What is a keyword tracking report?
A keyword tracking report is a document that consolidates data from multiple sources (e.g., Google Search Console, SEMrush, Ahrefs) to track and display key performance indicators (KPIs) (e.g., keyword rankings, search volume, click-through rate), enabling teams and agencies to monitor SEO performance and create presentations for clients and executives.
Keyword tracking reports are typically created using flexible tools like Google Looker Studio, Power BI, Google Sheets, or platform-specific solutions to enable high customization and integration of multiple data sources.
What to include in a keyword tracking report?
An actionable keyword tracking report balances context and specificity based on the audience (executives, managers, and analysts) and their use cases.
Executive keyword tracking reports
Executive reports for CMOs, CEOs, and clients show SEO's bottom-line impact. Reviewed weekly, monthly, or quarterly, they include:
- SEO ROI analysis: by keyword, using attribution for large budgets.
- Traffic analysis: organic traffic growth and trends from keyword performance
- Cohort analysis: keyword performance by time period or content type
- Add text for additional context to translate metrics for non-technical audiences. Present in slide decks and simplified Looker Studio reports.
SEO manager reports
Manager reports have cross-channel views with drill-downs to see performance by keyword, region, team member, and content type. They help align teams, define tactics, and include:
- Keyword performance reporting: overall keyword rankings and traffic across search engines
- Goal tracking: compare current keyword performance vs objectives
- Audits for prioritization and spotting issues
- Competitive analysis for keyword and content mapping
- Topic, keyword, content, audience research
Operational Keyword Tracking Reports
Operational reports for analysts and SEO specialists have granular, customizable KPIs to solve technical issues. Monitored hourly, daily, or weekly, they cover:
- Keyword rankings: position changes, search volume, competition
- Content performance: page views, bounce rate, time on page
- Technical SEO: site speed, crawl errors, mobile usability
- Backlink analysis: new and lost backlinks, domain authority
Operational keyword tracking reports are highly customized, built in flexible tools like Google Sheets or Looker Studio to enable data cleaning, blending, annotations, and integrating multiple sources.
How to build a keyword tracking report?
To build a keyword tracking report, connect your data sources, choose a template on Looker Studio or Sheets, build your queries by selecting metrics and dimensions, choose charts to visualize your data, customize the report, design and share via link, PDF or email.
Here’s the breakdown:
Connect data sources
Define and connect the data sources to bring to your report. Common sources are Google Search Console for keyword performance, SEMrush or Ahrefs for competitive analysis, and Google Analytics for traffic data.
To connect your data sources, go to portermetrics.com, choose the data sources to bring to your report.
You can follow these tutorials on connecting your data:
Choose a template
Choose from dozens of keyword tracking report templates in Google Sheets or Looker Studio, designed for use cases like keyword monitoring, traffic analysis, and competitive research.
Learn to copy Looker Studio templates.
While templates are the starting point. Make them specific for your business or agency. Map your specific metrics, especially custom keyword groups, search volume data, and all the fields and metrics that you define as "rankings" and "traffic".
Depending on your reporting tool—Google Sheets or Google Looker Studio, pick any of the dozens of templates created by our team and customers to solve your keyword tracking use cases, such as keyword monitoring, traffic analysis, and competitive research.
Select metrics, dimensions, and charts
Once your report template is downloaded, you may 1)modify it or 2) create a blank page to build it from scratch. Whatever the case, setting up a query always follows these steps:
- Select the data source and the account connected to it
- Choose metrics (e.g. Keyword rankings, search volume, CTR, etc.).
- Choose breakdowns to segment your data (e.g. by date, keyword, page, etc.)
You can follow these tutorials on adding data to your reports
Design
To make your keyword tracking reports truly white-label you can add logos, colors, fonts, and styling to mirror your brand.
Follow these tutorials to design your keyword tracking reports:
Share
Share your keyword tracking reports via links, PDF, schedule emails, and control permissions.
KPIs to include in a keyword tracking report?
Keyword tracking reports should include a mix of visibility, engagement, conversion, efficiency, effectiveness, and cost metrics and KPIs to fully understand the performance of SEO efforts towards business goals. They include:
Keyword performance KPIs measure the visibility and impact of keywords:
- Visibility metrics: keyword rankings, search volume, impressions
- Engagement metrics: clicks, CTR, average position
- Conversion metrics: organic conversions, goal completions
Efficiency KPIs compare your SEO outputs to the cost, including:
- Visibility: cost per impression
- Engagement: cost per click
- Conversion: cost per acquisition
Effectiveness KPIs compare the input with the output from one stage to another
- Visibility: frequency of keyword appearance
- Engagement: CTR, engagement rate
- Conversion: conversion rate
Sales and cost KPIs show the bottom-line impact of your SEO performance:
- Sales: organic revenue
- Cost: SEO spend, OPEX, payroll
- Efficiency: ROI, cost per ranking
- Effectiveness: average order value
To analyze these keyword tracking KPIs, segment them by:
- Channel: organic, paid, search engine
- Time: Hourly, daily, weekly, monthly
- Keyword: group, intent, competition
- Business: client, branch, region
- Audience: geo, tech, demographics, interests, behavior
- Content: page, format, topic, keyword
