Diagnosis
How to read an SEO report: six numbers that matter, the rest is noise
Ilyes Massoudi6 min readThe short answer
A good SEO report answers one question: did enquiries from search increase, and why? Six numbers are enough: enquiries from organic search, clicks and impressions from Search Console filtered by your country, important pages indexed, the queries that advanced or fell with the reason, what was executed this month by name, and what did not work and why. Site-wide average position, the count of keywords on 'page one', and a score out of 100 measure activity, not results. A report that never uses the word 'enquiries' is an activity report.
The report whose chart rises and whose phone does not ring
Most SEO reports that Gulf business owners show me share one thing: a rising chart, a growing count of keywords on page one, and a score out of 100 that keeps improving. And when I ask “how many enquiries came from search this month compared with last month?”, nobody finds the number in the report.
Not necessarily because the agency hides it, but because the report was built to measure activity: what was published, what was built, what moved. Activity is easy to measure and comfortable for both sides. Results are harder, and they are what you pay for.
The six numbers a report must contain
1. Enquiries from organic search. The number of calls, messages and forms from visitors who arrived through search, compared with last month and with the same month last year. This is the first number, and if it is missing everything after it is detail. It needs goals set up in analytics or WhatsApp tracking, which is the agency’s job if it is serious.
2. Clicks and impressions in your country. Straight from Search Console, filtered by the country you sell in. The total includes visits from countries you do not sell in and inflates the picture.
3. Important pages indexed. How many of your service and product pages are actually indexed, and whether an important page dropped out of the index this month.
4. Queries that advanced or fell, with the reason. Not a list of positions, but: this query moved from 14 to 6 because we rewrote its page; this one fell because a competitor published a better page, or because a core update rolled out on the 12th.
5. What was executed this month, by name. Which pages changed, what changed in them, and who did it. “Technical improvements” is not an item. “Fixed hreflang on 40 Arabic pages” is.
6. What did not work, and why. A report with no failed item over six months is not a report but a sales pitch. Real work contains hypotheses that did not hold.
Numbers that look important and are not
| Number | Why it is shown | Why it does not matter |
|---|---|---|
| Site-wide average position | Easy to make rise | Improves when you appear for new queries at position 40, worsens when you appear for more queries. It says nothing |
| Keywords on page one | Easy to make rise | Depends on who chose the keywords. Ten easy keywords nobody searches give “10 keywords on page one” |
| An SEO score out of 100 | Looks objective | Tool output measuring what is on the page; rises when you fix image descriptions |
| Articles and links published | Measures effort | Activity, not results. An article with no target query brings nobody |
| Total visits | A big number | Includes visits you cannot sell to, from countries you do not serve, for queries unrelated to you |
It is fine for these numbers to sit in an appendix. The problem is when they are the report.
The questions to put to any report
- Where is the enquiries number? Is it compared with last month and last year?
- Are the numbers filtered by my country?
- Who chose the tracked keywords, and does my customer actually type them?
- For every query that moved, what is the written reason?
- What changed on my site this month, by name, and can I see it?
- What did not work?
- Can I open Search Console myself and verify?
A report that answers all seven is a results report. One that answers only four and five is a good activity report. One that answers none deserves a call today, not next month.
The report format I recommend asking for
One page, in this order: enquiries from search, then clicks and impressions in your country, then three queries that advanced with the reason and three that fell with the reason, then what was executed by name, then what did not work, then what will be executed next month and why that rather than something else. Every number linked to its source in Search Console or analytics.
Anyone who refuses this format as “too simple” prefers the long report for a reason.
What an independent audit does with your reports
One of the most common requests I get: read six months of agency reports before a contract renewal. In the Digital Presence Audit I compare what the reports say with what Search Console, indexing and competitor data say, and tell you whether the work is addressing the right problem or shipping activity. The audit replaces nobody, but it gives you the truth before you sign.