Semalt: What Should SEO Report Contain?
An SEO report that is properly structured will bring specific value to the client: it will make sure that the SEO expenses pay off and the agency is transparent in its activities.
An extract from Analytics or Search Console will not be sufficient. What, then, should an SEO report contain, and how to create a document that will not be a cluster of random data, but a logical conclusion from the activities carried out? Let's learn together!
Features of a good SEO report
A good SEO report is concise, clear, and understandable to the client
This must be clear to all people who plan to report on their work and summarize its results - sometimes the problem is not a shortage, but an excess of data. You should always consider only what will be really valuable and, above all, understandable for the client - even if he / she knows little about SEO.
Personalization of the SEO report
What exactly it will contain often depends on several factors. First of all, you need to consider:
- type of cooperation, including individual customer expectations and business goals;
- cooperation stage (including website status).
We will discuss both of these factors below.
1. SEO report and the type of cooperation
In SEO, as in any other branch of marketing, an effective response to customer expectations is important. Personalization is currently one of the most effective ways to stand out from the competition.
So you need to know that the owner of a large online store will expect different effects, that the person running a small beauty salon will expect different effects, and that these differences should be reflected in your report. In e-commerce, sales results and the value of transactions will be key, while pages-business cards, portfolios, blogs, or company websites may have other goals - such as the number of inquiries sent via the contact form, the length of the session, the number of subscriptions to the newsletter or, finally, local keyword entries. Emphasize what's most important.
You have to evaluate what is really important to the customer. Traffic is not everything - it is primarily intended for conversion.
2. How does the cooperation stage affect the form of the report?
You already know for sure that the SEO process does not take a week or two - these are long-term activities, the effects of which appear over time. A good SEO report should take this into account.
How to assess the stage of website development?
- Have the most important optimizations been implemented?
- Does it have sufficiently extensive content?
- Does it have any technical problems?
- How many valuable inbound links does it have?
- How does it compare to the competition?
All these questions are answered by an SEO audit, with which you should start working with the client, so embedding the website at the right point in the development path should not be difficult.
What if the increased traffic in the report is not associated with a better conversion?
It happens that the growing number of website visits is not followed by an increased number of transactions or an improved conversion. However, not always the problem with conversion lies with the SEO agency.
What does this mean in practice? For example, if an SEO specialist succeeds in website traffic, but the conversion does not increase, it does not necessarily have to be the fault of poorly selected key phrases - the website architecture, lack of customer confidence in the brand, or price advantage of the competition are sometimes responsible for the lack of sales. Sometimes in e-commerce, the problem is too expensive delivery or inaccessible payment methods.
These are problems that should be signaled to the client and provided with solutions - this is an activity that is valuable for both parties. Any conversion problems should be dealt with at the source - i.e. improve the company's UX or USP.
A good SEO report should be transparent and answer all questions about the effects of the cooperation. At Semalt, we make sure that our reports bring real value to the client and constitute an important part of our communication.
SEO reports - what should they contain?
1. Information about visibility in search results
Increasing the visibility of a website is the primary goal of any SEO process. Before you can start increasing traffic to your website, you should make sure that your website is visible in search results.
What metrics can be used in SEO reports to inform about increases in visibility?
- the quantity of page views - data from Google Search Console shows the number of times a page appeared in search results.
- the number of keywords for which the page is displayed in the search results - the most common phrases in the so-called TOP 10 or TOP 50, i.e. those that are displayed in positions 1-10 and 1-50. But where to find this data? In various SEO tools, such as the Dedicated SEO Dashboard. Monitoring the number of keywords for which a given site is served is also very valuable because it allows you to easily compare yourself with the competition.
At Semalt, we pay great attention to even the smallest details, which is why we want all the most important data to be clearly and transparently presented in the SEO reports we prepare. We know that it helps our clients better understand the effects of our cooperation.
2. Traffic broken down into channels
The main goal of SEO is to increase organic traffic, but proper positioning can also lead to increased traffic within other channels.
An ideal SEO report should therefore contain information not only about organic traffic, but also about its other sources. Thanks to this, it will be easy to compare SEO, PPC, or social media expenses with the effectiveness of each of the channels.
In our report with the Dedicated SEO Dashboard tool, information on traffic broken down by sources is presented in the form of a clear table, and a pie chart that summarizes the traffic coming from various channels. Customers can also see changes in each type of traffic over the course of the year.
3. Conversion and Target Achievement Rate
We know how important it is to consider which traffic sources convert and which are not working as they should. It happens that customers are not satisfied with the level of conversion and want to terminate the contract, but after a deeper analysis it turns out that organic traffic - i.e. the traffic generated by SEO - converts well, and the decline is caused by other channels.
That is why it is so important to measure conversions broken down into individual channels.
4. Seasonality
Some industries affect seasonality more than others - for example, when you sell ski accessories, the turn of February and March may affect a traffic drop of up to 80%, regardless of SEO activities.
But aside from the obvious, there are a ton of activities that see regular spikes and declines over the year: for example, the publishing industry can count on a spike in the fall/winter season. That is why it is so important to provide data in the report not only month to month, but also year to year - such a broader perspective allows you to better understand declines and increases not related to positioning.
For example, the Dedicated SEO Dashboard is a tool for SEO specialists and others, that shows declines and increases throughout the year on a transparent chart, and allows you to get to know the forecasts for the coming months based on historical data.
5. Activities performed in a given month
Sometimes positioning is just black magic for clients, so proper support in understanding what an SEO agency is actually doing is essential.
Show clients what you did in a given month as part of implementing your SEO strategy (off-site, on-site, or maybe analytics or copywriting?!). Don't forget to include customer contact - this is a key part of your activities!
6. Comments of specialists
We do not want to overwhelm customers with dry, incomprehensible data, which - even if presented in the most readable charts in the world - mean little without proper comment. That is why we try to include the specialist's own contribution in the SEO report - information about what happened with the website in the last month, a summary of data from the report, and sometimes even information about expected declines (e.g., due to changes in algorithms or seasonality) about which we wrote earlier). We like to be transparent in our work and we know that clients like it. In SEO, it is better to react earlier and communicate problems as soon as they arise (or even before!) so that the process is effective and clear for both parties.
What else can be included in the SEO report?
Of course, these 6 points we showed you above are not enough. The SEO report may include anything you consider relevant to your customers, such as:
- analysis of traffic on specific subpages (e.g., those crucial for business);
- parameters of the backlink profile;
- average time spent on the site;
- positions of the most important key phrases.
All of the above aspects should be regularly monitored by an SEO specialist, and you have to assess whether they will be relevant to your clients - personalized reports are a huge advantage.
Did you like our reports? If you would like to receive such reports at the beginning of each month, please contact us and we will advise you on what SEO services will be best for your business development.