Did you create a website for your business using Google Business Profiles? It has been announced that Google will discontinue Google Business Profile websites on March 1, 2024, which is just one day away from the time of this posting.

Here’s what you need to know about this major change and what actions you need to take.

A Temporary Redirect Will Be Made From Your Website to your Google Business Profile

All links as well as typing in the direct URL to your website made will be redirected to your Google Business Profile. According to Google, this redirect will be available until June 10, 2024.

Once your website made with your Google Business Profile is deactivated in March, this redirect will take effect immediately. After June 10, 2024, all links to your website will point to a 404 “Not Found” error.

Do I Have a Website Made With A Google Business Profile?

This is easy to find out. First, go to Google and search for your business name. Make sure you are logged into your account that is managing your Google Business Profile.

 

You should see these options upon a successful search for your business. Click on the “Edit Profile” button (highlighted with the pink square in the photo above) and then in the following popup, scroll down the Website section.

 

If you are using a website made with a Google Business Profile, a byline will be shown in this section that says “You have a website created with Google.” Additionally, Google Business Profile websites use either business.site and negocio.site in their domain names.

You will be able to update this section with a new website later. Having an up-to-date Google Business Profile is very important for SEO purposes, so you will want to make sure your new replacement website is added here after you say goodbye to your Google-based website.

How Will This Affect My Google Ad Campaigns?

Any Google Ads campaigns that are linked to a website made with a Google Business Profile will stop running immediately on March 1, 2024 and it will be up to you to update the campaign with a link to your new website.

Was The Google Business Profile Website All You Used? It’s Time For A New Beginning!

While you still have until June 10, 2024 to get a new website before visitors that seeing a “404 – Not Found” error, you should not wait that long to get a new website. Your website is one of your most important marketing tools and it can be used to engage your customers beyond what a Google Business Profile website was capable of.

Here at Creativity Design Group, we build our websites using WordPress. WordPress is a great alternative to replace your Google Business Profile website for many reasons. Being that it powers 43.1% of the websites online, it is a popular choice for business owners worldwide.

Let’s learn more about why you should use WordPress.

WordPress is a Flexible Platform

While WordPress began as a simple blogging platform back in 2003, it has been transformed into a huge CMS (content management system) since then. You can build just about any type of website you want with it due to its ability to have its functionality extended via plugins. It can be used to build websites for large corporations to the smallest mom-and-pop shops. Want to build an online store? What about your own social network? Need a website that can handle support requests? WordPress can do all of these things and more!

WordPress is Great for Content Marketing

Content marketing is a major activity that businesses small or large should partake of. Businesses that engage in content marketing (with a rock-solid strategy) are establishing their expertise by talking to their customer base about what they know. For example, if you own an electrical company you can write a blog post about electrical safety.

Because WordPress began as a blogging platform, it has a blogging feature right out of the box. You can manage your posts and save drafts as needed, and features a Microsoft Word-style editor.

Additionally, if you utilize other types of content marketing such as podcasting, you can showcase your podcasts on a WordPress site easily using the right plugin.

WordPress is User-friendly – No Knowledge of Coding Required!

WordPress has a great user interface that is easy to navigate, all written in plain English. When it comes to building out pages, there are many visual editors available. If you ever need to edit your pages after the web designer has completed your website, you can go in and make changes without having to write a single line of code!

WordPress Has Had A History of Strong Core Web Vitals Performance

Due to the ongoing development of WordPress by its performance team, it has continued to show an increase in site performance related to Core Web Vitals (learn more about what this means here) over the past few years.

WordPress has had the strongest year when it comes to performance improvements in comparison to other content management systems such as Joomla, Wix, and Squarespace. In January 2023, it was revealed that the percentage of WordPress sites showing good core web vitals performance was 30.4%. Fast forward to January of 2024, and this performance percentage went up to 39.0%!

This shows that WordPress continues to be a stellar platform and its performance on the web will continue to grow, as WordPress developers continue to fine-tune the platform to give developers, website owners, and of course users the best experience possible.

Your Houston Web Design Company Is Ready to Help You Migrate from Google Sites!

Creativity Design Group is your Houston web design company that specializes only in WordPress. If you are one of the many users who are affected by the changes made at Google and are at risk of losing your website overnight, we are ready to help you build a new website that is bigger and better than you can imagine!

Don’t lose your web presence due to the changes being made at Google! Contact us today for a FREE consultation. Your new website can be done within 1-2 weeks!*

*This is contingent on how quickly we receive the client’s written content for the new website as well as being prompt in providing feedback upon completion of different sections of the website, or the website’s entirety.