The short answer
Google Sites for business works as a free, simple way to put a few pages online and connect your own domain. It's limited for search: you get little control over page titles, descriptions and structured data, and design options are basic. It's fine for a first site or an internal page, but most customer-facing businesses outgrow it.
Google Sites isn't the same as the free websites Google used to offer inside Business Profiles. Those ended in 2024. If yours was one of them, it now needs a new home.
Yes, with a Google account. A custom domain is registered separately.
It can rank for your name. Competing for services is harder with its limited controls.
Yes, by rebuilding elsewhere and pointing your domain at the new site.
The cheapest website builder plans can get a small business online, but usually with trade-offs: the builder's branding or ads on your site, no custom domain or email, limited control over titles and descriptions, and no easy way to move later.
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2 min readBook a time with Lehvel and we’ll go through what your business actually needs.