What you should look for in a monthly SEO report

Every month you should take a step back from your SEO campaign, so you don’t miss the forest for the trees.

Why is a monthly SEO report critical?

Those of us managing an SEO campaign have a lot to do. There’s always more we can do to improve our SEO results. However, if we keep doing things, we might forget to ask ourselves, “Is this working?” Yes, this is true even if you follow the SEO Game Plan. You still need to stop and check to ensure your efforts are producing your desired results.

Don’t miss the forest for the trees. If you step back and review your Google Analytics data, you’ll be encouraged to see that your efforts are starting to pay off, motivating you to continue your SEO campaign.

What should you expect from a monthly SEO report?

An inadequate SEO report will tell you:

• Where you “rank.” What good is rank if it doesn’t produce traffic?
• How much traffic do you have? What good is traffic if it doesn’t produce new leads or sales?
• How many tasks have you accomplished? What good is doing stuff if it doesn’t produce results?
• A bunch of numbers. Numbers only mean something when compared along some dimension. You have 1,000 sessions and a 75% engagement rate. Is that good or bad? Who knows, unless you compare it to:
  • The month before
  • The previous year
  • The source of the traffic
  • etc.

A helpful monthly report should tell you:

• What is working
• What is not working
• What you should be doing more of
• What you should be doing less of
• How can you better achieve your goals

The whole point of monthly SEO reports is to provide actionable items to improve results.

Below is a monthly SEO report template I use for all my clients.

Create a Helpful Monthly Report