For Virginia local businesses, the answer is 'both, in sequence' — here is how the profile and the website work together.
Search for a plumber, a dentist or a lawyer in any Virginia town and look at what you actually see first: the map pack — three Business Profiles with stars and call buttons. Your profile is your first impression, and for 'near me' searches it may be the only impression.
But the profile alone has a ceiling. Google ranks profiles partly on the strength of the website behind them: the service pages, the city pages, the reviews and the consistency of your details across the web. A complete profile pointing at a weak website stalls in competitive cities.
The sequence that works: build the profile out completely (categories, services, photos, areas), fix the website's local pages behind it, then run reviews steadily. That is exactly how our Maps ranking service is structured — and why we never sell the profile as a one-off setup.
Do both, in that order, and measure with your own profile insights: searches, calls and direction requests, month by month.
A short form, a real reply. We review your website, your Google rankings and your Maps listing, then send a written plan with scope, timeline and cost — no pressure call required.