In this guide to SEO reporting, we dive into the third critical stage of the holistic SEO process – the measurement of results.

This is the third in our series of SEO guides, and we advise you explore the first two, The Importance of Keyword Research, and A Guide to Content & Page Optimisation, and perhaps our Guide to SEO for AI Search in detail before reading on. Afterall, what’s the use in measuring ineffective optimisation?

So, be sure to catch up on the other earlier key stages of the SEO process, then join us again here as we explore what SEO reporting is, which metrics SEO agencies like The Marketing Optimist typically measure, and the further benefits of reporting.

Let’s jump in!

What is SEO Reporting?

Reporting on your SEO efforts is key to understanding the effectiveness of your keyword selection and implementation, and your website content and page optimisation, whether you’re doing it inhouse with the help of guides like this, or working with trusted specialists like us.

SEO reporting typically covers keyword rankings, and website metrics (both general and those related to organic search).

For keyword rankings, a reliable tool such as Moz, Semrush, Ahrefs etc is required to track the movement of your keyword rankings. Rankings are calculated using search engine bots, which crawl your website content regularly to assess its content and its level of optimisation.

For the web metrics portion of SEO reporting, you can use Google Analytics and Google Search Console natively, to view and export key information, or create a dashboard in a tool like Agency Analytics, to bring your chosen GA and GSC data points together in a single place, that can be easily turned into a report.

Reporting on search engine optimisation efforts is typically done monthly because:

1. 1. Ranking positions can shift day to day. Reporting across the month provides you with a more reliable snapshot of where your rankings sit. Monthly rankings reports can still capture unfortunate snapshots (where your ranking may have dipped before it returned back to a more favourable position), but this is why the website metrics, to provide further context around the rankings, are key.
   2. Monthly reporting provides a more comprehensive suite of website metrics that can easily be compared to previous and future reports, and enables trends (regarding increases or decreases in particular metrics) to be more reliably identified, allowing for more clear and considered actions to be taken.

What Metrics Should the Report Include?

Whether you’re going it alone, or working with a trusted SEO agency, your report should be tailored to you.

At The Marketing Optimist, we like it when clients know what they want from their SEO reporting, and we tailor our reports accordingly. However, the good news is that the vast majority of clients (whether they’re B2B or B2C) tend to want to see the same kinds of metrics.

If you’re new to reporting on your SEO efforts, start with the following template of metrics, and from there, in time, you can add or subtract certain metrics to give you exactly what you need.

Reporting Template

• Your monthly keyword rankings (and the movement of each key term across the month – this is where Tools help in a way that using search engines manually can’t).
• Depending on the tools you’re using, you could also insert a graph showing keyword rankings or search visibility compared to competitors. However, be wary of vanity metrics like search visibility, as this is a highly movable metric that may dip in response to even positive actions taken on your site, as even adding new optimised content can cause dips in rankings as content is crawled and evaluated. SV may also dip due to search landscape competition, if new competitor content is given preferential treatment before it’s recrawled and re-evaluated.
• All channel Google Analytics metrics:
  • Conversions
  • Number of sessions and a breakdown of where they come from (direct, organic search, referrals (links to your website from external sources), social etc).
  • Total Users & New Users
  • Bounce Rate
  • Average session duration
  • Events (linked to conversions) this includes contact fill-ins or important touch points across the site, and the pages these actions occurred on.
  • Metrics per landing page (sessions, total users, user engagement, and events related to that page).
• Organic Google Analytics metrics:
  • The number of your conversions driven by organic SEO
  • Organic sessions (those driven by organic SEO)
  • Bounce rate for organic sessions
  • Average session duration of organic sessions
  • Device breakdown (desktop vs mobile vs tablet)
  • Organic events (contact forms and touch points)
• Google Search Console metrics:
  • Number of clicks from google searches that led to your site.
  • Impressions – linked to search visibility – it’s how visible you were in related searches.
  • Click through rate – The ratio of relative searches to website clicks.
  • The searches that led to clicks on your website (and whether the clicks, impressions and CTR you received for each search term went up or down).
  • Your top pages (by clicks, impressions, CTR and average ranking position).

This is our process at The Marketing Optimist, bringing metrics from all 3 data sources together in a single comprehensive report.

Why This Approach?

Combining keyword rankings with both GSC metrics and GA4 is a great way to deliver truly transparent and comprehensive SEO reporting.

Each platform largely offers slightly different factors of measurement. However, in some cases, they report on the same data points, and despite both being google systems, the metrics may be different. This enables you to determine that “reality” lies somewhere between the common GA4 and GSC metric.

The metrics covered in the full report give clients the critical data they need to monitor the effectiveness of their SEO service, provide insight into how their website is functioning and enable us, the SEO agency, and the client, to make informed decisions. More on this below.

You could include far more metrics in your SEO reporting, or far less. Tailor your reports to your needs. Mindless data is mindless, but making decisions without the appropriate insights is unwise at best.

Is SEO Reporting With the Faff?

In short, absolutely.

Reporting on your SEO efforts is not just about checking your SEO rankings. The process is critical to:

• Monitor the effectiveness of your SEO service/agency.
• Understand how visible you are in comparison to competitors (keyword rankings).
• Identify what content and keywords work and which don’t, to help you amend and update all website content and page optimisation to drive greater results. (For example, are you getting lots of sessions on a particular B2B service page, but have a large bounce rate? You might have work to do around making it clearer who your service is for, via your website copy, CTA’s and even your keyword choice).
• (Google search console metrics, in particular) help you to identify untapped optimisation opportunities.
• Establish if your website’s design, functionality, architecture and even CTA’s need work.
• Illuminate the issues, while providing context for exactly which metrics need to be focused on. This makes it very easy to make informed decisions.

Need Some Help?

If you’ve gotten to the end of this blog, and now have a strong enough grasp on the SEO reporting process to know that it feels too large a project to tackle alone, contact our team today.

We offer a full SEO service covering strategy, keyword research, copywriting, content and page optimisation, SEO for AI search, reporting and technical SEO.

Beyond SEO, we can all support you with marketing strategy, social media marketing, website design, and digital PR.