A well-researched SEO strategy can transform any website from a quiet corner of the internet into a bustling hub of activity and contribute significantly to the brand’s success.
But as any seasoned marketer knows, cracking the perfect SEO strategy is easier said than done, and needs continued analysis and evolution to guarantee growth. Measuring the right metrics, monitoring competitors, and adapting the strategy as needed is crucial for increasing online visibility.
It naturally involves extensive trial and error, but a handy SEO reporting tool can make the process leagues easier for you and your clients.
What is an SEO Report?
An SEO report is a detailed document of a website's search engine optimization (SEO) progress. It features the metrics that businesses most want to see, typically KPIs that reflect:
- The website’s search engine ranks
- Traffic volume and quality
- The effectiveness of its content and technical structure
Tools like ReportGarden allow you to build functional reports with scores of data integrations and automated templates. This makes it easier to show clients the insights they need to see, without the churn of sifting through SEO data for hours.
What We Can Learn From SEO Reports
A great SEO report can help your team draw key insights pertaining to your campaign strategy.
If your performance is not up to par, an SEO report can guide the way to improvement.
Key Insights from SEO Reports:
- Keyword Performance
Marketers and stakeholders can understand which keywords drive traffic and which need more attention.
- Traffic Trends
SEO reports help identify patterns in organic traffic to fine-tune content and marketing strategies.
- Technical Issues
SEO strategists can easily detect and fix site health issues that could hinder the site’s performance.
- Content Effectiveness
Businesses can evaluate whether the current content leads to conversions or if alterations are in order.
- Backlink Quality
Websites can assess the strength and impact of their backlink profile to improve link-building strategies.
- Local Performance
Local stores and businesses can use Local SEO reports to understand their current ranking and visibility, which can help create better strategies to improve growth and offline customer visits.
Why Use SEO Reports?
If you’ve delegated your SEO to an expert team, surely they can calculate and fix everything?
Well, no.
Reporting on SEO is a fundamental aspect of managing search engine optimization efforts. Even the best of teams have no time to spend on manual data extraction and tracking - they’re busy strategizing!
SEO teams leverage reports for digital growth and business enhancement. Employing a tool to automatically gather data and create reports saves hours of time and improves communication with the client.
It reveals the performance of your strategy, allowing stakeholders to understand the status of the campaign easily.
A dependable SEO report regularly tracks key metrics and helps by:
- Demonstrating ROI: It highlights the brand’s achievements and growth in comprehensible formats, making it easier to decide the SEO budget allocation.
- Strategic Planning: Performance insights can be used to evolve the strategy for future visibility and growth.
- Transparency and Accountability: A customized report makes it easier for your clients and stakeholders to understand SEO and understand tangible results.
- Optimization: SEO reports identify room for improvement in various aspects, from keyword targeting to technical site health.
Ideal SEO Report: Do’s and Don’ts
It’s almost too easy to indulge in seemingly small errors that can lower the overall quality of your SEO report, especially for newcomers.
Here are some handy Dos and Don’ts to follow when building your report –
Do:
- Use Clear and Concise Language: Your report needs to be understood by all stakeholders. Stick to the point and maintain brevity to ensure engagement.
- Include Visual Aids: Charts and graphs uplift boring decks into visually-appealing, engaging reports.
- Highlight Actionable Insights: Maintain focus on data that’s useful for improving strategies.
- Customize for Your Audience: Modify the report based on your audience’s level of expertise.
Don't:
- Overload with Data: Differentiate useful information and irrelevant flux. Don’t dwell on what won’t contribute to actionable insights.
- Use Jargon: Minimize the use of terminology that may shoo away your audience’s interest.
- Ignore Negative Data: Be sure to include areas of poor performance so they can be addressed and improved.
Pro-Tip: This Free SEO Reporting E-Book contains loads of tips to help you level-up your SEO!
Essential Metrics in SEO Reports
An actionable report is a source of key insights, like:
- Traffic
- Organic Search
The number of visitors arriving from search engines.
Calculation: Total visitors - Paid visitors - Paid Search
The number of visitors arriving from paid ads and search results, like Adwords. - Direct Traffic
Visitors who found your site by directly entering your web address into their search engine. - Referrals
Visitors who came to your page from another web domain. - Social Traffic
Users who visited the website from a social network like Facebook or X. - Page Views
How many pages were viewed during a session.
- Organic Search
- Rankings
- Keyword Positions
The current ranking positions of targeted keywords in Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs). - Search Volume
The number of searches for these keywords over a given time period.
- Keyword Positions
- Backlinks
- Total Backlinks
The total number of inbound links pointing to the website. - Referring Domains
The number of unique domains linking to the site. - Link Quality
The authority and relevance of backlinks. Users can try Moz Link Explorer to check the domain authority of websites that link back to their page.
- Total Backlinks
- Technical SEO
- Site Speed
The average loading time of the website.
Calculation: (Sum of all page load times / Number of page loads) - Mobile Usability
How well the site performs on mobile devices. - Crawl Errors
Issues encountered by search engine crawlers.
- Site Speed
- Engagement
- Bounce Rate
The percentage of visitors who leave after viewing only one page.
Calculation: (Single page sessions / Total sessions) x 100 - User Engagement
The total amount of shares or comments on the page within the reporting period. - Pages per Session
The average number of pages viewed per session.
Calculation: (Total page views / Total sessions)
- Bounce Rate
- Conversion
- Conversion Rates
The percentage of visitors who complete a desired action, like making a purchase or booking an appointment.
Calculation: (Total conversions / Total visitors) x 100 - Conversion Volume
The total number of conversions, regardless of the number of visitors.
- Conversion Rates
ReportGarden’s SEO reports let users drag and drop widgets to access the data they need and create functional reports in a few clicks.
Skip the manual calculations and grueling data sourcing by simply linking your accounts to ReportGarden. Freely integrate multiple data sources for various reports and give stakeholders the report they want to see.
Creating SEO Reports on ReportGarden
Based on your reporting needs, you can create various types of reports using ReportGarden. With a few simple steps you can setup your blank canvas and start plugging various streams of data depending on the use case or type of report.
Step 1: Login to your ReportGarden account and link Google Analytics 4 to your account.
Step 2: Navigate to the ‘Reports’ section and choose a pre-made SEO Report template, or select ‘New report’ to create one from scratch.
Step 3: In the blank canvas, access the widget library from the menu. Drag and drop the ‘Table’ widget onto the canvas and select your data source (GA4).
Step 4: Configure your report by choosing appropriate data sources, dimension, measures and filters based on your requirements.
Step 5: Export the report in your preferred file format.
Common Data Sources for an SEO Report
With so many accounts and tools on the web, it can be difficult to narrow down what sources are most useful for your report.
Since each report will differ in objective from the last, SEO report builders offer a variety of data sources to integrate to meet your report’s specific needs.
Reliable Data Sources for Accurate Reporting
While each report needs different sources depending on the goal, here are some of the most commonly used sources for accurate data:
- Google Analytics: Provides comprehensive traffic and user engagement metrics.
- Google Search Console: Offers insight into device and search engine performance, keyword ranking, technical SEO, and more,
- Google Business Profile: Simplifies Data about local businesses, listings, and reviews.
- SEMrush or Ahrefs: These tools are invaluable for backlink analysis, keyword tracking, and competitive research.
- SEO Reporting Tools: Specialized tools like ReportGarden can aggregate data from 60+ sources and present it coherently depending on your reporting needs.
Customization is Crucial
Customization is a must-have feature of any SEO report builder you use.
SEO reports must highlight the relevant metrics that will help you meet your client’s and stakeholders’ specific needs and preferences. For example, you can add more detailed and technical widgets and terminology when presenting to a team of SEO strategists, but would choose to stick to overviews and concise action points in the case of a client.
Custom reports can highlight the most relevant metrics and insights, ensuring that stakeholders receive the information that is most pertinent to their interests and decision-making processes.
That’s why the report builder you choose must offer not only a wide variety of data sources to integrate, but also customizable reports that let you take control.
here are some common SEO reports used by marketing teams:
User Engagement
User engagement metrics on an SEO report explain how users interact and engage with your webpages.
SEO specialists and agencies can use these reports to identify the best performing pages that most appeal to users, and further understand the potential causes for poor performance in pages with low engagement rates, ultimately leading to a streamlined strategy with increased clicks and conversions.
- Some important engagement KPIs comprise:
- Active and New Users: The number of current and first-time visitors to your site.
- Sessions: The total number of sessions.
- Average Session Duration: The average time visitors spend on the site.
Calculation: (Total duration of all sessions / Total sessions) - Engagement Rate: The number of engaged sessions expressed as a percentage.
Calculation: (Engaged Sessions / Total Sessions) x100
- Active and New Users: The number of current and first-time visitors to your site.
Pro-Tip: Pages featuring compelling, high-quality content with intuitive UI are more likely to see higher engagement. To improve user engagement, try this:
- Add the right header tags to your pages
- Fix broken links
- Erase repetitive content
- Audit for technical SEO issues like crawl errors and load times
Make a User Engagement Report with ReportGarden
Step 1: In the blank canvas, add a table widget and integrate your GA4 account to source data.
Step 2: Choose the metrics for your data from the menu. Include columns for Active Users, New Users, Sessions, Engagement Rate, Average Session Duration, and Engaged Sessions. Sorted page-wise per row.
Content Marketing
A detailed content analysis can be the gamechanger that helps perfect your SEO strategy and boosts growth.
These reports assist content creators, marketing teams, agencies and their clients to learn the right approach for lead conversions, as well as which pages perform the best and why.
- Key metrics to keep in mind when creating content marketing reports include:
- Page Views: The number of times a page was viewed.
- Shares: The amount of times your page’s link was shared by users.
- Top Landing Pages: The pages where users most frequently enter.
- Click-Through Rate (CTR): The rate of users clicking links in your content.
- Keyword Performance: The efficacy of specific keywords used to drive traffic and engagement.
- Page Views: The number of times a page was viewed.
Pro-Tip: If your content marketing isn’t doing as well as you’d hoped, try optimizing content to drive engagement and conversions. Include tactics like –
- Enhancing content quality and relevance.
- Evaluating current keyword targeting and performance.
- Including a compelling Call To Action (CTA).
Make a Content Performance Report with ReportGarden
Step 1: In the blank canvas, add a table widget and integrate your GA4 account to source data.
Step 2: Select the ‘Page Path’ dimension from the dropdown menu and track Total Users, Sessions, and Event Count in your table.
Traffic Acquisition
SEO reports explain the source of the traffic that your website receives, helping you make informed decisions when trying to increase page traffic.
Every agency and SEO strategist must analyze the best and least-effective sources of traffic and accordingly alter their online strategy to meet their goals.
- Consider these metrics when analyzing traffic acquisition:
- Organic Search
- Direct Search
- Paid Search
- Referrals and Backlinks
- Traffic from Social Media
Pro-Tip: Keep these pointers in mind for future strategies:
- Track the volume of traffic from each source.
- Track the differences in user behavior from each source, for example if users from organic searches engage more than those from paid ones, and so on.
- Which source contributed the most conversions?
- Implement tools and detailed trackers to keep abreast of your traffic sources, such as Urchin Tracking Modules (UTMs).
- If your organic traffic is low, check for crawl errors that might be interfering with SERP appearance.
Measure Traffic Acquisition Using ReportGarden
Step 1: In the blank canvas, add a table widget and select your data source (GA4).
Step 2: Choose ‘Session Medium’ from the dimension dropdown menu and measure for Total Users and Sessions.
Event Tracking
SEO Reports cover the type of interactions users have on your website (outside of pageviews or sessions), such as specific actions like clicks or video plays, downloads, form submissions, scroll depth, and more.
Analysts and strategists use event tracking to get a detailed understanding of user behavior, and to track conversions and performance. It reveals key areas for improvement by highlighting the spots where activity drops off – indicating a need for further optimization.
- A few important KPIs when tracking page events are:
- Event Count: The number of times each event occurs.
- Event Rate: The percentage of sessions that included a specific event during a certain time period.
Calculation: (Sessions with the event / Total sessions during that period) x 100 - Unique Events: The number of unique interactions for each event.
- Event Count: The number of times each event occurs.
Pro-Tip: When creating an Event Tracking report,
- Ensure that all events are well defined in your analytics tool and set up with the right code and tags.
- Identify the specific purpose for this report beforehand and check that all items in the report are relevant to that goal.
Track Events with ReportGarden
Step 1: In your custom report, integrate GA4 as the data source and drop a table widget onto the canvas.
Step 2: Select the ‘Event Name’ dimension and set the time group as monthly.
Step 3: Customize your table measuring Total Users, Sessions, and Event Count according to your needs.
Search Engine Performance
Tracking your web page's search engine performance offers crucial insights into how users find and interact with your site on SERPs.
All agencies, businesses, and SEO pundits should regularly track their page’s search engine performance to understand whether their current strategy is on track with their goals or if they need to approach their SEO differently to gain the best results.
- Keep an eye on metrics like:
- Keyword ranking: Your page’s SERP position for a specific keyword query.
- Traffic: The amount of users visiting your page daily.
- Position: Your page’s average position on a SERP.
- Click-Through Rate (CTR): The amount of users who click the link to your website.
- Impressions: The amount of times your page appears on a SERP.
- Keyword ranking: Your page’s SERP position for a specific keyword query.
Pro-Tip: Compare performance metrics with each other to understand where the strategy falls short.
- Check the ratio of clicks versus impressions. If impressions outnumber clicks, use accurately targeted keywords and improved meta-descriptions.
- Analyze your competitors’ SERP rankings and check for keyword gaps that may be stopping you from appealing to more users.
Make A Search Engine Performance Report with ReportGarden
Step 1: Link Google Search Console as the data source for all of the following widgets and set the time dimension to ‘monthly’.
Step 2: Measure Clicks, Impressions, Search Position, and CTR by dragging and dropping ‘KPI’ widgets from the right hand panel onto the blank canvas.
Step 3: Select the ‘Graph’ widget to visualize the ratio of clicks to impressions and compare the two metrics’ daily performance.
Step 4: Add a ‘table’ widget and select the ‘keywords’ dimension to measure keyword performance with respect to clicks, position, impressions, and CTR.
Device Performance
SEO reports must cover cross-device performances as websites expect to see traffic from various platforms and therefore need to ensure that the website is optimized for various devices as well.
SEO teams and marketing strategists need to track metric performance on different devices to reduce bounce rates and ultimately increase conversions. SEO reports help understand which areas to prioritize and how to ensure a smooth, functional experience for users on any device. Knowing which device gets more engagements also contributes to future strategy-making and ultimately nudges the overall campaign towards greater success.
- Consider these metrics on each device:
- Conversion rate
- Bounce rate
- Average session duration
- Organic versus Paid Traffic
Pro-Tip: Heatmaps and session recordings can help understand user behavior on various devices.
- Analyze the user experience on all devices, and especially on mobile. Ensure that page content is always optimized for desktop and mobile both.
- Be sure to analyze page load times on all devices and compare with the bounce rates to see which pages need technical improvements.
Track Device Performance with ReportGarden
Step 1: Drop the ‘pie chart’ widget onto the blank canvas from the right hand panel.
Step 2: Link the relevant data source – here, Google Search Console.
Step 3: Select the ‘device’ dimension from the drop-down menu to measure Clicks across the different devices used to access your page.
Local SEO
Owners of physical stores must improve their business’ SEO for increased growth. Following a highly effective SEO strategy is necessary for all businesses - particularly local ones. Surveyors found that not only does it offer enhanced visibility, but also that 97% of users in fact found local businesses online, while another 78% of local searches resulted in offline conversions. (Source)
And so, it becomes necessary for local business owners to establish an engaging online presence for their offline business to reach as many customers as possible.
- Some important KPIs to consider for reporting on Local SEO performance are:
- Search Queries: The amount of times your business appeared in local intent search queries defined geographically.
- Google Business Profile (GBP) Actions such as clicks on map directions, website visits, or phone calls.
- Customer Sentiment and Reviews: What people are saying about your business.
- Review Summary: A summary of the reviews and ratings customers give your business on Google.
Pro-Tip: Improve your Local SEO game by familiarizing yourself with Google Business Profile and use tactics like –
- Enhancing Local Map and Search Listings
- Updating NAP (Name, Address, Phone Number) Regularly
- Responding to Reviews
- Using social listening tools to monitor your brand voice
- Optimizing your website for mobile devices
- Adding updated timings and images
Make a Local SEO Report with ReportGarden:
Step 1: Use ReportGarden’s Local SEO template or create one from scratch.
Step 2: Open the widget menu and add the KPI widget to your canvas. Link your Google Business Profile to source data for all the following widgets.
Step 3: Set the dimension as ‘Search Queries’ from the dropdown list and add a KPI widget for:
- Search Queries
- Business Profile Interactions
- Reviews
- Search Views, Map Views, Total Views
- Driving Direction Actions
- Phone Actions
- Website Visits
Step 4: Next, add a ‘table’ widget with the same dimension as before to track Searches.
Step 5: Export your report in the preferred file format.
Meet Your SEO Reporting Goals with ReportGarden
ReportGarden is one of the best SEO reporting tools on the market today, with over 60 possible data integrations and fully customizable dashboards that let you handle your social in one location.
Why Choose ReportGarden?
Builder Features:
- Drag and Drop Widgets: The software offers a welcoming and intuitive UI, with drag-and-drop features to easily access any widgets your report needs.
- Custom Metrics: ReportGarden boasts customization like no other, with countless widgets available to choose from. Define, drag, and drop metrics of your choice to encompass your business goals and SEO strategy.
- White Labeling: Brand your reports with your company's brand language and design, logo, and color scheme to maintain a professional appearance.
- Aesthetic Variety: Make a stunning, visually-appealing report with ReportGarden’s charts and graphs on an aesthetically pleasing report using the many stylization options.
- DIY Templates: Made the perfect report? Export it as a template and re-use it whenever you need!
Accessibility Features
- File/Client Management: Efficiently manage multiple project reports and clients in one central platform.
- Integration with Popular SEO Tools: Integrate data from SEO tools like Google Analytics, Google Search Console, SEMrush, and more to access all your data on a unified platform.
- Automated Reporting: Schedule reports to be generated automatically, ensuring timely delivery without manual intervention.
- Templatized Reports: Create your own or choose from one of ReportGarden’s countless easy-to-use templates for various needs from Social Media and SEO to Franchise Marketing.
Note: This article pertains to SEO activities on Google. Check out this article for help with Bing SEO.
Actionable Reports for your SEO strategy
No web strategy is truly complete without thoroughly analyzing its performance after commencement. SEO reports provide the data and insights needed to make informed decisions about managing your online presence and improving web performance in today’s competitive landscape.
The ideal SEO report covers all the metrics that provide an overview of your website’s performance and customer experience. A powerful SEO reporting tool like ReportGarden simplifies this process with features like automation, customization, and seamless data integration to fulfill diverse reporting needs.
Begin your 14-day free trial today and let your SEO strategy flourish with actionable reports. No credit card required.
