Insights On Metrics That Matter In SEO Reports

Insights On Metrics That Matter In SEO Reports

SEO reporting helps in tracking your website’s SEO performance, telling you which SEO marketing efforts are working. An excellent SEO report includes an overview, key metrics, and high-level opportunities on what to do next.

Double-checking your SEO report is concise, broken down into clear sections, and visually appealing. Here, the three sections include:-

1. Overview as a table of contents, giving the client a taste of what to expect in the SEO report. Overview acts as an executive summary. It helps the client get acquainted with your report by summarizing the main points. If you are working with clients with zero to little SEO knowledge, this overview would help them navigate the information easily.

2. KPIs. This is the ‘meatist’ section of your report. KPIs demonstrate how effectively you are fulfilling your client’s goals. Measuring these goal-focused metrics, enables you to know whether you are making progress. Popular SEO KPIs include organic traffic, conversion rate, CTR, keyword ranking, and link building.

3. Opportunities. This is the last section, explaining the results you have delivered and layouts the next steps for the client. As no amount of SEO data would lead to revenue impact if it is not used to inform strategy, take this opportunity to educate clients through SEO reporting and position yourself as a pro.

Aspects of a Good SEO Report  

While creating a report on the outcomes of a specific project, consider the following criteria: Project aim, promised milestones and the measures of success, needs, and even the metrics that don’t look so good. In case if regular report, need to consider all the areas of SEO directly affecting and the areas outside of our control that aid in explaining the increase or decrease in performance. Needs context in which SEO work operates. This is the starting point from which we choose the report metrics.

A good SEO report helps in communicating insights and the next steps. It should have sufficient detail to help the reader make decisions. A report should include relevant data relevant to the topic being reviewed and should not overwhelm a reader with unnecessary information. Further, a report should be brief so that the pertinent data and insights are easy to find. Prepare the report according to the needs of the recipient, like for another SEO professional or the company’s managing director, whose needs are different from each other. Other aspects include the report should be understandable as per the recipient's knowledge in mind, the report should be honest and unbiased, not gloss over negatives, and provide insights and a conclusion, in addition to figures.  

“Site-wide bounce rate” is an example of metrics that can be used incorrectly. Bounce rate is defined as the percentage of all visits to the site that ended with a bounce. Is typically measured as a visit to a website that only led to one page being viewed and no other interactions occurring. However, reporting on the bounce rate of a page without looking deeper at other metrics can be misleading. An increase in bounce rate could be an indicator of the new design’s success. But the reporting on the average bounce rate across the entire website is usually misleading. In some cases, a high bounce rate indicates a problem. For instance, many visitors to a contact page may bounce after seeing a phone number and leaving the website to give it a call. However, a high bounce rate on a homepage or product page typically indicates that the page is not satisfying user needs.   

Other metrics are relied on a little too much in SEO reports – measures of the authority of a page or domain, for instance.

Which Metrics Matter?

The use of metrics used in illustrating SEO depend on the purpose of the report and the recipient's needs, as some clients or managers may be used to receiving reports with certain metrics in them. The report should always link back to the brand’s business and marketing goals. The metrics used in the report should communicate whether the goals are being met.

For instance, if a pet store’s marketing goal is to increase sales of “non-slip pet bowls,” then certain metrics need to be included in the SEO report. Over time, the report would aid in identifying whether SEO is contributing to the goal of increasing sales of non-slip pet bowls.

Organic Performance Metrics

Organic performance report designed to give a picture of a website’s ongoing SEO performance, giving top-level insight into the source and behaviour of organic traffic over time. These reports enable the reader to identify the impact of recent SEO activity on organic traffic. Metrics include overall Metrics, Traffic Visits By Channel, All Traffic and Organic Goal Completions, Page Level Traffic, organic Landing Page Sessions, and Revenue Generated.

Keyword Ranking Reports

A keyword ranking report is an analysis providing information on where a website’s keywords rank in search engine results pages. It tracks the progress of their targeted keywords over time, providing insights into which keywords are performing well and which need improvement. Identifying trends, adjusting SEO tactics and measuring the SEO impact on overall website performance are included in the report.

Keyword ranking reports should demonstrate growth or decline in rankings for specific keywords the site is being optimized for. Ideally, data should be pulled from first-party tools like Google Search Console to give as accurate an indication of ranking as possible