What belongs in a monthly SEO report

A good monthly report answers three questions for the client: what did you do, what happened, and what happens next. Everything else is decoration.

Start with a short summary

Lead with a few sentences in plain language: the headline result, the most important piece of work, and anything the client needs to decide. Many clients will read only this.

Report the work, not only the numbers

Clients pay for work and outcomes. List what was completed in the period, grouped by workstream, and what is planned next. If the report is built from your task data, the work listed is the work that was done.

Show performance against the objectives

Use the KPIs from the strategy: organic sessions, conversions, visibility, rankings and so on. Show the current value, the previous value and the target. Tying the numbers to agreed objectives stops the report becoming a pile of charts.

Be honest about gaps

If a data source is not connected or a figure is not available, say so. A missing number is better than an invented one, and a client will trust the rest of the report more for it.

Explain the technical work

Include technical fixes, content published and links acquired, with a sentence on why each mattered. Clients do not need the detail, but they need to see that the work connects to the goal.

End with next month’s priorities

Close with what comes next and anything you need from the client, such as approvals. That turns the report into the start of the next month’s conversation.

See Generating reports to see how SEO Ops builds a report from your actual work.