How to Report on SEO
Reporting on SEO is a key responsibility, whether you're delivering insights to clients or managing in-house strategies. Generating an SEO report helps evaluate the success of your efforts, identify areas for improvement, and provide actionable insights to inform future strategies.
However, your audience likely has varying levels of SEO knowledge, making it crucial to present the information in a clear, concise, and easy-to-understand manner. In some cases, you may need to report on SEO to non-technical stakeholders, so it's important to avoid jargon and use visual aids where possible. This will empower your audience to better understand the data and make informed decisions based on your findings.
If you have no idea how to report on SEO or are afraid of getting too technical, here's a guide to walk you through the step-by-step creation and remind you about what's important. With platforms like Scripted, which uniquely combines AI-generated insights with human expertise, the entire content marketing process from research to reporting becomes streamlined and simplified.
What Is an SEO Report?
If you've never created an SEO report before, its purpose is to swiftly communicate the current state and value of a brand's SEO strategy to the company's stakeholders. The report should summarize the efforts you've made and, more importantly, the impact those efforts have on the business and its revenue.
Most people can access a Google Analytics dashboard and see a website's traffic at a glance. You can even view a breakdown of where traffic is coming from. However, SEO reports are being held to a much higher standard these days. Stakeholders, even if they don't track the basics, expect a more advanced and robust summary of what's happening. At the same time, no one has time to digest a hundred pages of metrics.
At a minimum, your SEO report should include:
- Progress so far
- Activities and their impact
- Recommendations to improve future performance
The purpose of your SEO report should be to share the most impactful metrics and demonstrate how the brand's SEO strategy is currently supporting defined KPIs, along with suggestions so it can do better in the future. Not only should the report highlight the progress, but it also needs to identify what isn't working.
The Best Metrics To Include
Perhaps one of the most comprehensive lists of what an SEO report should include comes from Databox. Th asked over a hundred SEO professionals the most important metrics that an SEO report should never leave out. They came up with a list of 39 things, so let's go through them one by one.
Overview
The SEO report should always start with a brief overview that summarizes the report's most important points. They hook the reader and let them know that the report will offer real value. Your brief introduction should encapsulate the report's key findings, offering an immediate snapshot of the SEO strategy's impact on the business. By presenting information clearly and concisely, readers can immediately recognize the report's value.
Drowning your audience in a sea of numbers right at the outset can be counterproductive. It's crucial to strike a balance, weaving together raw data with narrative insights in the overview. A harmonious mix of data and straightforward explanations work best. This synthesis ensures clarity and prevents information overload.
Scripted's AI chatbot Scripted Copilot can be helpful here, assisting in transforming intricate metrics into comprehensible content. With its ability to structure and articulate complex data into digestible written content, Scripted Copilot can help you achieve concision, accuracy, and clarity in your report.
Completed Tasks
The next part of your report should be a quick summary of the SEO tasks you've completed since the last report. Detailing these tasks assists stakeholders in charting the journey from the initial suggestions to their practical implementations. By weaving this narrative, you create a roadmap that demonstrates the progression of your SEO strategies, fostering clarity and alignment with stakeholders' expectations.
For enhanced clarity, it's beneficial to tie a prominent metric to each completed task. This approach allows readers to gauge the time since the task's execution and its immediate or eventual impact. It paints a clearer picture of the strategy's evolution and its tangible results.
In situations where distilling large volumes of data becomes challenging, Scripted's AI tools can offer support. This helps streamline complex metrics and transform them into insightful, easy-to-understand narratives. Scripted streamlines content creation by offering both AI-generated and human expert-written content.
Likewise, you must have an efficient workflow in SEO reporting that clearly showcases the tasks undertaken and their results.
Organic Traffic
Organic traffic, while straightforward, serves as a crucial benchmark in your SEO report. Although it doesn't necessitate an exhaustive analysis, its inclusion offers valuable context for stakeholders. By showcasing the rise or decline in organic traffic across different intervals, especially when juxtaposed against the previous report's data, you allow stakeholders to grasp the momentum of your SEO efforts.
A look into the organic traffic metrics for each primary webpage can further aid in zooming into the strategies yielding maximum results. This approach is especially useful when you're tracking performance across different pages, such as a landing page or product page. By highlighting these metrics, you create an opportunity to discuss specific tactics and their effectiveness while providing stakeholders with valuable insights into your SEO approach.
Mobile Traffic
With the increasing usage of mobile devices, it's crucial to include a section on mobile traffic in your SEO report. This should include a summary of mobile traffic, showcasing both total mobile visits and mobile organic traffic. Comparing these metrics to those of desktop traffic can reveal potential areas for improvement in your mobile optimization strategy.
It's also a good idea to compare your brand's mobile performance against direct competitors, which can be enlightening. This comparative analysis not only contextualizes your brand's position in the market but also highlights any gaps that might need to be addressed in your mobile strategy.
Unbranded Traffic
Understanding traffic sources is essential, and unbranded traffic holds a unique position in this analysis. Unbranded traffic refers to visitors who arrive at your website without prior knowledge of your brand, usually through search queries that don't include your brand name. These can be seen as "blind clicks," where the user's primary intent is the content, not the brand presenting it.
Highlighting unbranded traffic in your report offers insights into your website's ability to attract new audiences and gauge the effectiveness of content that isn't directly tied to your brand name. Evaluating the volume and quality of these visits can inform strategies to enhance organic reach and tap into new audience segments.
Organic Keywords
Tracking the number of organic keywords your website ranks for is a vital component of an SEO report. It sheds light on your site's visibility in search engine results. Your report should provide a clear count of these organic keywords as well as how they've changed over time, giving stakeholders a direct understanding of your site's position in the search landscape.
To provide a broader context, juxtapose your website's keyword count against that of your major competitors. This comparative perspective can reveal opportunities for improvement and inform keyword-targeting strategies for future content. For example, if a competitor is ranking for significantly more keywords than your site, it could indicate that they're targeting a wider range of topics and keywords that may be relevant to your brand as well. Analyzing this data can help you identify potential gaps in your keyword strategy.
Scripted's AI tools can also offer insights into the competitive landscape. Start by feeding Scripted Copilot, our AI-powered chatbot, with a list of both your and your competitor's top keyword rankings. Scripted Copilot will then present you with a comprehensive analysis of keyword overlap and gaps, allowing you to refine your strategy accordingly.
Keyword Rankings
Understanding where your website stands in search results is just as crucial as knowing how many keywords it ranks for. The position of your website in these rankings can significantly influence the volume and quality of traffic you receive. It's vital to include a detailed account of these keyword rankings in your SEO report. This should spotlight any notable changes in positions over various intervals, providing a clear picture of the website's performance dynamics.
Drawing attention to the traffic brought in by top-ranking keywords can also offer valuable insights into their contribution to your site's overall traffic. An average ranking position consolidates this information, delivering a quick overview of the website's performance across its entire keyword portfolio. If certain high-ranking keywords are consistently driving significant traffic, it underscores their importance and potential areas of focus for content optimization and marketing strategies.
Keyword Impressions
Impressions, though often overshadowed by clicks, hold a wealth of insight into the effectiveness of your SEO initiatives. They depict how frequently your website appears in search results, indicating its visibility in the vast digital landscape. While stakeholders might naturally lean towards clicks for their evident impact on business metrics, understanding impressions can be pivotal. Including this data in your SEO report can help draw a broader picture of your site's outreach.
For example, if your site is appearing frequently (high impressions) for a particular keyword but isn't receiving proportionate clicks, there's a disconnect. This discrepancy could stem from meta titles or descriptions that aren't captivating enough to prompt users to engage. Such insights can guide refinements in these areas, ensuring that your website isn't just seen but also interacted with, maximizing the potential of every impression.
Keyword Search Volume
Search volume trends give a window into the potential of keywords. By monitoring this over time, you can identify where you're ranking well for terms that few people are searching for and where there's room to grow for high-demand keywords. It's more than a number; it offers context. By understanding these shifts, you provide stakeholders with a clear picture of the shifting search landscape and how your efforts align with it.
Spotting opportunities in search volume helps you discover where and when to pivot your strategy. For instance, if you notice that a keyword related to your business has suddenly spiked in popularity, it might be the right time to create content around it or run paid campaigns targeting that term. On the other hand, if you find certain keywords have gradually decreased in search volume, this could indicate a shift in consumer behavior, and adjusting your approach accordingly can help maintain your visibility.
Conversion Rate
While raw traffic numbers are essential, what truly matters is how that traffic behaves. The organic traffic conversion rate offers a glimpse into the effectiveness of your content in guiding visitors to desired actions. But don't stop at organic traffic; showcasing the overall website conversion rate paints a full picture.
Diving deeper, breaking down the conversion rate across various channels like paid ads or referrals can offer insights. It answers the question: "Where's our most valuable traffic coming from?" By presenting this, you ensure that stakeholders can measure the return on investment across all digital marketing efforts, helping them decide where to allocate resources. If a certain channel shows a lower conversion rate, it may be worth reevaluating the strategies in place or adjusting them to better target the desired audience.
Top Landing Pages
Landing pages are the gateways to your content, and understanding their performance is pivotal. By highlighting which pages most visitors first encounter, you shed light on the primary touchpoints of user interaction. This knowledge can lead to optimizations, refining the user experience, and ensuring that these crucial pages serve their purpose effectively.
However, not all landing pages are created equal. If one is outperforming another in terms of conversions, it might be time for some adjustments. A/B testing or targeted improvements can bring underperforming pages up to par. By constantly evaluating and tweaking these pages, you can craft a seamless user journey that is more likely to lead to desired outcomes.
Search Traffic Value
While numbers show how much organic traffic a website attracts, it's the value behind these numbers that truly matters. Search traffic value brings this into focus. By translating organic traffic into a monetary equivalent of what would be spent on paid ads for the same volume, stakeholders get a tangible measure of SEO's worth.
Understanding search traffic value equips businesses with a clearer perspective. It's not merely about counting visits; it's about realizing the financial impact of every organic click. By shedding light on this metric, you offer stakeholders a deeper appreciation of the efforts poured into SEO and the savings it potentially yields.
Site Speed
In the digital age, every second counts. Site speed, seemingly a simple metric, has profound implications. Google values it, visitors expect it, and user experience heavily relies on it. Ensuring that webpages load swiftly isn't only about ticking an SEO checkbox; it's about providing a smooth and pleasant browsing experience.
Quick page loads decrease bounce rates and boost user engagement, directly influencing conversion rates. In an era where patience is scant, a slight delay can divert a potential client to a competitor. This is a very quick metric to report, and you'll only need to focus on it if improvements are needed. Otherwise, a simple and small section to report that the site is performing well will suffice.
On the other hand, if page speed is causing a negative impact on SEO, it's crucial to address and improve it. You may need to include various techniques such as optimizing images, using browser caching, and minimizing code and scripts.
Backlinks
Backlinks are the lifeblood of SEO. These digital endorsements not only boost a website's authority but also act as pathways, directing valuable traffic. Sharing metrics like the overall number of backlinks, tracking any losses, and pinpointing top-performing content becomes imperative in understanding a brand's digital presence.
It's not just about quantity; the quality of backlinks matters immensely. High-quality links from reputable sites can bolster a website's ranking, while low-quality ones can potentially harm it. Distinguishing between the two is crucial. Additionally, understanding which content or pages attract the most backlinks can provide insights into what resonates most with the audience, allowing for informed content strategies in the future.
Earning valuable backlinks is a testament to the quality and relevance of content. Platforms like Scripted make this easier by offering a comprehensive content solution where businesses can leverage both AI efficiency for speedy content generation and human creativity for deeper insights.
Redirect Chains
Navigating through a website should be a seamless experience, and redirect chains can often disrupt this flow. These chains, essentially a sequence of redirects from one URL to another, can affect both user experience and SEO.
By incorporating an overview of redirect chains in your report, stakeholders can identify potential disruptions in site navigation, which can impact website rankings and performance. Addressing these chains ensures visitors have a smoother browsing experience and can indirectly influence the site's credibility with search engines.
Internal Search Queries
Internal search queries act as a direct line to your user's intentions and needs. When a visitor uses the search function on your website, it signals a specific requirement or query they couldn't immediately find. This data is invaluable; it provides direct feedback on user behavior and content discoverability.
Highlighting the most frequent internal searches in your report serves a dual purpose. Firstly, it can spotlight content gaps or topics of high interest, offering guidance for future content creation. Secondly, it may indicate areas where site navigation or content organization can be improved, ensuring users find what they're looking for more efficiently.
Understanding what users are searching for within your site is one of the most powerful methods for revealing new content opportunities. Platforms like Scripted, with direct access to writers with subject matter expertise, help you to craft content that aligns perfectly with these internal queries, enhancing user experience and SEO.
Competitor Analysis
Understanding your brand's position in the digital landscape is incomplete without assessing the competition. Competitor analysis isn't about imitation; it's about identifying opportunities and understanding market dynamics. By analyzing competitors, you can discern keyword gaps, content strategies, and other areas where they might be outperforming your brand.
Including a robust competitor analysis in the report does more than showcase comparative data. It contextualizes your brand's performance, illuminating areas for potential growth or improvement. It also offers a roadmap, suggesting strategies that have worked for competitors, which could be tailored and adapted for your brand's unique voice and audience.
Dwell Time
Dwell time, or the "average time on page," offers profound insights into user engagement levels. A long dwell time can indicate that the content is resonating with visitors, capturing their interest, and providing value. Conversely, a short dwell time might point to content misalignment or user experience issues.
In the report, it's not enough to list the average dwell times. Breaking it down by key pages or content categories can reveal patterns of user behavior. Understanding which pages captivate users and which ones see quick exits can guide content optimization efforts, ensuring that content consistently aligns with user expectations and needs.
Google My Business Metrics
For local businesses and brands aiming for a regional presence, Google My Business (GMB) is a tool of paramount importance. It doesn't only boost local SEO; it's often the first touchpoint potential customers have with a business. Metrics like profile views, clicks-to-call, and direction requests provide a snapshot of local engagement and brand discoverability.
Elaborating on these metrics in the SEO report can help stakeholders understand the brand's local digital footprint. Are potential customers discovering the brand easily? Are they engaging with the GMB listing? Answering these questions can reveal if there's a need to invest more effort into optimizing the brand's GMB presence, ensuring it stands out in local searches.
The Big Picture
The other metrics Databox's respondents suggested can be wrapped up into a "Big Picture" section that tells the whole store. In this section, you'll want to include:
- Comparisons: Provide month-to-month, quarter-to-quarter, or year-to-year comparisons for the key metrics that hold the most significance.
- Top Keywords: Highlight the keywords that are driving the most traffic and engagement to your site.
- Overall Link Value: Discuss the overall quality and value of backlinks to your website.
- Average Bounce Rate: Explain the average bounce rate, which reflects user engagement and content quality.
- User Behavior: Dive into user behavior data, revealing how visitors navigate and interact with your site.
- Total Revenue: Showcase the total revenue generated through your online efforts.
- Assisted Conversions: Describe how different channels and touchpoints contribute to conversions and sales.
- Goal Value: Share the value of specific goals achieved on your website.
- Domain Authority and Page Authority: Assess the authority of your domain and important web pages.
- Total Clicks: Report the overall number of clicks received by your website.
- Organic Entrances and Sources: Explore the entrances to your site through organic search and their sources.
- URL Growth Trends: Analyze the growth trends of your website's URLs over time.
This is a key aspect of generating a report on SEO. Include these elements in your "Big Picture" section to provide stakeholders with a comprehensive overview of your SEO strategy's performance and its impact on your online presence.
Next Steps
The final portion of your SEO report should dig into the "next steps" and suggestions you're giving the brand regarding its current SEO approach and performance. You may be tempted to include these suggestions throughout the report with each metric they refer to, but doing so adds length and redundancy to your report because it's best to put all of the action items together in one list.
If you'd like, you can refer back to the metrics from earlier in the report by including the page number so the stakeholder can easily reference what you're referring to. However, your suggestion in itself should summarize where the brand currently stands, a reasonable goal you feel they can achieve, and how you think they can do it.
Your next steps page is sure to get a lot of attention as that's going to be the source of guidance for stakeholders who want an even better SEO report next time around. As such, make sure this page is laid out nicely and doesn't get too wordy. Always be available for follow-up queries.
To make the process even smoother, consider leveraging Scripted's AI tools. They can provide enhanced data analytics, helping brands navigate through the recommended next steps with precision.
Get a Handle on Your SEO Performance
Perfecting your SEO report is essential to engaging stakeholders effectively. By showcasing impactful metrics and illustrating their significance for the business, you can underscore the importance of your recommended next steps. However, as a dedicated SEO professional, you're always looking for ways to enhance your capabilities and deliver outstanding results for the brands you work with.
That's where Scripted's cutting-edge suite of AI tools comes into play. Our content creation assistant can help you turn your SEO report into a compelling story with visually appealing data representations and well-crafted insights that resonate with your stakeholders. Plus, with Scripted's advanced analytics, you can track the success of your recommendations and fine-tune your strategies for even better results.
Remember, in the world of digital marketing, those who leverage both AI and human expertise are the ones who lead. With Scripted, you're not just getting a content platform; you're adopting a comprehensive, forward-thinking approach to content creation and strategy.
Of course, as an SEO professional, you could always use more tools to help you get the best results for the brands you work with. Scripted's new SEO performance tool can help you boost the metrics that matter, and we're even offering a free trial so you can get hands-on, risk-free, to test it for yourself. Sign up for your free trial today!
