Search Engine Optimization Reports

What SEO reporting should I Expect?

This article is a small list of reporting you should ask for if you are paying for search engine optimization and some rationalization of why it's essential.

Current Web Traffic - Your SEO provider should show you how much website traffic you are getting, where people are coming from, which pages they visit, and how long people are spending on each page. This information is a baseline for measuring SEO efforts. If you can't get the information from your SEO person, you should set up a Google Analytics Account and set up your tracking.

Code Audit - Your SEO provider should be able to audit your code and detect errors limiting your SEO score. Things like page loading times, broken links, broken images, missing tags, etc., have an impact on your SEO score. Improving the code will allow search engine spiders to crawl your website better; more frequent indexing and a deeper-level crawl.

Keyword Audit - When you created your website, you knew what you wanted to say and what you wanted people to see. If your website is not generating leads, you may have chosen a not paying off strategy. Review the content of your website and see what words you are using. Check the frequency and concentration of those words on your website. Once you have the list, you need to know if the words you are using are the words people are entering for their searches. If the words people use to find similar products and services are not on your list, you want to research and create a new keyword list, utilizing this list for your website. Understanding and creating a keyword list for your site will help you when you want to create content that is searchable by web users.

Backlink Audit - You need to know what websites connect to your website and how they connect. If a link is from an anchor text of "Read More," you are losing out on an opportunity. Asking these websites to use a keyword link can help your SEO efforts. You also want to measure the linking website's health linking to your website. Knowing this information can help you seek out positive backlinks.

Competitor Analysis -  This is one of the critical processes for our SEO efforts. We watch our competition and actively stay close to their ranks for specific keywords. The reality is there are ten spots on the first page. You don't have to be # 1 for a keyword. Knowing who you are competing with and what level can help you step up your game.

Pay Per Click results (If you are engaged in pay-per-click advertising) - For Pay-Per-Click advertising, you should be able to track your budget, click costs, and the number of impressions and clicks you have received. This information is excellent for figuring out your acquisition cost for new clients. Benchmarking is also helpful if you dovetail SEO efforts into your broader strategy. By optimizing your website and using a keyword list, you increase the relevancy score and bring the cost per click down, allowing more clicks for your budget.

Final Note on Search Engine Optimization Reports

SEO reports don't need to be overly complicated, but they should contain enough information for you to make informed decisions. I've seen reports that were a few lines on an excel spreadsheet; this would be an example of too little information.

Whoever you use for your SEO efforts, be sure to ask them about what kind of reports they can provide you and use this list as a starting point.

We think having a robust, precise SEO reporting capability is essential. If you would like us to help provide you with SEO reports, please contact us for SEO reporting.