# SEO report _Client or site. Month, year. Prepared by_ > Delete every quoted line as you fill this in. They are the instructions, not the report. ## 1. What changed this month > Three to five sentences a busy reader can stop after. If they read nothing else, this is what they know. - The one thing that moved, up or down, and by how much. - The one thing we shipped that we expect to move next. - Anything that needs a decision from you this month. > **Leave out:** A recap of what SEO is, a list of everything that was touched, and any sentence that would be true in any month of any engagement. ## 2. The numbers > The small set of figures worth tracking, each with the date and the tool it came from. Use the KPI tab of the spreadsheet. - Clicks and impressions, this period against the same period last year rather than against last month. - The queries where impressions held and clicks fell, which is where a result is being answered without a visit. - Conversions or enquiries attributed to organic, with the attribution model named. - Anything that moved more than you can explain, flagged as unexplained rather than narrated. > **Leave out:** Rankings for keywords nobody searches, a domain authority score, and any metric that has never once changed a decision in this engagement. ## 3. What we fixed > Shipped work only. One line each, linked to the finding it closes in the tracker. - The finding, the fix, and the date it went live. - Where it applies: one page, one template, or site wide. - What we expect it to change, and roughly when we will be able to tell. > **Leave out:** Work in progress, work planned, and anything where the fix is written but not deployed. Those belong in section 5. ## 4. What we published > New and updated pages, with the reason each one exists. A page with no reason is the thing to catch here. - The URL, and the question it answers for a reader. - Whether it is new, an update, or a merge of pages that were competing. - For updates: what specifically changed, since a date bump on unchanged content is a pattern worth nobody's time. > **Leave out:** Word counts, publishing cadence as an achievement, and a list of pages with no statement of what any of them is for. ## 5. What is open, and who has it > Everything found and not yet fixed, with a name against it. This is the section that makes the report a working document rather than a summary. - Findings waiting on us, with the date we expect to ship them. - Findings waiting on you, stated plainly, with what specifically is needed. - Anything blocked, and by what. > **Leave out:** The full findings list. Link the tracker instead; a report that reprints 200 rows is the report nobody opens. ## 6. What we are not doing, and why > The section no template has. Everything deliberately deprioritised, with the reason, so nobody has to reconstruct the decision in six months. - Findings we judged not worth fixing, and what made them not worth it. - Work the data does not support yet, and what would change that. - Anything we were asked for and advised against, with the advice restated. > **Leave out:** Silence. A thing left undone with no reason recorded reads as a thing forgotten, and it will be raised as one. ## 7. Next month > Three to five items, in order, with the largest first. Anything longer than that is a list rather than a plan. - The next thing to ship, and why it is next rather than something else. - What we need from you and by when. - What we will be able to say in the next report that we cannot say in this one. > **Leave out:** A rolling backlog copied forward each month. If an item has appeared three times without moving, it belongs in section 6. ## Sources > Every figure above, with the tool it came from and the date it was read. A number with no source is an assertion, and this section is what stops one becoming a quarterly argument. --- Template v1.0 from visibility100x.com/seo-report-template/. Free to use, edit and rebrand. No attribution required.