in the website field on your profile.
5. Link back to your profile from your site, so people can leave reviews or find directions.
6. Update both whenever your hours change, including holidays.

Keep the name, address and phone number identical in both places. Mismatches confuse customers, and they confuse Google too.

How do you check that your Google listing is not sending people nowhere?

Do this once, on your phone, because that is how most customers will see it. Search for your business name in Google. Tap the website button on your listing. If a page opens and shows your hours and phone number, you are fine. If you get an error, or a page you do not recognize, fix the link.

• Check that the website link is not an old business.site address.
• Check that the phone number on the listing is the one you answer.
• Check that your hours match the sign on your door, including holidays.
• Ask a friend to search for what you do plus your town, and see whether your listing appears and looks complete.

It takes 10 minutes and you do not need any technical skill. It is also the cheapest fix in this guide, because a broken link costs you customers every day it stays broken.

Is a Google profile enough without a website?

Sometimes. If your regulars find you by name and mostly need your hours and phone number, a well kept profile can carry you. But when a stranger is comparing three businesses, the one with a clear website of its own usually looks more established. You can show prices, your work, your team and your story. You can also take bookings and payments in a way a profile cannot.

Now that the Google made sites are gone, the profile's website link is the main way for a customer to go from Google to you. If that link is empty or broken, you are losing people at the last step.

When is it worth getting help?

Free tools are a fair place to start. Help is worth it when the site has to win customers, not just exist: when you want it on your own address, written in your own words, with booking and payments that work, and set up so that it matches your Google listing.

That is what Oiko does. Our page on websites for small businesses explains how we work, and our sample work shows websites for businesses we made up, so you can see the quality without anyone's real customers involved.

If you would like to talk it over, get in touch. It is 20 minutes about your business.