Websites Made With Google Business Profile Are Discontinued – What Are The Alternatives?
- by Ilona K.
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From March 5, 2024, Google has made a decision to discontinue websites it allowed businesses to create for free when registering Google Business Profiles. What options do you have if your website was affected?
Firstly, let’s check if your site is amongst over 20 million websites affected by the change. Search for your business name on Google and look for your verified Business Profile. Then press on ‘Edit’ and check what website is displayed in the contact section.
If you have a website created with Google Business Profile, you’ll see a message saying: ‘You have a website created with Google.” If not, you can add or edit a link to your website as usual, and you are not affected by the update.
What is a Google Business Profile Website?
Google Business Profile is a service offered by Google to help businesses be visible in Google local search results and on Maps. Companies can add detailed information, including address, phone number, business hours, key products, as well as manage reviews.
Google Business Profile also allows adding a link to your website. Businesses that didn’t have a site could instantly create a free single-page website alongside registering a Google Business Profile.
Now, as the service is closed, Google will redirect users from affected websites to Business Profile pages until June 10th, 2024. Beyond that date, users clicking on such websites will get a 404 (not found) error.
How will it impact your business?
If you had a free website created with Google Business Profile, you need to take action now and migrate to a new platform. The impact of not taking action is:
- Making your business look less legitimate. If a business doesn’t have at least a one-pager website, users would trust it less.
- Losing leads and conversions. If you don’t have an alternative website, customers might struggle to convert – for example, to book a table in your restaurant or an appointment in a beauty salon.
- Disrupting ad campaigns. According to Google, ads that are linked to a website made with Google Business Profile will be disapproved as the domain in the display URL will not match the final URL
Creating a new website might look like an inconvenience, but in the end it will be a resource your business fully owns and controls.
What should you do to protect your business?
Businesses still running and wishing to maintain a website need to create a new site. It’s quite an easy task with alternative website builders: Google suggests Wix, Shopify, WordPress and Google Sites, among others.
If you want to give your new site an immediate boost of trust – consider registering one with it.com Domains. This option is great for small and medium-sized businesses wanting to benefit from the domain ending with .com, while having a wider selection of names available and paying less for a domain name.
Once you’ve created and launched a new website, don’t forget to update your Google Business Profile with the new address.
Need more advice for running a small business online? Visit it.com Domains blog and follow us on social media
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