SEO Reporting | What a Good Report Includes (and Hides)

01 — The Opportunity

What Reports Usually Show vs. What Matters.

THE VANITY LAYER

Impressions, Keywords Tracked, Tasks

Numbers that go up regardless of results. Impressions rise when Google shows you on page five; keyword counts rise when the tracker adds terms; tasks complete because someone did them.

THE REAL LAYER

Calls, Forms, Revenue by Source

How many customers came from search this month, from which pages, compared to last month and last year. The only numbers that pay the invoice.

THE MISSING LAYER

What Didn't Work

Reports without losses are sales documents. Every real month contains something that was tried and didn't move; a report that never mentions one is hiding it.

02 — Who You Work With

How I Report, and Why.

Hey, I'm Connor. My reports contain four things: rankings by page against the terms that matter, calls and forms by source with call tracking so phone leads count, what was done and why, and what didn't work. The last item is the one clients say they've never seen from a previous provider. I'm a SEMrush-certified SEO consultant with an MBA from SMU Cox, based in Tampa, and I write every report personally because I did the work it describes. This page is the reading guide — for my reports and for the one you're getting now.

03 — Proof

Real Clients. Real Numbers.

Same Market · Tampa Bay B2B

Sixwatch — Rebuilding a Tampa Bay MSP's Architecture to Rank

Full technical rebuild for a Tampa Bay IT & cybersecurity MSP — consolidating 222 pages into a focused architecture built to rank for buyer-intent services.

View the Sixwatch case study →

Same Market · Local Services

Mandy Drew Designs — Building Design Leads From a Standing Zero

500+Monthly Visitors

200+Ranking Keywords

View the Mandy Drew Designs case study →

03 — What You Get

What a Good Report Contains.

OUTCOMES

Leads and Revenue by Source

Calls, forms and bookings attributed to organic search, by landing page, month over month and year over year. Phone calls counted with tracking, not estimated.

RANKINGS BY PAGE

The Terms That Matter

Positions for the searches that produce customers, tied to the page that ranks for them — not a count of tracked keywords.

WORK AND JUDGMENT

What Was Done, What's Next, What Failed

The changes made, the reasoning, the results, and the honest list of what didn't move and what changes as a result.

04 — How It Works

How to Read Any SEO Report.

Find the Customer Number

Look for leads or revenue attributed to search. If it isn't there, ask why the report exists.

Find a Loss

Look for something that didn't work. If every line is a win, the report is selling, not reporting.

Check Page-Level

Rankings and leads should be tied to pages. Aggregate numbers hide which work is producing.

05 — Who It's For

Who This Is For.

Business Owners

Receiving reports and unsure what they mean
Comparing providers' reporting
Paying for SEO and unable to find the leads
Deciding whether to renew

What to Insist On

Leads by source, monthly
Call tracking on phone leads
Rankings tied to pages
Losses included, every month

07 — Engagement

Simple, Transparent Pricing.

Work directly with me. No contracts — cancel any time. Every engagement starts with the free audit, and I'll recommend the right tier for your firm's authority.

Starter

$1,250/month

Best for firms with a website DA under 20

Full audit + prioritized roadmap
8 optimized posts & 3 low-KD keyword clusters monthly
5 pages re-optimized · on-page across 25
4 white-hat backlinks (DA 40+)
Monthly plain-English reporting

Discuss Starter

Growth

$2,500/month

Best for firms with a website DA of 20–40

Everything in Starter, expanded
12 posts & 6 medium-KD clusters monthly
10 pages re-optimized · on-page across 50
8 white-hat backlinks (DA 40+)
Monthly reporting + quarterly strategy review

Discuss Growth

Authority

$4,000/month

Best for firms with a website DA of 40+

Full-scope strategy & execution
20 posts & 12 high-KD clusters monthly
20 pages re-optimized · on-page across 100
16 white-hat backlinks (DA 40+)
Priority access + quarterly strategy review

Discuss Authority

06 — The Playbook

Report Red Flags.

IMPRESSIONS AS RESULTS

Page Five Counts as an Impression

Impressions rise when Google shows you anywhere. They're not visibility; they're a number that goes up.

KEYWORDS TRACKED

Volume of Tracking Isn't Volume of Rankings

A report bragging about 500 tracked keywords says nothing about how many rank on page one for terms customers use.

NO LOSSES

Every Month Has One

A report with only wins was written to be renewed on.

07 — In Depth

SEO Reporting, in Detail.

Why most reports are built the way they are

A report is the moment a client decides to renew, and vendors know it. The easiest report to renew on shows numbers that reliably rise — impressions, tracked keywords, backlinks built, content published — and omits the ones that might not: leads, revenue, and the work that failed. That structure isn't fraud; it's an incentive. Knowing it changes how you read the report.

Leads by source is the whole point

Search either produced customers this month or it didn't, and the report should say which, with numbers. That requires attribution — analytics that connect a form or booking to the organic visit that produced it — and call tracking, because most local businesses convert by phone and untracked calls vanish from the report. A provider who can't report leads by source can't tell you whether the work is working.

Rankings, read correctly

Rankings matter as a leading indicator, read at the page level for the terms that produce customers. A chart of average position across 500 tracked terms hides everything: which pages moved, which terms matter, whether the movement was on searches anyone makes. Ask for positions on the twenty terms that produce your calls, tied to the pages that rank for them.

The losses

Every real month contains something that was tried and didn't move — a page that didn't rank, a link that didn't index, a change that hurt. A report that includes them, with what changes as a result, is a report from someone doing the work honestly. One that never does is either hiding them or not looking. My reports have a section for it, and it's the section clients read first once they've seen it.

Year over year, not just month over month

Local search is seasonal, and a month-over-month drop in August might be the calendar, not the campaign. Year-over-year comparison for the same month is the honest baseline, and most reports omit it because the first year has nothing to compare.

Reading the report you have now

Find the number of customers attributed to search. Find a loss. Find whether rankings are tied to pages. If any of the three is missing, ask for it. A provider doing real work can add it in a month; one who can't has told you what the report was for.

08 — Common Questions

Questions Before You Book.

What should an SEO report include?

Leads and revenue by source with call tracking, rankings for the terms that matter tied to pages, what was done and why, and what didn't work.

Are impressions a good SEO metric?

Rarely. Impressions rise when Google shows you anywhere, including page five. They're a leading indicator at best and a vanity number in most reports.

How often should I get an SEO report?

Monthly, with year-over-year comparison once there's a year of history.

What if my report never shows losses?

Ask for them. Every month has something that didn't work; a report that omits it was built to be renewed on.

Do you provide reports?

Monthly, written personally, with leads by source, page-level rankings, the work done, and the losses.