How do I read an SEO report?
Short answer
Look for what was done, what changed, whether the change can be tied to the work, and what happens next, in that order. Most charts in a report are secondary. If you can't find those answers in a few minutes, the report isn't doing its job, however long it is.
The way to read an SEO (search engine optimization) report is to look for what was done, what changed, whether the change can be tied to the work, and what happens next, in that order. SEO reports are often long because the software that produces them is generous with charts. Most of those charts are secondary. A report earns its place if you can find those answers in a few minutes. If you can’t, that tells you something about the report.
Start with the work, then the charts
A readable report opens with a plain list of what was changed since the last one. The items are dated and you could check them yourself: a rewritten page or a fixed redirect on the site, a changed category on the Google Business Profile. “Ongoing optimization” isn’t an item.
Without that list you can’t interpret the charts that follow, because there’s nothing to connect them to. A rise with no listed cause could be seasonal, or it could come from a competitor’s stumble or a Google update.
What the common numbers mean
Most reports draw on the same handful of measures. Each one tells you something, and each can mislead.
| Number | What it means | How it can mislead |
|---|---|---|
| Impressions | How many times your page or profile appeared in results | Appearing isn’t being chosen. Impressions can rise because you now show for searches that will never become a job. |
| Clicks | How many times a searcher went through to your site | A click from outside your service area counts the same as one from El Cajon. |
| Average position | Your position averaged over every search you appeared for | It can get worse while things get better, because showing up low for many new searches pulls the average down. |
| Keyword rankings | Where you stand for a chosen list of searches | A single position is measured from one place, and local results differ from one neighborhood to the next. |
| Conversions | The calls, form submissions and bookings that were counted | Only as good as the tracking behind it. Ask what counts as a conversion. |
Reading a report is one job. Deciding which SEO numbers a business owner should actually watch each month is a separate one.
Check what is being compared with what
The choice of periods can change the story a chart tells, since every chart sets one period against another. For a home-service company the fairest comparison is usually the same weeks a year earlier, because demand follows the weather. An air conditioning company in Escondido will take more calls in a hot September than in a mild April whatever its SEO is doing.
Also look at whether searches for your company name are separated from searches for your services. Growth in name searches mostly reflects word of mouth and the trucks and yard signs people see. Growth in searches such as “water heater repair Chula Vista” is closer to what SEO is paid to produce.
Ask where the rankings were measured from
“Position two for plumber” may be true from the provider’s office or from your own, and false from most of the area you serve. A ranking means little until you know the location it was checked from. A rank grid repeats the same search from many points across your service area and shows the result as a map, which is why I use one for local rank tracking.
Questions to ask when the report doesn’t answer them
Send these to whoever produced the report:
- What did you change this month, and on what date?
- Which of these numbers moved because of that, and how do you know?
- How many calls and form submissions came from search, and how were they counted?
- What will you change next, and what do you expect it to do?
Whoever does your reporting, you should finish reading and know what was done and what it did. My own reports list each change with its date and the measurements I took before and after it, starting from the baseline set in a Scientific SEO Audit.