Do I need a website if I have Instagram or a Google Business Profile?
Not always. If most of your customers already find you on Google Maps or Instagram and then call, message or walk in, a well-kept Google Business Profile and an active Instagram account can carry a small business for a while. A website starts paying off when you want to be found in normal Google searches, take bookings, orders or enquiries, show a menu or price list people can actually read, use your own domain, or stop depending on platforms you don't control.
We make a website builder, so read this with that in mind. We've tried to say honestly when you don't need one.
What each one is good at
The three do different jobs. It helps to think of them as a shop window, a noticeboard and the shop itself.
- Google Business Profile is your shop window on Google Search and Maps: name, address, hours, phone, photos, reviews, the "Directions" button. It's free, and for "near me" searches it's often the first thing people see.
- Instagram (or Facebook, TikTok) is your noticeboard: new cakes, before-and-after photos, this week's special. It's where people who already like you keep up with you.
- A website is the shop itself: the place where the full story, the prices, the booking form and your contact details live, at an address that belongs to you.
Google's own help pages treat the website as part of your profile, not a replacement for it. In the profile you can "share your business's website", and "some business categories might be able to add more links to their website, like online orders, reservations, or appointments" (Edit your Business Profile, read 19 October 2026). In other words, Google expects the booking or order page to be somewhere else, usually on your website.
When Instagram and a Google profile are enough
You can skip the website for now if most of these are true:
- People find you by walking past, by word of mouth, or on Google Maps, and they mostly call or walk in.
- You have one location, simple hours and no price list that changes often.
- You don't take bookings, pre-orders or enquiries that need details (dates, sizes, photos).
- Your Google Business Profile is complete and up to date: hours, holiday hours, phone, photos, the right category.
- You're testing an idea, or you only trade a few weekends a year.
In that case, spend your time on the profile first. Google says local results are "mainly based on relevance, distance, and popularity", and that how well-known a business is also depends on "how many websites link to your business" (Tips to improve your local ranking on Google, read 19 October 2026). A complete profile with real reviews is worth more than a website nobody links to.
When a website starts to pay off
You want to show up in normal Google searches, not just on the map
Someone typing "gluten-free birthday cake Leeds" or "emergency plumber open Sunday" gets ordinary search results as well as the map. Those results are web pages. An Instagram grid or a profile with three lines of text gives Google little to show for searches like that; a page that says, in words, what you do, where and for whom, gives it plenty.
Customers need to do something, not just look
Booking a haircut, sending a cake enquiry with a date and a photo, asking for a quote with the size of the job: a direct message works for five customers a week, not fifty. A website can collect the same questions every time, so you're not chasing "what date was it again?" in your DMs.
Your menu or prices are a picture
A price list posted as a photo is hard to read on a phone, can't be copied or searched, and is out of date the moment something changes. A menu as text on a web page fixes all three. This is the most common reason cafés, restaurants and bakeries end up wanting a website: see what a restaurant website and a café website need.
You want to look established
Your own address (yourbakery.com) on a van, a card or an email signature looks more permanent than a social handle, and it stays yours whatever happens to any one app.
You don't want one platform to decide for you
Accounts get locked, rules change, and free tools disappear. Google itself used to offer free basic websites made from Business Profiles; it turned them off in March 2024, and after 10 June 2024 visitors got a "page not found" error (Search Engine Journal, 29 February 2024). Businesses that relied on them had to start again. A website on your own domain can move to another host without changing the address customers know.
It's not either-or: how the three work together
The best setup for most small businesses is all three, each doing its job:
- Google Business Profile with the website address in the website field.
- Instagram bio linking to the website (or straight to its booking or menu section).
- The website with the same name, address, phone and hours as the profile, and links back to your Instagram.
Keep the details the same everywhere. When you change your hours, change them in all three places on the same day.
What the smallest useful website looks like
You don't need ten pages. For most small businesses one page is enough to start, as long as it answers what people are deciding:
- What you do and where, in the first line ("Sourdough and celebration cakes in Leeds").
- Opening hours, including the closed days.
- How to reach you: a phone number people can tap, an email, WhatsApp if you use it.
- Prices or a menu as text, even if it's only your five best sellers.
- One way to get in touch with details: a contact form, a quote request or a booking.
- Your own photos, as soon as you have them.
Our pages for specific trades show what that looks like for a barber, a plumber, a cleaning business and more.
How much it costs, and how long it takes
A simple website no longer takes weeks or a designer. With an AI website builder you describe the business, answer a few questions and check the result; our timed example took about ten minutes from start to a finished page (how to make a small business website in 10 minutes).
On cost: several builders publish a site for free at their own address, and your own domain usually means a small paid plan plus the domain itself. We compared what's really free in Can a small business get a website for free? and what a year costs in How much does a small business website cost in 2026?. On Ginta, the Free plan includes 20 websites at a Ginta address with a small "Made with Ginta" badge; your own domain comes with paid plans (from €5 a month). Everything is on our pricing page.
Questions
Is Instagram enough for a small business?
It can be at the very start, if customers find you there and then message or walk in. It gets harder once people need your prices, hours or a way to book or order: those are easier to find and use on a website, and they don't depend on one app.
Does a website help me show up on Google Maps?
Indirectly. Google ranks local results by relevance, distance and how well-known a business is, which includes links from other websites. Your profile does most of the work on Maps; a website adds detail, and gives you something other sites can link to.
I already have a Google Business Profile. What should the website add?
What doesn't fit in the profile: your full menu or price list as text, the story behind the business, answers to the questions you hear every day, and a form for bookings, orders or quotes. Then put the website's address in the profile.
Is a one-page website enough?
For most small businesses, yes, to start. One page with what you do, where, when, prices and how to get in touch answers almost everything. Add pages later when you have real content for them, like a separate page for wedding cakes.
What if I stop paying for the website?
That depends on the builder. On Ginta, websites in an account stay online on every plan, including Free; if you leave a paid plan, your own domain is disconnected after a grace period, but the Ginta address keeps working.
Written with AI help for Ginta, which Povilas runs; he also teaches a website-building course. The screenshots are from the real Ginta on the date above, and prices come from our pricing page.