As a freelancer or agency offering SEO services to your customers, you strive to provide ongoing value. Communicating that value is a critical, but sometimes overlooked aspect of selling your services.
How do you communicate value? Sending a monthly SEO report to your client is a great way to do so.
What Is Included in SEO Reports?
Monthly SEO reports include performance data. Typically, they include an overview of website performance, a detailed breakdown of organic search statistics, and keyword rankings. Here's a sample SEO report to reference as an example. Note: This is an example of a monthly report generated by our guided SEO platform.
Delivering a report to your customer each month (typically a link to their report and/or a PDF attachment via email) establishes trust and sets expectations. Your customer trusts that you are monitoring and responding to results, and they know they will hear from you on a regular basis.
Here's the catch —the value of the report isn't just the data or the user-friendly layout. Sure, we all love to look through the numbers, but your experience and insight are the value-adds your clients most appreciate. Don’t hesitate to offer your in-depth perspective on not just the numbers, but what they mean and how they can drive the next steps.
We have found emailing your insights along with the actual report to be an effective approach. Following a consistent email format every month also increases client comprehension.
Our standard email setup includes a written overview of:
— Performance analysis
— Action items completed the previous month
— Plan for the upcoming month
Example Email to Include With a Monthly SEO Report
Hi [Client Name],
Happy Spring! Attached is your [Month] SEO report. Your website recorded [x] sessions from organic search in [Month], a [y]% increase compared to last [Month]. Revenue was strong with $[z] of transactions in [Month], an [a]% increase compared to last year. Organic search continues to be the top performing channel and contributed to [b]% of the total site traffic!
Last month, we focused our attention on [link building]. Our goal is to [leverage your professional relationships into a network of links online that build your business’s authority online]. Thank you for your help coordinating with [partner] to secure a link from their sponsor's page. That is a valuable win in the long run.
This month, we're focusing our attention on [building expertise online]. We noticed that one of your older blog posts — [URL] — is getting exposure for some great keywords such as [keyword]. We’d like to capitalize on this further by [expanding this post from 500 words to 2,000 words]. I’ll share a proposed outline for the content expansion so that [Name] can focus on the copy.
Looking forward to our standing monthly call on Monday, [Month] [Date]. In the meantime, please don't hesitate to reach out with questions.
Best,
[Your Name]
Final Thoughts on Delivering SEO Reports to Clients
Weaving effective communication and recommendations into your monthly reports will set your SEO services offering apart from the many agencies that automate this send.
It also creates a collaborative atmosphere where each SEO client is an active participant in their search engine optimization campaign. After all, great SEO can’t be delivered in a back office, siloed from other marketing initiatives.
And, if you are wondering "how do I create a solid SEO report for my clients in the first place?" Pathfinder SEO can help you out. Monthly reporting is just one of the many tools we provide to help make it easier for your to offer impactful SEO services to your clients.
