2026/Local SEO · GBP · Strategy
Website or Google Business Profile - which should a small or medium business fix first?
Most small and medium businesses think they need a new website. Often they need a working Google Business Profile first. Here is how to decide, in five minutes.
A founder asks us almost every week: "We need a new website, right?" Usually the answer is "yes, eventually", but the urgent answer is almost always "fix your Google Business Profile first." Here is why, and how to know which one applies to your business.
What your customers actually search for
A walk-in customer in Dar, Nairobi, Kampala or Kigali looking for a dentist does not type your name into Google. They type "dentist near me" or "dentist Mikocheni" or "dentist Westlands". Google answers that search with the map pack, three local business listings with reviews, photos and a phone-call button, before it shows your website at all.
If your business is not in that map pack, your website is competing for what is left. That is usually 20 to 30% of the available clicks on a local query.
A small business with a beautiful new website and an empty Google Business Profile is paying a designer to be invisible.
The five-minute test
Sit at your phone and search for what you sell, plus your neighbourhood. "Hair salon Masaki". "Plumber Kilimani". "Office furniture Bugolobi". "Boutique hotel Stone Town". "Coffee shop Kacyiru".
Look at the screen and answer honestly:
- Are you in the map pack of three businesses Google shows above everything else?
- If you tap through, is your profile filled out - recent photos, opening hours, posts, reviews answered?
- Do you have at least 25 Google reviews with a 4.4+ average?
If you answer no to any of these, your Google Business Profile is the most important thing you can fix before you spend a shilling on a new website.
When a website is the priority instead
A website becomes the priority when:
- You sell to other businesses, not consumers, and they need to evaluate you before reaching out.
- You sell online or take bookings directly (a Zanzibar lodge, an Arusha safari operator, a Shopify store, a course provider).
- Your industry does not show a map pack, for example professional services to international clients.
- You already have a strong GBP and want to scale demand beyond it.
In those cases, the website is doing the selling. It needs to be sharp.
What "fixing GBP" actually looks like
Most agencies treat Google Business Profile as a free side-task. It is the opposite - it is the highest-converting digital asset most local businesses own. A real GBP engagement is:
- Fully filled out, in the right primary category. This single decision changes who you compete with.
- 20 to 40 photos refreshed every quarter: interior, exterior, team, products, customers.
- A weekly post: an offer, a piece of news, a new product, a customer story.
- Every review answered within 24 hours, including the negative ones, professionally.
- Q&A seeded with the questions buyers ask before walking in.
Doing the above well, for six months, will move the needle more than any new homepage hero animation.
The honest rule of thumb
If you have a working GBP and a tired website: redesign.
If you have a beautiful website and an empty GBP: fix the GBP first.
If you have neither: do GBP this week, plan the new website for next quarter.
And if a designer or agency tells you that you need both at the same time without first asking which is moving the needle today, they are selling you both, not solving your problem.
When you are ready, we run both: see Google Business Profile management and Website Design. Or plan your growth on a 30-minute call and we will tell you honestly which to do first.