Report template
SEO report template
A report should answer three questions in a minute: what changed, why, and what happens next. This template is built on a client's own Google Search Console, with our notes on reading it honestly.
In short
A good SEO report has six parts: a one-paragraph summary, clicks and impressions from Search Console compared with the previous period and the same period last year, branded and non-branded splits, the pages and queries that moved, work completed with dates, and next month's plan. It reports business outcomes first and rankings last.
The six sections, in order
- Summary in five linesWhat moved, the most likely reason, what we did, what is next, and anything that needs a decision from the client. A busy owner should be able to stop reading here.
- Search performanceClicks, impressions, click-through rate and average position, for the last 28 days against the 28 before, and against the same dates a year earlier.
- Brand and non-brand splitSeparate queries that include the business name from those that do not. Only non-brand growth shows new demand.
- Pages and queries that movedThe five pages and queries that gained the most clicks and the five that lost the most, each with a one-line reason.
- Work doneA dated list of changes: fixes shipped, pages published, links earned, content updated.
- Plan for next monthThree to five tasks, an owner for each and what result we expect to read and when.
The metrics table
| Metric | Where it comes from | How to read it | Our note |
|---|---|---|---|
| Clicks | Search Console, Performance report | Visits from Google results | The number the business feels most |
| Impressions | Search Console, Performance report | How often you appeared | Can rise while clicks fall if you rank lower on more queries |
| Click-through rate | Search Console | Clicks divided by impressions | Compare by page type; averages hide a lot |
| Average position | Search Console | Mean position of your top result per query | Never read as 'our rank'; it moves when you win new queries |
| Indexed pages | Search Console, Pages report | How many URLs Google holds | Watch the not-indexed reasons, not just the total |
| Core Web Vitals | Search Console, Experience report | Share of URLs rated good in field data | Updates over a 28-day window, so effects lag |
| Leads or sales from organic | Analytics or the CRM | The result the client pays for | Always include, even when the number is small |
An illustration of reading it correctly
The numbers below are invented to show the reasoning. They are not from a client.
| This 28 days | Previous 28 days | Same period last year | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Clicks | 1,260 | 1,180 | 940 |
| Impressions | 58,000 | 41,000 | 39,000 |
| Click-through rate | 2.2% | 2.9% | 2.4% |
| Average position | 14.1 | 11.6 | 12.8 |
Clicks are up, which is good. But impressions rose faster, so click-through rate fell, and average position got worse. A poor reading says rankings dropped. A careful reading checks the query list: new pages have started to appear for hundreds of low-ranking queries, which pushes the average down while clicks still grow. The report should say that, show five examples and say what we will do about the weak pages.
Rules we keep when reporting
- Use the client's own Search Console. Our note: they own the data, and anyone can check it.
- Report the 28-day comparison and the year-on-year view together. Our note: month-on-month alone confuses seasonality with progress.
- Allow for the delay in the data. Our note: Search Console lags by a couple of days, so we close the period before it.
- Keep a change log. Our note: without dates you cannot link a result to an action.
- Write the bad news in the summary. Our note: a client who learns it on page six stops trusting page one.
- Never claim a ranking as a result. Our note: leads and revenue are the result; rankings are a means.
- Do not report vanity totals such as 'keywords ranked'. Our note: a thousand queries at position 80 earn nothing.
A downloadable copy of this template is meant to be offered on this page. Our Google Search Console setup guide covers access, and the report builds on an SEO audit baseline.
Matching the report to the audience
| Reader | What they need | What to cut |
|---|---|---|
| Owner | Leads, the summary, decisions needed | Technical terms and long tables |
| Marketing lead | Page and query movement, content plan, links | Crawl logs |
| Developer | Specific fixes with URLs and templates | Narrative about trends |
We produce one full report and cut it into these three views rather than three different documents. That keeps everyone looking at the same numbers.
Updated 30 October 2026
Questions, answered
How often should an SEO report be sent?
Which tool should the report come from?
How much history does Search Console keep?
Should the report include AI search?
What if results are flat?
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