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Do you need a website if you have Instagram and a Google Business Profile?
By the Mirador studio · Updated
Most local businesses still need a website, even with an active Instagram and a Google Business Profile. Social profiles and listings are rented space you don't control. A website is the one place online you own: it shows up when people search for what you do, and it gives Google and AI assistants the facts they use to recommend you. A simple one-page site is often enough to start.
What Instagram and your Google profile do well
Instagram shows your work and personality, and keeps regulars coming back. Your Google Business Profile puts you on Maps, collects reviews and shows your hours. Every local business should have both.
What they can't do
Both are someone else's platform, and that comes with limits.
- You don't own them. Accounts get hacked or suspended, and the rules and algorithms change without notice.
- Not everyone is on Instagram, and some people won't download an app or log in to see your posts.
- There's little room to explain your services, prices, policies or what a first visit is like.
- Search engines rank websites for searches like "balayage near me" or "AC repair Chandler". An Instagram profile rarely competes.
- AI assistants like ChatGPT and Google's AI Overviews draw on websites when people ask who to go to. Without a site, there's less for them to go on.
How they work together
Think of it as a team. Instagram gets you noticed. Your Google profile gets you on the map. Your website is where both send people to learn more and book, call or order. Link to your website from your Instagram bio and your Google profile, and link back to both from your site.
When you can skip a website, for now
If you're fully booked from referrals and regulars, or you're testing a side business before going all in, a good Google profile and Instagram can carry you for a while. Once you want new customers who don't already know you, a website pays for itself.
What a first website needs
It doesn't have to be big. It has to be clear and fast.
- What you do and where, in the first line.
- Your services, with short descriptions.
- Photos of your work and your place.
- Hours, address or service area, matching your Google profile.
- Call, text, booking and directions buttons, one tap away.
- Reviews or a few words from real customers.
- Fast on phones, because that's where people will see it.