If you searched for a free website through your Google Business Profile and could not find the option, you are not missing a setting. Google discontinued free Business Profile websites on March 5, 2024. Existing ones kept redirecting visitors to the plain Business Profile page until June 10, 2024, and after that the links stopped working entirely. Over 20 million of these free websites were affected.
A lot of people still search for this, which makes sense. It was a genuinely useful feature for a business that needed something fast and free. It is just not there anymore, so it is worth knowing what actually remains and what to do instead.
What Google Business Profile still does
The website builder is gone, but the profile itself is not. Your Business Profile still controls how your plumbing, HVAC, or roofing business shows up on Google Search and Google Maps: your hours, photos, reviews, service area, and the map pin people tap to call you. That part is free, it still works, and it is worth keeping accurate regardless of what you use as your actual website.
What changed is that your profile no longer doubles as a standalone site with its own URL. It is a listing, not a website, and treating it as your only online presence leaves a real gap.
Why the free website mattered in the first place
For a lot of small service businesses, it was the easiest way to get a working link to send customers, put in a text message, or add to a truck decal. No design work, no hosting to set up, nothing to maintain. That convenience is exactly what is missing now, and it is why the search for it has not gone away even though the feature has.
What to use now
There is no single replacement, but a few real paths exist depending on how much time you want to spend. How to set up a free website for your business goes through each option in more detail.
- A DIY builder like Wix or Squarespace, which takes real setup time but gives full control over the result
- A free page through another local listing service, which tends to have the same limits the old Google site had: one page, little customization, no system behind it
- A done-for-you service that builds a real site at no cost and runs the lead-catching system a simple listing never could
What a real site needs that a listing cannot give you
A Business Profile, even a well-kept one, cannot do what a proper website does for a plumbing or HVAC business:
- Separate pages for each service, so you can rank for "water heater repair" and not just your business name
- A dedicated service area page if you cover more than one town
- A real review section you control, not just whatever Google happens to show
- A system that catches a missed call automatically and texts the customer back
- A clear call to action that is not limited to Google's own layout
None of that is available inside a listing, no matter how complete the profile is.
The honest cost of not having a real site
Since the free website went away, the realistic baseline for most local service businesses is now either a DIY build, a real done-for-you site, or nothing at all beyond the profile itself. The third option is the one actually costing businesses jobs: a visitor who cannot confirm you serve their town, no review section to build trust before they call, and no way to catch the call you miss while you are on a job.
Keep your profile accurate either way
Whatever you use for your actual website, your Google Business Profile still matters on its own. Keep your hours current, respond to reviews, and make sure your category and service area are set correctly. It still feeds your visibility in local search and Maps results, separately from whatever site you link people to.
Book a free 30-minute callWe build a full site, with real service pages and your actual service area, at no setup cost, then run the system that catches the calls a listing alone would miss. Book a quick call to see what yours would look like.