The Anatomy of the Perfect SEO Report

Whether you are moving arsenic an in-house SEO oregon are agency-side, reports are thing that we each person to produce. An SEO study helps to show the advancement that a run is making, illustrates the ROI, and helps to warrant wherefore we took the attack that we did.

That said, SEOs usually privation to walk clip moving connected SEO strategy, not creating reports.

Our extremity is to assistance you recognize what a cleanable SEO report should look like, what metrics to track, and however often to tally your report. 

What Is an SEO Report?

An SEO study is simply a summary of SEO metrics that exemplify however your tract is performing. Reports typically screen areas similar wide integrated traffic, conversions, backlinks, and method website health. However, you tin customize the study for your goals.

SEO reporting is an effectual mode for you to pass to stakeholders—usually your brag oregon your client—the interaction that your SEO efforts are having upon their business.

But determination is 1 problem—many SEO reports don't really archer the scholar precise much.

Pretty overmuch immoderate selling manager oregon concern proprietor is acquainted with however to usage Google Analytics to spot their website's stats. Sending a monthly study showing the postulation for the past 30 days on with immoderate associated conversions isn't enough.

Stakeholders merit more, but astatine the aforesaid time, nary 1 wants to work a 100+ leafage study that includes each metric nether the sun. Many are wholly meaningless successful the discourse they are being presented.

An SEO study should show, at a bare minimum:

• What advancement has been made? 
• What activities person been undertaken and their impact?
• Recommendations to thrust further growth.

In short: study the metrics that matter, pass advancement connected predefined KPIs (key show indicators), sermon what contributed to your success, troubleshoot what didn't work, and item what you've accomplished vs. what you'll bash next.

Trust america erstwhile we accidental that large SEO reports assistance to make large relationships with others; they are worthy investing the clip to get right.

And our caller #Semrushchat connected Twitter revealed immoderate of the galore challenges that SEOs look erstwhile it comes to reporting:

Great SEO reports assistance to make large relationships with others; they are worthy investing the clip to get right.

One of our erstwhile #Semrushchat threads connected on Twitter revealed immoderate of the galore challenges that SEOs look erstwhile it comes to reporting:

It is wide that we request amended consistency successful the mode we report; this is thing that galore SEOs proceed to conflict with.

Why Should You Produce a Regular SEO Report?

As we each know, SEO is simply a large woody for astir businesses. It is simply a transmission that is progressively receiving much and much concern and attention. Even backmost successful 2018, the planetary SEO manufacture was reported to beryllium worth $80 billion.

There is a batch astatine stake.

Businesses are relying connected the transmission arsenic a cardinal selling platform, and concern owners, CFOs, and different superior stakeholders privation to spot a instrumentality connected their investment.

For this reason, it is important that you are circulating regular SEO reports to supply advancement updates. That said, SEO reports are arsenic arsenic important to SEOs themselves, and perfectly shouldn't beryllium overlooked.

Get your SEO reporting right, and your occupation volition beryllium a batch easier. With the close report, you can quickly place trends (both affirmative and negative), place areas that request your attention, and spot astatine a glimpse the insights that you request to bash your job.

And erstwhile you take the close metrics to study on, your reports go each the much valuable. 

Choosing SEO Reporting Metrics and KPIs

You request to marque definite that you are reporting connected metrics that matter and these are often precise antithetic for antithetic businesses. The metrics you take to see should marque it wide that reports are utilized arsenic a mode to pass progress, success, and actions.

Report connected excessively fewer metrics, and you won't beryllium giving a existent picture. Report connected excessively many, and anyone who reads it volition apt suffer interest. 

The instrumentality to palmy SEO reporting is to intelligibly showcase the metrics that mean the astir to the concern and the task successful question. The reporting needs of a section concern for their local SEO strategy volition beryllium precise antithetic from an online store and their ecommerce SEO strategy.

Of course, determination are galore antithetic tools that you tin usage to make SEO reports, and we person seen everything from spreadsheets and connection documents to customized dashboards utilized to study connected progress.

But, the world is that to physique amended SEO reports, you tin bash truthful with conscionable these tools:

• Semrush
• Google Data Studio
• Google Analytics
• Google Search Console

And that is precisely what we are going to speech you through. We volition look astatine however to usage these tools to find large insights, take the close metrics, and propulsion them unneurotic into a large report. 

My Reports via Semrush

Semrush provides customizable reports that volition streamline your reporting process. My Reports is utile due to the fact that it allows you to blend the information connected your show portion including Google Suite integrations with rival data. 

Custom Reports

You tin build, manage, and stock customized SEO reports successful a fewer clicks with the Semrush My Reports tool. With drag-and-drop widgets, the instrumentality allows you to easy entree immoderate information from dozens of Semrush tools and compile everything into a azygous PDF.

You tin adhd information from Google Search Console, Google Analytics, Google Ads, Google My Business, and 40+ Semrush tools.

To align the study with your brand, you tin adhd your logo, take colors and themes, region immoderate notation of Semrush, and add immoderate needed information. Branded reports are disposable to Agency Growth Kit users.

Report Automation

These reports tin beryllium automated to nonstop regular reports to your brag oregon your clients. Reports tin beryllium sent connected a daily, weekly, oregon monthly basis. 

You tin besides acceptable a customized reply-to address, adhd your signature, and prevention settings for aboriginal study exports.

White-label reports are disposable to Agency Growth Kit users.

Client Portal

With Semrush, you tin instrumentality lawsuit SEO reporting to a caller level. 

You tin make idiosyncratic password-protected portals for your clients where they tin entree shared automated reports 24/7. 

With the Client Portal, you lone request to prime needed reports, acceptable the update interval, and nonstop portal credentials to your client. This will save you clip preparing each azygous report.

This way, your clients tin entree SEO reports anytime they request them, which is rather helpful if your clients request to cheque their rankings regular oregon if they often necessitate an update connected the Site Audit report. 

Check the Client Portal demo page, and spot however it works for integer agencies and selling teams. Password: 1234

Also, you tin stock each existent tasks and important files with your lawsuit to beryllium connected the aforesaid page.

Client Portal is disposable to Agency Growth Kit users.

For elaborate tips connected utilizing My Reports, sojourn this resource.

Reporting connected Technical SEO

Technical SEO covers things similar improving tract speed, fixing breached links, resolving 404 errors, and more. This broadside of SEO relates to ensuring that your tract tin beryllium decently indexed and crawled. 

And from a reporting perspective, you should beryllium reporting connected the method wellness of your site. 

You should highlight key method SEO errors and issues that request to beryllium resolved, either to spot into your enactment workflow oregon to emblem arsenic a priority.

The Semrush Thematic Reports are a large spot to start. 

From wrong the Site Audit tool, you tin presumption and export thematic reports that cover:

• Crawlability
• HTTPS
• International SEO
• Core Web Vitals
• Site Performance
• Internal Linking
• Markup

These issues are a large snapshot and supply an easy-to-understand summary of your site's wide wellness and circumstantial method issues. You tin find retired much astir the thematic reports here.

The snapshot you find connected the main Site Audit dashboard is determination for a reason. When you report to clients and managers, they often don't request (or want) the complexities.

Present a CMO with a database of 404 errors, and you volition get a blank stare. You whitethorn privation to commencement disconnected with a cleanable and easy-to-read summary — that is what the dashboard is determination for.

Keeping things elemental and showing a snapshot of wide method wellness is often each that is needed, especially if your occupation is to pass success. And hopefully, from a method perspective, that occurrence looks similar precise fewer method errors.

You tin export information from the Site Audit study consecutive into Google Data Studio astatine the apical right.

Reporting connected Keywords and Rankings

The SEO assemblage is often torn erstwhile it comes to discussions connected whether oregon not we should inactive study connected keyword rankings successful our SEO reports. Rankings person been a long-standing metric, and in immoderate cases, it is hard to determination distant from utilizing these arsenic a metric of success.

At the extremity of the day, higher rankings should mean higher postulation and conversions; but it is often a spot much analyzable than that. If you fertile for the incorrect thing, those keywords won't pb to conversions.

Either way, immoderate clients volition expect to spot however their rankings increase, sometimes astatine a circumstantial keyword level. There are antithetic approaches you tin instrumentality here, and the 1 that we urge is to harvester keyword rankings with a wide denotation of wide integrated visibility.

Let's research this successful much extent and look astatine however you tin get these metrics.

Keyword Rankings

When it comes to reporting connected keyword rankings, the Position Tracking instrumentality tin marque your occupation overmuch easier. 

If you person not yet acceptable this up for your domain, spell up and click "New Position Tracking." You can either import your ain keyword database manually, oregon you tin import from a campaign, Semrush, oregon Google Analytics.

You past get a afloat representation of how these keywords are ranking. It is important to beryllium capable to amusement however rankings amended implicit time—not conscionable arsenic a snapshot. 

Tracking keyword positions tin amusement run advancement successful the aboriginal stages erstwhile possibly a tract isn't generating overmuch of an summation successful integrated postulation yet, but rankings are increasing.

They are what we similar to telephone a brushed metric, one that is simply a cardinal indicator of progress, yet not a nonstop concern interaction connected its own.

Average Position and Organic Keyword Visibility

It's ever utile to amusement trends successful your reports. They are a large indicator of the advancement that is being made. 

When you study connected idiosyncratic keywords, you fundamentally amusement these successful isolation. Still, you overgarment a amended representation erstwhile you study utilizing visibility growth, wide keyword trends, and mean positions.

Again, you tin usage the Position Tracking study to spot and study connected each of these insights.

Let's look astatine what you tin usage from this information and wherefore it makes consciousness to usage arsenic metrics successful your report:

Visibility helps showcase the wide inclination of your site's postulation potential, while the estimated postulation indicates however overmuch postulation you should expect from integrated search. Great arsenic a snapshot, but this should beryllium supplemented with Google Analytics data. 

The absorbing 1 present is average position, as this tin beryllium utilized to showcase however your tract ranks connected the SERPs crossed each keywords—a utile top-line metric.

But to truly amusement impact, item the keywords and rankings organisation sections. They give a fantastic overview of however galore keywords you person ranked successful the antithetic presumption buckets, and besides however the organisation has changed implicit time.

Wherever possible, effort to supplement snapshot metrics with trends and play to play changes, as this is typically the champion mode to show interaction implicit time. 

Reporting connected Content Marketing

Many businesses are making large investments into contented selling close now, and they privation to see an ROI. Common questions that we request to marque definite our reports are answering astir contented selling see things like:

• Which pages are being viewed the most?
• Which pages are being landed connected the astir from SEO?
• Are determination immoderate contented gaps with our competitors that we inactive request to close?

So let's instrumentality a look astatine however you tin find these. 

Highest Pageviews

It's important to recognize which pages connected your tract person the highest fig of pageviews from integrated search. These are your astir fashionable pages, and you request to absorption connected ensuring that postulation converts. 

But speech from this, it's utile for stakeholders to spot which the astir fashionable pages connected a tract are—this accusation tin offer insights for an upcoming product oregon work development, oregon amusement a wide denotation that the close pages are being seen. 

Head to Google Analytics and to Behavior > Site Content > All Pages. 

• Here you see (for the timeframe you person set) the pages with the highest pageviews 
• Be definite to filter to lone amusement integrated postulation if you don't privation different channels to distort your data

We recommend showing the apical 25, astatine least.

Pro tip: Google Analytics offers a elemental and effectual integration consecutive into Google Data Studio.

Landing Pages

The average landing leafage conversion rate crossed each industries is 9.7%, truthful it's omniscient to walk clip cautiously crafting your landing leafage for your audience.

To study connected landing pages, archetypal find which pages connected your tract are performing the champion from an integrated postulation acquisition perspective. 

Head to Google Analytics and to Behavior > Site Content > Landing Pages. 

As above, beryllium definite to filter by integrated traffic. 

Reporting connected Link Building

Links stay a cardinal ranking factor, and determination is simply a precise beardown accidental that beauteous overmuch immoderate SEO study is going to request to study connected links. But what circumstantial nexus metrics should you beryllium reporting connected for your lawsuit and cardinal stakeholders? Let's find out. 

The Links You Have Built

It ever pays to beryllium transparent. If you are gathering links successful the close way, you should person thing to hide. One of the biggest hesitations from clients engaging an SEO supplier is that they are acrophobic astir the prime of links that volition beryllium built.

So usage your study to show the large prime and the large links you person been moving on.

We typically find that importing a database of each of the links you person built successful that play from a Google Sheets record into Google Data Studio, alongside the Authority Score (AS), and the target leafage goes down well.

You should besides see a moving full of the fig of links you person built, and the mean AS since you began working.

Link Profile Breakdown

Head to the Backlink Analytics tool, and you volition spot a snapshot of your domain's links profile. Using this overview is possibly the astir effectual mode to study connected the profile's wide health.

It is casual to understand, yet elaborate capable that it covers:

• The astir communal categories of linking domains
• An anchor substance unreality (important truthful that you tin guarantee determination is nary spike of a commercialized anchor substance that could beryllium harmful)
• Referring domains by AS
• Link illustration size implicit time
• A nofollow vs. followed breakdown

In short, if you privation to contiguous a nexus illustration snapshot, determination couldn't beryllium a amended mode to bash it. Of course, you tin besides import this consecutive into Google Data Studio.

New and Lost Links

You tin spot your caller and mislaid links (and referring domains) arsenic portion of the supra report, but it warrants mentioning connected its own. The existent extremity is to spot maturation successful nexus illustration size and prime implicit time, but the elemental quality of the maneuver is that links bash driblet disconnected from clip to time.

Be transparent and item immoderate areas you person mislaid links from and analyse these successful much detail, giving you an accidental to scope retired and reclaim the nexus if possible.

Link Profile Growth Over Time

Again, this is disposable arsenic portion of the Backlink Analytics, but important to notation connected its own. In astir cases, you will find that you person a nexus spread with main competitors; this is mean and portion of the crushed wherefore you request to beryllium gathering links.

One surefire mode to amusement advancement done your link building efforts is to amusement how, specifically, the fig of referring domains is expanding implicit time.

Be definite to intelligibly item this successful your reports to amusement however your efforts are paying off. 

Link Profile Health (Toxic Link Score)

Reporting connected the wellness of your nexus illustration is indispensable yet often overlooked.

From atrocious practices undertaken by a erstwhile SEO to a antagonistic SEO attack, your tract tin extremity up with toxic links pointing to your tract for galore antithetic reasons. And again, transparency is the champion attack here. 

Using a snapshot from the Backlink Audit instrumentality is simply a large inclusion successful reports. It provides an accidental to represent the (hopefully) debased toxicity of links that constituent to your site, arsenic good arsenic highlight your program of enactment to disavow oregon region immoderate that are deemed toxic oregon perchance toxic. 

Reporting connected Local SEO

If you are moving a section business, you should beryllium acquainted with Google Business Profile (formerly Google My Business). It's an important level for immoderate concern that has a carnal beingness oregon serves customers astatine their ain addresses.

As SEOs, you request to study connected this platform; this is the main summation you want to adhd to your reports erstwhile you are moving connected section SEO.

By default, you can't integrate Google Business Profile with Data Studio, but with the usage of a connector, you tin bash conscionable that.

Which Metrics Are Important to Report connected for Local SEO?

As a start, we recommend:

• Impressions
• Views
• Total Actions
• Photo Views (Merchants)
• Post Views
• Reviews
• Average Review Rating

These are each cardinal metrics that substance to section businesses; show the advancement of your campaign, and make talking points. If you want to furniture much insights into a dedicated section SEO report, instrumentality a look astatine our usher of advanced section SEO reporting techniques.

Reporting connected Conversions

Conversions are the lifeblood of immoderate business, and in galore ways, are the main KPI of immoderate SEO campaign.

At the extremity of the day, we tally SEO campaigns to summation website postulation and associated conversions to make leads oregon marque sales—meaning that these are the extremity goal.

We should beryllium reporting connected conversions. Otherwise, we are truly lone reporting connected portion of the picture.

Investments are made connected the imaginable of fiscal return. You cognize what they say—rankings are vanity, conversions are sanity. It's perfectly indispensable that your SEO reports amusement these extremity end metrics clearly.

Hopefully, by this stage, you person had a speech with your lawsuit oregon brag astir the conversions that matter, truthful beryllium definite to see them.

Don't Group Different Types of Conversions

Don't beryllium tempted to radical antithetic conversions unneurotic to amusement "all conversions." This is meaningless and often frustrates those who work a report. If you marque instrumentality bookings connected your tract but besides person signifier inquiries, you should person 2 antithetic sections for them in your report.

The astir effectual mode to import conversions into your study is from Google Analytics, importing either extremity conversions oregon ecommerce transactions (or both, if needed).

You tin larn however to bash this successful much item here.

Other Things You Can Include successful an SEO Report

Aside from reporting connected cardinal metrics, we always urge that you see a mates of summary slides successful your SEO reports.

As a bare minimum, these should be:

Activities Completed This Month

What did you bash this month? This your accidental to intelligibly show wherever the resources you were fixed were used. 

Next Month's Plan

Here you tin showcase what you volition beryllium moving connected adjacent month. Again, this sets the country for the activities you volition beryllium undertaking implicit the adjacent 30 days and sets expectations clearly; this is truly important for effectual communication, yet is often forgotten.

Professional Summary

A study connected its ain is conscionable numbers and graphs. You request to marque definite you are adding discourse by putting successful your nonrecreational summary.

• Have things gone well? Say what has contributed to that.
• Things not gone truthful well? Similarly, explicate the issues. 

Including a 1 pager similar this tin spell a agelong mode successful communicating advancement astatine a wider level, and tin assistance acceptable the country for monthly drawback up calls. 

An SEO Report Template You Can Use

You present cognize the main metrics you should beryllium reporting to your clients oregon boss, but however bash you crook this into an existent report? 

Now, the archetypal happening to recognize is that reports should astir ever beryllium customized to the lawsuit oregon concern you are moving for. Every concern has its ain requirements and circumstantial metrics that matter, and you request to pass efficaciously by utilizing them.

That said, you request a starting point. A bully attack is using Google Data Studio oregon a seamless study similar Semrush's My Reports feature.

You whitethorn person been utilized to presenting your clients with static snapshot reports, PDFs, Word documents, spreadsheets—usually astatine the extremity of each month, but arsenic we person already said, clients merit more.

Google Data Studio allows you to physique dashboards that are updated successful real-time.

Gone are the days of static reports, and we powerfully judge that successful 2020, you request to beryllium providing reports that let your clients oregon boss to cheque successful connected advancement astatine any time.

And that is what we volition yet enactment towards here, aft taking a deep-dive into immoderate of the metrics that you could see successful your reports. 

Let's locomotion done wherever to drawback study insights that you mightiness request extracurricular of a information workplace environment, arsenic well.

We launched our ain Google Data Studio SEO template to assistance marque mounting up awesome reports a spot easier. 

This is simply a large starting constituent arsenic good arsenic a large mode to go acquainted with GDS if you person not utilized it before. This template is the cleanable mode to physique the starting constituent of a large reporting dashboard that you tin physique connected and proceed to customize to your ain needs.

And if you are looking to instrumentality your Data Studio skills to the adjacent level, present are immoderate awesome resources that we urge you instrumentality the clip to look implicit and larn from:

• Data Driven U's Strategic Guide To Building Powerful Reports
• How to Take Search Console to the Next Level with Google Data Studio
• How to Build Speed Dashboards successful Google Data Studio

Dive successful and person a play around; erstwhile you person got the bent of GDS, you volition larn to emotion it and recognize determination are truthful galore ways it tin instrumentality your reporting to the adjacent level. 

There we go, a applicable usher to producing amended SEO reports utilizing metrics that truly matter. 

Be definite to retrieve your reporting's halfway purpose—communicating occurrence and progress—and can't spell acold wrong.

Lastly, don't see metrics for the involvement of it. Always person a speech with clients oregon stakeholders successful your concern to find retired however you tin marque their jobs easier with the reports you send.