What a monthly SEO report should show, and what a bad one hides
The five numbers a monthly SEO report must contain, where each comes from, what belongs in words, the red flags, and how to read one in ten minutes.
By Daniel Stoychev, Webso Digital · 4 September 2026 · 8 min read
A monthly SEO report should fit on two pages and contain five numbers from Search Console (clicks, impressions and position for the searches being worked on, pages indexed, and enquiries traced to search), plus four things in words: what was done, what it changed, what was deliberately left alone and why, and what happens next month. Anything longer is usually hiding the absence of one of those nine things behind charts.
The five numbers
| Number | Source | What it tells you | What a bad report shows instead |
|---|---|---|---|
| Clicks, for the named searches | Search Console, query report | Whether people are arriving from the searches the work targets | Total clicks for the whole site, including your own name |
| Impressions, for the named searches | Search Console, query report | Whether Google is showing you for those searches at all; this moves first | A traffic graph from Analytics with no query behind it |
| Average position, for the named searches | Search Console, query report | Where you sit; positions 5 to 20 are the cheapest gains | "Keywords in the top 100", which counts nothing |
| Pages indexed | Search Console, Pages report | Whether the site is even in the race; a drop here explains everything else | Nothing; indexing is rarely reported because it is rarely checked |
| Enquiries from search | Your phone and inbox, with the source noted; Analytics goals | The only number that pays the invoice | "Conversions" that turn out to be page views |
Every one of the five should be reconcilable with Google's own screen, which means you need access to Search Console yourself. A report whose numbers cannot be checked against the source is a report you are taking on trust, and there is no reason to.
What should be in words
The numbers say what happened; the words say why and what next, and they are the part most reports omit. What was done this month, as a list: which pages, which fixes, which mentions, with URLs. What it changed, honestly: a title rewrite that raised clicks on one page, a new page that is indexed but not yet ranking, a fix that did nothing visible yet. The two or three numbers that look odd, explained rather than hidden: a dip after a Google update, a spike from a one-off news story. What was deliberately not touched, and why: a page with clicks that a checklist would have rewritten, left alone because it is working. And next month's piece of work, named, so that the following report can be judged against it.
The last item is the one to insist on. A report that names next month's work is a report that can be held to account. A report that ends with "we will continue to optimise" has not decided anything.
Red flags in a report
- It is long. Forty pages of charts is a document designed not to be read, and the length is the point.
- The numbers are not Google's. A dashboard from a rank-tracking tool is fine as a supplement, but the clicks and impressions should come from Search Console, where you can check them.
- It reports the whole site rather than the named searches. Clicks on your own business name are not the work's doing.
- It reports rankings for searches nobody makes. "Number one for cheapest emergency plumber Wrexham 24 hour" is a search invented to be won.
- It never says what was not done. A month with no judgement calls is a month nobody was paying attention.
- It never mentions indexing or speed. If those are not checked monthly, the first sign of a problem will be a collapse in everything else.
- It is the same every month with the numbers changed. A templated report is a templated service.
How to read a report in ten minutes
- Find the named searches and check impressions against last month. Rising is the first sign the work is being read by Google; it comes before clicks.
- Check pages indexed against the number of pages you have. Any drop is the month's most important line, whatever else happened.
- Read the list of what was done and open one of the URLs. Does the page exist, and is it what was described?
- Read what was left alone and why. This is where you learn whether the person is thinking or following a checklist.
- Find next month's named piece of work and write it down. Next month, start by checking whether it happened.
- Open Search Console yourself and check one number. If it matches, the rest can be trusted; if it does not, ask why before anything else.
Our own report is two pages, and the results page describes it in detail. It exists because the first reports we received from other companies, years ago, were forty pages long and told us nothing, and the format above is the one we wished we had been sent.
What the first three reports should look like
The first report is a list of work, not a set of results. It names the technical fixes made, with URLs; says how many pages were indexed before and after; records the profile changes; and names the searches the account will be judged on, with their current impressions and position from Search Console. If it also shows a traffic rise, be curious about where that came from, because it is not the SEO yet.
The second report shows the first movement: impressions for the named searches, usually up, with clicks flat. It lists the month's page, with the query it was written for and the position that query held before. It says whether the profile has started to move for the local search. The third report is where the plan is judged: impressions should be clearly up for most of the named searches, one or two positions should have moved into the top ten, and the report should say in plain words whether the account is on the path set out in the proposal or needs the plan changed. A third report that still reads like the first, all work and no movement, is the signal to ask why.
What a report cannot tell you
A report shows what Google recorded. It cannot show what the phone did unless you tell the person writing it where each enquiry came from, which is why every account needs a habit of asking the customer and noting the answer. It cannot predict next month; a report that forecasts traffic is guessing. And it cannot make a decision for you: at month six, the report should give you the numbers and a written judgement, and the decision to continue, change or stop is yours.
Questions people ask about this
How often should I get a report?
Monthly. Weekly is noise, because nothing in SEO moves reliably in a week. Quarterly is too long to catch an indexing problem. Monthly, within five working days of month end, with the month's data complete.
Should the report include a call?
Optionally. A written report that stands on its own is the standard; a fifteen-minute call to talk it through is useful for some owners and unnecessary for others. A report that only makes sense with the call explaining it is not a report.
What if the numbers went down?
Then the report should say so first, say why if the cause is known (a Google update, a seasonal dip, a technical problem), and say what is being done. A report that buries a bad month is the report to worry about; a report that leads with it is the one to trust.
Can I get a report without a retainer?
Search Console gives you the numbers free; what you would be missing is the reading of them and the words. An audit is a one-off version of the same thing: the numbers, the causes, and what to do in what order.
What is a good result to look for in the first report?
That the technical fixes are listed with URLs, that pages indexed went up or held, and that the named searches are named. Impressions moving is a month-three question; enquiries are a month-six question. The first report is judged on whether the work was done and whether it was the right work.