business.site alternatives: what to replace Google’s free website with
Google’s free business.site websites closed in 2024. The realistic replacements, what each one asks of you, and how to choose between them.
If your business had a free website from Google at an address ending in business.site, it has gone. Google switched those websites off in March 2024, and since 10 June 2024 the old addresses show a “page not found” error. Your Google Business Profile, the listing with your reviews and photos, was not affected. Our business.site closure page has a short video and the six steps to take. This guide covers one of those steps in more detail: what to put in its place.
What a business.site page did
It helps to be clear about what you are replacing. A business.site website was a basic website made from the information on your Business Profile, such as your name, contact details, opening hours and photos. It was free, it took minutes, and you did not choose or own its address. Most replacements can do more than that, so the real question is how much more you need.
Option 1: your Google Business Profile on its own
Some businesses decide not to replace the website at all and rely on the profile. That costs nothing and keeps you on Google Maps. The limits are real, though: you do not control how it looks, you cannot say much, and you have no address of your own to put on a van, a card or an invoice.
If you go this way, leave the profile’s website field empty. Google’s guidelines (opens in a new tab) ask that the website on a profile is the business’s own, not a link that forwards people somewhere else. Our guide Do I need a website for my Jersey business? sets out when a profile is enough and when it is not.
Option 2: Google Sites
People often mix the two up, but Google Sites (opens in a new tab) (sites.google.com) is a separate website builder that Google still runs, and it can use your own domain. If you want to stay with Google and are happy to make the page yourself, it is the closest thing to what you had. The writing, the layout and the upkeep are yours to do.
Option 3: a website builder
When Google announced the closure it pointed owners towards other website builders, including Wix, Squarespace, GoDaddy, Google Sites, Shopify and WordPress, as Search Engine Journal reported (opens in a new tab) at the time. A builder suits you if you have the time and patience to make the site yourself and keep it up to date.
Check three things before you sign up: what the plan costs once any introductory offer ends, whether your own domain is included or extra, and whether you can take your content with you if you leave. Our guide to free website builders against a website from £100 shows how to work out what each route costs over three years.
Option 4: a small website built for you
The other route is to have someone build it. For most businesses that had a business.site page, one well-organised page is enough: what you do, where you work and how to get in touch, on a domain you own. With Jersey Web, a one-page website is from £100 to £300 to build, with hosting from £20 a month, and you can add pages later. Our price list has the detail.
Whoever builds it, ask the ten questions in our guide to choosing a web designer before you sign.
Whichever you choose, own the address
The lesson of business.site is that an address you do not own can disappear. Register your domain in your own name, or your company’s, so a closed service or a change of designer can never take it away. A .je costs £49 a year direct from the registry, and registrars set their own prices. Our guide Do you need a .je domain, or will .co.uk do? helps you choose.
How to choose
Not sure which fits? Our free website planner asks six questions and suggests a starting point.
- You only need to be found on Google Maps: keep the profile up to date and decide on a website later.
- You want something simple and will make it yourself: Google Sites or a website builder, on your own domain if the plan allows it.
- You want to sell online: a shop builder or a built online shop. Our guide to selling online from Jersey covers GST, UK VAT and postage.
- You would rather not build it yourself: a small built website on your own domain.
After you switch
Put the new address on your Business Profile first, then replace the old one everywhere else. Our checklist for finding and replacing old business.site links lists the places people forget.
New to some of these terms? Our Jargon Buster explains website and marketing language in plain English.
Prefer to watch? A two-minute video
Keep reading
Free website builder or a website from £100? What each really costs over three years
Monthly fees hide the real cost of a website. Here is how to work out what a DIY builder, a freelancer and a built site from £100 each cost a Jersey business over three years, and what the monthly figure leaves out.
Read guide → Getting foundStill got a business.site link? Where it hides and how to replace it
Every copy of an old business.site address now leads to an error page. A checklist of where the link hides and what to put in its place.
Read guide →