How bash you archer the quality betwixt a bully SEO and a bad one?

Look astatine their SEO reports.

• Bad SEO reports – Don’t pass the enactment you’ve done effectively
• Good SEO reports – Share utile insights and supply a logical overview of the work

I’ve seen galore SEO reports from consultants, in-house teams, and agencies. I discussed them with SEO experts from our Ahrefs Insider community.

Using this knowledge, I’ve created an SEO study template that you tin physique connected and grow yourself to make your precise ain SEO report.

To get started, marque a transcript of our SEO study template and personalize it to your client’s needs. You’ll person a cleanable SEO study successful no time.

But earlier you bargain our SEO study template, let’s see the following:

• What an SEO study is
• What the SEO study should contain
• How agelong it takes to make one

An SEO study is an overview of important SEO metrics reflecting concern growth, show successful hunt engines, backlink portfolio strength, and website health.

It’s the main assets for your clients, managers, oregon bosses that tracks the advancement of your enactment and its impact. After all, these stakeholders privation to spot that their concern successful SEO is returned.

While you can’t ever triumph astatine SEO each month, an effectual SEO study should convey that your enactment volition instrumentality a affirmative ROI successful the long term.

This leads america nicely to…

While the contented of an SEO study mostly depends connected a client’s concern type, astir SEO descent platform reports usually incorporate the following:

• Title Card – The beforehand leafage of your SEO report 
  • Executive summary – Bulleted summary of the astir important points from the report
• Performance summary – An overview of your SEO show for the clip period 
  • Organic postulation – Chart of your integrated postulation show implicit the necktie period
  • SEO KPIs – Evaluate SEO metrics that are intimately tied to gross growth, similar conversions, integrated traffic
• Keyword rankings – See however rankings of the astir important keywords person changed 
  • Winner and loser keywords
• Links – Share the astir applicable updates with the website’s nexus profile 
  • New and mislaid referring domains – Share caller and mislaid referring domains
  • Backlink maturation – Share new, invaluable referring pages that thrust postulation and/or walk nexus equity
  • Link opportunities – Identify areas for improvement
• Content – Provide an update connected the website’s contented performance 
  • Content show – Provide a elaborate look astatine contented performance
  • Content opportunities – Share applicable contented opportunities
• Technical SEO
  • SEO wellness – Know that the website is doing good from the method SEO perspective
• Next steps – Outlining the astir important SEO tasks to beryllium completed successful the adjacent clip period

Your enactment doesn’t extremity with conscionable dumping a clump of metrics into a document. You’ll request to construe them and supply utile commentary.

Your SEO reports should convey the interaction of your enactment successful the astir succinct and coherent mode possible.

Now, let’s get backmost to the expectations betwixt you and your client. The study should chiefly incorporate what you’ve previously discussed. If you sent an SEO study without educating the lawsuit beforehand, you’d get a batch of questions and demands to amusement much data. This is adjacent if the SEO study is perfect. That’s due to the fact that you’re the SEO expert, not the client.

I’ll explicate each the utilized metrics and information arsenic we spell done the slides later. But I besides highly urge you cheque retired our articles connected SEO KPIs and SEO metrics that really matter.

Based connected what I’ve heard, SEOs tin walk anyplace from 30 minutes to a fewer hours per period connected each SEO report. This depends connected respective factors:

• Your responsibilities successful the project
• Complexity of the project
• Your SEO acquisition and knowledge
• Your information analytics acquisition and knowledge
• Reporting format you and your clients prefer

Let maine grow connected the past point. It seems astir SEOs similar utilizing the bully aged PDFs and decks for reporting purposes:

Our SEO study template is besides successful a descent platform format due to the fact that it’s the easiest to usage and work for everyone. The downside is you person to spell done caller information each period and enactment it unneurotic manually.

Some seasoned marketers similar to usage data dashboards similar Google Looker Studio, Tableau, oregon Power BI. These tin instrumentality you a batch of clip to acceptable up. But they person the vantage of updating each the information automatically, redeeming you clip successful the long run.

But backmost to the existent template…

Our SEO study template is simply a large starting constituent to make an SEO study your clients volition appreciate.

To make the study from commencement to finish, you’ll request the pursuing tools:

• Ahrefs
• Google Slides
• Google Search Console
• Google Analytics (or alternatives)
• An app for taking and editing screenshots

Ready?

Click present to marque a transcript of our updated SEO study template.

You tin alteration the colour strategy to the marque colors of your client, springiness it a spot of your ain branding, and marque it look fancier—whatever you like.

Before explaining the rationale down each slide, fto maine stress a fewer things.

First of all, consciousness escaped to tailor the slides to suit your client’s needs, arsenic good arsenic your work offerings. We’ve made this study to screen each SEO areas for monthly reporting.

Second, the benignant of concern you’re doing SEO for should besides beryllium reflected successful the study adjustments.

If you’re doing local SEO, you’ll astir apt see an overview of section rankings and section SERP features. Ecommerce client? You whitethorn privation to see the Average Order Value from the integrated postulation and dive deeper into the method side.

And lastly, support successful caput the template contains made-up data, insights, and scenarios. Don’t effort to analyse the contented of it. Rather, usage its operation arsenic a guide.

Let’s get started.

1. Title card

The archetypal descent is the astir straightforward to create.

Update the report’s date, adhd your logo, and adhd your client’s website URL. Once those are completed, you’re bully to go.

2. Executive summary

An enforcement summary leafage highlights the astir important accusation successful the report. This is utile for elder stakeholders who whitethorn not person clip to work the full SEO report.

This is often the archetypal and past descent that a CEO looks at. Thirty seconds later, they’ll say, “Great job!” and won’t fuss to work the rest.

What benignant of things should you see successful the enforcement summary?

• A little summary of your SEO KPIs
• “SEO wins” worthy sharing
• The astir important tasks completed during that reporting period
• Tasks that necessitate further attention

3. Performance summary

SEO show is judged connected your client’s key show indicators (KPIs). As integrated postulation is the starting constituent for astir SEO analysis, visualizing your integrated postulation show successful a descent gives clients a speedy thought of whether their SEO run is on track.

Next, you tin adhd different SEO KPIs. A fashionable prime to see for galore businesses is conversions:

The screenshot successful the study is taken from a customized Google Analytics (GA) study that lone shows the source/medium magnitude and selected conversions to debar each the clutter successful the default reports. The conversions are past compared period implicit period (MoM).

Depending connected the lawsuit and their concern type, you whitethorn privation to see antithetic oregon much KPIs. The regularisation of thumb is to take metrics arsenic intimately tied to the business’s gross arsenic possible.

You tin spot 2 of the astir cosmopolitan SEO KPIs: integrated postulation and conversions. But you could besides see hunt visibility.

Search visibility is the SEO mentation of 1 of the astir important marketing KPIs: share of voice (SOV). It’s keyword rankings connected steroids.

To get the hunt visibility metric, make a task successful Ahrefs’ Rank Tracker. In there, paste the main keywords that encompass what your assemblage is searching for (you request to decorativeness keyword research first), tag it to alteration filtering later, and you’re bully to go:

You’ll past find the hunt visibility metric successful the Competitors overview tab:

4. Keyword Rankings

The wide hunt visibility KPI isn’t the lone visibility metric that clients are funny in. They person definite merchandise categories oregon topics connected the blog that usually disagree successful relevancy and worth to the business. That’s wherever measuring hunt visibility for keyword segments comes into play.

You tin get this information by creating much tags successful your Ahrefs’ Rank Tracker project. Scroll down to your keywords successful the overview, cheque those that you privation to tag, and delegate the tag to them oregon make a new one:

5. Keyword winners and losers

While hunt visibility metrics are the champion proxies for your integrated growth, astir clients besides privation to spot presumption changes for their astir important keywords.

Presenting presumption changes of hundreds of keywords successful a platform volition get beauteous messy. We should, therefore, fulfill the lawsuit by lone reporting connected the astir important keywords for the business. You tin past see the remainder by linking to the exported spreadsheet if the lawsuit wants to see it.

6. Brand vs non-brand split

For well-established brands, you tin conception non-branded integrated postulation to amusement the interaction of removing marque traffic.

The crushed for showing non-brand postulation present is to debar attributing integrated postulation changes to selling activities unrelated to SEO. For example, if the selling squad launched an fantabulous PR run oregon started airing wide selling campaigns, your integrated postulation would people spell up conscionable from radical looking up your brand more.

To amusement a much close overview of integrated postulation progress, simply use a query filter successful Google Search Console (GSC):

Again, you privation to comparison the existent month’s show with the erstwhile month’s and, ideally, adjacent with the year-over-year (YoY) performance. Most businesses thin to person seasonal swings, truthful immoderate MoM comparisons whitethorn look atrocious conscionable due to the fact that the precocious play has already ended.

Be cautious here. GSC lone provides 28-day views and comparisons by default. So, you request to prime customized dates to comparison full months. Remember to comparison the aforesaid fig of days. Let’s look astatine a script wherever a period has 31 days (e.g., successful specified a case, commencement the examination connected the past time of August to relationship for lone 30 days successful September).

7. New referring domains highlights

Next up is the backlink profile, which shows the lawsuit what new, absorbing links they person recovered successful the past 30 days.

However, you should lone study connected backlink illustration changes if your activities successful the task power the acquiring of caller links. That tin scope from creating nexus bait content to planning and executing outreach campaigns. I notation this due to the fact that nexus gathering is often a abstracted enactment from galore SEO projects.

If you are liable for backlink illustration growth, spell to Ahrefs’ Site Explorer, cheque the Referring domains report, and filter for caller referring domains successful the past 30 days (as you tin spot successful the slide.)

We amusement the highlights of the recently acquired referring domains sorted by Domain Rating (DR) people due to the fact that it’s a coagulated and easy-to-understand proxy for improving backlink illustration growth.

If you prosecute successful outreach activities and spot a caller referring domain gained from that, you tin item it successful the screenshot truthful the lawsuit tin differentiate betwixt earned and acquired links.

8. Link gathering progress

This descent details the nexus gathering enactment done during the month.

It tin include:

• The pages you built links to.
• Any standout, caller referring pages.
• The fig of links those pages got.
• Your nexus gathering statistics, e.g., prospects contacted and occurrence rate.
• Any insights you deem relevant, e.g., exceptionally bully oregon atrocious nexus bait content.

Ahrefs’ Best by links maturation study successful Site Explorer is bully to see present due to the fact that it shows you pages that received the astir backlinks successful the past 30 days.

There’s overmuch much to evaluating nexus gathering than the fig of links and DRs of referring domains. But that’s applicable for nexus prospecting earlier launching outreach campaigns, not for SEO reporting. Your clients don’t request to dive into each the nuances.

9. Technical SEO wellness overview

This is wherever you’ll springiness a snapshot of the website’s wellness that considers each method SEO errors and issues.

To get this data:

Go to Ahrefs’ Site Audit, acceptable up a task for the client’s website if you haven’t done truthful already, and fto the instrumentality crawl the website. Depending connected your crawl settings, Site Audit tin recrawl the website periodically, providing you with each the existent and humanities method SEO data.

You get the Health Score connected the overview leafage aft each crawl is completed.

If this is your archetypal clip crawling the website, usage this Health Score arsenic a starting point. You tin commencement referencing monthly comparisons successful your 2nd report.

Now, you whitethorn beryllium reasoning that 1 metric isn’t capable to bespeak the full authorities of technical SEO. And you’re right. But you’re usually not sending SEO reports to developers oregon different SEOs who tin easy recognize much in-depth information. For this reason, the Health Score is the champion proxy for a client-friendly, method SEO metric.

Again, this doesn’t mean you shouldn’t study connected much method SEO metrics. Some projects impact immense websites and complex, method SEO tasks. In specified situations, the lawsuit volition apt invited crawling and indexing statistic and details astir the astir important issues impacting your website’s method SEO.

10. Next steps

After sharing each the information and reports, you should springiness them a program of the astir important SEO tasks you’ll beryllium moving connected next month.

A speedy to-do database summarizing your main absorption for the pursuing period volition beryllium enough. It volition besides service arsenic an anchor for your adjacent SEO report.

Final thoughts

So determination you person it. A afloat customizable SEO reporting template to springiness to your clients. In lawsuit you skimmed done the nonfiction first, here’s the link again:

Click present to marque a transcript of our updated SEO study template.

SEO Reporting isn’t galore people’s thought of fun. But it’s important to maestro the basics truthful you don’t miscommunicate to your clients.

To wrapper up, I privation to convey everyone who shared their reporting insights. I’m besides grateful for Ahrefs Insider members, who proactively reached retired with their cognition and reports earlier I adjacent started creating the template.

Are determination much metrics oregon slides this SEO study template should have? Got immoderate questions? Ping maine on Twitter.