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Do you need a website if you have Instagram and a Google profile?

- 9 min read - by , Founder

Baker holding her phone next to a laptop with her website in the bakery

Instagram and a Google Business Profile can be enough for a small business that gets customers from Maps, referrals and direct messages. A website starts to pay off when you want online bookings, enquiries and an email list you control, visibility beyond the map, citations from AI assistants, or ads that need a landing page.

When are Instagram and a Google Business Profile enough?

Instagram and a Google Business Profile are often enough when customers already find you nearby, decide from photos and reviews, and contact you by phone or message. Profiles alone can work well if:

  • You are testing a new business and do not yet know which services will sell.
  • Customers mostly walk in or call after seeing you on Google Maps, like a neighborhood cafe.
  • New work comes from referrals and repeat clients, and your calendar is already full.
  • You do not take online bookings or payments, run Google Ads or send email offers.

If that is you, keep both profiles complete and current. Google says businesses with complete and accurate info are more likely to show up in local search results. The trade-off is that everything you build lives on platforms you do not control.

What is the risk of relying only on Instagram and Google?

The main risk of relying only on Instagram and a Google Business Profile is that both platforms can change features, reach or access to your account without asking you. Their own rules and history show it:

A website on your own domain does not remove risk, but you control the address, content and enquiry records, and you can move it to another host.

Can customers find you on Google without a website?

Customers can find you on Google without a website when they search for your name or your type of business nearby, but a profile gives Google no pages to show for the detailed questions people ask before choosing a provider. Local results follow three factors Google names: relevance, distance and prominence. Google says prominence is partly based on "how many websites link to your business and how many reviews you have".

Outside the map, Google Search lists pages that its crawlers find and add to its index. A page answering "what happens at a first physio visit" can reach people who have never heard of you; a Business Profile has no such pages.

Instagram helps a little: search engines may index public posts and reels from January 1, 2020 onward if the account is public, professional and run by someone over 18. But a post is built around a picture, not a detailed answer. A website can also carry LocalBusiness structured data, which Google says lets you tell it about business hours, departments and more.

Do AI assistants cite websites or social profiles?

AI assistants that search the web show links to web pages as their sources, so a website with clear facts gives them something about your business to quote and link. In their own words:

None of them promise to cite any particular business, but a page stating your services, prices, area, hours and qualifications in plain text is easier to quote than a photo caption. Do not block these crawlers.

What can a website do for bookings, enquiries and your email list?

A website lets you take bookings and enquiries through forms you control, keep the records, and build an email list that no platform can switch off.

  • Bookings. Google's business links policy says Business Profile booking links cannot be social media sites, messaging links, app store links or link shorteners, and must let the customer complete the action. A booking page on your site fits.
  • Enquiries. A form on your site sends every request to your inbox. Enquiries kept only in app messages live inside that app: when Google ended Business Profile chat, past chats could be downloaded only until August 30, 2024.
  • Email list. Followers are not contacts you can reach directly. A sign-up form on your site collects addresses you keep.

Email comes with rules. In the US, the FTC's CAN-SPAM guide requires a valid postal address and honoring opt-outs within 10 business days. In the UK, the ICO says you generally need specific consent, with a narrow "soft opt-in" for existing customers. Ask a lawyer if you are unsure.

SiteCreatorEngine sites, for example, include a booking widget with real free slots and email confirmations, and every enquiry lands in a customer list plus an email to you.

Does a website help with trust and advertising?

A website gives people a place to check that a real, reachable business stands behind the Instagram account, and it gives ad platforms a proper landing page. Stanford's Web Credibility guidelines, based on three years of research with over 4,500 people, include "Show that there's a real organization behind your site" and "Make it easy to contact you." For a clinic, plumber or salon, that means licenses, insurance, policies, full price lists and the people who do the work.

Advertising is mixed. Meta's profile visit ads send people to your Instagram profile or Facebook Page, so you can advertise on Instagram without a site. Google Ads is different: its destination requirements say the landing page must be functional, useful and easy to navigate, and ads can be disapproved when a destination is not crawlable or has insufficient original content.

What should the website link on your Google Business Profile point to?

The website field on your Google Business Profile should point to a site that represents your business, not to your Instagram page. Google's Business Profile guidelines ask owners not to use URLs that refer people to landing pages other than the business's own, and they name pages created on social media sites.

Instagram goes in its own slot: Google lets you add one social media link per platform, including Instagram, Facebook, TikTok and YouTube. Enter the full website address, including http:// or https://, and do not block Googlebot.

How do you decide? A simple checklist

The simplest way to decide is to answer seven yes-or-no questions: if any answer is yes, a website is likely to pay for itself.

  1. Do you want customers to book or request a quote without messaging you first?
  2. Do people ask the same questions before buying, such as prices, areas served or what is included?
  3. Would losing your Instagram account or Business Profile for a month stop new enquiries?
  4. Do you run, or plan to run, Google Ads?
  5. Do you want to send offers or reminders by email?
  6. Do customers check credentials before hiring you, as in health, childcare or trades?
  7. Do you want AI assistants to cite you when people ask about your service in your area?

If every answer is no, keep both profiles strong and check again when things change. If you need a site, SiteCreatorEngine builds a small WordPress site from a few words about your business in a few minutes, and you can edit everything afterwards. You can start on the free plan with no card.

Frequently asked questions

Can I use my Instagram link as the website on Google Business Profile?

Google's guidelines ask for a website that represents your business and warn against URLs that refer people to other landing pages, including pages created on social media sites. Add Instagram in the separate social links section instead, and keep the website field for your own site.

Will a website help my Google Maps ranking?

Google says local ranking depends on relevance, distance and prominence, and that prominence is partly based on how many websites link to your business and how many reviews you have. A website does not guarantee a higher position, but it gives others something to link to.

Do I need a big website?

No. A handful of pages usually covers a local business: home, services with prices, about, booking or contact, and answers to common questions. What matters more is that each page states plain facts - what you do, where, for how much and how to book - that people and AI assistants can use.

What if my Instagram account gets disabled?

Instagram's terms allow it to stop providing the service to you if it believes you broke its terms or policies, and they point you to its Help Center if you think it happened in error. Meanwhile, a website and an email list keep enquiries coming in.

Sources

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