Key takeaways
- A good SEO report starts with business results: enquiries, sales and revenue from organic search.
- It explains what changed and why in plain English, not just charts.
- It shows the work completed, the plan for next month and any help needed from you.
- Be wary of reports full of rankings for terms nobody searches for or traffic with no link to customers.
A good monthly SEO report tells you, in plain English, whether search is bringing your business more customers, why the numbers changed, what work was done and what happens next. It should start with business results such as enquiries, calls, bookings, sales and revenue from organic search, then show the supporting data: traffic, Search Console impressions and clicks, rankings for priority searches, local and AI visibility, and technical health. Charts without explanation are not a report.
Over the years I have seen many SEO reports that look impressive and say very little. This guide sets out what a useful report includes, what to ignore and what to ask if yours leaves you none the wiser.
What an SEO report is for
A report has three jobs:
- Show whether the investment is working, in terms the business cares about.
- Explain what is happening, including what went well, what did not and why.
- Agree what happens next, so both sides know the priorities for the coming month.
If a report does not help you make decisions, it is not doing its job, however many pages it has.
1. A short summary
The first page should take two minutes to read: the headline results, the most important changes, the main work completed, any problems and the priorities for next month. Many business owners only read this page, so it needs to be clear, honest and specific. “Organic enquiries rose from 18 to 24, mainly from the new boiler repair page; rankings for ‘boiler service Cardiff’ slipped after a competitor’s update, which we’re addressing this month” is the kind of summary that helps.
2. Business results
This is the most important section. It should show what organic search delivered for the business:
- Enquiries from forms, calls and emails from organic visitors.
- Bookings, sales and revenue attributed to organic search, for online shops and booking businesses.
- Conversion rate of organic visitors.
- Comparison with the previous month and the same month last year, to account for seasonality.
If your tracking cannot show these figures, fixing it should be a priority. Calls in particular are often missed; call tracking or a simple “how did you hear about us?” question helps. Our guide to measuring marketing ROI explains how to connect marketing to revenue.
3. Organic traffic
Organic sessions and users from Google Analytics, broken down by landing page, show which pages bring visitors and how that is changing. More useful than the total is the trend for important page groups: service pages, product categories, location pages and guides. Traffic to pages that convert matters more than overall growth.
4. Search Console data
Google Search Console shows how your site appears in Google before anyone clicks:
- Impressions: how often your pages appeared in results. Rising impressions are often the first sign of progress.
- Clicks: how many people clicked through.
- Click-through rate: the share of impressions that became clicks, which can reveal weak titles or AI summaries taking clicks.
- Average position for key queries and pages.
- Top queries and pages that gained or lost.
5. Rankings for priority searches
Rankings still matter, but only for searches that bring customers. A good report tracks a focused list of priority searches, grouped by service or topic, shows positions and movement, and explains significant changes. For local businesses, rankings should be checked from the areas you serve, because local results change with the searcher’s location.
Be wary of reports that boast about hundreds of first-page rankings without saying whether anyone searches for those terms or whether they bring enquiries.
6. Local visibility (if relevant)
For businesses serving a local area, include Google Business Profile performance: calls, direction requests and website clicks from the profile, review count and average rating, and map pack visibility for key services. Compare with local competitors where possible.
7. AI search visibility
Increasingly, reports should include how your business appears in AI-generated answers: whether you are cited in Google’s AI Overviews for key questions, how AI assistants describe and recommend you, and referral traffic from AI tools in Google Analytics. These measures are still developing, so expect them to be presented as indicators rather than exact figures. Our guide to measuring AI search visibility explains the approach.
8. Technical health
A short section on indexing, errors and site performance: important pages excluded from Google, new crawl errors, broken links, Core Web Vitals status and any security issues. Most months this will be brief. When something goes wrong, it should be flagged clearly with the plan to fix it.
9. Links and authority
If link building or digital PR is part of the work, show the new links and mentions earned, where they came from and why they matter. Quality and relevance count far more than numbers. A report listing dozens of low-quality directory links each month is a warning sign.
10. Work completed
List what was actually done: pages improved, content published, technical fixes, profile updates, outreach, research. Link to the pages where possible. This shows you what your fee paid for and makes it easier to connect work to results over time.
11. Plan for next month
A clear list of priorities for the coming month and why they were chosen, plus anything the agency needs from you, such as approvals, information, photos, developer time or review requests. Many campaigns stall because client actions are not tracked.
12. Plain-English commentary
Every section should explain what the numbers mean. Why did traffic dip? Was it seasonal, a Google update, a technical issue or a competitor? What is being done about it? Commentary is where you see whether the person reporting really understands your business.
What to emphasise for different businesses
Local service businesses
Calls, form enquiries and booking requests matter most, alongside Google Business Profile actions, reviews and map visibility in the areas you serve. Traffic figures are secondary.
Online shops
Organic revenue, orders, conversion rate and average order value come first, broken down by category and product where possible. Search Console data for category and product pages shows where growth is coming from, and indexing figures matter more for large catalogues.
B2B and professional services
Leads, their quality and the pipeline or revenue they create are the key measures. Because buying cycles are long, reports should also show assisted conversions, where organic search played a part earlier in the journey, and progress on topics that build authority.
Multi-location businesses
Results should be shown by location as well as in total, so strong locations do not hide weak ones.
An example report structure
- Summary (one page): headline results, key changes, priorities.
- Business results: enquiries, sales and revenue from organic search, versus last month and last year.
- Search visibility: impressions, clicks, priority rankings, local and AI visibility.
- Website health: indexing, errors, speed.
- Work completed this month, with links.
- Next month’s plan and actions needed from you.
Six sections, clearly explained, are worth more than thirty pages of exported charts.
Metrics to treat with caution
- Total keywords ranked: often inflated by irrelevant terms at low positions.
- Third-party authority scores: useful for comparison, but not Google metrics.
- Traffic from irrelevant countries or to pages that never convert.
- Number of backlinks without regard to quality.
- Bounce rate on its own, which can be misleading, especially for pages that answer a question quickly.
How a good report explains a drop
Every SEO campaign has months where figures fall. The quality of a report shows most clearly then. A good report does not hide the drop or blame Google vaguely; it investigates and explains. It checks whether the fall is seasonal by comparing with last year, whether it affects the whole site or particular pages, whether there was a known Google update, a technical problem such as pages dropping out of the index, a tracking change or a competitor gaining ground. It then sets out what is being done and when you should expect to see the effect.
That honesty builds trust. A provider who explains a bad month clearly is far more valuable than one whose reports only ever show rising charts.
How often to report
Monthly reporting suits most businesses, because SEO changes gradually and weekly figures are noisy. Every quarter, a deeper review should step back and assess the strategy: what has worked, what has not and whether priorities should change. A live dashboard can let you check key figures between reports. Remember that SEO takes time; our guide on how long SEO takes explains what to expect at each stage.
Red flags in SEO reports
- No mention of enquiries, sales or revenue.
- Rankings for terms you have never heard of.
- The same generic commentary every month.
- No list of work completed.
- Data you cannot verify because the agency owns the accounts.
- Reports that only arrive when results look good.
Questions to ask about your report
- How many enquiries and sales did organic search bring this month, and how does that compare with last year?
- Which pages are bringing those enquiries?
- What changed this month, and why?
- What work was done, and what is planned next?
- What do you need from us?
- Can I see the underlying data in our own Analytics and Search Console?
Getting better reporting
If your current report does not answer these questions, ask your provider to change it; good agencies will welcome the feedback. Our marketing analytics and reporting service sets up tracking and dashboards that connect marketing to revenue. If you would like a second opinion on your current reports, or want to talk about our SEO services, book a free call.
How Eigme can help
Turn this into results.
We can help you put this into practice with a clear plan, hands-on delivery and reporting in plain English.
Book a free strategy call →Frequently asked questions
What should be in an SEO report?
A good SEO report includes a short summary, business results such as enquiries and sales from organic search, organic traffic trends, Search Console impressions and clicks, rankings for priority searches, local and AI visibility where relevant, technical health, work completed, the plan for next month and any actions needed from you.
How often should I get an SEO report?
Monthly reporting suits most businesses, with a deeper quarterly review to assess strategy. Weekly reports are rarely useful because SEO changes slowly and short-term fluctuations can mislead. Agree access to a live dashboard if you want to check figures between reports.
Which SEO metrics matter most?
The metrics that connect to revenue matter most: organic enquiries, calls, bookings, sales and revenue. Supporting metrics include impressions, clicks and click-through rate in Search Console, rankings for priority searches and organic traffic to key pages. Impressions and keyword growth are useful early indicators.
Why do my SEO rankings go up but my enquiries do not?
Common reasons include ranking for searches with little buying intent, rankings that are too low on the page to bring many clicks, pages that do not convert visitors, or tracking that misses calls and forms. A good report should investigate this rather than celebrating rankings alone.
Should I have access to the data behind my SEO report?
Yes. You should own your Google Analytics and Search Console accounts and have full access to them, with your agency added as a user. That way you can check the figures yourself and keep your data if you change provider.
