WALKTHRU LABS
01
The challenge
In January 2026, Semrush found donebuilders.com in Google's top 100 for 3 keywords, with no measurable organic traffic.
Leads came in three ways and went three places. Calls rang the owner's phone at all hours. Google Business chat messages landed on his personal cell as plain texts. Nothing recorded where a caller had heard of the company.
Gilroy is a small market. In August 2026, Semrush put local search for every service D One sells in Gilroy at about 250 searches a month. Growth had to come from the larger towns to the north and from ADU work.
02
Keyword research
Before we write a page, we find the searches that bring D One Builders work. These are the terms from our research, with the monthly search volume, how hard each one is to rank for, and what an ad click costs.
| Keyword | Searches / mo | Difficulty | Ad cost / click | Rank now |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| adu builders san jose | 880 | 21 Easy | $18.39 | Not in top 100 |
| adu builders bay area | 880 | 20 Easy | $13.49 | Not in top 100 |
| general contractor san jose | 480 | 43 Possible | $19.19 | Not in top 100 |
| adu contractor san jose | 260 | 6 Very easy | $13.76 | Not in top 100 |
| adu builder morgan hill | 140 | 7 Very easy | $0.00 | Not in top 100 |
| garage conversion san jose | 140 | 0 Very easy | $14.19 | Not in top 100 |
| adu cost san jose | 110 | 4 Very easy | $7.28 | #28 |
| home additions san jose ca | 90 | 5 Very easy | $0.00 | #9 |
| bathroom remodel morgan hill | 90 | 3 Very easy | $0.00 | Not in top 100 |
| kitchen remodeling morgan hill | 70 | 3 Very easy | $0.00 | Not in top 100 |
| bathroom remodeling gilroy | 70 | 0 Very easy | $21.70 | #9 |
| adu builder in gilroy | 50 | 5 Very easy | $0.00 | #13 |
| los gatos general contractor | 30 | 0 Very easy | $17.48 | #26 |
| general contractor morgan hill | 30 | 0 Very easy | $0.00 | Not in top 100 |
| general contractor gilroy | 20 | 0 Very easy | $9.64 | Not in top 100 |
03
The plan
Rebuild
Early 2026. We rebuilt the site with a page for each service, each town served and each finished project, with real job photos.
Research
1 Aug 2026. A Semrush study found about 2,190 monthly searches for ADU work in the South Bay at difficulty 22 or lower, and no ADU page on the site.
Expand
We shipped ADU, garage conversion, Los Gatos, Santa Clara and Cupertino pages. Every location page got local business schema. Footer links now reach all service and location pages from every page.
Wire the phone
17 Aug 2026. We set Pacific business hours, gave the after-hours assistant the company name and Spanish, turned on missed-call texts, and moved Google chat onto the business line. The assistant asks every caller how they found D One.
Ask for reviews
Sept 2026. One email signature generator now serves the whole team, and every signature carries a one-tap Google review link.
04
What we built
- Website
- Service, location and project pages across the South Bay, with real job photos and a cost estimator.
- ADU page
- Publishes build and rent ranges taken from D One's own numbers, with FAQ and service schema.
- Town pages
- Pages for Gilroy, Morgan Hill, San Jose, Los Gatos, Santa Clara, Cupertino, Hollister, San Martin and San Benito County, each written for that town.
- Website chat
- A chat assistant on every page answers questions and sends the lead to the office by email.
- Phone line setup
- Business hours, an English and Spanish after-hours assistant, missed-call texts and a call-recording notice on the business line.
- Lead dashboard
- A private dashboard lists every lead with its source, taken from what callers tell the phone assistant.
- Email signatures
- A generator at donebuilders.com/signature builds each team member's signature, with the Google review link built in.
- Festival banners
- Three Gilroy Garlic Festival banners with tracked QR codes that open an estimate request.
05
Where search stands
Semrush US database, 18 September 2026. Semrush estimates traffic from rankings; Google Search Console is the exact count.
Show the numbers
| Month | Keywords | Visits |
|---|---|---|
| Sep 25 | 7 | 0 |
| Oct 25 | 7 | 0 |
| Nov 25 | 4 | 0 |
| Dec 25 | 1 | 0 |
| Jan 26 | 3 | 0 |
| Feb 26 | 12 | 17 |
| Mar 26 | 35 | 24 |
| Apr 26 | 53 | 51 |
| May 26 | 52 | 47 |
| Jun 26 | 65 | 45 |
| Jul 26 | 67 | 44 |
| Aug 26 | 77 | 45 |
| Keyword | Position | Searches / mo |
|---|---|---|
| kitchen remodeling gilroy | #5 | 50 |
| home remodeling gilroy | #6 | 70 |
| home additions gilroy | #7 | 40 |
| home additions san jose ca | #9 | 90 |
| bathroom remodeling gilroy | #9 | 90 |
| commercial construction in morgan hill ca | #10 | 40 |
| luxury bathroom remodels in gilroy | #10 | 50 |
| adu builder in gilroy | #13 | 70 |
| home remodeling san martin | #14 | 40 |
| full home remodeling san jose | #16 | 210 |
06
Who they compete with in search
| Competitor | Shared keywords | Their keywords | Their visits / mo |
|---|---|---|---|
| mariniconstruction.com | 9 | 72 | 207 |
| directhomeremodelinginc.com | 9 | 209 | 131 |
| nuhomeremodeling.com | 8 | 228 | 192 |
| bjgcontractors.com | 4 | 83 | 214 |
| fullhomerenovations.com | 4 | 108 | 550 |