Nine Months In: What Changed for a Custom Home Builder Since the Seven-Month Case Study

In September we published the seven-month case study of a second-generation custom home builder and remodeler in a small Wisconsin lake town, and said we would pull the same numbers again every 30 days. The first re-pull came in October. This is the second. Every figure below was pulled on November 5, 2026, the same way, for date ranges of the same length moved forward one month. Google’s search data ran through November 3, so “the latest four weeks” means October 7 to November 3.

One thing first. This is still a visibility update. It shows what Google shows, not what the phone did. The owners have not yet told us what the calls from their listing turned into, and no tracked line is in place, so nothing here is a lead count.

The Numbers, Then and Now

Three months against three months (Search Console, US). February through April, the site appeared in Google search 12,510 times and got 359 clicks. July through September was 18,344 appearances and 344 clicks. August through October is 16,337 appearances and 354 clicks. The season caveat still applies: February to April is a Wisconsin builder’s slow season, summer is the busy one, and October is the start of the slide toward winter.

Month one against the latest full month. February: 112 clicks on 2,954 appearances. September: 129 on 5,150. October: 116 on 4,373.

How many different searches. The site appeared for 205 distinct searches in February, 371 in September and 347 in October. On page one: 70 in February, 164 in September, 165 in October.

Page one, latest four weeks, cleaned up. We take every search where the site averaged a top-ten position, then cut other businesses’ names, the builder’s own past project clients, job searches, one-word searches and anything the builder does not sell. Last month: 105 kept, 44 in the top three, 11 first. This time 140 came back and 91 survived: 40 in the top three and 9 first, four of them the business’s own name.

The searches that matter most.

• “custom home builders near me”, checked from inside their town on a rank tracker: 19th on August 21, first on September 4, first on October 7, first on the latest reading (October 30).
• “bathroom remodeling + their town”: 4th on 11 appearances in September, 3rd on 14 in October. The tracker has it 2nd, up from 3rd.
• “general contractor + their town”: 2nd in February, 6th in the case study and in October’s update, 3rd in the latest four weeks on 9 appearances. The tracker has it first, up from 4th.

The rank tracker (58 terms, checked from inside their town). On October 7: 26 in first place (23 of them not the business name), 36 in the top three, 41 in the top ten, 15 not ranking. On the latest reading, October 30: 17 in first place (15 not the business name), 31 in the top three, 40 in the top ten, 12 not ranking.

The map grid. Nine terms, 49 checkpoints each, across an eight-mile radius, same shape as the last two readings. Average position, October then November 1: home addition contractor 15.4 → 14.2, new home construction 15.2 → 15.1, home remodeling contractor 17.7 → 16.4, custom home builder 17.7 → 17.2, bathroom remodeling 17.8 → 16.8, kitchen remodeling 18.0 → 17.9, basement finishing 18.8 → 18.1, general contractor 18.0 → 17.8, deck builder 19.5 → 19.7. Five October figures read slightly differently today than in last month’s post; we use today’s readings for both months. There is still no reading from before the work started.

The Google listing (from a synced copy of Google’s listing data). September as it reads today, then October. Views 675 → 468. Search appearances 354 → 356. Interactions 165 → 149. Calls from the Google listing 23 → 18. Direction requests 57 → 68. Website clicks 85 → 63. Google back-fills this data, so September reads a little higher than October’s post printed (interactions 159, website clicks 79). January, the month before work began: 330 views, 271 search appearances, 154 interactions, 16 calls, 63 direction requests, 75 website clicks.

Reviews. Still 17, still 5.0, every one answered. No new review since May 19.

What Went Up

The map grid improved on eight of nine terms between the October and November readings, and the builder’s overall map average moved from 18 to 17. Last month it went the wrong way on seven of nine. Against the September readings, most terms are back roughly where they were, with bathroom remodeling (17.3 → 16.8) and general contractor (18.8 → 17.8) a little better. October’s slip has been undone; the map has not moved forward much in two months.

“General contractor + their town” came back. It had been stuck at 6th in Search Console since the case study. In the latest four weeks it is 3rd, and the tracker has it first.

Three more tracked terms moved up since October 7: “commercial builder + their town” 2nd → 1st, “local general contractor + their county” 3rd → 1st, and “bathroom remodeling + their town” 3rd → 2nd. A remodeling search for a neighbouring town, which did not rank at all in the case study, now reads first.

Three-month clicks are the closest they have been to the starting point: 354 against 359. Direction requests from the listing rose from 57 to 68.

What Went Down

Clicks to the website fell back. 129 in September, 116 in October. Sixty-seven of the 116 were people typing the business’s name on its own, against 70 of 129 in September. Search Console could tie only one October click to a search that was not the name, against 9 in September.

Appearances in search fell again. 5,150 in September, 4,373 in October. Distinct searches fell from 371 to 347. The likely read, not a finding: fewer people search for builders and remodelers as a Wisconsin autumn sets in, and we still have no 2025 data to check that against.

The cleaned-up page-one count dropped from 105 to 91, top three from 44 to 40, first place from 11 to 9.

The rank tracker’s first-place count fell from 26 to 17. The sharpest single move: “home addition contractors + their town” went from first on October 7 to 16th. “Custom home builder + their town” was first in the case study and is 7th now, and “commercial remodeling contractor + their town” was first in the case study and is 12th now. “Basement remodeling + their town” slipped 1st → 2nd, “home builders + their town” 3rd → 4th, and “commercial general contractor + their town” 4th → 5th. The likely read, not a finding: this is one check on one day, and the map grid moved the other way in the same month, so we want November’s checks before reading much into it.

The Google listing had a weak month. Calls from the listing fell from 23 to 18, now just two above January’s 16. Website clicks from the listing fell from 85 to 63, below January’s 75. Interactions fell from 165 to 149, also below January’s 154. Views fell from 675 to 468, almost all of it the desktop Maps spike we flagged last month going away (280 → 79). The likely read, not a finding: search appearances held level (354 → 356), so people saw the listing about as often but fewer acted on it. That points at the season and at what the listing shows, not at how often it is shown.

Twelve tracked terms still do not rank at all, including every roofing term and every term for the next county over.

No new reviews. Reviews are earned on the job. Our part is the replies and the follow-up. No new review has arrived since May.

What We Are Doing Next

Roofing and the next county over are still blank on the tracker, and pages that answer those searches are still the next build. The listing is where this month’s slide showed up, so the local SEO work stays pointed at the listing and what it shows people. And we still need the one thing only the owners can give us: what the listing calls became. If they would rather have it counted for them, the option is a tracked phone line on the website, the same kind our own AI receptionist runs on. That choice is theirs. Without one of those, December is a visibility update again.

We hold ourselves to the same monthly re-pull in the 60-day case study we ran on ourselves.

Common Questions

Why did the map get better when everything else got worse?

The map grid and the other numbers measure different things. The grid checks where the listing appears in map results from 49 spots around the area. Clicks, calls and appearances count what people actually did, and fewer people were searching in October. A listing can hold or improve its spot on the map in a month when fewer people look at maps at all.

Is a drop in calls from the Google listing a bad sign?

Two months in a row of falling calls is worth taking seriously. Calls from the Google listing went from 23 in September to 18 in October, close to the 16 in the month before work started, after falling in September too. The listing was shown about as often as in September, so the drop is in how many people acted on it. Season is a likely part of it. It is not the whole answer until we see November.

Why did the rank tracker drop when Search Console looked steadier?

The tracker checks each search once, from one spot in town, on one day. Search Console averages real searches across four weeks. A single check can catch a bad day, which is why a term can read 16th on the tracker and still sit on page one in Search Console. We report both, and we wait for a second reading before calling a move a trend.

What does the cleaned-up page-one count leave out?

It leaves out other businesses’ names, including past project clients the builder’s site mentions, job searches, one-word searches and services the builder does not offer. What is left are searches a real customer might use to find a builder like this one. Most of them get only a handful of appearances a month, so the count shows how wide the coverage is, not how many visitors arrive.

Does fall really slow down searches for home builders?

It very likely does in Wisconsin, where building and outdoor work wind down before winter. We cannot prove it for this site yet, because its search data only starts in February 2026, so there is no last October to compare against. Next year’s numbers will settle it. Until then we label season as the likely read and nothing more.

Why are there still no new reviews?

We cannot say for certain. The builder has 17 reviews, all five stars, all answered, and the newest is from May 19. Reviews come from customers at the end of a job. We can reply to them and help with the follow-up, but a review only comes when a customer is asked after the job, and nothing new has come in since spring.

When will you know if this turned into work?

When the owners tell us what the calls became, or when calls to the website run through a line that counts them. Neither has happened yet. Until one does, every update in this series reports what Google shows and how many times people tapped the call button on the listing, and stops there.

If you want the same honest read on your own business, book a free audit or call (920) 383-3387. We will show you what Google shows for you today, including the parts that are going the wrong way.