Creating a detailed SEO report for clients often proves to be a tough and complicated task. Selecting the details and KPIs for the description is a tricky job. Thankfully, a combination of free and premium solutions make things easy for agencies.
Below are the most widely used tools for finding the right metrics.
- SEMrush
- Google Data Studio
- Google Analytics
- Google Search Console.
Running an SEO campaign without consistent reporting is like driving a car in circles. Both the agency and client need to monitor the areas of strategy that yield superb results and those failing to prove fruitful as well. Here’re details for six aspects of the campaign that most experts prefer to include in their SEO report.
1> KPIs
Key Performance Indicators are a set of primary metrics that help determine if the search engine optimization campaign assists in lead generation and sales.
Some of the most significant KPIs are increased numbers of email subscribers, lead magnet download, landing page conversion, an increase in the numbers of store visitors, increased leads, and sales through various channels.
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Conversions
In most cases, clients and search engine experts create goals for newsletter sign-ups, web form submissions, and, most importantly, online purchases. Monitoring the percentage of website visitors who perform these actions can help ensure the campaign makes impact progress when it comes to reaching the goals.
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Traffic from organic search results
Generating organic traffic is the most crucial sign suggesting the search engine optimization campaign is succeeding in increasing the number of website visitors.
Traffic coming from daily searches can be easily tracked with the help of Google Analytics.
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Sales numbers
Of course, every business wants to see the funds spent on search engine optimization campaigns turn into sales numbers. KPIs help in connecting the website’s SEO performance with the firm’s revenue.
Google Analytics’ Enable Ecommerce and other e-commerce tracking tools can help derive stats even if you are selling multiple products on your site.
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Product or service description material downloads
A considerable percentage of visitors leave the site without buying anything. However, the efforts would be worth it even if they sign-up for a demo or download promotional material. The email id and other information collected from the prospect can prove vital for the lead management team.
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Addition in email subscribers
Several studies have pointed out the significance of various emails in increasing revenue. Thus, email sign-ups’ growth should be considered as a crucial component of KPI.
2> Include a detailed report for the website’s health
Some of the crucial factors that play an essential role in the website’s rankings are session duration, bounce rate, broken links, and the page loading time. Besides these, SEO analysts also assess metrics like site speed, indexed pages, missing Meta tags, bad redirects, page crawl per day, crawl errors, domain and page authority, server response time, and schema markup. The site health report must include stats for these factors, their negative impact, and recommendations for fixing problems.
Tools like SEO Site Checkup, Woorank, and Ubersuggest can assist in retrieving accurate site health stats.
3> Include details concerning the search visibility score
The search visibility score provides a glimpse into the site’s organic rankings performance. The rating shows how often the selected domain appeared in the search results and a list of possible related keywords that the site isn’t getting ranked.
Digital marketing experts use tools that offer a detailed score for the website’s organic performance once the user enters the site’s domain. These software programs can also provide a list of keywords responsible for driving visibility growth or decline during the selected week/month.
If the client wishes to monitor website optimization’s early results, the site visibility score can show a glimpse of success. But remember, the keywords and the rankings often vary from one country to another, depending on the user’s device.
4> Add content performance report
Content performance should be given significant importance, whether it is the company’s editorial content or a post on third-party blogs.
Authors whose content has shown superb performance (shares, traffic) should be encouraged to write often.
The content performance should highlight superb performing authors, keywords, and a list of possible topics. Highlighting low performing content is also essential. It can help the content team to take down stale content and plan further topics accordingly.
Some of the vital content engagement metrics are the conversion rate, time spent on each blog post, pages per visit, bounce rate, and scroll depth. These metrics should be included as a part of the content performance section in the SEO report.
The report should highlight pages that get the most number of visits daily. Add details for referral sources as well.
5> Action plan for turning weaknesses into opportunities
Clients are often interested in knowing shortcomings, their meaning, and the solution for rectifying them. It is crucial to signify the client that the firm understands the next steps that need to be taken to convert problems into opportunities.
Short-term strategies to reach the goal faster, along with actionable recommendations, would be appreciated. The client remains well-aware of what he or she should expect going forward.
Lastly, don’t expect clients to analyze the data and reach their conclusions. If the client isn’t experienced enough, he or she might focus only on the worst part. It is always advisable to explain everything in summary at the beginning of the report.
6> A detailed list of activities performed on the existing parts of the website
At times, clients can ask your team to work on a website that has thousands of pages. Thus, there should be a section in the SEO report highlighting pages, parts of the site that your team has worked on, and untouched pages. It helps clients to understand how your organization is making progress in the project. Adding a summary highlighting all the procedures performed on old pages, and visible advantages for the same can be a good idea.
