How to Read an SEO Report

An SEO report lands in your inbox once a month. It has charts, percentages and words like "impressions" and "average position". Most people scroll to the bottom, see something green and close it.

That wastes what you're paying for. You don't need to learn SEO to read one. You need to know which numbers answer your question, and which ones only look alarming.

Start with the question you're paying for

You want more of the right people finding your business on Google, and some of them getting in touch. Every number in the report should lead back to that.

So look first for the enquiries, calls, bookings or sales that came from search. Many reports leave them out, because only you know the figure. If yours does, tell whoever writes it how many came in this month. A report that ties the work to real enquiries is worth far more than one that doesn't.

If you write reports yourself, we have a separate guide on how to report SEO success from the other side of the desk.

Read the numbers from the top down

A well-built report goes from what people saw to what they did. Read it in that order.

Impressions and clicks

Impressions count how often your site appeared in Google's results. Clicks count how often someone clicked through. Both come from Google Search Console, Google's own record of your site in search, so they're as close to the truth as you'll get.

Click-through rate is clicks divided by impressions. If impressions climb but clicks stay flat, people see you and choose someone else. The fix is often a clearer page title and description, which is a small job.

Sessions and what visitors did

Sessions come from Google Analytics and count visits once people land on your site. They won't match clicks, and that's normal. Cookie choices, ad blockers and people opening two tabs all pull the figures apart. We explain why clicks and sessions never match in more detail.

Then look at what happened after they arrived. Did they read a second page, or fill in your form?

Rankings

Rankings show where your pages sit on Google for the searches you track. The useful figures are how many keywords are on page one and which ones moved. A keyword climbing from 14 to 8 has just reached page one, and that matters more than a jump from 60 to 45, which nobody sees.

Speed and site health

Page speed scores and a site health score belong at the end. They change slowly, so read them once a month and look for a sudden drop. That usually means something on the site broke.

Numbers that look bad but aren't

Some figures go the wrong way when things are going well. Three catch out nearly everyone.

Average position gets worse. When your site starts appearing for new searches, it usually enters far down the results. That drags the average down, even though you're now visible for more. Check the page-one count beside it before you worry.

Click-through rate falls. More impressions from lower positions bring a lower rate. If clicks are steady or rising, nothing is wrong.

One bad week. Rankings and clicks move a little every week. A change that holds for three or four weeks is a trend. One week is noise.

Questions to ask whoever sends it

You're allowed to ask. A good agency or freelancer will be glad someone read it.

• What did you change this month, and on which pages?
• Which number do you expect to move next, and when?
• Why did this figure fall, and what are you checking?
• Are these figures for search only, or for every source?

If the answers are vague, or the report is thirty pages of keywords with no comment, that tells you something too. Google has its own page on what to ask before hiring an SEO, and the same questions work once they're hired.

If you'd rather see it yourself

Some owners would rather look at the numbers first-hand than wait for a summary. Duality puts your rankings, Search Console clicks, Analytics sessions and page speed in one place, with a weekly report on Monday and a monthly one on the 3rd. Every metric has a plain-English explanation beside it.

If someone already reports to you, they can send it through a white-label share link that always opens the newest report.