What a builder should count each month: enquiries, calls and the searches behind them

A builder sells a few homes a year, so the numbers worth reading are the forms, the calls and the emails, with the search and the page that came before each one.

A builder should count enquiries each month: forms sent, phone numbers tapped and emails received, with the search and the page that came before each one. Three free Google tools supply the numbers. Google Analytics counts the actions you mark as key events, Search Console lists the searches for which Google showed your site, and Business Profile performance counts calls and website clicks from your listing. Give them 20 minutes on the same day each month.

Which numbers matter to a builder who sells a few homes a year?

An online shop that sells hundreds of items a day has thousands of visitors to study. A builder finishes a few homes a year, and each client begins as one message: a form sent from the website, a phone number tapped on a phone screen, an email. We call these enquiries, and they are the numbers a builder should count.

The number of visits behind them is small as well. In figures from Google Search Console (Google's free report on searches, described below) that we read on August 3, 2026, with data through July 2026, a custom home builder in Metro Vancouver had gone from 120 to 184 monthly visits from Google. At this size you can write down every enquiry of the month by hand, with the search and the page that came before it, and that list tells you more than any percentage.

Why look at the searches at all? Because for many buyers the search comes first. In the National Association of REALTORS survey of people who bought a home between July 2023 and June 2024, 43 percent of buyers said their first step was to look online for properties.

What does each of the three free Google tools answer for a builder?

Three free tools from Google cover the whole question, and each one answers a different part of it.

Google Analytics records what visitors do on your website. Its help pages describe the measure that matters here, the key event: "an event that measures an action that's particularly important to the success of your business". For a builder, that action is an enquiry.

Search Console shows what happened on Google before the visit. Google describes its main report this way: "The Performance report shows important metrics about how your site performs in Google Search results." You can use it, Google says, to see "what search queries are most likely to show your site". A search query is the words a person typed.

Business Profile performance covers the free listing that shows your business on Google Search and Maps. In Google's words, it "highlights how customers use Search and Maps to find your profile, and what actions they take once they do". One condition applies: "Performance data is available only for verified Business Profiles."

How do you mark a sent form and a tapped phone number as the events that matter?

Analytics records many small actions, which it calls events: a page opened, a page scrolled to the bottom. You choose which of them mean a possible client. Google's help says: "Any event you collect can become a key event. To measure a key event, create or identify an event that measures the action and then mark the event as a key event."

For the form, Analytics has an event of its own. With the option Google calls enhanced measurement switched on, it records "form_submit", defined as "when the user submits a form", and Google notes that "No code changes are required." A tapped phone number is absent from Google's list of these automatic events, so the person who looks after your website has to add an event for it. Once both exist, each is marked as a key event in the Admin area of Analytics, under Events.

What do you gain? Google explains: "Many Google Analytics reports, such as the Landing pages and User acquisition reports, include a Key events column." The Landing page report shows the first page a visitor opened, so Analytics will tell you how many enquiries came from visits that began on each page of your site. The set-up steps, one by one, are in our article on analytics for a small business. Analytics has no record of an email written directly to your address, so count those in your inbox.

How do you read the searches that showed your site on Google?

Open the Performance report in Search Console. By default it shows "click and impression data for your site in Google Search results for the past three months". A click is a visit from Google, and an impression is one appearance of your site in the results. Below the chart, the Queries tab lists the searches themselves.

Now ask the builder's question: does "casita builder" with the name of my city appear in this list? The report has a filter for it. Click "+ Add filter", choose Queries, choose "Queries containing", type the word, for example casita, and click Apply. Google notes that the filter ignores capital letters and otherwise needs an exact match, spaces included. If the list shows your service with your city, read how many times you appeared and how many visits followed. If no search in the list names your city, the next page to write is the page for that city.

One caution comes from the same help page. Your own search from the office is a poor test, because "Search results are specific to the time, place, device, and recent history of the person searching." Trust the report over what you see on your own phone.

What does Business Profile performance count that the other two tools miss?

A client can call you without ever opening your website, because the listing on Google Search and Maps has a call button of its own. Business Profile performance counts those actions, and Google defines each one. Calls: "The number of times a customer clicked on the call button on your Business Profile." Website clicks: "The number of times people clicked on the website link on your Business Profile." Searches: "The search terms people used to find your business."

Three details help you read these figures correctly. The Searches list "is updated at the start of each month", and Google says to allow up to 5 days for it to show, so look after the fifth day. For views, Google states: "A person can only be counted once a day." And the figures include "views, searches, and actions from both organic search results and Google Ads" (organic means unpaid), so a builder who pays for ads will see both together.

To open the report, Google's steps are short: go to your Business Profile, click Performance, select a time period at the top, and click Apply.

Which question goes to which tool, and how often should you look?

The table puts a builder's questions in one place. Keep it beside you during the monthly check.

What does a 20-minute monthly routine look like?

Choose one day, for example the first Monday after the fifth of the month, and give the numbers 20 minutes. Google's own advice for Search Console is modest: "Many users need only a quick site check-up once a month, unless we alert you that we've found a problem." Follow the same seven steps each time.

• Step 1. Open your enquiry log and count the month's forms, calls and emails. Beside each one, note how the client said they found you.
• Step 2. In Google Analytics, read the count for each key event, the form and the phone tap, and compare it with your log.
• Step 3. In the Landing page report, read the Key events column and note the pages where those visits began.
• Step 4. In Search Console, open the Performance report, open the date filter, choose Compare, set the last full month against the month before, and read the Queries tab.
• Step 5. Filter the searches for your main service and look for the names of your cities.
• Step 6. In Business Profile performance, read Calls, Website clicks and Searches for the same month.
• Step 7. Write one line in a spreadsheet for the month, and one action for the month ahead.

Why is the Get Found Check the starting measurement?

Before the monthly counting begins, it helps to know where the site stands today. The free Get Found Check takes a website address, reads the homepage, the domain settings and the security certificate, and returns a letter grade from A to F with a score out of 100 in under 60 seconds. Its findings fall in six areas: the basics of search engine optimization (the work of helping a site appear in search results, usually shortened to SEO), security, performance, analytics and tracking, content quality, and infrastructure. It adds three to five quick fixes, a comparison with up to four competitors, and a separate grade for readiness for AI assistants.

For this guide, the area to read first is analytics and tracking: if the Check reports a finding there, fix it first, because the monthly count depends on it. The Check reads one page, so its grade is a place to start, and the monthly routine is what follows.

What does Licheo report each month?

Licheo's service is monthly work in three parts. We build the website. We make it rank, which means it can be found on Google and cited inside ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini and Google AI Overviews. We make it convert, so that each page tells a visitor what you do, why to trust you and what to do next. We do that work every month and we report on it every month, for one flat monthly fee, month to month, with no contract.

Whoever does the work, the three tools in this guide let you check a report against Google's own figures. Our guide to checking your own results in Search Console explains the four numbers of the Performance report in detail.

Part of a larger guide

This page is one part of Home builder marketing. The other parts:

• The builder's website
• AI assistants and builders
• City and community pages
• Project pages
• ADUs and middle housing
• For small developers

Questions people ask

What should a home builder measure on its website each month?

A home builder should measure enquiries each month: forms sent, phone numbers tapped on the site, calls from the Google listing and emails, together with the search and the page that came before each one. Visits alone say little for a business that sells a few homes a year. Google Analytics counts the actions you mark as key events, which Google defines as actions "particularly important to the success of your business".

What is a key event on a builder's website?

A key event on a builder's website is an action you have told Google Analytics to treat as important, such as a contact form sent or a phone number tapped. Google's help page says: "Any event you collect can become a key event." Once the form and the phone tap are marked, reports such as the Landing page report, which lists the first page each visitor opened, show a Key events column, so a builder can see on which page the visits that ended in an enquiry began.

How can a builder count phone calls that start on its website?

A builder can count phone calls that start on its website by recording each tap on the phone number as an event in Google Analytics and marking it as a key event. Google's list of events collected automatically includes a sent form (form_submit) and has no entry for a tapped phone number, so the tap must be added by whoever looks after the site. Calls made from the Google listing are counted separately, in Business Profile performance.

How does a builder see which Google searches showed its website?

A builder sees the searches that showed its website in the Performance report of Google Search Console, a free tool from Google. The report's Queries tab lists the words people typed, with the number of times the site appeared and the number of visits that followed. By default the report covers "the past three months". Google says it lets you see "what search queries are most likely to show your site".

How can a builder check whether it appears for casita builder searches in its city?

A builder can check this in Search Console's Performance report with a filter. Click "+ Add filter", choose Queries, choose "Queries containing", type casita and click Apply. Google notes that the filter ignores capital letters and otherwise needs an exact match, spaces included. The list then shows every search containing that word for which the site appeared. If no search names your city, the page for that city is the next one to write.

What does Google Business Profile performance show a builder?

Google Business Profile performance shows a builder how people found the listing on Search and Maps and what they did next. It counts calls made with the call button on the profile, clicks on the website link, and requests for directions, and it lists "the search terms people used to find your business". The data exists only for verified profiles, and the Searches list is updated at the start of each month.

Are low visitor numbers a problem for a custom home builder?

Low visitor numbers are expected for a custom home builder, because the business needs a few clients a year. In Search Console figures we read on August 3, 2026, a custom home builder in Metro Vancouver had gone from 120 to 184 monthly visits from Google. At that size, count the enquiries and read which searches and pages produced them. A single form from a person who owns a lot in your city is the number to watch.

How much time should a builder give to marketing numbers each month?

A builder should give the numbers 20 minutes on the same day each month. Google's guidance for Search Console says: "Many users need only a quick site check-up once a month, unless we alert you that we've found a problem." In that time, count the month's forms, calls and emails, read the key events in Google Analytics, the searches in Search Console and the calls in Business Profile performance, and write one line in a spreadsheet.

Why ask each caller how they found the builder, if the tools count the calls?

A builder should ask each caller because the tools count taps on a screen, and a person can dial your number by hand from a yard sign, a truck or a neighbor's recommendation. Business Profile performance counts clicks on the call button of the listing, and Google Analytics counts taps on the number on your site. A call dialed by hand appears in neither. One question at the first call, written in a log, completes the month's count.

How does the Get Found Check fit into a builder's monthly measuring?

The Get Found Check is the starting measurement, taken before the monthly counting begins. It reads the homepage, the domain settings and the security certificate of the address you enter, and returns a letter grade from A to F with a score out of 100 in under 60 seconds. One of its six areas is analytics and tracking. It reads one page, so use the grade as a place to start and repeat it after each round of changes.

Sources

1. About key events, Google Analytics Help. Accessed 29 September 2026.
2. Enhanced measurement events, Google Analytics Help. Accessed 29 September 2026.
3. Create or modify key events, Google Analytics Help. Accessed 29 September 2026.
4. [GA4] Landing page report, Google Analytics Help. Accessed 29 September 2026.
5. Performance report (Search results): Overview and basic setup, Google Search Console Help. Accessed 29 September 2026.
6. Performance report (Search results): Advanced filtering and comparison, Google Search Console Help. Accessed 29 September 2026.
7. Getting started with Search Console, Google Search Console Help. Accessed 29 September 2026.
8. Understand your Business Profile performance & insights, Google Business Profile Help. Accessed 29 September 2026.
9. 2025 Home Buyers and Sellers Generational Trends Report, National Association of REALTORS Research Group. Accessed 29 September 2026.

Keep reading

• Home builder marketing: the complete guide
• What a small builder's website needs
• How AI assistants choose which builder to name
• Marketing for small developers
• Analytics for a small business: the set-up steps
• Reading your own results in Search Console
• The four free tools for a small business website
• Measuring a website when the sale is months away
• Run the free Get Found Check

Take the first measurement of your builder website

Enter your website address in the free Get Found Check and receive a grade from A to F, with a score out of 100, in under 60 seconds. For the monthly work that follows and the report that comes with it, contact us for pricing.