For most local service businesses, the Google Business Profile drives more direct calls. It is usually the first thing a searcher sees and it carries a call button, so it captures the urgent enquiry before the website is ever opened. That advantage is shrinking, because Google's newer AI local results often remove the call button entirely.

The honest short answer

If you run a plumbing, electrical, HVAC, or similar service business and you only had the budget and attention for one of the two, the Google Business Profile would win. It is free, it appears above the organic results, and for years it has offered a one-tap call button at the exact moment someone needs you.

That is the answer most articles stop at. It is also becoming out of date, and the reason why matters more than the comparison.

What the profile actually produces

Birdeye's State of Google Business Profile 2026 report breaks customer actions on profiles into three buckets: website visits at roughly 47 percent of engagement, direction requests at 38 percent, and phone calls at about 15 percent.

That last figure surprises people who assume the profile is mostly a phone-call machine. It is not. The single most common action taken from a business profile is clicking through to the website.

Which tells you something important: for a large share of people, the profile is not the destination. It is the doorway. They see you on Google, then go and check you out properly before deciding whether to make contact.

That is the same verification behaviour we described in why referral work stops scaling. The channel that produces the first sighting is rarely the thing that closes it.

Why the versus framing is a trap

The two are not independent channels competing for the same budget. They feed each other.

Your website influences your profile

Google works out what your business does and where it serves partly from your website. Clear service pages and honest service area information help it match you to the right local queries. A thin site with one page and no service detail gives it very little to work with.

Your profile sends traffic to your website

Nearly half of all profile engagement is a website click. If those clicks land on something slow, dated, or unconvincing, the profile has done its job and the website has lost the customer.

Reviews live on one and get read before the other

People routinely read reviews on the profile and then look at the website for proof: licensing, real photos, service area. Neither on its own closes the loop.

What changed in 2026, and why calls are falling

This is the part that most guidance on this topic has not caught up with.

Google has been replacing the familiar local three-pack with AI-generated local results. Sterling Sky's State of Local SEO in 2026 research analysed this shift, and the findings are stark.

Far fewer businesses appear at all

Sterling Sky found AI local packs surfaced roughly 32 percent as many unique businesses as traditional map packs, comparing 5,943 businesses against 18,330 across the same query set. Across 322 markets analysed, 88 percent showed a decline in the number of unique businesses visible.

That is not a ranking change. It is a reduction in how many businesses get shown at all.

The call button often disappears

AI local packs frequently show only one or two businesses instead of three, and many formats remove click-to-call entirely. For a trades business, that removes the single highest-intent action a mobile searcher can take.

Sterling Sky also documented Google swapping call buttons for images in the handyman category in late 2025, having tracked the same change previously in dentistry, where it produced a measurable drop in call-button clicks.

Different businesses appear in each format

The AI pack is not simply the top two of the traditional three-pack. It often features businesses that were not in the traditional pack at all. Ranking well in one does not guarantee appearing in the other.

Paid placements are taking organic space

Sponsored listings increasingly appear within and alongside map packs, pushing organic results down. The direction of travel in local search is toward pay-to-play.

The practical symptom is one many owners are reporting: rankings look unchanged, impressions look fine, and the phone rings less. If that describes your year, you are not imagining it and it is probably not something you did wrong.

One point specific to Canadian businesses

As of early 2026, these AI local packs were being rolled out primarily on mobile in the United States. Canadian businesses have generally been seeing the traditional format for longer.

That is a genuine advantage, and a temporary one. Google features that start in the US market have consistently arrived in Canada afterward. The window is a chance to prepare rather than a reason to relax, and preparing mostly means not being dependent on a single channel when the format changes.

Rented land and owned land

Here is the structural difference that decides how much weight to put on each.

Your Google Business Profile is an account on someone else's platform. Google decides whether it appears, what buttons it has, which reviews are shown, and whether the format changes next quarter. Profiles get suspended, sometimes wrongly, and reinstatement can take weeks. In early 2026 a policy update removed large numbers of reviews across many profiles, and the businesses affected had no say in it.

None of that makes the profile less valuable. It is still the best free marketing asset a local business has. But it is rented.

Your website is the only part of your online presence you actually own. Nobody suspends it, nobody redesigns it without telling you, and nobody removes the phone number from it.

The right conclusion is not "so build a website instead". It is that a business whose entire enquiry flow depends on one platform is exposed, and 2026 is demonstrating exactly how.

What to actually do

The bottom line

The profile drives more direct calls today. The website drives the verification that turns a sighting into a call, and it is the asset you control.

Asking which one to have is the wrong question, in the same way asking whether to have a phone number or a van would be. The useful question is whether either is currently letting you down, and for most trades businesses the honest answer is that the profile is doing its job and the website is not.

Frequently asked questions

Does a Google Business Profile drive more calls than a website?

For most local service businesses, yes. The profile is usually the first thing a searcher sees and it carries a direct call button, so it captures urgent enquiries the website never gets the chance to. The gap is narrowing, because Google's newer AI local results frequently omit the call button entirely.

Can I skip having a website if my Google Business Profile ranks well?

It is possible but risky. A profile is an account on someone else's platform: it can be suspended, its features can change, and its visibility is set by Google. Many searchers also visit the website to verify a business before calling, so removing it removes a verification step you cannot see failing.

What are AI local packs and how do they affect calls?

AI local packs are AI-generated local results that Google has been rolling out in place of the traditional three-pack. Research from Sterling Sky found they surface far fewer businesses than the classic pack, often show only one or two, and frequently remove the click-to-call button, which reduces direct calls even when rankings are unchanged.

Why are my rankings the same but my calls are down?

This is a widely reported pattern. If an AI local pack replaces the traditional pack for your keywords, fewer businesses appear and the call button may be absent, so impressions and rank can look stable while the number of direct actions falls. Reviewing profile insights alongside call logs usually confirms it.

Do AI local packs show the same businesses as the traditional three-pack?

Not necessarily. Sterling Sky's analysis found AI packs frequently feature businesses that were not in the traditional pack for the same query, so a strong position in one does not guarantee appearing in the other.

How should a trades business split effort between the two?

Get the Google Business Profile complete, verified, and accumulating reviews first, since it is free and usually produces the first contact. Then make sure the website answers verification questions quickly. Treat them as one system rather than choosing between them.

West Coast Media Solutions Inc. builds websites for trades and service businesses across Canada. Local search formats are changing quickly; figures cited reflect published research available at the time of writing and are worth re-checking against your own profile insights.

Is your website wasting your profile's traffic?

Nearly half of Google Business Profile engagement is a click to your website. We build sites that convert that click instead of losing it.

Start a Conversation