SEO Reporting. Meaningful Insights

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October 2024
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November 2024
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SEO efforts reports can be difficult to understand and may even hinder communication with a contractor. Some are even Ineffective: they lack necessary information, are overly templated, and cannot be used to assess the results of the work done. Let's figure out what key metrics must be included in the document and what they mean.

SEO Report: What is it?

This document plays an important role in the website optimization process and marketing campaigns. It helps to assess the effectiveness of your search engine optimization strategy and identify problem areas that require improvement. With the help of an SEO report, you can:

  • evaluate website traffic statistics and changes in indicators;
  • analyze organic search traffic and conversions;
  • identify issues with content marketing and link profile, etc.

SEO reports also allow you to assess the current status of the project and determine what work is needed to improve its positions in search engines and increase traffic. To create a SEO report is important for determining website development strategy and marketing campaigns.

An SEO report is a document in which an optimizer or a SEO agency reports on the results of work for the previous reporting period, tracks the project's development dynamics, and proposes an action plan for the future.

Ideally, it should be such that after reviewing it, the client has no questions regarding the quality of the services provided. Qualified SEO professionals and reliable web studios provide a comprehensive picture of the project, focusing on important metrics.

Distinguishing a quality SEO report from a poor one is not difficult.

If the document consists mostly of numbers from analytical systems and other services, and the list of completed tasks consists of only 3-5 obvious points, then it can be confidently said that it was compiled by an amateur not by a high professional seo specialist.

A perfect SEO report should contain information about the project that is truly important to the client. Namely:

  • Specific tasks. It is necessary to clearly formulate the goals set for SEO optimization and what has been done to achieve them.
  • Informativeness. A quality SEO report includes information about key metrics such as website traffic, search engine positions, conversion rates, etc. Additionally, it provides data analysis to help the client understand what actions need to be taken to improve a website's SEO performance.
  • SEO data visualization. Most SEO reports should include graphs, diagrams, and other elements to help the client better understand the information.
  • Competitor comparison. The document should include information about competitors' positions in the search engine results page and how the website compares to them. This is necessary for understanding what needs to be done to outperform competitors.
  • Business metrics. A good SEO report should include information on how optimization affects revenue, sales volume, etc. This helps the client assess how important SEO is for their business.

However, a SEO report does not necessarily have to be multi-page. Often, shorter documents turn out to be of higher quality than large files.

What metrics must be included in an SEO report

One of the key points to be understood is that every SEO report must include real numbers to justify work done. This means it does not necessarily have to have features, layouts or formats of standard SEO report templates or documents. Furthermore, it is important to note that each project has some specific features of its own. Therefore, there are no obligatory elements. Nonetheless, there are some recommended components. It is essential to highlight that the use of accurate metrics is critical for preparing effective SEO reports, which should contain at least the following parameters:

Website Traffic

Website Traffic

Organic traffic is one of the key aspects that the clients focus on when it comes to the SEO analysis. There are various free applications and programs available which can be used to obtain information, for instance Google Analytics. In the screenshot above you can see how the traffic increased in the current 30 days reporting period in comparison with the preceding period.

Traffic Sources

Traffic Sources

One of the most significant is traffic source information. In this way, it is possible to receive more complete information about the site visitors and to set up accurate estimations of where the majority of them are coming from and what the true quality of the site promotion is, as well as all of its advantages and flaws.

Along with providing basic traffic SEO metrics in a report, traffic source analysis can serve as an effective method of determining which source is the most efficient. For instance, if significant traffic comes from such sources as Organic Search, this may show efficient SEO promotion and precise targeting in search engines.

Checking Site Positions

SEO rankings refer to where a webpage ranks in organic search results for relevant keywords. To analyze a site's positions for important keywords, it is necessary to create a semantic core. Keyword rankings in Google for queries used by visitors to search the website can be seen in Search Console.

In addition, you can use the nightwatch.io service, which provides a report on google search results monitoring, showing progress specifically for target queries loaded into the tool. You can also add target pages for key phrases and tags to group the keywords.

Checking Site Positions

It is also important to include information about backlinks and their dynamics in an SEO report, as external optimization is an essential element of site promotion. To obtain data on external and internal links, you can use the Google Search Console service. And with Serpstat reports, you can track the growth dynamics of the link mass and find out about new and lost links. In addition, there is an API for link analysis, which helps integrate data into the project's SEO block.

Behavioral Dynamics

For creating a report, it is necessary to analyze not only traffic but also other behavioral factors, such as time on site, bounce rate and pages per session. These metrics can be very useful for understanding how users interact with site pages and what needs to be improved.

Let's look at these metrics in more detail:

Time on site or 'Average Session Duration' as it is commonly referred to is one of the vital components in website visitors' engagement. It is a way of measuring the number of minutes one spends on a website in a single session. It is determined using the average time required for each session where the average of total time (in seconds) taken for a number of sessions is used. This metric gives reliable data of user's interaction with the website and user satisfaction that determines website traffic and digital marketing.

It is important to understand that by a high time on site value, it means that the user had a great experience with that company or brand. It means that users have found enough value about the content you are providing to bring them to your website. On the other hand, a low time on site value may be indicative of a poor value proposition where visitors do not find what they are looking for, thus increasing bounce rates. It helps in establishing the interesting or troublesome sections of a web page, which in turn, affect the digital marketing approaches. Through analyzing time spent at the site, companies are able to establish statistical projections on content marketing efforts, website layouts, and specific SEO campaigns, thus affecting conversion statistics.

Bounce rate is an indicator of SEO analytics aimed at identifying the share of visitors who view only one page on the site. Definition of bounce rate also suggests that the single page visit does not lead to any further activity that would be measured by analytics. This means that there are no forms being filled under conversions and no links being clicked to proceed further in your funnel.

The higher the bounce rate, the more of the visitors only view one page, and the worse the meaning for your website. If the bounce rate is low it is usually a good sign because it means that more than one page will be viewed. This in turn, leads to increased conversion rate, though not all the time

What does 'Bounce Rate' imply in the context of UX?

Bounce rate can be one of the most informative indicators of bad UX in many cases that we encountered. This is particularly negative because it means that people are leaving upon entering your site via your homepage or landing page.

Here are some of the main reasons why you may have a high bounce rate:

  • Content is boring or lengthy
  • Looks like call to action (CTA) is missing or not doing its job correctly
  • Slow loading
  • Bad form and structure
  • Not mobile friendly
  • Broken links

Certainly, you will want to have a better value as it means that more of your content is being accessed and viewers are engaged beyond the initial page they arrive on. But that is not all that can be said about the matter. High bounce rate does not always mean that it is bad news for your business as it depends on the circumstances that led to it.

As we can see now, many marketers do not even pay much heed to the so-called bounce rates. This is because as mentioned earlier, for some landing pages, bounce rate is not always a negative factor.

Let's take a look at blog pages as an example: blogs are most usually accessed by organic search means (the blog is found directly through a search engine or through a social media link). One can also note that the visitor may only be interested in the content of the blog post and thus one would expect a higher bounce rate as observed in the two cases above. Of course this can be diminished by the fact of having call to actions on the pages or 'similar posts', if it is appropriate.

Is Bounce Rate Important?

Yes. Bounce rate is an important factor if you consider the fact that it offers valuable insights on how a visitor interacts with a certain site. However, I must state that the usefulness of a_finder depends on the intended use of a page.

Bounce rates are a measure of UX problems on the particular webpage, yet at the same time, high bounce rates on the particular page are not risky if the specific page does not aim at involving users in other activities. From the SEO perspective for web pages such as product pages, homepage, and project pages, high bounce rates are likely to be a cause for concern since it could mean that your content, layout, or functionality is not delivering on what your users need.

For example, a high bounce rate may indicate low-quality content, inflated prices, technical issues with loading the resource, etc. Therefore, it is important to pay attention to this metric. It is necessary to analyze which pages have a high bounce rate to determine what improvements need to be made.

Pages per session measure the tendency of users to visit several pages in your site before closing the session. It is determined by using the formula of total page views that have occurred divided by total sessions that have occurred in the same period.

Number of pages per session is another important UX metric because it shows how relevant your website is and how much exploring you can do on it. The higher the number, the more pages a user is viewing during his/her visit, the more involved he/she most probably is. In general, if users are staying as a member, it is likely that you are giving a good user experience.

Ways by which one can increase pages per session: First, seek to offer timely and relevant content every time. Every time your visitors are directed to any part of the site, they should feel content and happy. If all goes well, this preliminary content will wet their appetite for more. This is another good reason why every site owner should conduct a content audit regularly – to carefully examine the kind of content that the site is made of.

And this is where, with great content in hand, a great user experience does not necessarily follow. However, what's the actual transition between pages or different areas of a site? Is it a breeze to navigate through the different sections of your site? Here we come to know the importance of navigation. While menus and submenus are undeniably relevant, what is more relevant to display are the call-to-actions and internal links.

Thoughtfully placed call-to-actions and internal links guide users further. It is there embedded in the content (or just below the content) encouraging users to explore more and search more. An example of this is the 'related articles' that appear at the end of a blog post. Of course, the key is that they should be relevant. Interrupting this journey with something that is completely different may turn them off instead of engaging them. This is especially true for any buttons with calls to action – they should be easily noticeable but not too flashy to distract the user.

Comparison with Competitors

For a correct assessment of promotion effectiveness, it is important to track not only the dynamics of your project but also the ratings of other websites in search engines. Therefore, in addition to the report for the website, it is necessary to add a comparison with the main online competitors for key performance indicators. For example, traffic, visibility, number of external links, and keywords being promoted. Various online SEO reporting tools can be used to obtain information about competitors. For example, Serpstat for a general report.

Sales Analysis

It is important to understand that SEO is not the ultimate goal but rather a means to achieve business goals. Therefore, it is extremely important for the client to not only see an increase in traffic and average position in search engines but also to evaluate the commercial result of site promotion. To do this, financial indicators, namely the number of orders executed and the average check, must be included in the SEO report.

This shows the true impact of the site's promotion efforts. For example, if the number of orders has increased over a certain period, it can be stated that the SEO strategy is working. This metric can be obtained from e-commerce analytics systems or CMS.

The average check allows you to assess changes in user behavior. If, after SEO optimization this metric has increased, it may indicate an improvement in the quality of traffic and a higher-quality audience. It may also indicate that customers are placing larger orders, which is also a positive factor. The average check can also be obtained from e-commerce analytics systems or CMS.

Executive Summary

When preparing a report on the completed optimization work for the reporting period, it is necessary to include a description of each type of work and explain the terms used, as well as specify the goals that have been achieved. Additionally, it is important to add tasks that are planned to be addressed in the future and explain why their completion is necessary for further SEO success.

Why tracking data from multiple sources is important

Why tracking data from multiple sources is important

First of all, it is important to understand that the greater the number of reference information in possession, the more authoritative it may be. It is necessary to observe data from multiple sources to get a broader and more diverse view of various aspects of the website's performance.

Tools that may be used can be greatly different. Let's list a few important services that help make SEO reports more informative and useful:

Google Analytics – a powerful tool for analyzing traffic, bounce rates, the amount of time spent on the website, conversions, and other activities in which users may engage.

Search Console – allows to track the performance of the site in search results, top search queries and other indexes.

Google PageSpeed Insights and GTmetrix – are the tools that help to identify the page loading speed and provide suggestions on how to increase it.

Serpstat - allows to see the project's positions in SERP, keywords analysis and backlink profile.

Nightwatch - track, filter, segment, and discover keywords. Track and discover competitors. Visualize data with graphs.

SEMrush – gives the details on positions of a website in SERP, keywords, competitors, and SEO factors among others.

Ahrefs Backlink Checker and Moz Link Explorer – used to determine the type of backlinks and its quality.

Only by using multiple sources of data can we aid in composing a concerned document that would be helpful in enhancing the website and its ranking.

Conclusion

There are several important steps that can be taken when creating an effective and helpful SEO report. To begin with, the emphasis should not be placed on the number of reprints, since quality is considered to be much higher. Still, it is more effective to organize a detailed document containing only ten pages, but including crucial and beneficial information. It is also essential to consider the dynamics of a project's development and add the statistics of the current and previous period to the display table in order to compare results.

Also, do not hesitate to capture and share works-in-progress. The first benefit of using the SEO progress report is that it can be used to evaluate the current status of the project. Still, it is crucial to monitor the competitors because, with their active actions, the site's search visibility can suddenly decrease.

It is recommended to use templates and apply services and SEO tools that can help automate the process of preparing SEO reports. It would be even better to prepare automated SEO reports using reporting tools. And, of course, do not forget to include key business indicators to satisfy clients who are interested not only in positions on the site but also in the overall condition of the business.

All in all, preparing a high-quality SEO report is a responsible and crucial procedure which should be provided with proper attention and preparation. If you need help with it, please don't hesitate to get in touch with the elite marketing agency. They will give more precise and detailed information about the presence of the site in search engines currently and directions about how to enhance positions.

Victor Moroz

Written by Victor Moroz SEO Analyst

As a reporting person, Victor has honed his abilities to extract valuable insights from complex data sets. His meticulous approach to data analysis allows him to identify patterns, trends, and opportunities that inform strategic decision-making and drive impactful outcomes.

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