Writing an SEO report

A report is not a data dump. Its job is to help someone decide what to do next, and to keep the work accountable.

Structure

1. Summary: two or three sentences. What changed, why, and what is next.
2. Results: the few numbers that matter, compared with a named period.
3. What went well: wins, with evidence.
4. Problems and risks: drops, open critical issues, and dependencies on other people.
5. Work completed: issues fixed and verified, pages optimised, content published.
6. Next steps: the three to five most important actions, in order.

The Reports tab in your Workspace follows this structure. It adds the work completed in the period automatically, from the Issues, Pages and Content tabs, and checklist progress.

Which numbers

• Non-branded clicks and impressions from Search Console show SEO work better than totals, because branded searches reflect brand awareness.
• Key events from organic search (GA4), and real business results where possible (enquiries in the CRM, orders).
• Indexed pages and Core Web Vitals status, if technical work was a focus.
• Average position and CTR, but always next to clicks and impressions, because they are averages over a changing mix of queries.

Honest causation

Instead of	Write
"Our work increased traffic by 40%."	"Non-branded clicks rose 40% compared with October last year. The largest gains are on the three service pages we rewrote in September. Demand for repairs also rose in the same period."
"We are now number 1."	"The repair page's average position for its main queries improved from 9.1 to 3.4."
"Rankings dropped because of Google."	"Clicks fell 15%. The Search Status Dashboard lists a core update during the drop. The affected pages are X and Y, and we will assess them against Google's guidance."

Keep it short

A business owner should be able to read the main part in five minutes. Put long tables in an appendix, or leave them out. Use the same structure every month, so changes are easy to see.