Why the two do different jobs, and what happens to your leads if you're only running one of them.
A Google Business Profile gets you into the local map pack and reviews with almost no setup — but it's not a website, and it caps what you can show visitors. A website gives you room to explain what you do, showcase past work, and rank for specific searches beyond the map pack. Most trade businesses need both: the profile for visibility and trust signals, the website for everything the profile can't hold.
A Google Business Profile (formerly Google My Business) is the free listing that shows up in the "map pack" — the three results with a map, star rating, and phone number, above the regular search results. It's usually the first thing someone sees when they search for a trade nearby, and it's the fastest way to show reviews, opening hours, and a phone number without building anything.
A website is where someone goes to check you're legitimate, see examples of past work, understand your specific services, and read enough to decide you're the one to call — not just one of three logos on a map. It's also the only one of the two that can rank for searches beyond your exact business name, since a profile has a fixed format Google controls, not one you can shape yourself.
A profile with no website works until someone wants more than a phone number — they can't see past jobs, read about a specific service, or confirm you cover their suburb before they call. A website with no profile has the opposite problem: it might be a genuinely good site, but it's missing the map pack placement that's often the first thing a local searcher sees, along with the reviews people check before calling a tradie they've never used.
Profile only: you're relying entirely on three map pack spots and whatever a searcher can gather from photos and reviews — if a competitor with a website ranks alongside you, they're giving searchers a reason to pick them that you can't match. Website only: you're invisible in the map pack and missing the reviews and instant contact details that convince someone to call before they've even opened a website. Either way, you're handing an advantage to competitors running both.
The two need to point at each other consistently — same business name, phone number, and address on both, and a link from the profile straight to the site. If the services listed on your profile don't have a matching page on your website, that's a mismatch worth fixing too. We've written a full breakdown of the setup issues that keep websites from ranking at all — see our guide on why your website isn't showing up on Google for the rest of it.
Every site we build is set up to work alongside your Google Business Profile from day one — consistent business details, a proper link between the two, and dedicated pages for the services and areas you actually cover, including markets like Ballarat. That's part of the $199-a-month Care Plan, not a separate add-on, and the build itself is free until you've seen and approved the finished site.
Free to build, no lock-in, and you see the whole thing before you pay a cent.