Google's free listing website turns your hours, photographs and phone number into a simple page. A business whose site takes bookings, explains services or answers detailed questions needs its own site, at its own address.

What arrived this month

Since mid-June, Google My Business has offered a free website builder. It takes the information already on your listing and turns it into a simple site in a few minutes.

You choose a theme, write a headline and a short description, pick a main button, and publish. When you change your hours or add photographs to the listing, the site changes with them.

Google built it with the many businesses that have no website in mind, and it is promoting it to them.

For a business whose website does real work, the question is different: what a page generated from a listing can carry, and what it cannot.

What the page includes

The fourth is the only part written for the site itself. Most of the rest is the listing presented again, which is the purpose of the tool and also its boundary.

Who it was built for

The tool is aimed at businesses that have a listing and nothing else. It gives them hours, photographs and a phone number on a page that works on a phone.

Its strengths come from being tied to the listing. Nothing goes out of date separately, and there is nothing to install or update.

The same tie sets its scope. A page made from a listing can hold what a listing holds, plus a few paragraphs.

What one page cannot hold

Most businesses that depend on their website use it for things a listing has no field for.

Prices and packages, with what each includes. Policies on deposits, cancellations, age limits and what to bring. A form that asks the right questions, or a booking system that takes a deposit.

A page for each main service, with photographs of that work and the questions people ask about it. A gallery with captions explaining what was done.

And the measurement that tells you whether any of it works: Analytics, goals for form submissions, a record of calls from the site. The builder is not designed for adding your own tracking or tools.

None of that is a fault in the tool. It was designed to present a listing, and it does that cleanly.

Pages that each answer a search

Search adds a second reason. People rarely search for a type of business alone; they search for the specific thing they need.

A site with a page for each service gives each of those searches a page that matches it closely. A single page has to be about everything at once.

A parent searching for a toddler drop-in and one searching for a party venue want different pages, even from the same business.

That matters most for businesses with several distinct services, where each one brings different customers asking different questions.

A worked example

A kids' indoor playground in a light industrial unit runs drop-in play on weekdays and birthday parties at weekends. With the website's yearly renewal due, the owner asked whether the free listing page could do the same job.

So she listed what the current site handled. Three party packages with prices and what each includes. A calendar that takes party deposits. The waiver parents sign online before a first visit.

Then the house rules people would otherwise learn at the door: socks for everyone, separate play zones by age, no outside food except birthday cake. And a page of holiday and rainy-day hours.

The listing page could show the hours, the photographs and a call button well. It had no room for the packages, no way to take a deposit, and no place for the waiver or the rules beyond a short description.

Each of those pages exists because it once answered a phone call, or kept a family from being turned back at the door without socks.

She renewed the site, moved the party packages up the home page, and matched the listing's hours to the site's holiday page, so the two never disagree.

An address you control

The free site lives on an address Google provides, unless you connect a domain of your own.

That matters more than it sounds. The address goes on the van, the business cards and the invoices, and it should belong to the business, along with the email that uses it.

A site you control can also move. If you change designers or hosts, the pages, the address and their standing in search results come with you.

A page generated inside a listing account is built for that account, and it stays there.

Keep the listing right either way

None of this makes the listing less important. It is what appears in Maps and beside search results, and many people act on it without going further.

Hours, phone number, categories and photographs are the facts people use to decide, and a proper website does not excuse a stale listing.

The two should agree. If the site says the party room closes at seven and the listing says eight, someone will arrive at half past seven.

The counter-case

Not every business needs a large site.

A business whose customers only ever need hours, a phone number and directions, such as a key-cutting kiosk or a shoe repair counter, needs a small one: a handful of pages, done well, at its own address.

A business just starting out may reasonably launch with a few pages and add more as customers' questions show what is missing.

The scope can be modest. What matters is that the site belongs to the business and has room for what customers ask, so plan for that from the start.

The check

  1. List the questions customers phone to ask.
  2. Mark which ones your site answers now.
  3. Note what needs a form, booking or payment.
  4. Confirm you own your domain and its email.
  5. Check that Analytics records forms and calls.
  6. Match the listing's hours to your site.
  7. Plan a page for each main service.

Step one shows what the site is for. The questions people phone about are the content a page generated from a listing has no room for, and the reason a proper site earns its cost.

What the top of that site should say first is covered in home pages that open with welcome to our website.

Frequently asked questions

What is Google's free listing website?

A simple site built in Google My Business from your listing: name, address, hours, phone, photographs, a headline, a short description and one main button.

Does it update when my listing changes?

Yes. It draws on the listing, so new hours or photographs appear on the site too. That tie is also why it holds only what a listing holds.

What can a page from a listing not hold?

Prices and packages, policies, bookings with deposits, detailed forms, a page for each service, captioned galleries, and your own tracking of what the site produces.

Why does a page per service matter?

People search for the specific thing they need. A page for each service gives each search a close match, while a single page has to cover everything at once.

Why does owning the address matter?

It goes on vans, cards and invoices and carries your email. A site at your own domain can move with you between designers or hosts.

Do I still need to maintain my listing?

Yes. The listing appears in Maps and beside search results, and many people act on it directly. Keep its hours and details matching your website.

West Coast Media Solutions Inc. provides web design, web development, hosting, digital marketing, and business consulting to organisations across Canada, drawing on more than twenty-five years in the field.

Website renewal due and wondering why?

Send us the questions customers phone about. We will show which ones your site answers and which need a page.

Start a Conversation