Google turned off free Business Profile websites — what to do now
In March 2024 Google switched off the free websites it built from Business Profiles, and in June the redirect stopped too. Here is what to do about it.
If you once had a small website that Google built for you out of your Business Profile — an address ending in business.site, or a domain you pointed at it — that website no longer exists. This is what happened, how to tell whether it affected you, and what to do in what order.
What happened, and when
Google Business Profile used to include a website builder. You filled in your profile, and it generated a single page from the same information: your name, hours, photos, services and reviews. It was free, it took no work, and for a lot of small businesses it was the only website they ever had.
Google retired it. Two dates matter:
- 1 March 2024 — the generated websites stopped being served. Anyone visiting the address was redirected to the business's Google Business Profile instead.
- 10 June 2024 — that redirect ended. From then on, the old address returned an error page.
Nothing about your Google Business Profile itself changed. The profile still exists, still shows in Maps and in search, and still holds your hours, photos and reviews. Only the website it generated was withdrawn.
How to tell whether this was you
Any one of these is a yes:
- Your old web address ended in business.site (or a local equivalent such as negocio.site).
- You never chose a design, a page structure or a hosting provider — the site simply appeared once your profile was complete.
- You bought a domain and connected it through Google's own tool rather than through a hosting company.
- Your Business Profile's website field is empty today, or points somewhere that no longer loads.
The quickest check: open your Business Profile, find the website link, and click it. If it errors, or if there is no link at all, you are in the group this guide is for.
What you can get back, and what you cannot
The generated page was never really yours to export — there was no theme file, no content database, no HTML to download. But almost nothing of substance is actually lost, because the site was built from your Business Profile, and your Business Profile is intact. Your description, hours, service list, photographs and reviews are all still in Google's hands and still yours.
What is genuinely gone is the address, any inbound links pointing at it, and whatever search ranking that address had accumulated. That is worth acting on quickly rather than eventually: an error page collects nothing, and every month it stays up is a month of people clicking through to nothing.
Four things to do, in this order
1. Put a real website back up
Start with the same source Google used — your profile. Everything that page contained is still in it, so rebuilding does not mean writing a website from scratch. This is exactly what Pagebuilder does: it reads the profile you already keep up to date and builds a full site from it, including the parts the Google version never had — a real About section, a gallery, your reviews, an FAQ and a contact page. There are six designs to choose from and pages tuned to particular trades.
2. Update the website link on your profile
This is the step most people forget, and it is the one that costs the most. Your Business Profile is where most of your visitors start; if its website button still points at the dead address, they meet the error page instead of your new site. See how to add your website link to a Google Business Profile for the exact steps.
3. Sort out the domain, if you had one
If you bought a domain and connected it through Google's tool, the domain is still yours — it is the thing it was pointing at that disappeared. You need to point it at your new site instead, which is a DNS change at whoever you bought it from. If you never had a domain and used the free business.site address, this is a good moment to get one; see why your website should live on a domain you own.
4. Chase down the old address everywhere else
The old link is probably still sitting in places you have not thought about: your Facebook and Instagram bios, directory listings, quotes and invoices, an email signature, printed cards, a van. Each one is somebody arriving at an error. Work through them once, properly, and the problem is closed.
Questions people ask
Can I get the old site back? No. The builder was retired, not paused, and there is no archive to restore from.
Did I lose my reviews? No. Reviews live on your Google Business Profile, not on the website, and they were never affected.
Will my new website rank straight away? Not immediately. A new address has to be found and indexed. Two things speed it up: putting the link on your Business Profile, and making sure the new site actually says where you are and what you do — see how to get your business found on Google.
Do I even need a website, now that my profile does so much? A fair question, and the honest answer is in do you need a website if you already have a Google Business Profile. The short version: the profile is a listing on someone else's platform, shown in the format they choose, next to your competitors. A website is the only part of your presence you set the terms for.
Where to start
If you want the fastest route back to a working site, it is the one you already have the material for. Connect the profile, pick a design, and publish — see what it costs, or build one now.