If you've just spent time filling out your Google Business Profile properly, it's a fair question: does that count as your website? Short answer: no — they do different jobs well enough that skipping either one costs you something.
What a Google Business Profile is actually built for
It's the card that shows up in Google Maps and the local pack — the block of results with the map and three listings when someone searches something like "electrician near me." It's fast to read, shows your rating, hours, and phone number, and it's exactly what someone wants when they're standing in front of a burst pipe and need a number to call right now.
Where it runs out
A Google Business Profile is a fixed template. You get a handful of photos, a short description, and whatever category Google lets you pick. There's nowhere to actually explain your process, show a proper before-and-after gallery, or say anything that makes you different from the next three listings on the map. It also only really shows up for local, urgent searches. Someone researching a bigger job, or comparing a few tradies before deciding, is far more likely to land on an actual website than a profile card.
A website is also what makes the profile itself look credible
A Google Business Profile with a working website link attached reads as more established — both to Google and to the person looking at it. A profile with no website behind it can look like it might not be a real, ongoing business, even if the work itself is excellent.
When one is genuinely enough
For a small, urgent callout job, a well-kept Google Business Profile can be all someone needs to make the call. But for anything bigger — a renovation, a full rewire, a kitchen fit-out — people want to see more before they commit, and that's the job a website does that a profile card never will.
The short version
Keep the profile complete and current — that part matters, and it's free. Just don't mistake it for the whole picture. It's the door someone knocks on; the website is what convinces them to actually come in. If you don't have one yet, that's exactly what the current $100 Founding Client offer is there for.