More and more companies have realized the importance of web positioning and being correctly indexed in the internet search engines, so that current and potential customers find your offer on the web. Therefore, professionals of many fields needs to learn about web positioning or Search Engine Optimization. One of the most frequent doubts in this context is how to make SEO reports. In this post we will tell you more about how we prepare this type of reports in Letras Laetas.
Meeting SEO objectives
This is critical to knowing what to report. SEO can help us for various situations:
- Appear in the first position with the brand name. This is the most basic and can be achieved with the correct configuration and metadata of the website, as well as with the registration in directories.
- Gain positioning with defined keywords. These keywords, among others, can be the name of the products and services offered by the company, as well as related topics.
- Increase organic traffic to a website. As we know, there is the paid traffic that is obtained through ad campaigns, and there is also organic traffic that is obtained through contents.
- Decrease SEM costs. Ultimately, this can be achieved by creating content with those terms that are more expensive in ad campaigns.
When implementing an SEO strategy, the first step is to know what you want to achieve. Whether you are reporting to an external client or to a superior in your own company, the report should be aimed at achieving the objectives set at the beginning of the project.
Determine a report format
Our reader determines the format, the extension and the type of language to use. If the receiver is the manager or director of a marketing department, they will be more steeped in the language of the profession and may be interested in seeing the graphics of an extensive report. The ideal format would be a slide presentation, preferably with a pdf extension, since editable files ocasionally are are distorted depending on the tool used to open them.
If you are reporting to the CEO of the company or to the owner of a business with little time to analyze the report in such detail, it will be better to have, in addition to the long version, an abridged version with the most relevant. An ideal format would be an infographic, this way, the most relevant will be seen at a first glance and, if required, specific details will be shown in the most extensive presentation.
SEO reporting tools
SEO reports may contain information obtained from various sources. Some SEO tools have free versions, such as the Google marketing suite which, among others, has these tools:
- Google Data Studio. This is a very useful tool, as it allows connection to various mailing and social media platforms, among other data sources that are important in the field of digital marketing. It has templates for different types of projects. It also allows you to design your own templates that can be connected with data from platforms outside of Google.
- Google Analytics. To use this tool, you have to verify the website through a tag. After labeling and veryfiying the website, data such as traffic sources, the type of devices from which Internet users connect, demographic data such as the age of users, among others, can be seen. This platform allows the configuration of the brand’s conversion funnel.
- Google Search Console. This is a tool that allows us to control the appearance of our website on the SERP (Search Engine Results Page). It also offers some data such as the terms that attract most traffic to the site, among others.
Other tools require the payment of an annual license, among the most popular are:
- Semrush. This software enables marketers to create, manage and measure campaigns across all channels to improve their online visibility. In addition to measuring SEO, it provides us with data from SEM campaigns.
- Ubbersuggest. It is a tool created by marketer Neil Patel. They offer different levels of licenses that can be increased depending on the number of websites to analyze.
- Rank Tracker. This is part of a suite with tools for various SEO issues, such as auditing a site or researching competitors. The keywords we are interested in are added to this tool and it shows us in which positions they rank in different search engines.
Metrics of an SEO report
The things we will meassure and report are relied on the SEO objectives we have set. Some of this metrics are:
- Traffic obtained through organic channels (direct search, through social networks, etc.)
- Positioning of the defined keywords, according to the different search engines
- Domain and page authority
- Organic generation of links, that is, other people refering to our content
- Terms that attract more traffic to the site
- Total impressions and total clicks (CTR)
- Analysis the site loading speed
- Competitors who ranks with the same terms that we have defined as important
- Suggested keywords for creating new content
SEO tools can also show us data about our visitors:
- Favorite connection devices (mobiles, computers, tablets)
- User demographics such as:
- Age range
- Sex
- Geographic location
And if a specific objective has been defined, such as the increase in conversions, it will be necessary to detail what we mean by conversion, some examples may be:
- Obtaining leads or potential customers who leave their data through forms.
- Resource downloads: ebook, presentation, catalogue, app, etc.
- Increase in the time people spend browsing the website (for example, in the case of digital magazines).
Additionally, it is convenient to keep an eye on the news about changes in the search engine algorithm, since for certain industries this could affect the positions they have gained. This should also be reported to the client or marketing person, whenever relevant to the project.
In conclusion…
- There is no such thing as a single “template for SEO reporting”.
- These must be generated according to the objectives defined by the SEO specialist at the beginning of the project.
- The format, length and presentation of the reports will depend, to a large extent, on the recipient they have and the interests they have expressed.
- We have presented some suggested metrics to include in these reports but they are not the only ones, they can be added or reduced depending on the project.
Is it a lot of information and you prefer someone to do the report for you? Contact us and we will gladly help you generate it.
