As an SEO professional, you know how to adapt your services to your clients’ needs. You keep track of the latest SEO trends and understand what tactics you should use to help a client achieve the desired goal. Above all, you have the right tools to monitor and streamline most of your SEO activities and SEO reports.

However, just because you are killing it in SEO doesn’t mean you will make your clients satisfied. You also need to communicate with them regularly and honestly. And, this is where client reporting shines, helping you build trust with your clients.

Now, exporting a bunch of data from your SEO tools to PDF files or copying them to Excel spreadsheets is not enough to keep a client happy. Their inboxes are packed with a bunch of relevant emails. Creating a complex SEO report will only frustrate them and discourage them from opening your emails. Inconsistencies in agency-client communications may harm your collaboration on multiple levels.

Precisely because of that, you need to create easy-to-understand and aesthetically appealing SEO reports your clients will open and read. Here are a few simple steps to follow.

Aligning Reports with Clients’ Goals

To demonstrate the effectiveness of your SEO services, you first need to talk to a client and ask them what their goals and expectations are. Now, those clients who are familiar with the basics of SEO will be able to state their objectives clearly. However, if a client has very little SEO knowledge and experience, you will first need to educate them so they can decide on what their SEO goals are. Also, if you notice that a client is setting unrealistic expectations, be honest with them and help them set achievable goals. 

Once you establish goals, you need to agree upon the metrics you will use. They tell your clients whether your SEO services are helping them achieve their goals.

That is why you need to talk to your clients and set the right targets. For example, do they want to generate more leads, boost online sales, increase organic traffic, or maximize brand awareness? Each of these tactics requires a specific set of KPIs to measure a client’s progress.

Tailor SEO Reports to your Clients’ Needs

Creating reporting templates can save you lots of time, but sending a uniform report to all clients may not be as effective as you think. Remember that your clients have different SEO knowledge levels, as well as different experiences with SEO companies. The one-size-fits-all approach won’t resonate with them. Just like each website requires different SEO strategies and goals, client reports you create should also be tailored to their specific needs.

Know who you are writing reports for 

If you are sending a report to an SMB owner, chances are they will have little or no SEO knowledge. In this case, you will need to adapt your reports to their needs and provide clear explanations. Above all, you should keep your reports straightforward. Use simple language, shorten sentences, and avoid complex industry jargon. Bombarding a client with a bunch of complex metrics and datasheets will only confuse them.

On the other hand, if you are sending a report to a company’s digital marketing team, they will expect you to skip simple explanations and provide more granular insights into the KPIs critical to their campaign success.

Visualize SEO data

Apart from your writing style, you also need to pay attention to the design of your reports. One of the most effective ways to present your data and make it easy to follow and understand is to use visual elements, such as graphics or charts. You should also leave lots of white space to make it easier for a client to read a report on both smaller and larger screens. Above all, balance your textual and visual data. Make sure that colours, fonts, or data visualizations support the information you are presenting. 

Automate Reporting Processes

Creating consistent and valuable reports for each client is a complex process that will take up lots of your time. To track clients’ performance, you will need to use various SEO tools. The choice of tools also varies, depending on the client’s specific goals and needs. Then, you will need to go through piles of data to find the most important ones and export them to an Excel spreadsheet. Finally, you will need to design a document or use a slide-share presentation to create a report worth reading.

Luckily, you can use automated reporting tools and create a custom marketing dashboard for each client. SEO reporting software integrates with the most popular SEO tools. You can combine the widgets from those tools and, in this way, track only those metrics that are relevant to each client. You can also create SEO dashboards and share access with a client. Unlike Excel spreadsheets, your dashboards will be updated automatically when changes occur. Finally, you can export SEO data to PDF and schedule reports to auto-send. This way, you will increase client reporting consistency and boost clients’ satisfaction.

What to Include in your Reports?

Even though the choice of metrics will depend on your client’s goals, here is a brief list of common elements of an informative SEO report:

Organic traffic

Traffic helps your clients understand what their common visitors are and where they come from. SEO professionals should focus on organic traffic, as it is directly linked with clients’ organic search rankings.
Traffic is the lifeblood of every digital business. Understanding who a client’s visitors are, and where they are coming from is an essential component of every marketing and growth strategy.

Conversion rates and goal completion

Observing traffic as an isolated metric doesn’t make sense. Your goal is to understand whether a client’s traffic converts. As your conversion rates are tightly related to other metrics, such as website speed, bounce rate, and so forth, they will help you explain the rest of the report more easily.

Conversions come in numerous shapes, including contact form completions, lead magnet downloads, live chat triggers, email newsletter subscriptions, and so forth. Logically, there are different conversion-related metrics you can choose to track, including URL destination, visit duration, and pages per visit.

Keyword Ranking

Keyword rankings are the most popular metric among your clients. Irrespective of their niche, they probably have a list of keywords they want to rank for Google. And, your job is to help them perform keyword research, rank for the right phrases and, above all, measure how they work on their rankings. For example, if you notice that a client’s rankings are stagnating or dropping, that usually means that your SEO tactics are not working for them and that you should change something. You can monitor keyword rankings via SEMrush and Ahrefs which are easily integrated with your automated SEO reporting tools.

Search Visibility

Your clients will want to know how well they perform in Google’s SERPs. Search visibility will help you understand how to optimize clients’ rankings and link-building strategies. This is where Google’s Search Console shines. It lets you observe a client’s website performance, from their CTR to crawl data, in Google’s search index. As this is one of the most important tools in any SEO toolbox, it integrates with most digital marketing reporting tools.

Future Practices and Recommendations

One of the most significant parts of the client reporting process is analyzing the metrics mentioned above. Based on the SEO data you present, you should explain what works for your clients’ SEO efforts, as well as inform them about your future course of action.

Conclusions

Client reporting is the nerve centre of your client relationship management. It validates the effectiveness of your SEO services, improves your communications with clients, and builds trust with them. This is why your reports need to be simple, visually appealing and, above all, client-centred. I hope these tips help!

The post Best Practices for Creating an SEO Report appeared first on Tricky Enough.

Anyone who has experience running a business knows that it is important to know how well the business marketing campaign is doing, preferably in real-time, so that the business trajectory can be changed if it’s spiraling out of control. If the business marketing campaign is conducted online, the business owner may need an SEO report.

But before we explore more about this SEO report and what you can learn from it, let’s find out first what SEO means.

What Is SEO?

The acronym SEO stands for search engine optimization. This means employing strategies that will get your website to the top of search engine results pages. Most Internet surfers do not go past the first page of search results so SEO is important to get the attention of this chosen group.

If a digital marketing campaign relying on SEO is well planned and well-executed, a business will rank higher in search results and can possibly bring in more sales for the business owner.

So now that we know that, let’s check out the definition of an SEO report.

What Is An SEO Report?

An SEO report or SEO report template, which may also be referred to as an SEO audit, involves an expert in search engine optimization who is responsible for monitoring the digital marketing efforts of a business. Essentially, the report will provide details about whether the business’ online marketing campaign is effective.

If the business marketing campaign online is not doing well, that should also go in the SEO report. For this reason, some SEO reports are done on a monthly basis. However, the business owner has to be aware of what an SEO report means, otherwise, it’s just another effort that won’t support the company performance at all.

What A Business Owner Can Learn From An SEO Report?

The SEO report should provide a bird’s-eye view of the performance of the business online. The metrics it includes will help a business owner figure out whether there should be more effort given towards marketing online, or whether the effort is not worth the money being spent on it at all.

Here is what a business owner should pay attention to in an SEO report:

1. Amount Of Traffic That Comes Through Your Site

This refers to the number of visitors that went to the business website, as well as their behavior while there, whether they surfed around, searched for products and/or services, or availed of these products and/or services. Ideally, a visitor will become a customer and buy something. However, in less than ideal conditions, the website might only get visitors and little to no customers. This is the biggest concern of a business owner.

Ideally, the website should have steady traffic flowing to it. If traffic is dull or even zero, then the SEO campaign is not working at all. On the other hand, an effective SEO campaign should trigger a rise in traffic. Sometimes, traffic is measured on a per-page basis. This shows that some pages of the business may be more attractive to visitors. Through the SEO report, you may be able to identify why some pages seem to be bringing in more traffic than others.

2. How High Your Bounce Rate Is

The bounce rate pertains to visitors who simply glance in then leave. Their visit is literally measured in seconds. For a business owner, the bounce rate can be a difficult pill to swallow as it may mean that the website’s content is not appealing or attractive enough to grab a visitor’s attention for more than a few seconds. The task for an SEO professional facing a large bounce rate is to make sure such visitors will want to stay longer and possibly buy something.

For example, many websites now have videos playing on their page when a visitor enters. If the content of the video appeals to the visitor, then the visit will be a long one. But if the video encounters problems such as slow Internet connection, then the user experience will not be memorable and, most likely, the visitor will soon leave. Having an SEO report can help determine which factors may be causing your website’s high bounce rate. 

3. Keyword Rankings

A keyword string is a series of words linked together logically that are then integrated into the content of the website. This means that the keyword string used for SEO purposes may help the website rank higher (or lower) in search results for that specific keyword string. An SEO report can help identify which keyword strings work and which don’t. Theoretically, if the SEO expert chose the correct keyword strings, that will grab the attention of more visitors, or the right kind of visitors, so that sales go up.

Some problems that can affect rankings can include the following:

• One problem could be the inability to create unique content that interests many visitors, thus resulting in duplicate content. This is when keyword strings are redundant in a website’s pages. This only allows your own pages to compete with each other for search rankings, which is wasted effort.

• Another problem could be content with a low word count. Generally, search engines will prefer content with a higher word count. Low word count content will not be able to contend with the competition.

• You might also be dealing with a slow Internet connection in your area. Yes, this will affect your website’s visibility and there’s not much an SEO professional can do about this on their end except recommend that the business website be hosted in a community where Internet access is more robust and faster.

4. Clarity Regarding Figures And Statistical Data

The SEO report template will also allow the business owner to make sense out of all the numbers, percentages, and SEO data so that a pattern will emerge, which can indicate whether or not the SEO campaign is working. The figures that you can get from an SEO report can help your business get leads and/or conversions.

• Conversions – This means that visits are converted into actual inquiries from visitors, or even sales—with sales being the ultimate goal of all digital marketing. This kind of pattern means that the SEO campaign is having a positive effect.

• Leads – This refers to a visitor who turned into a customer or has initiated an inquiry while on the website. Every business wants a lot of leads so that they turn into conversions, which will eventually boost sales. If there are a lot of leads, this shows that the SEO campaign is also having a positive effect.

5. Recommendations And Points For Improvement

The last page of the SEO report should always have a list of recommendations. This is where a business owner could better understand SEO-related problems in more detail. At the same time, they will be able to ask for suggestions on how these SEO-related problems can be solved.

Nowadays, SEO experts may recommend the following strategies:

• Brainstorming User Intent – This means checking out user intent instead of just putting out more content. It’s likely that users visiting your website are looking for something else so it’s best to find out what kind of content they want or expect before creating the content itself.

• Figure Out Revenue Sources – This means you have to identify which content and pages seem to be bringing in the most revenue. This allows non-performing or low-performing pages to either be deleted or have their content replaced with better ones.

Will The Business Survive If There Is No SEO Report?

An SEO report simply explains to business owners why their digital marketing campaign is effective or not. But while the business might be able to survive online even without a regular SEO report, some business owners are more comfortable if they have something tangible to refer to. The report can be filed for further study and the SEO professional will probably welcome that so that the business owner always knows who is on top of the situation.

Final Thoughts

An SEO report is a very valuable document if you understand it. It pays to educate yourself about the data in an SEO report if you are a business owner so that you will understand what’s working and what’s not working in your SEO campaign. Ideally, the SEO expert will be able to assist a business owner in comprehending just what an SEO report is saying, and how this applies to sound business practices online.

Some key parts of the SEO report that need to be understood include the traffic that is sent to the business website daily, the bounce rate, keyword rankings, and percentages of conversions and leads. The business owner and SEO professional ought to collaborate on user intent as well so they will know how to bring in more visitors and conversions. Leads are always welcome so the SEO expert must also aim for that. Ideally, all these should work towards solidifying the business’ online presence, which can translate to increased sales.

The post What You Can Learn From An SEO Report? appeared first on Tricky Enough.

Step 1: Outline your Objective

Before you create an SEO Reporting Guide, you should highlight the objectives. Set your goals and demonstrate how you plan on achieving them. It would be absurd to come up with unrealistic expectations. For instance, something that can be achieved in one month cannot be executed in 24 hours. For this reason, you need to match the goals and objectives with the data on the report.

Step 2: Give details of the Data

Imagine what would happen if someone serves food you have never tasted before. Your instincts may or may not guide you to eat it. Similarly, it is important to give detailed explanations for your data to make their work easier. Ensure your data has a flow: an introduction, content, and summary to give a meaning.

Step 3: Give realistic expectations

As mentioned earlier, you need to give realistic expectations to win the trust of clients. Ordinarily, most objectives can be implemented within six months. So, don’t give observations that won’t go in line with the client’s goals. If something isn’t working, feel free to inform the client.

Step 4: Show your Future Plans

Your client has the right to know your plans. So, make it easier for them to predict your next move and provide further explanations to support the same. This presents the opportunity to fix a problem before it becomes worse.

These easy steps form the planning process. Remember, clients are looking for the following in most SEO reports

• The number of visitors their website is attracting.
• The position their website is taking compared to its competitors.
• Where the visitors are coming from.
• The sales turnover owing to the recent activities on their site
• The SEO health status.
• The past performances of the current SEO agency.
• Reports of a positive return on investment.

As mentioned earlier, clients have different needs. To be on the safe side, you need to illustrate the opportunities and the challenges you are currently facing as an agency. Besides proving your viability, it assures clients of your utmost professionalism. Feel free to tailor your report to suit your client’s needs. To ensure your report is detailed and uses simple language so that your clients can place their full trust in your agency. If you think creating a report is still difficult, you can download an SEO report template from Clickminded.

Remember to include your plans so that the client can gauge whether they still want to do business with you. It doesn’t matter whether your clients are professionals or data-driven. Your commitment towards the deadline is all that matters.

The post How to Come Up with a Perfect SEO Reporting Guide? appeared first on Tricky Enough.