SEO Reports for Clients: What to Include, What to Ignore, and How to Build Trust
Dec 22, 2025
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The real job of an SEO report
An SEO report has one job: show what changed, why it changed, and what you’re doing next.
That’s it.
Clients don’t need a data dump. They need clarity:
What improved
What’s working
What needs attention
What you did this month
What the plan is next month
If your report doesn’t answer those questions, it’s not a report. It’s noise.
Why clients feel confused
The most common reaction when a client sees an SEO report for the first time is confusion.
And it makes sense. Most SEO reporting is written for other marketers, not for the person paying the invoice.
A good report assumes the client is smart but not living inside SEO tools all day. Your job is translation, not performance art.
The biggest mistake agencies make trying to look impressive
If you want to lose trust fast, switch metrics between reports.
One month you highlight impressions because they look big. Next month you highlight clicks. Next month you highlight rankings. Next month you highlight traffic.
Clients might not know SEO, but they do know when the story keeps changing.
Pick the core metrics you’ll report on every month and keep them consistent. If you add something new, explain why.
Screenshots are not reporting
I’ve seen agencies send screenshots as a report.
A screenshot with no explanation is not accountability. It’s a dodge.
A real report includes:
the numbers
what they mean
and what actions were taken
If you can’t clearly say what was done and what changed, the client has every right to question what they’re paying for.
What metrics matter (and which ones are mostly vanity)
Here’s the truth: impressions alone don’t pay the bills.
Impressions can be useful as a directional signal, but they are often vanity if they’re not paired with clicks, leads, or revenue.
Vanity metrics (usually)
Impressions (without clicks)
Total keyword count (without intent breakdown)
“Average position” across everything
Random graphs with no explanation
Metrics that matter for service businesses
These are the ones that move decisions:
Conversions and leads-Calls, form submissions, quote requests, bookings. Whatever the business defines as a lead.
Clicks-Clicks show intent. Impressions are visibility. Clicks are action.
Organic traffic to the right pages-Not just traffic growth. Traffic to service pages, location pages, and high intent content.
Top queries and pages driving leads-What are people searching and which pages are they landing on?
Google Business Profile performance (for local SEO)-Calls, direction requests, website clicks, and which queries triggered visibility.
If you want to keep it even simpler, this is the core:
clicks
leads
and what work caused the change
Need help with Link SEO services
How to explain rankings without overpromising
Rankings matter, but rankings are not the goal. Rankings are a signal.
The best way to explain it to a client is:
Rankings move
Different devices and locations show different results
Rankings don’t always equal leads
The goal is qualified traffic and conversions
If a client asks, Are we number one yet, a solid answer is: We’re tracking rankings, but what we care about most is whether the right people are finding you and contacting you. Rankings support that, they are not the finish line.
A line that calms clients down
SEO takes time.
But you should follow that with a better question :
Do you know exactly what your SEO expert did this month?
That one question changes the whole relationship. It shifts the focus from hope to accountability.
Why traffic can increase while leads don’t
This is where many agencies panic and many clients lose trust.
Traffic can increase without leads increasing for a few common reasons:
You’re attracting informational traffic, not buyer traffic
The site experience is weak (conversion rate problem)
The offer or pricing is not competitive
The calls to action are unclear
Tracking is wrong or incomplete
A good report doesn’t hide this. It explains it and proposes the fix.
What matters is not just traffic up or down. It’s:
what type of traffic increased
which pages gained it
and whether the site converts that attention into action
This is the same reporting philosophy we use when working with small businesses doing SEO themselves, where simple metrics beat complicated charts.
Reporting schedule: how often should you send SEO reports
Monthly reporting is the standard because SEO changes are not day to day for most businesses.
For longer term accounts, quarterly reviews are also useful for bigger trend analysis.
A good cadence looks like:
monthly report: performance + work completed + next actions
quarterly review: strategy, bigger wins, bigger problems, roadmap updates
Why I use Looker Studio (and how to make it client friendly)
Dashboards are great if they’re live and consistent.
Looker Studio works well because:
it updates automatically
clients can check anytime
it reduces manual reporting errors
But here’s the key: a dashboard isn’t a report unless you add context.
Your dashboard should be paired with a short written summary each month:
3 wins
3 concerns
3 actions next month
The simple SEO report structure that keeps clients long-term
If you want a report clients actually read, use this structure.
1) Executive summary (5 lines max)
What improved
What didn’t
Why
What you did
What you’re doing next
2) Leads and conversions
total leads from organic
comparison vs last month
notes on tracking change
3) Search demand and intent
top queries
which ones are buyer intent vs informational
4) Page performance
top landing pages
service page growth
pages that dropped and why
5) Work completed (non negotiable)
This is where most agencies fail. Be specific:
content published
pages optimized
internal linking done
technical fixes
backlinks and citations
Google Business Profile work
6) Next month plan
3 to 5 actions
what you expect them to impact
This structure works because it ties effort to results. Clients don’t just see charts. They see progress.
