Google My Business is a free listing service from Google. It helps businesses improve their local search rankings and indirectly enables businesses—both large and small—to boost their performance by making it easier for internet users to find them.
There are several types of platforms that allow you to create professional websites, including Google My Business (although this is more of a listing than a website). While Google’s free service offers several advantages, its weaknesses should also be highlighted.
What is a website or a Google My Business listing?
Google My Business is the ideal way to get basic local search visibility, because, as you know, most searches are done on Google these days.
First, Google My Business is a Google tool that is popular with business owners (which is why it has stood the test of time), is free, and allows businesses and individuals active online to manage and control their online presence.
To that end, if you don’t have a well-designed website that meets industry standards and isn’t hosted on a remote server, you can still have a website using the features of Google My Business.
This is a website with pre-built features that you can simply customize to your liking and populate with content. To create a website on Google My Business, you’ll need to follow a few steps. Don’t worry—it’s very easy and quick.
Why Create a Google My Business Listing?
First and foremost, a website is an effective way to establish your presence in your industry online and attract as many visitors as possible to your services. It demonstrates your company’s professionalism.
Through your website, you can build a relationship of trust with your visitors, who will then become your customers. As a result, this significantly increases demand for your services. And this, in turn, directly impacts your revenue growth.
However, creating a website is a significant expense that not every business can afford in its early stages. To help these types of businesses, Google My Business has developed a pre-set algorithm that allows anyone who wants to create their own customized website.
All of this starts with a completely free Google My Business account. It’s a great opportunity to help your business thrive.
How do I create a Google My Business website?
Creating a My Business website is simple and can be done by anyone. All you need is a Google My Business account, and you’re all set. It’s a simple process, and in 20 minutes or less, you’ll have a fully functional website. From your Google My Business account, follow these steps:
- Create a website;
- Customize;
- Publication.
Create a website
This section is located on your company profile. When you click on this section, you can either simply fill in the information and submit it, or customize the site so that it better reflects your company.
Customize Your Site
Here, you'll need to customize the website with your personal information. You'll find the tab to do this in the upper-left corner. You have up to 20 different themes to choose from, including colors and fonts.
At this stage, you can also edit the text on your page and add photos to make your website more appealing.
The publication
Once you've completed the previous steps, you can easily publish your site. As soon as you click "Publish," your site goes live.
You can customize the domain name only after you've published the site. The domain name is simply the address that visitors will use to access your page.
Finally, you can already check the box for your Google My Business website address on your business page. Internet users will now see information that will spark their interest in your services.
Pros and Cons of a Google My Business Website
A Google My Business listing has many advantages and, of course, a few drawbacks that show why updates are necessary.
Benefits
The benefits include:
- Speed of creation
If you need to create a website urgently, Google My Business offers the ideal solution for establishing an online presence in no time. In just 15 minutes, you’ll have a fully functional website up and running. Of course, a website created that quickly won’t meet all your requirements. If you want a better website with all the features and capabilities you need, it would be best to hire a web developer.
- Google My Business listings are free
It’s really this advantage that leads many people to choose this option: it’s free. As a result, your professionally designed website will perform well and will certainly have a greater impact on your visitors.
- Customizing the Website
Another advantage is website customization. You can customize your website yourself. This will allow your personality to shine through on your website, since you’re the one choosing the colors and everything else. That said, a webmaster will likely do a better job organizing the design than you would. Customizing the domain name
Google lets you customize a domain name for your website. This is also a major advantage, since domain names are typically purchased and can be quite expensive. Additionally, you won’t be able to choose a popular domain name that belongs to an agency.
- Easy to find
With the Google Maps link, your business will be easy to find.
Disadvantages
The existence of these drawbacks is proof of the continuous improvement of Google My Business websites. The drawbacks include:
- Very Limited Customization
You won't be able to make all the changes you want to your website. If you want to create a website that includes a payment option, you must not use Google Business websites. You'll be completely limited in terms of your website.
- The domain name
In reality, you can only customize a portion of the domain name. All websites created through Google My Business will end with .business.site.
Our Take on Google My Business Listings
In general, Google My Business listings are extremely helpful. They serve as an immediate solution when the need for a website arises. They allow you to publish certain information about the business and redirect users to the business if they are interested in its services.
Furthermore, the functionality of this type of website is very limited, since it is built using a number of pre-designed templates.
It makes more sense to set aside a budget for creating your website and entrust the project to a professional webmaster to ensure a flawless result with all the necessary features. Afterward, you can manage the website’s content yourself or entrust it to a web administrator to ensure it runs smoothly.
