Plenty of trades run on a Google Business Profile alone, and honestly, it is the best free marketing there is. It puts you on the map, shows your reviews, and gives people a call button. If you do not have one, stop reading and set one up today. But "do I still need a website?" is the wrong question. The right one is: what happens after someone finds your profile?
What the profile does brilliantly
The map pack. When someone searches "plumber near me", the three profiles at the top get the lion's share of the calls, and a complete profile with steady reviews is how you get there. It handles the moment of discovery better than anything else, it is free, and it takes an afternoon to set up properly. No argument from me on any of that.
Where it quietly stops
The profile is rented ground. Google decides the layout, which is identical for every business in Australia. Google places your competitors' ads directly on your profile. And Google's automated systems suspend profiles every day, sometimes for weeks, usually with no explanation, and there is no phone number to ring when it happens. If the profile is your entire online presence, your business just went dark.
It is also a thin pitch. One photo grid, a few lines of description, and reviews. There is nowhere to properly show a finished job, explain how you price, answer the questions people actually have, or look meaningfully different from the other two profiles beside you. When the job is worth thousands, people check you out before they call. What they find next decides who wins.
How the pair actually works
The profile wins the moment of discovery; the website wins the job. Someone finds three plumbers in the map pack, taps through, and one has a fast, professional site with real photos, straight answers and a clear price guide, while the others have nothing or a page that takes eight seconds to load. That is not a fair fight. And it works upstream too: Google cross-checks your profile against the web, so a site whose details, services and service areas match the profile gives it more reason to trust and show you. The two are not rivals; they are two halves of the same machine.
What to actually do
Set the profile up completely: every field, real photos, and a steady trickle of Google reviews. Then put a proper website behind it: fast, honest, with a page for each service and area you want to win. If you already have both, run the site through my free website audit and see whether it is pulling its weight, because a slow site behind a good profile leaks jobs invisibly. And if you want the pair set up properly, that is exactly what I do: Google Business Profile work, local SEO, and websites you own outright.
Common questions
Can I rank in the map pack without a website?
You can appear there, but you are competing with one hand tied. Google cross-checks your profile against the web, and a complete, fast site that matches your profile gives it far more to trust. Profiles that link to a strong site also convert more of their clicks, because people look before they call.
Is the profile really free?
Completely. The catch is not cost, it is control: Google decides how it looks, what shows, and whether it stays up. Suspensions happen without warning and can take weeks to appeal.
What does a website do that the profile cannot?
Tell your story your way: show finished work properly, explain pricing, answer objections, rank beyond the map, and collect enquiries with no competitor ads next to your name. It is also the only one of the two you own.
Which should I set up first?
The profile, today, because it is free. But treat it as the front door, not the house. When the work it brings in starts to matter, put a real website behind it.