What is an On-page SEO report?
An On-page SEO report is a document that consolidates data from multiple sources (e.g., Google Search Console, Ahrefs, SEMrush) to track and display key performance indicators (KPIs) (e.g., keyword rankings, page speed, organic traffic), enabling teams and agencies to monitor website performance and create presentations for clients and executives.
On-page SEO 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 an On-page SEO report?
An actionable On-page SEO report balances context and specificity based on the audience (executives, managers, and analysts) and their use cases.
Executive On-page SEO 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 page, using attribution for large budgets.
- Traffic analysis: organic traffic growth, bounce rate, session duration
- Cohort analysis: user retention and engagement by cohort (landing page, acquisition channel)
- 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-page views with drill-downs to see performance by client, brand, region, team member, and content type. They help align teams, define tactics, and include:
- Cross-page reporting: overall website, product, client, or region reporting across pages
- Goal tracking: compare current performance vs objectives
- Audits for prioritization and spotting issues
- Competitive analysis for keyword and content mapping
- Topic, keyword, content, audience research
Operational On-page SEO reports
Operational reports for analysts and SEO specialists have granular, customizable KPIs to solve technical issues. Monitored hourly, daily, or weekly, they cover:
- Keyword performance: rankings, impressions, clicks
- Technical SEO: page speed, mobile usability, crawl errors
- Content analysis: readability, keyword density, meta tags
- Backlink profile: new and lost backlinks, domain authority
Operational On-page SEO 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 an On-page SEO report?
To build an On-page SEO 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 web analytics, Ahrefs or SEMrush for keyword and backlink data, and PageSpeed Insights for technical performance.
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 SEO report templates in Google Sheets or Looker Studio, designed for use cases like keyword monitoring, technical audits, and content performance.
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 rankings, technical SEO metrics, and all the fields and metrics that you define as "conversions" 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 SEO reporting use cases, such as keyword monitoring, technical audits, and content performance.
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. Clicks, impressions, bounce rate, etc.).
- Choose breakdowns to segment your data (e.g. by date, page URL, keyword, etc.)
You can follow these tutorials on adding data to your reports
Design
To make your SEO reports truly white-label you can add logos, colors, fonts, and styling to mirror your brand.
Follow these tutorials to design your SEO reports:
Share
Share your SEO reports via links, PDF, schedule emails, and control permissions.
KPIs to include in an On-page SEO report?
On-page SEO reports should include a mix of visibility, engagement, conversion, efficiency, effectiveness, and technical metrics and KPIs to fully understand the performance of SEO efforts towards business goals. They include:
SEO funnel KPIs measure the optimization process (from the SEO perspective), regardless of the channel:
- Visibility metrics: impressions, keyword rankings, organic reach
- Engagement metrics: clicks, bounce rate, average session duration
- Conversion metrics: goal completions, leads, key events
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 funnel stage to another
- Visibility: frequency of keyword appearance
- Engagement: click-through rate, engagement rate
- Conversion: conversion rate
Technical and cost KPIs show the bottom-line impact of your SEO performance:
- Technical: page speed, mobile usability
- Cost: SEO tool expenses, payroll
- Efficiency: ROI, cost per lead
- Effectiveness: average order value, average customer value
To analyze these SEO KPIs, segment them by:
- Page: landing page, blog post, product page
- Time: Hourly, daily, weekly, monthly
- Keyword: focus keyword, long-tail keyword
- Business: client, branch, region
- Audience: geo, tech, demographics, interests, behavior
- Content: creatives, format, topic, keyword
