The two-page SEO report: what to cut and what to keep
If a report takes longer to read than the meeting it is for, it will not be read. A template for reporting organic results in plain English.
Key takeaways · Measurement · 5 min read
- Lead with outcomes, support with traffic, footnote the rankings
- Explain why a number moved, not just that it did
- End with three actions and who owns them
Why two pages
Long reports hide what matters. When everything is included, nothing is emphasized, and the reader has to do the analysis the author avoided. Two pages forces a choice about what is important this month.
Page one: outcomes
The first page answers one question: did organic search help the business this month?
- Leads, orders or bookings from organic, against last month and last year
- Revenue or pipeline tied to those conversions
- The three pages or page groups that contributed most
- One sentence on anything unusual
Page two: causes and actions
The second page explains why. Which work shipped, what moved as a result, and what did not move that we expected to. Then three actions for the coming month, each with an owner and a date.
Rankings appear here as supporting evidence, grouped by topic. A single keyword's position rarely deserves a line.
What to cut
Screenshots of dashboards, lists of every keyword, bounce rate without context, and any chart nobody has asked about in three months. Keep them in the dashboard for people who want to explore.
A note on tone
Write the report the way you would explain it across a table. Say when something did not work. Clients forgive a flat month much more readily than they forgive finding out later that it was flat.
Two pages forces a choice about what is important this month.
Written by
Noor Haddad
Analytics lead. Rebuilds tracking so that marketing and finance see the same number. Writes the two-page report in plain English.
Illustrative photos. Figures and examples in this article are sample content.
