SEO Reporting Template

Most SEO reports are too technical for leadership and not specific enough for the team doing the work. This template bridges that gap: it gives you a structure for reporting that means something at every level of your organization.

Good SEO reporting isn't about tracking every metric — it's about tracking the right metrics at the right level of detail, with context that turns numbers into decisions.

The SEO Reporting Framework

SEO reports should answer three questions:

1. Are we growing? (Trend vs. baseline and targets)
2. Why? (Attribution and explanation)
3. What now? (Recommendations that come from the data)

A report that shows numbers without explanation isn't reporting — it's data dumping. Every section below should end with a takeaway or action item.

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Monthly SEO Report Template

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REPORT TITLE: SEO Performance Report — [Month Year] Prepared By: ___ Date: ___ Data Range: [First day of month] → [Last day of month] Comparison Periods: Previous month / Same month last year

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1. Executive Summary

Performance vs. Targets:

Goal	Target	Actual	Status
Organic Sessions			✅/⚠️/❌
Organic Leads/Conversions			✅/⚠️/❌
Keyword Rankings (Top 10)			✅/⚠️/❌
Domain Rating (if tracking)			✅/⚠️/❌

Summary Narrative (3-5 sentences): What happened this month? What drove performance? Any notable wins or concerns?

Example: "Organic traffic grew 18% MoM to 24,300 sessions, exceeding our 15% growth target. The primary driver was our 'content brief template' guide ranking #2 for its target keyword (up from #11 last month), generating 2,100 sessions. Organic leads increased 12% to 87 MQLs. Keyword diversity is improving — we now have 143 keywords in the top 10, up from 119 last month."

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2. Organic Traffic Performance

Monthly Traffic Overview:

Metric	This Month	Last Month	MoM Change	Same Month LY	YoY Change
Total Organic Sessions
Total Organic Users
Organic Pageviews
Avg. Session Duration
Bounce Rate
Pages/Session

Traffic Trend Chart: [Insert 12-month organic traffic trend chart from Google Analytics]

Traffic by Content Type:

Content Type	Sessions	% of Organic	MoM Change
Blog/Articles
Pillar Pages
Landing Pages
Other

New vs. Returning Traffic:

	This Month	Last Month
New Users
Returning Users
New/Returning Ratio

Geographic Performance (top 5 countries):

Country	Sessions	% of Total	MoM Change

Takeaway: ___

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3. Keyword Rankings

Rankings Overview:

Metric	This Month	Last Month	MoM Change
Keywords in Position 1-3
Keywords in Position 4-10
Keywords in Position 11-20
Keywords in Position 21-50
Keywords in Position 51-100
Total Tracked Keywords

Top 10 Biggest Ranking Gains:

Keyword	Previous Position	Current Position	Change	Estimated Monthly Traffic
			↑___

Top 10 Biggest Ranking Losses:

Keyword	Previous Position	Current Position	Change	Likely Cause
			↓___

New Keywords Entering Top 20 (First Time Ranking):

Keyword	Current Position	Monthly Volume	Page Targeting It

Priority Keywords: Status Check (Your most strategically important keywords — track these every month regardless of other movements)

Keyword	Position	Volume	MoM Change	Target Position	On Track?

Featured Snippets and SERP Features:

Feature Type	Count	Keywords	Change
Featured Snippets
People Also Ask
Sitelinks
Knowledge Panel

Takeaway: ___

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4. Google Search Console Data

Impressions and Clicks:

Metric	This Month	Last Month	MoM	Target	Status
Total Impressions
Total Clicks
Average CTR
Average Position

Top Performing Pages (by Clicks, GSC):

Page	Impressions	Clicks	CTR	Avg. Position

Pages with Highest Impressions but Low CTR (CTR optimization opportunities):

Page	Impressions	Clicks	CTR	Target CTR	Recommendation
					Rewrite title/meta

Core Web Vitals Status (GSC):

Status	URL Count	Change
Good (all CWV)
Needs Improvement
Poor

Index Coverage:

Status	URL Count	Change
Valid (indexed)
Errors
Excluded (valid)

Takeaway: ___

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5. Conversion and Lead Performance

Organic Search Conversions:

Goal/Conversion	This Month	Last Month	MoM Change	Target
Email Sign-ups
Free Trial Sign-ups
Demo Requests
Content Downloads
Total Organic Leads

Conversion Rate by Traffic:

	This Month	Last Month
Organic Session-to-Lead CVR
Top Converting Pages

Top 5 Organic Lead-Generating Pages:

Page	Sessions	Leads	CVR

Content-Influenced Pipeline (from CRM):

Stage	Deals	Value
Organic First Touch		$
Content Assist (mid-funnel)		$
Closed Won (organic-influenced)		$

Takeaway: ___

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6. Backlink Performance

Metric	This Month	Last Month	MoM Change
Total Backlinks
Referring Domains
New Referring Domains
Lost Referring Domains
Domain Rating / DA

Top New Referring Domains This Month:

Domain	DR	Linking Page	Anchor Text

Content Earning the Most New Links:

Page	New Links	Total Links	Notes

Link Building Activities: What outreach or link-earning activities happened this month?

Takeaway: ___

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7. Content Performance

Content Published This Month:

Title	URL	Keyword	Current Position	Sessions

Top Performing Content (by Organic Traffic):

Title	URL	Sessions	MoM Change	Top Keyword	Position

Content Needing Attention (traffic declining on important pages):

Page	Current Sessions	Previous Sessions	Decline %	Recommended Action
				Refresh / Consolidate / Redirect

Takeaway: ___

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8. Algorithm and Competitor Updates

Google Algorithm Updates This Month: Did any confirmed or suspected algorithm updates occur? If so:

• Update name/date: ___
• Our traffic impact: ___
• Pages affected: ___
• Response plan: ___

Competitor Movement: Any notable changes in competitor rankings for your target keywords?

Competitor	Movement	Keywords Affected	Our Response

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9. Recommendations and Next Steps

Priority Actions for Next Month:

Action	Expected Impact	Owner	Due Date
	High/Med/Low

Content Investment Recommendations:

• Publish more of: ___
• Stop/reduce: ___
• New initiative to test: ___

Technical SEO Priorities:

• ___
• ___

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Quarterly SEO Report Add-On

Add these sections at the end of each Q1/Q2/Q3/Q4 report:

Quarter in Review:

• Traffic growth vs. Q[N-1] and same quarter last year
• Top 10 organic landing pages of the quarter
• Biggest keyword wins and losses
• Content ROI: sessions and leads per piece published
• Link building success: referring domains gained

Next Quarter Forecast: Based on current trajectory, what do you project for next quarter?

• Organic sessions: ___
• MQLs from organic: ___
• New keyword opportunities: ___

Annual SEO Goals Progress: How are you tracking against the year's goals?

How Averi Connects Content to SEO Performance

Averi's Library shows you exactly which content is driving organic performance — not as a separate analytics report, but built into your content workflow. When you're planning what to create next, you can see what's ranking, what's declining, and where there are gaps. Content strategy and SEO reporting live in the same place.

Track your SEO performance in Averi →

Further Reading

• the most important SEO and marketing KPIs to track
• AI-powered SEO for B2B SaaS
• how to go from zero to ranking content pages in 90 days
• Averi's Strategy Map to connect SEO reporting to strategic content decisions

Frequently Asked Questions

How often should I produce an SEO report?

Monthly is the standard cadence for active content teams. Weekly is too frequent for SEO (the signal is too noisy); quarterly is too infrequent to catch and respond to trends. Run a deeper quarterly review at the end of each quarter with year-over-year comparisons.

What's the most important SEO metric to report to the CEO?

Content-influenced pipeline or organic-attributed MQLs. CEOs care about business impact, not rankings. Translate organic traffic into revenue terms: "Our content brought in 85 organic MQLs at an estimated CPL of $47 vs. $180 for paid — a $11,100 monthly budget efficiency."

What do I do when I can't explain a traffic drop?

Start with Google Search Console's coverage report (index issues?) and check for Google algorithm update dates. Check your own site for recent changes (new plugins, CMS updates, server moves). If nothing obvious surfaces, run a site crawl with Screaming Frog and look for redirect changes, noindex additions, or canonical tag issues.

Should I track every keyword or focus on a subset?

Track every keyword you're targeting (your content-specific keywords), plus a set of branded keywords, and a watchlist of competitor keywords. For reporting, focus on priority keywords and aggregate trends — don't fill your report with a list of 500 ranking positions.

How do I set meaningful SEO targets?

Base targets on your historical growth rate plus a realistic stretch. If you grew organic traffic 10% per month for the last 3 months, a 12-15% target is a stretch without being fantasy. For absolute targets (e.g., 10,000 sessions/month), forecast based on keyword volume and expected click-through rates for the positions you're targeting.