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The importance of reports in SEO



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The importance of reports in SEO

Over the years, we've talked a lot about SEO and how to implement SEO techniques that work and have a direct impact on your website or for your client's websites. We also discussed on how to increase the number of clients as well as optimize your task in such a way you can accommodate more clients but keep the quality of your services up.
The importance of reports in SEO
But once you have SEO skills to offer and you figure out how to gain some clients, your next main priority is keeping those clients around for long as possible. This means keeping them happy even in periods when things aren't going so well.

Of course, quality services and results can speak for themselves but I believe the most important factor once you sign a new client is the reports.
Seriusly, most SEO and digital agencies out there don't KNOW and are virtually incapable of sending a decent report to the client. At least from what I've seen, most digital marketers are really bad at outlining the things they have done in a proper meaningful way.

Over the years I developed a real skill at writing reports. I don't think I'm spectacular but I'm good enough that I haven't lost many clients over time and most certainly I haven't lost any clients over my reports.

So here are my main bits of advice when it comes to SEO reports and how to actually make some killer reports your clients will love to read:

1. Use common words people understand.
Keep in mind most clients aren't very technical when it comes to SEO, this is the main reason why they hired you. So don't try to mask anything by using technical terms and phrases, most people can't read through your hogwash and figure out you are trying to hide something. So try to be honest and use simple, common words everyone understands.

Make it your duty to inform the client truthfully on what worked, what didn't, what are the positive results, what are the negative results as well as what can be done in the future and what opportunities their business can use?

2. Make it useful for the clients.
Even if my reports are mostly SEO orientated I always try to include helpful in formation my clients can use in solving real life business problems. If I discover a new trend for a certain keyword that suddenly becomes popular, I always make sure to inform my clients and note everything in that report, keeping my client updated with everything new happening in his niche.

I do the same when monitoring the competition, every time I notice a significant change I include that in my report. It is not all about the pretty graphics, you need to provide helpful information.
I usually write everything as like I'm answering questions the client might have. Like a short story that always is related to the previous story.
Don't include unnecessary data no matter how cool it may look. If it can't help your client understand something tangible don't include it, it's probably useless.

3. Don't stick to one template.
This is one of the biggest mistakes SEO make when developing a report. They tend to have just one very static template which they use for every client every month and every week.
You shouldn't do that! Customize everything and make each report different from the last one, because no matter the niche, every month will be different and certain aspects can be outlined in a different way.

It may take longer to make each report a custom report but I assure you the benefits of doing this are immense. First of all your clients will never get bored with your reports and will actually feel you are always doing and trying new stuff. Secondly, it will actually help you uncover some really cool bits of information that will further help you in your SEO strategy. I for one I'm always uncovering new opportunities when I'm writing my reports. I don't need a new task for "discovering new opportunities" because I always discover something new I can do next month during the time I'm writing my reports.

4. Other important factors:

  • Make sure you include a summary at the end. This is highly important. Some clients will just want to read a summary and only read a whole report if the summary sparks their interest in some positive or negative way, otherwise, they'll just ignore the rest of the report;
  • You need to have a logical flow in your report;
  • Cool looking data and graphics can go a long way in impressing the client;

You can also try automating your report to some degree to save up time but I've found the more you atomate it, the more the quality of the report drops and the human touch that can make it unique is lost.
Bottom Line: SEO reports are hugely important in keeping your clients happy and convinced you are doing a great job. Outline both the negative aspects as well as the positive one and try to be sincere but also try to be overall helpful and in providing good useful information.

Comments

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overcast
I have seen that many clients want the report on backlinks. And I am guessing they want it because they want to track the links. It seems like a good option for the SEO managers. They can show the progress of the work done under the spreadsheet. You can see that it'd be reasonable to make use of the progress like this. I have seen that there are some of the website that can generate some of such type of support.



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Corzhens
In any project, the progress report is always important because the manager or the client in this case needs to be informed of the development of work on the said project. Since SEO has no definite period for the results it is normal for the client to give notice of the lack of progress. That is the reason why the SEO specialist should know how to explain in full about the results why there is little traffic or why there is a surge in traffic.



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overcast
Yes in case of the work that we do in day job. The project managers use the dashboard and keep tab of the progress. And in case of the SEO we have to use say spreadsheet and something else need to be tracked too. So having proper reports definitely helps out in that case.



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TheImperialGodd
Great article!



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RedVelvetJuliet
This option is an excellent idea. Even outside of SEO, people tend not to understand what you know, so you need to make it as easy to read as possible. I recommend using layman's terms as well. You should make sure your reports are easily able to be read by people lower than your grade or reading level. Salespeople and customer service agents are successful if they use easy to understand wording because their clients will consider them to be more approachable and relatable. Writing reports in such a way benefits you because you also increase your emotional intelligence, which we all need more of every day.These reports help you to establish trust in your relationship as time moves forward. They might be more likely to stick with you in the future over someone that doesn't give them reports. The industry is very competitive, so you need to stand out as much as you can. This entry is a good lesson for all of us. Good job for reminding us!.



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Tronia
I really like that you pointed out that these SEO reports have to be understandable. I mean, we can all put some big, fancy words in there but they're completely useless if the client will not understand it. You have to write it in a way so that even people without any SEO knowledge will know what you're talking about. I had some client that really didn't know what was going on but I took some extra time to explain it before the first report so when I gave him the monthly scheme he already had some basic ideas about specific terms. Either way, great article!



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JoeMilford
Tronia,
I agree with you totally here. The more simple we can make things for our customers and clients the better. All of our products and services need to be accessible and user-friendly. This really is a great article. I would venture to say that MOST of my frequenters do not have any SEO knowledge, and I am just learning about it myself, so this is a good post with some good suggestions.



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centurion
By my sense I shall try to understand what is the client looking for his website from me? If the client say me he had been looking for the website page rank change than I shall submit a report to my client by which works I shall change the website. If I submit the website total SEO factors and rank and analyzing report to client than there have a possibility from the client to get disconnection. Otherwise client should need to do a 15 days study minimum to understand my SEO report. Your article is best for writing a simple SEO report to client.

Thanks
Centurion



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Authord
I'm telling you, it's very important in the trend.
SEO report is important as it will help you monitor your website optimization; shortcomings and hindrances are identified and reported for you to act on.
Nice article though, learned something new



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Corzhens
This reminds me of my previous assignment in the office. I was tasked to handle the reporting of projects mainly because the one who was previously assigned couldn’t write a simple report. Our boss told me that you would need a dictionary in order to understand the report. With me, I have no problem with that because I have a small vocabulary and my usage of words is the simple and common so the reader will not have difficulty in understanding. When you write a report, always bear in mind the reader.



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