You launched your GoDaddy site six months ago. It looks decent. It has your phone number, your services, maybe a few photos. But the phone isn't ringing, at least not from people who found you on Google.
You're not imagining it. But the builder usually isn't the whole problem. GoDaddy, Wix and Squarespace are made to get a site live fast, and a site on any of them can show up on Google. What holds a builder site back is usually what's on it, and what isn't.
What a Builder Site Is Usually Missing
When a homeowner Googles "basement waterproofing near me" or "roofer in Troy," Google has to pick which pages and which businesses to show. It doesn't publish a formula, but it does say a fair amount about what helps. Here's what to check on your site.
One page for every service. A lot of builder sites have one page that lists everything. Google ranks pages, not whole websites, and a page about garage floor epoxy is a better match for a garage floor epoxy search than a list with that phrase in it. Give each service its own page.
A page for each town you really work. If you work in Sterling Heights, Warren and Clinton Township, a page about your work in each town gives someone searching there a page that's about them. Most builders let you add pages; the hard part is writing each one so it's really about that town. A page that just swaps the town name is what Google's spam policies call doorway abuse.
A complete Google Business Profile. The map results for a local search come from Business Profiles, not websites. Google says businesses with complete and accurate info are more likely to show up in local results (Google Business Profile Help, "Tips to improve your local ranking on Google"). If yours is half filled in, start there.
Schema markup that matches your profile. Schema is code that spells out your business name, phone, services and service area for Google. Some builders add a little, some add none. Paste a page into Google's Rich Results Test (search.google.com/test/rich-results) to see what yours has. Don't expect stars from it: Google doesn't show star ratings a business marks up about itself.
Heavy pages. Big photos, sliders, chat bubbles and add-ons all make a phone work harder. Google measures how pages load for real visitors (its Core Web Vitals) and says its ranking systems use them. Run your site through Google's free PageSpeed Insights to see where you stand.
What a Contractor Website Has to Do
A website for a contractor has a few jobs. Show up for the searches your customers make. Make it easy to call or send a request from a phone. Get every request in front of you right away. And tell you where your leads came from, so you know what's working.
A builder site can do some of that. The last two are where builder sites often fall short: a form that sends an email to an inbox nobody checks, and no count of what came in.
Count It Before You Change It
Before you spend money on a new site, count what the old one does. Go through the last three months of form emails and your call log, and count the people who said they found you on Google. That number, and what those jobs were worth to you, is what a better site has to beat.
While you're at it, send yourself a test from your own contact form, from your phone. If it doesn't reach you within a few minutes, fix that first. A form that quietly fails costs you leads you'll never hear about.
Be wary of anyone who quotes you a lost-revenue number without asking for yours. They're guessing.
What to Do Instead
Whatever you build on, here's the list: a page for each service you offer; a page for each town you really work, written for that town; a complete, verified Google Business Profile; schema that matches it; tap-to-call and a short estimate-request form on every page; and every request sent to you right away, with a copy somewhere else in case one inbox fails.
That's what I build for contractors in Macomb and Oakland County. Every site has a page for each service and each real town, a form and tap-to-call on every page, and schema, and every form lead is texted and emailed to you within a minute. If you'd rather do it yourself on GoDaddy, the list above still applies.
