What to Present and Include in Monthly SEO Reports
In the realm of SEO, every good consultant knows the drill: provide your clients with a detailed and valuable report that they can not only understand but also value for its actionable insights. As someone who has come to eat, sleep, and breathe data, I’ve seen my fair share of reports that are either off the charts or fall flat. The key data points of progress need to be highlighted, not buried under a heap of vanity metrics.
Creating these reports can be time-consuming, especially for novice consultants who might stick too closely to a template. But let’s not lose sight of what these reports should be: a clear display of the best practices and details that agencies offer. It’s about turning those open emails into success stories.
What Is a Monthly SEO Report?
A monthly SEO report is more than just a template; it’s an overview of your website’s performance in the search engines. This report tracks everything from organic traffic to rankings and domain metrics.
As a consultant, I’ve learned that it’s not just about listing data; it’s about giving a clear idea of the work’s impact. This update is essential for clients to track progress, understand the effectiveness of backlinks, monitor SEO health, and justify spending money on your services. It’s a way to convey insights and offer recommendations, tailored to each client’s needs. To improve your website rankings, you can choose our monthly seo services as well.
What to Present and Include in Monthly SEO Reports?
When crafting monthly SEO reports, focus on delivering a clear and comprehensive overview of your SEO activities and their outcomes. Begin with a summary of objectives and strategies implemented during the month. Present key performance indicators (KPIs) such as organic traffic, keyword rankings, and conversion rates.
Include a comparative analysis of these metrics against the previous month to highlight progress or areas needing improvement. Dive into backlink profiles, noting any significant changes. Discuss content performance, showcasing top-performing pages and their contribution to SEO goals. Finally, offer insights and actionable recommendations for the upcoming month, ensuring the report is both informative and strategic.
Why Do You Need a Monthly SEO Report Template?
Why reinvent the wheel each month? A monthly SEO report template is an effective approach that simplifies the process and reduces time spent on report generation. Without a template, it’s easy to leave out crucial data points or present them in an unorganized and difficult way for clients to understand.
Especially for beginners, a template helps structure and organize the insights you want to present to your clients. It’s about crafting a narrative that’s both informative and accessible.
Read Also: How Much to Pay for Monthly SEO?
Types of Monthly SEO Report Metrics:
In the dynamic world of SEO, where change is the only constant, crafting monthly reports becomes an invaluable practice. These reports not only track regular progress but also help your clients make informed business decisions. With a career spanning years in SEO, I’ve learned the importance of not just reporting data but delivering real value through it.
1.) Vanity Metrics:
Let’s start with Vanity Metrics. Often misunderstood, these metrics are not entirely useless. They are like the compass of a ship, providing numbers that set the direction. Whether it’s sessions, page views, or average keyword rank, these metrics offer a surface-level understanding. They become truly meaningful when used to guide business decisions and inform your SEO strategy.
I remember once relying too heavily on these numbers, leading to misdirected action steps. Since then, I’ve learned to use them judiciously, as part of broader course corrections in my strategies. They should never be the sole reliance of your reports but rather a part of a comprehensive actionable plan.
2.) Actionable Metrics:
Moving to Actionable Metrics, these are the true game-changers. As a seasoned SEO expert, I’ve seen firsthand how strategic use of these metrics can influence business and SEO decisions. It’s about diving deep into performance data – like conversions, time on page, or individual keyword performance.
These metrics tell a story beyond basic interactions. They show the actual impact of your SEO efforts on business objectives. Remember, actionable metrics are not just about what’s happening; they’re about understanding why it’s happening and how you can leverage that knowledge for better results.
What to Include in Monthly SEO Report Template?
For a monthly SEO report, it’s crucial to build a template that encompasses all the necessary information to assess the website’s performance. This includes customizing sections as per client requests and adding additional insights. The goal is to present a robust, comprehensive view of the SEO work.
In practice, the report should include an array of data, from traffic metrics to conversion rates. Balancing detailed analytics with a clear, concise overview helps the clients understand the impact of the SEO strategies employed and the ongoing progress of their website.
1.) Report Summary:
The Report Summary should start with a bird’s-eye view of the report content, highlighting key points using natural language. This part is crucial for clients with varying degrees of SEO familiarity and helps them connect the dots between SEO efforts, project goals, and results.
It’s essential to include a brief on KPIs, steps taken, and a results overview. For instance, explaining the impact of guest posting on website traffic increase and laying out actionable items and upcoming tasks gives a complete picture.
2.) SEO Health Overview:
An SEO Health Overview provides a snapshot of the website’s health in terms of visibility on search engines. This includes checking site speed, meta tags, and essentials like sitemaps and robots.txt. Tools like SEO Site Checkup or SpyFu can be instrumental here.
In this section, highlighting both general and advanced SEO factors is vital. Address technical problems, errors, and elements like speed and security. Including a site audit checklist and evaluating page speed, meta descriptions, and backlinks gives a thorough understanding of the site’s SEO status.
3.) Traffic Data:
The Traffic Data section should focus on essential metrics like sessions and pageviews. Here, it’s not just about the numbers, but understanding the traffic quality. Include a trendline showing month-over-month and year-over-year comparisons to give context to the traffic visualization.
This analysis helps in identifying patterns and trends in website visits, making it easier to understand the effectiveness of the applied SEO strategies. It’s also crucial for planning future actions based on past and present performance.
4.) Channel-Wise Traffic Overview:
In the Channel-Wise Traffic Overview, dissecting traffic sources like organic search, paid search, direct traffic, and referrals is key. This analysis should focus on the performance of each channel. Using tools like Google Analytics, particularly its annotation feature, can provide insights into traffic peaks and declines.
Understanding the impact of different marketing channels is essential for integrating digital marketing initiatives into an overall marketing strategy. This part of the report helps in identifying which channels are most effective and where there might be room for improvement or strategy adjustment.
5.) Traffic by Visitor Location:
Geographic insights reveal how different regions are responding to your website, indicating areas of underperformance or overperformance. This is particularly important for hyper-local businesses. Adjusting strategies based on these insights ensures geographic relevancy and effectiveness.
This section is crucial for tailoring marketing efforts to specific regions. It helps in understanding whether the current SEO strategy is effectively targeting the intended audience, and if any adjustments are needed to improve performance in certain areas.
6.) Traffic by New vs. Returning Visitors:
The Traffic by New vs. Returning Visitors analysis is vital for understanding the website’s reach and engagement. It helps in determining whether to focus more on attracting new visitors or retaining returning visitors. This insight is crucial for aligning with broader business goals.
Including this data in the report offers valuable insights into the effectiveness of marketing initiatives and overall brand awareness. It’s a key component for assessing how well the website resonates with different visitor types and informs strategy adjustments for future marketing campaigns.
7.) User Engagement Data:
When analyzing User Engagement Data, focus on both vanity and actionable metrics. This involves looking at how users interact with website content, such as the average time they spend on the site and different content types. Metrics like bounce rate, pages per session, and time on page are not just numbers; they are a reflection of how helpful and engaging your content is.
In the second paragraph, delve deeper into what these metrics signify. A high time on the page suggests that the content is resonating with the audience. Conversely, a high bounce rate might indicate that the site’s content needs more work or isn’t aligned with user expectations. This section of the report should guide future content strategies.
8.) Click-Through Rate:
The Click-Through Rate (CTR) is crucial for understanding how your website performs in search engine results. A high CTR, especially when ranking number one, indicates that your website’s titles and meta descriptions are compelling enough to drive clicks. Including CTR in the monthly SEO report provides an overview of how enticing your search snippets are.
This section also focuses on the number of clicks and keyword rankings. Discussing CTR in the context of specific keywords, particularly in the Top Keywords section, offers insights into which terms are driving organic clicks. This data is essential for assessing and refining the SEO strategy.
9.) Content Performance Data:
Content Performance Data should zoom in on page-level SEO. This involves looking at how individual pages perform from an SEO standpoint. Identify the top-performing and underperforming pages in terms of organic search. Including metrics like sessions and time-on-page data in your report helps understand what content resonates best with your audience.
This analysis is crucial for shaping your content strategy. Understanding which organic landing pages are most effective enables you to replicate their success in other areas of your site. This section of the report is a goldmine for strategic planning and content optimization.
10.) Backlink Profile:
In the monthly SEO report, the backlink profile is a key area. Backlinks are a significant ranking factor, and providing an overview of the websites linking to your client’s site is essential. Analyzing the client’s backlink profile includes looking at the number of backlinks, especially from authority sites.
Discuss both the presence of organic backlinks from high-authority domains and the existence of links from low-authority sites. The latter might harm the website’s credibility, leading to potential removal requests or the need to disavow bad links. Tools like SEMRush or ahrefs Backlink Checker can be instrumental in assessing domain authority and the impact of high-quality backlinks on organic clicks and overall domain strength.
11.) Keyword Rankings:
Keyword Rankings in your monthly SEO report serve as a crucial indicator of how your clients’ websites perform in search engine results. This section should detail the rankings for both targeted and non-targeted keywords, shedding light on the effectiveness of your keyword-targeting efforts. Utilize tools like SpyFu for a detailed Domain Overview and to assess Top Keywords, distinguishing between organic and paid keywords.
In the second paragraph, provide a ranking summary. This is a snapshot of the site’s performance, highlighting how specific keywords rank and their impact on traffic, pages, and how they reach the target audience. This summary should also cover the performance of keywords related to specific products or services offered by the client.
12.) Ranking History:
In the Ranking History section of your monthly SEO report, incorporate historical data to show the progression of your client’s website rankings over time. This data, often spanning years or months, provides a comprehensive view of the website’s performance in search engine results. Tools like SpyFu can be used to generate a chart showing this progression.
The history should highlight both ranking improvements and any instances of rankings drop, prompting a proactive response. This historical perspective offers significant business value, helping clients understand long-term trends and the impact of SEO strategies over time.
13.) Conversion Data:
Conversion Data is vital to link your SEO efforts to actual business goals. This section should detail how well the website converts visitors into desired actions, like newsletter audience growth or increasing subscribers. These actions are direct indicators (or key performance indicators (KPIs)) of the effectiveness of the SEO strategy.
It’s important to track these conversions about specific business goals. For example, the growth in new subscribers can be a valuable metric to assess how compelling the website is for the target audience, directly correlating with the success of the implemented SEO strategies.
14.) Competitor Performance Comparison:
In the Competitor Performance Comparison, analyze your client’s performance against the competition. This section of the monthly SEO report should highlight areas of strength and scope for improvement. Use SEO Research tools like SpyFu to compare your client’s Domain Overview with that of their competitors, focusing on keyword ranking and organic competitors.
This comparison is not just about identifying where the client stands but also about spotting opportunities. Analyzing the competitor’s URL and their performance in terms of organic keywords can reveal gaps in the client’s strategy or areas where they are excelling.
15.) Future Strategy:
In the Future Strategy section, it’s essential to use the data from the previous month’s SEO report to plan for the upcoming period. Address any shortcomings or issues faced in the last month and propose how these will be tackled in the next month. This should cover aspects of the site, content, content production, and any ad service used.
Setting realistic goals, outlining strategies, and establishing clear timelines are crucial for maintaining focus on both SEO and long-term goals. It’s important to balance the desire for speedy results with the understanding that SEO often requires a more measured, gradual approach.
Final Thoughts:
The key data points in a monthly SEO report should not just be about numbers but about storytelling. Each report is an opportunity to show the worth of your SEO strategies and decision-making. Tools like SpyFu, Google Analytics, and Pathfinder SEO can help collect and curate data, while Google Data Studio offers unparalleled customization for reporting. Remember, losing clients over a poorly constructed report is a mistake you can’t afford. Make your reports helpful, thorough, and most importantly, actionable.
