Google’s Search Relations team was asked directly whether you still need a website in 2026. They didn’t give a one-size-fits-all answer.
The conversation stayed focused on trade-offs between owning a website and relying on platforms such as social networks or app stores.
In a new episode of the Search Off the Record podcast, Gary Illyes and Martin Splitt spent about 28 minutes exploring the question and repeatedly landed on the same conclusion: it depends.
What Was Said
Illyes and Splitt acknowledged that websites still offer distinct advantages, including data sovereignty, control over monetization, the ability to host services such as calculators or tools, and freedom from platform content moderation.
Both Googlers also emphasized situations where a website may not be necessary.
Illyes referenced a Google user study conducted in Indonesia around 2015-2016 where businesses ran entirely on social networks with no websites. He described their results as having “incredible sales, incredible user journeys and retention.”
Illyes also described mobile games that, in his telling, became multi-million-dollar and in some cases “billion-dollar” businesses without a meaningful website beyond legal pages.
Illyes offered a personal example:
“I know that I have a few community groups in WhatsApp for instance because that’s where the people I want to reach are and I can reach them reliably through there. I could set up a website but I never even considered because why? To do what?”
Splitt addressed trust and presentation, saying:
“I’d rather have a nicely curated social media presence that exudes trustworthiness than a website that is not well done.”
When pressed for a definitive answer, Illyes offered the closest thing to a position, saying that if you want to make information or services available to as many people as possible, a website is probably still the way to go in 2026. But he framed it as a personal opinion, not a recommendation.
Why This Matters
Google Search is built around crawling and indexing web content, but the hosts still frame “needing a website” as a business decision that depends on your goals and audience.
Neither made a case that websites are essential for every business in 2026. Neither argued that the open web offers something irreplaceable. The strongest endorsement was that websites provide a low barrier of entry for sharing information and that the web “isn’t dead.”
This is consistent with the fragmented discovery landscape that SEJ has been covering, where user journeys now span AI chatbots, social feeds, and community platforms alongside traditional search.
Looking Ahead
The Search Off the Record podcast has historically offered behind-the-scenes perspectives from the Search Relations team that sometimes run ahead of official positions.
This episode didn’t introduce new policy or guidance. But the Search Relations team’s willingness to validate social-only business models and app-only distribution reflects how the role of websites is changing in a multi-platform discovery environment.
The question is worth sitting with. If the Search Relations team frames website ownership as situational rather than essential, the value proposition rests on the specific use case, not on the assumption that every business needs one.
Featured Image: Diki Prayogo/Shutterstock
