Effective March 2024, Google has discontinued their website service for businesses that created their website through their Google Business Profile (GBP), formerly Google My Business, due to low usage and engagement.
The Google website created through GBP was a free and simple website tool offered to any business with a registered GBP. It was essentially a one-click tool to generate a website that mimics information from the GBP with minor edit functionality.
The announced changes will serve as a major blow to the online presence of local businesses that rely on Google Business Profile websites. For businesses with websites made with GBP, they need to create a new website to maintain their online presence.
Also, a friendly reminder to all businesses currently using the website made with GBP, if you are directing any traffic from external third-party platforms/sources to your website, make sure to change the link to your new website or another desired destination as the link will be discontinued on June 10th, 2024 and users visiting will get a “page not found” error from Google.
Depending on your business and needs, there are a variety of website platforms that are easily accessible and affordable. For user-friendly website platforms to resume your online presence, we recommend:
All-around purposes:
Wix
Squarespace
WordPress
WebFlow
Shopping/E-commerce:
WordPress
Shopify
WebFlow
The listed platforms are not an exhaustive list and depending on your business needs and goals a specific website builder may work better than others. Whether it is a simple website to show that you exist to a multi-function sales tool, these are great beginner to intermediate user-friendly website-building platforms that fit most business needs. However, if you are a business looking for more functionality or would like to save time and focus on other parts of your business, you may require a web development team to help you.
Check out our website design and development page for more information on how we can make your website vision a reality!
Is a website essential for businesses with a strong Google Business Profile?
The short answer: Yes!
A website goes beyond information that users can find on your GBP. Although GBP has improved over time with additional features and functions that mimic the performance of a website, it still has lots of limitations. Here are some points on why websites are still relevant for any business:
The business has more control vs. Google has more control in GBP
- You will always be at the mercy of any changes Google would like to make to their GBP product, just ask any digital marketer or local SEO specialists
- The Google community can also provide suggestions to Google to change/update listings. These may not always be accurate.
- Google has control over where and when your listings are shown
- There is a limitation for businesses with two or more locations under the same name: the GBP won’t appear when your business name is searched. Instead, a GBP will only display if it matches the location of one of your businesses.
Showcase your brand and story, how you want to without any structure or limitations by GBP
- GBP is structured to deliver information in order according to the outline that Google has set. This means you cannot customize which information shows up at the top or design as all GBP follow the same look and feel.
Deliver more information and deliver the proper brand experience to your customers
- Examples: Job/career portal, menus, booking/reservations, newsletters, blogs, etc. Although some of these functions are in GBP, there is a greater level of design and customizability to fit your brand than what’s offered in GBP.
Capture customers that aren’t on Google
- Your website can rank on Microsoft’s Bing and Apple’s Safari search engines.
- Although your GBP can suffice for local Google searches, they will not appear on Bing or Safari search engines, your business should not take the risk of losing out on potential customers and should maximize your online presence.
Don’t let the competition beat you
- Chances are your competitors have a website, which means you are losing opportunities to secure potential customers and brand equity.
What about businesses that have great social media presence, do they still require a website?
We say “Yes” and here’s why:
The past decade we have seen social media as a distribution medium for brands looking to be social with their customers and to build a community. It has evolved more recently with social commerce, allowing brands to list their products and services on social media platforms and facilitate transactions between the business and the end user. There are many benefits to social media, especially it being the most preferred search tool of choice for Gen Z – even more than search engines.
However, it has similarities to GBP where you may be limited on how to deliver all your possible offerings in one area. With social media, the focus is on delivering content interesting to customers, and not delivering the full business brand for customers. This means if your business has blogs, reservations, phone call links, menus, products, services, etc. There is no easy way for your customers to access all of this on the social media platform, they would need to be directed to an external page, more commonly, an external website. Social platforms like Instagram do not allow links in postings, therefore it increases friction for users looking to get certain information from your brand quickly.
For the reason above, even though social media can drive awareness, traffic, and sales to your business, it is not a one-catch tool and a website is still a needed companion to any successful business social media strategy.
While social media is crucial, a website complements and enhances the online presence.
Websites Are Needed
With Google discontinuing their websites built through GBP, affected businesses will need to review their digital strategy and transition quickly to maintain effectiveness in reaching users online. Businesses may be sufficient with Google Business Profiles and Social Media as these are great tools to enhance a business’s digital presence. However, there are still limitations on what and how businesses deliver their brand to users. Therefore, a website is still recommended for any brands looking to enhance their digital presence.
At KEEN we have over 20+ years of experience in marketing brands including digital marketing and web development. We can help you get started in developing your online presence and offer customized digital web solutions to your business vision. View the five reasons of why you should hire an agency.
Still not convinced, view our case studies of previous projects we’ve worked on:
Skills Alberta – Built on WordPress with Shopify integrations
Genesis By RMA Insurance – custom illustrations and animations that were developed to load more efficiently than traditional animation methods which was important to reduce page load speed
fRI Research – we partnered with fRI Research to migrate over 3000 academic articles, news items, and program publications to a modern Content Management System (CMS) improving access to information and searchability.
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