How to Create SEO Reports for Clients

Intro

Creating SEO reports is an integral part of any digital marketing strategy. Not only do they provide valuable insights into a website's performance, but they also help showcase the impact of SEO efforts to clients.

Even if you're working as an in-house SEO specialist, you'll still have to create an SEO report. It might seem daunting, but it doesn't have to be — at least not with our helpful guide below.

What Is an SEO Report?

Think of an SEO report like a school report card, except it reflects your website's performance and does not display your ongoing rivalry with Maths.

SEO GIF

Source

An SEO report usually shows:

• Important Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)
• Site health
• Organic traffic and engagement
• Keyword ranking
• Organic conversion trends
• Backlink analysis
• Content marketing analysis

For in-house SEOs, the team often shares the report with C-level executives and other company stakeholders. You will share this report with your clients if you work for an agency.

Importance of an SEO Report

There are three main benefits of an SEO report:

• Builds credibility with clients
• Improves communication and expertise
• Drives strategy and decision-making

You might be doing the most, but what good is it if the client or your team doesn't know? The SEO report is also a sort of self-evaluation, helping you understand your efforts and identify improvement areas.

Suppose you're managing SEO for Zehl & Associates Injury & Accident Lawyers. After six months, the client might ask, "Why aren't we ranking for 'personal injury lawyer'?"

You can refer to your SEO report and explain the progress made in rankings, traffic, and conversions for targeted keywords. What does this do? Improve client communication and trust.

Metrics and KPIs for an SEO Report

The key is to report on KPIs and metrics that matter to your client. Which ones would that be? It differs across businesses.

Some standard ones include:

• Website health,
• Backlink profile,
• Organic traffic
• Rankings for targeted keywords

Communicate with your client on what matters most to them and include those metrics in your report.

Components of a Good SEO Report

SEO reports should inform. So, they should be informative. Apart from that, they should:

• Highlight key findings and relevant data
• Be easy to navigate and understand
• Give an overview of SEO performance in the set periods
• Showcase future actionable SEO steps

As for how often you should report, some SEO professionals suggest monthly reporting. Others are proponents of quarterly reports for a more comprehensive overview.

According to the 2023 Client Reporting Benchmarks Survey, 58% of marketing agencies report monthly to clients. You can discuss the frequency with your client.

_How often do agencies report to clients _

Which Tools Do You Need to Create SEO Reports?

There's no limit to the tools you can use to create an SEO report. The ones you choose will depend on you.

Google Search Console is one example. It shows you traffic coming from Google's web search. So, if you only want to report on Google SERPs minus social media, email, and other segments, this is a go-to tool.

Some KPIs you can track with Google Search Console are:

• Top impressions for pages/queries/devices/countries
• Average CTR for site/pages
• Average position for site/pages/queries
• Website errors
• Sitemaps

Google Analytics is another good one. You can visualize your website's SEO comprehensively with Google Analytics. Its scorecards, motion charts, dashboards, and data visualization tools are super helpful for SEO reporting.

Analytics dashboard GIF

Source

Use it to track:

• Average session duration
• Bounce rate
• Sessions
• Number of users
• Pages per session
• Page views

As for a dedicated SEO tool, Ranktracker takes the cake. What it does is in its name. Simply type the keywords you've been optimizing for, and it will tell you how well your site ranks for them.

_Alt: Ranktracker SERP checker _

You can also search your competitors for search terms. Other features of this tool include:

• SEO checklist
• Backlink monitoring
• Backlink checker
• Website audit
• SERP checker

For example, if you want to compare the rankings of Payer Personal Injury Lawyers with its competitor Kenny Habetz Injury Law, you can easily do that with Ranktracker.

This is what it would look like giving you a complete breakdown of how the competitors rank for the same keywords:

How to Create SEO Reports in 9 Steps

Your report doesn't have to be a mini-thesis. A few pages should suffice for your client to understand how their website performs. Here's how to compile those pages.

Step 1: Define the KPIs

The mere keyword rankings and traffic reports aren't always enough. You need to add a little more.

If you've already discussed KPIs with the client, you're golden. Otherwise, you should consult with them to determine what they want to see in their report.

If they leave it up to you, use the KPIs we discuss below.

Step 2: Present the Site Health Report

The site health report is like a medical report for your website. It shows if there are any broken links or if pages are loading slowly. Some metrics to add to this report are:

• AMP elements
• Site speed
• Indexed pages
• Crawl errors
• Broken links
• Schema markup
• Server response time
• Security issues
• URL structure
• Bad redirects
• Page/domain authority
• Duplicate or missing meta tags

Ranktracker's Website Audit 2.0 tool does a ''health check'' for your website to identify any technical issues that might hurt your search engine rankings. It doesn't stop there; it also tells you how to fix these issues.

Ranktracker's Website Audit 2.0 tool

Here's what it does:

• Scan all pages on your website
• Put audit results on an XML report
• Evaluate over 100 data points, like robots.txt file, body copy, H1 tags, etc
• Compare the previous scan to the latest scan
• Provide actionable insights
• Show issues with regard to urgency

Step 3: Report Engagement and Organic Traffic

Even now, organic search makes up the top traffic source for websites. So, reporting on it is a must.

_Top website traffic sources _

Source

A quick tip here: don't simply talk about organic traffic and engagement. Instead, relate it to how the website was when you first took hold. How has it gotten better?

The metrics to add in this section include:

• Paper per session
• Organic channel reports for Google, Bing, Yahoo, etc.
• Page views
• Scroll depth
• Bounce rate
• Visitors (new vs. returning)
• New subscribers
• Organic visitors
• Organic CTR
• Average session duration
• Time spent on page

You can use Google Search Console to check the metrics above.

_Google Search Console Performance Report _

The Performance Report on the platform shows you the following:

• The change in traffic over time
• Queries made on mobile devices
• Pages with the lowest and highest click-through rates

Step 4: Report on Keywords and Rankings

Semrush's State of Search 2023 report found that SERP volatility, which refers to the frequency of changes in Google's search engine results page, has increased in recent years. So, monitoring keyword rankings and how they affect organic traffic is essential.

_SERP volatility monthly trend _

Source

Typically, you should look at the following:

• Keyword ranking distribution
• Organic keywords and their positions
• Changes in keyword rankings since the last report
• Top 10 landing pages by organic traffic
• Competitor keyword rankings

To find the terms people use to find your website, go to the Queries section in Google Search Console. Here, you'll see each keyword your site ranks for and the number of impressions, clicks, average search positions, and CTR.

_Google Search Console queries _

Source

If your keywords aren’t performing well, you can mention actionable steps to tackle this issue in your SEO report. Long-tail keywords tend to make up most of Google searches.

You can use Ranktracker’s Keyword Finder tool to find long-tail keywords. Besides the top keywords, it also shows their trend, search rate, CPC, and PPC.

_Alt: Ranktracker’s Keyword Finder Tool _

Step 5: Show Organic Conversion Trends

Organic conversion trends mean the number of conversions that come from organic traffic. They include purchases, form submissions, or other desired actions on your website.

For instance, if you're managing SEO for lawyers, you'll want potential clients to fill out your contact form. You can view this page if you are still finding your first few clients.

In simple words, the more, the better.

Use the Google organic search traffic report from Google Analytics to see if conversion rates from organic traffic have increased or decreased since your last report.

You can check the trends for the last 16 months. Here are the metrics the report shows:

• Organic Google search clicks
• Organic impression
• Ad revenue
• Conversions
• Event count
• Click-through rate
• Engagement rate
• Engaged sessions
• Average engagement time
• Users
• Google search average position

_Alt: Google Analytics organic search report _

Step 6: Present Backlick Analysis

Backlinks are like votes for your website. If websites with high authority and good reputation link back to your site, they trust you and consider you an expert in the topic you cover.

Ranktracker has two tools for backlink monitoring. The Backlink Monitor tool shows you which websites are linking to yours. You can also see if a domain has stopped linking back to you.

_Alt: Ranktracker Backlink Monitor _

The Backlink Checker lets you keep an eye on your competitors' backlinks. It will help you see what's working for your competitors so that you can replicate their strategies and improve your own. Create a free account on Ranktracker to boost your SEO efforts.

_Ranktracker Backlink Checker _

Step 7: Report on Content Marketing

Around 82% of marketers invest in content marketing actively. That means checking your content's performance is a given.

_Number of marketers using content marketing _

Source

Page Views

If a page is popular, that means its content is helpful. Translation: Make more of this content, be it a video, article, or infographic. You get the point.

Check the page views in your Google Analytics dashboard.

_Alt: Google Analytics Page Views _

Source

Landing Pages

Your aim should be to see which landing pages are doing better than others.

You can check the Google Analytics landing page report to see how well your landing pages perform in organic traffic.

Alt: Google Analytics landing pages report

Source

Keyword Gap

The keyword gap refers to the difference between keywords you currently rank for and those you could rank for. Simply put, which keywords are your competitors using that you're not?

Again, use Google Analytics to see what keywords people use to get to your website. Also, check out the keywords your competitors are ranking for. Then, spot the differences between the two.

Step 8: Report on Local SEO

Are you a local business? Or is your client one? Either way, your Google Business Profile matters.

You must report on the insights from your Google Business Profile. Some things to report are:

• How many people found your business through Google Search or Maps
• What were the most common actions taken by users (e.g., visiting the website, requesting directions, calling)
• How many calls were received from the business profile
• What search queries led users to your business

Google Analytics can help you check most of these metrics. You can create filters based on the landing pages, user channels, and locations you want to monitor.

_Alt: Creating filters for Google Analytics _

Source

Similarly, you can determine the demographic details of your customers, such as gender, age, language, and interests.

_Alt: Google Analytics demographics report _

Source

Step 9: Report on Voice Search and Snippets

With half of US consumers using voice search daily, you must check if your website is optimized for it.

_Alt: How many US consumers use voice search _

Source

The Google Search Console has a Search Analytics feature where you can monitor keywords that get a featured snippet. Filter your data by query. Then, search for queries containing a snippet-triggering keyword.

Filter by query in Search Analytics

Source

Takeaway

There you have it: a guide to creating SEO reports. Use a blend of reporting tools to find the necessary analytics and insights.

Then, present them clearly to show your client the value you bring. Some ways to show this value are:

• Progress charts and graphs
• Comparisons to previous periods or competitors
• Concrete actions you've taken to improve SEO, such as fixing technical issues
• Conversions and leads generated through organic search
• Return on investment from SEO efforts

Get reporting!