SEO stands for search engine optimization and it’s a complex process that involves many steps. Your goal right now is not just increasing traffic on your site but also getting more conversions from those visitors. So how can you tell whether or not all of those efforts have paid off? The answer lies in an SEO report. While there are plenty of tools out there you can use to run these reports, they won't necessarily give you the information you're looking for. To make sure you're doing everything possible to build up your business successfully, here's what you'll want to look at when creating your own SEO reports.
The first thing you probably want to know about any kind of report is exactly what data will be presented by the tool. For instance, if you were running a campaign with multiple keywords and wanted to see which one was performing best, you'd most likely want to know this information. You could go through each keyword individually and check its performance, but that would take time, especially if you had hundreds of them. Instead, simply using the SEMrush tool, you can create a single report showing all of your keywords together. This way, you don't miss anything important (or spend unnecessary time).
You might also find yourself wondering what other metrics are available within the report itself. When working with SEO, we often refer back to our analytics dashboard, where we track the number of visits, page views, bounce rate, etc., as well as their location. However, sometimes we really want to dig deeper than this. Maybe you've found some valuable insights in your analytics dashboards, but want something more detailed. Or maybe you want to compare two different campaigns side-by-side so you can spot trends and patterns easier. In both cases, you'll want to add additional columns to your existing reports. Let's take a quick look at what you can expect.
As mentioned above, the purpose of any SEO report is to provide insight into your website's success. There are several ways you can do this, depending on what type of information you're interested in. If you're looking only at specific pages and tracking their ranking across various keyphrases, then you may end up wanting to use a separate tool for that task. On the other hand, if you're looking at overall rankings, you'll probably want to combine results from multiple sources. That's why the ideal solution is to use a combination of Excel spreadsheets and online services like SemRush.
For starters, let's say you're trying to figure out how much money you spent on advertising versus what comes directly from organic searches. You can start by gathering your data from Google AdWords and then importing it into Excel along with data from your Google Analytics account. Next, you'll want to set up Google Search Console accounts for every domain you manage. Then, you can connect your Google Analytics and Google Search console accounts together via API integrations. After that, you'll be able to pull down all kinds of useful data including daily ad impressions, clicks, CTR, average position, cost per click, conversion rates, and more. It doesn't stop there either. By adding another column to your spreadsheet for each metric listed above, you can get even more accurate reporting.
If you're managing a large portfolio of websites, you can automate this entire process by setting up automated workflows in Google Docs. Simply upload your spreadsheet file into Google Drive and choose "Automate Workflow" under File & Settings. From there, you can select tasks based on certain criteria such as date range, URL pattern, and keywords. Once you complete the workflow, it will automatically update your spreadsheet with new data from Google Ads, Google Search Console, and Google Analytics.
Another great feature of this method is that you can easily export your data into CSV files and send them to colleagues who aren't familiar with the setup. All they have to do is download the CSV and import it into Excel. Now, they too can receive regular updates regarding your sites' performance!
Finally, if you're particularly tech savvy, you can always try building your own custom reports using Google Sheets. Although this option isn't quite as convenient as having someone else handle it for you, you still retain control over the exact format of your data. Plus, if you ever decide to switch platforms, you can keep using whatever service you currently prefer.
Once you've got access to all of your data, you'll want to organize it in a clear manner. As previously stated, you may already have done this manually using Excel. But if you haven't, you'll definitely want to invest the extra time to sort things out properly before presenting your findings to others. A good rule of thumb is to stick with standard formats whenever possible. This includes headers (such as Date & Time), labels (Keyword/Domain Name), and units (e.g. $ / % / CPM) as well as consistent color schemes.
In addition, since SEO is constantly changing, it makes sense to present your data on a rolling 12-month basis. Many people tend to forget that a year has passed since they last updated the report. And because everyone sees the same data, it becomes easy to overlook changes that occurred months ago. Therefore, it's better to show current numbers rather than outdated ones.
Lastly, remember that while you can get away without it, being prepared ahead of time is helpful. Because you never know when unexpected events will come up, it's usually wise to keep backups of previous versions of your report handy. Having this ready means you can quickly rerun the report without losing precious time.
Now that you understand what to include in your SEO reports, it's time to learn how to actually perform the calculations behind them. Fortunately, this part is relatively straightforward thanks to Google Analytics. Just head to Admin & Reporting, enter "Search Traffic Sources" in the top left corner, and navigate to Traffic Sources Overview. Click the dropdown menu next to Campaign Source and select Customize Report Template. Select New > Create a New Template. Give your report a name and hit Save.
Next, you'll want to change the view mode to Daily Value instead of Total Visits. Hit Apply Changes. Now, you should be able to see your newly created report in the list below. At this point, you should click the green + icon button to expand the View Column section. Scroll down until you reach the bottom row and uncheck Include Content Path. Finally, you'll want to select the correct field from the dropdown menu next to Display Field. Choose Page Title for Domain. Make sure the Sort Order is set to Descending.
This will enable you to filter out individual domains once you've selected a few in your main report. From here, you can tweak the settings further by adjusting the fields you'd like to display. Also note that you can repeat this process for other types of reports, such as Cost Per Conversion.
To finish up, you'll want to save your template again. Since you plan on exporting this regularly, it's smart to store it somewhere safe so you don't lose it later. You can do this by clicking the blue Download Template link located after saving your new template. Doing this allows you to grab it anytime you want to share it between computers.
The easiest way to get started with SEO reports is to use a report template provided by Google. These templates allow you to customize the layout and appearance of the data displayed in your final report. They're also extremely versatile and can help you avoid common issues encountered when designing your own reports. Unfortunately, these templates are only accessible through the Webmaster Tools interface. To access them, you'll need to log into your Google Account and navigate to Site Preferences. Under Appearance & Behavior, click Advanced Options and scroll down to Accessible Reports.
From here, you can find the relevant options for creating customized SEO reports. Just pick whichever reports you think would benefit your users the most and click Enable Accessibility Features. Then, you can choose the desired template from the dropdown box labeled Show Template Files. Lastly, click OK and refresh your browser window to load the new version of your report.
SEO is all about optimizing websites and getting them ranked high in search engines. You'll want to keep track of how well these efforts are going, though, so that you can see if they're working as intended. This is where an SEO report comes in handy.
An SEO report will give you detailed data on a website’s performance in terms of traffic and rankings in major search engines such as Google, Bing, Yahoo!, etc. It also gives information on keywords used by people searching for relevant content related to that site's main topic or niche.
But what exactly should go into this type of report? What is it supposed to include? How much time would it take to create one from scratch? Are there tools out there that make creating a good SEO report easy or even automated? Let us explore these questions below.
There are many ways to access an SEO report. The most common way is through third-party software or services, but you may be able to find something within your own company too.
For instance, Google provides its users with a dashboard called Google Trends which lets you view real-time trends across various topics. These trends change over time, so you must use different dates to compare results between two months. But at least you have some sort of visual representation of how things are doing right now.
Google's analytics tool offers similar functionality. If you've set up tracking code (which we explain here), then any changes made to the page's layout, new content added, or links clicked on will show up as events in Google Analytics.
You can also check out other web statistics programs including Woopra, Quantcast, Alexa, Kounta, and more. They provide similar features and reporting capabilities, although not necessarily in the same format as Google Analytics. There are also plenty of apps available online that help analyze stats for specific sites.
Another option is to simply hire someone else to make your report for you. For instance, you could ask a freelancer to submit a weekly list of top ten pages viewed per keyword based on data pulled from Google Analytics. Or you might pay a professional marketing agency for a month-long campaign to optimize your business' website and gather a full year's worth of historical data before sending it off to you.
Finally, you can build your own custom report using your preferred method of analysis. In fact, many businesses choose to automate their process because of the amount of work involved and the sheer amount of data being collected.
If you have a team of people managing multiple projects, they probably don't have time to spend analyzing each individual project individually. So why not just put together a single SEO report that covers everything? That way everyone knows when to start paying attention to certain metrics, and you don't have to worry about missing important details.
A great example of this approach is the SemRush platform. As a leading provider of SEO research and optimization solutions, SemRush has created several templates meant to simplify the creation of SEO reports. With these templates, anyone can quickly generate an entire report without having to manually input every bit of data.
They call them "searches" -- essentially mini versions of actual searches performed against Google, Bing, YouTube, Amazon, Facebook, Twitter, Wikipedia, Instagram, Pinterest, LinkedIn, Yelp, Foursquare, Quora, Tumblr, Reddit, Digg, Flickr, Vimeo, SoundCloud, and 500 others. All you have to do is enter your desired parameters, click run, and watch the magic happen!
All of the above options come down to personal preference. Some prefer to use outside resources while others feel comfortable taking matters into their own hands. Whatever works best for your particular needs, try to stick to one source of truth throughout your entire SEO journey.
The term SEO stands for “search engine optimisation”. It refers to the practice of improving a website’s visibility on search engine result pages (SERPs). A SERP is basically a listing of search results generated by Google, Bing, and other popular search engines. Each listing shows the title of a webpage along with snippets of text containing key words relevant to that webpage.
When someone types in a query into the search bar, those keywords appear in bold font underneath the snippet. The page ranking algorithm determines which pages rank higher than others based on factors such as relevance, popularity, authority, freshness, and quality.
So how do you know whether you're doing enough SEO for your website? An SEO report helps you answer this question.
In addition to providing insight into your current status, an SEO report also acts as a roadmap for future improvements. Once you identify areas needing improvement, you can implement tactics designed to increase your chances of success.
As mentioned earlier, there are numerous methods of collecting data for your SEO report. However, when considering the different sources, you should prioritize accuracy over speed.
While faster data collection means less hassle overall, it doesn't always mean better results. While quicker turnaround times may seem appealing, sometimes it makes sense to wait until you have a few weeks of solid numbers before submitting your report. Especially if you aren't 100% sure of what you're looking at.
It's also critical that whatever data you collect represents accurate values rather than estimates. For instance, if a piece of content was published three days ago but you only captured data since yesterday morning, you won't be able to accurately determine its influence or value.
Keep that in mind when choosing a timeframe to measure your website's performance during. Ideally, you'd want to capture data spanning a period of six months minimum. Even longer periods are preferable, but that depends entirely on your goals.
Once you decide on a suitable timeframe, you'll need to figure out how to organize all of this data properly. There are lots of formats and systems out there, but one thing remains constant across all of them: consistency.
This consistency allows you to easily compare past data with present data. By comparing two consecutive years of data, for example, you can deduce whether the number of visitors increased or decreased. And if you were to compare data from 2017 with 2018, you could tell whether the growth rate changed due to any external forces.
Now that you understand what an SEO report is and how it functions, let's talk about what kind of report you expect to receive. After all, no one wants to waste valuable time trying to decipher meaningless numbers.
Below is an overview of what a regular SEO report looks like. Although each service will vary depending on the platform used, it typically includes the following sections:
Keyword Research Report - This section contains the keywords researched, along with their respective ranks and positions.
Rank Tracking Report - This section contains a summary of the last 30 days, broken down by day and hour.
Page Performance Analysis - This section lists all of the pages indexed by Google, along with their unique URLs and titles.
Content Creation & Optimization Report - This section describes the steps taken to improve the content published on the website.
Links/Social Media Impact Report - Similar to the Content Creation & Optimization Report, this section analyzes the impact of social media posts and mentions on the website.
Backlinks Audit Report - This section summarizes backlink activity associated with the target URL(s) analyzed in previous sections.
Backlink Profile Report - This section reveals information regarding incoming and outgoing link profiles.
Analytics Summary Report - The final section presents a snapshot of the website's performance in terms of traffic, revenue, and conversions.
That said, remember that this is really just the tip of the iceberg. Not all SEO services offer the exact same level of detail, so you may end up receiving slightly different reports depending on who you hire.
However, regardless of the differences, you should still be able to glean useful insights from whichever report you receive. Hopefully this article helped clear up any confusion surrounding SEO reports.
SEO is an ongoing process that can take months or even years to achieve its full potential. But at some point, it's time to check whether your efforts have paid off and if there's anything else you should be doing to improve your search engine rankings.
If you're looking to implement more effective strategies with SEO, then this article will give you all of your tools to make sure your SEO strategy is on track. We'll look at how to set up metrics and KPIs for SEO success as well as how to set up a monthly SEO reporting system using Google Analytics and Google Search Console. If you want to learn about setting up these two systems together, we've got another guide just for you!
Google Analytics is one of our most popular tools and has become a cornerstone of many online businesses' marketing platforms. It allows you to track everything from web traffic to conversions so you know exactly what people are doing when they visit your website.
But did you know that you also have access to analytics data related to SEO? This includes things like keyword density, backlinks, site speed, and other details relating to your content and keywords. You can use this information to measure your effectiveness and determine which actions were successful.
You can see all of this data by clicking "Search Traffic" in the left-hand menu bar under "Behavior." Then click on "Site Content," followed by "Keyword Analysis." Once inside the page, scroll down until you find the section titled "Content Performance". From here, you can select any type of metric you'd like to analyze. For example, you could choose "Top Pages", "Pageviews", or "Bounce Rate", among others.
Once you've chosen the data points you'd like to monitor, hit "Save As Report" underneath each category. That way, you won't lose all of your findings after opening them once again.
In addition to viewing the information within Google Analytics itself, you may also want to try using Google's own SEO tool called Search Console.
Google Search Console (formerly known as Webmaster Tools) gives you detailed insights into your SEO performance. Using this tool, you can view statistics such as bounce rate, pages per session, keywords used, top organic results, referring sites, etc. These figures help you understand where you stand compared to competitors and identify areas that require improvement.
The good news is that both tools work hand in hand and provide similar functionality. So whichever service you decide to go with, it doesn't matter because you'll still be able to gather valuable SEO data regardless.
When building SEO reports for a client, you always start by creating a spreadsheet first. The reason why is simple: Excel is the best program out there for organizing and presenting data. With spreadsheets, you can easily add rows and columns, format cells, and manipulate numbers without having to worry about formatting issues. Plus, sheets can be shared across multiple users, allowing everyone involved to keep tabs on their respective metrics.
As soon as you finish writing your sheet, head over to the company's website and grab the URL for the document. Now that you have the file location, open it up from anywhere via File Explorer, Finder, or Chrome. Next, navigate to the folder containing the.xlsx file you downloaded earlier. Right-click the name of the spreadsheet and pick "Open With...". Choose Microsoft Office 2016 XLSX Spreadsheet Editor instead of WordPad or Notepad. Click OK.
After loading the document, you should immediately notice something missing: the headers. To fix this issue, simply right-click the row header and choose Insert Columns. Add four empty columns before the last column and rename them accordingly. After naming them, drag and drop them below the existing ones.
Now that you've added new headers, you can begin entering your desired data. In order to enter values accurately, double-check to make sure they match the corresponding cell number. Also, don't forget to remove extra spaces between words since Excel does not recognize white space as actual characters. And finally, remember to change the unit of measurement whenever possible.
For instance, if you wanted to display a percentage value, convert it into percent instead of decimal. Likewise, if you had to input a dollar amount, round it up rather than rounding down. This ensures accuracy and makes your data easier to read.
Additionally, you can sort the data based on a particular field. Simply highlight the column heading, press Ctrl + A (Select All), and press Delete. Then sort your selection alphabetically and save the changes.
With those steps complete, now you can run the report through Semrush and send it directly to the customer. Or alternatively, you can export the entire document to PDF and email it along with a link to download it. Either option works great but with either method, you must ensure that the customer clicks the link to actually receive a copy of the report.
That being said, if you're interested in learning more about SEO reports, please feel free to explore one of our guides on how to produce quality SEO reports.
It's important to note that every business needs different types of SEO reports depending on the size of their team and budget. Some companies only employ freelancers while others hire employees who deal exclusively with SEO tasks. Regardless of whether you use contractors or staff members, though, the following tips apply to anyone dealing with SEO.
First, you need to define what kind of report you plan to prepare. Do you want to show your customers how much money you've spent on SEO activities or how many links you've acquired? Perhaps you'd prefer to showcase your most recent improvements made to your ranking. Whatever the case may be, you'll need to establish goals beforehand.
Next, you'll need to figure out how often you should release the report. Depending on the nature of your business, you might only update monthly or weekly. On the other hand, if your company deals with ecommerce stores and constantly receives new products to sell, you might need to share updates daily.
To generate a report, follow these steps:
1. Create a spreadsheet with the necessary fields. Make sure you include all relevant data regarding your SEO endeavors.
2. Open up the spreadsheet and fill it with data. Be sure to record dates, times, URLs/pages visited, keywords searched, conversion rates, etc.
3. Export the finished product to the appropriate format. There are several options available including CSV, DOC, PPT, TXT, HTML, and PDF files. However, the ideal format depends entirely upon your audience and purpose.
4. Send a notification to your team member(s). Let them know when the report is ready. They'll need to log onto a computer or smartphone and open the attached file.
5. Update the report periodically. Remember, you need to reflect any significant developments.
6. Repeat Steps 1 - 5 until your project is completed.
7. Publish the final version to your website or blog.
While this isn't necessarily the longest list of instructions ever written, we hope it helps clear up any confusion around SEO reports. If you have further questions, feel free to ask us in the comments below!
Just follow our battle-tested guidelines and rake in the profits.