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The numbers in an SEO report that actually matter.
Most reports are built to look like progress. A few numbers tell you whether the work is paying, and most of the rest can go up while the phone stays quiet. Here is what each one really counts.
Start with what each number is
Google's Search Console defines its own numbers precisely, and they are worth knowing word for word. An impression is how often someone saw a link to your site on Google. A click is how often someone clicked through. The click-through rate is clicks divided by impressions. Average position is the topmost position your site held in the results, averaged across every search you appeared in.
That last one surprises people. It is an average across every search, not your rank for the search you care about. A site can add a hundred new searches at position fifty and watch its average position get worse, while every search that matters improves.
The numbers that can flatter a bad month
Impressions on their own
Being shown is not being chosen. I worked with an injury firm Google showed to Las Vegas searchers 556,000 times in three months. Fewer than two in every thousand of those clicked. Big impressions, almost no business.
Total traffic
Traffic to a blog post about something unrelated to what you sell is still traffic. A report can grow sessions every month by ranking for things no customer searches.
Keywords ranked
Ranking for 3,000 searches means little if the ones that bring bookings are on page three. Count the searches that matter, by name.
Domain rating and similar scores
Third-party authority scores are tools' estimates, not Google's. They are useful for spotting a trend in links, and useless as proof that the business is growing.
The numbers that tell you it worked
Position for the searches that pay
Pick the five to ten searches that bring customers and track each one by name, over a quarter, not a day. Local positions move week to week, so a single good day proves nothing.
Clicks, next to impressions
The same firm went from 0.1% of impressions clicked in the three months to June 2026 to 0.2% across June to August, as its pages were rebuilt to be chosen. Same demand, twice the visits.
Enquiries you can trace
Calls from the site, forms submitted, bookings made. If the report cannot show these, the report is measuring the marketing, not the business.
Pages Google accepts
How many of your pages Google indexes, and whether the important ones are in. The same firm went from 133 accepted pages to 543 as its structure took hold, read in Search Console on 3 September 2026.
Why Search Console and Analytics never agree
If your report shows clicks from Search Console and visits from Google Analytics, the two will not match, and that is normal. Search Console counts clicks on Google's side, at the moment someone clicks your result. Analytics counts visits on your site's side, and only when its tracking code runs, which it does not for people who decline cookies, block scripts or leave before the page loads.
So the two numbers answer different questions. Search Console tells you how Google is treating you. Analytics tells you what people did once they arrived. A good report uses each for its own job and never adds them together.
Compare the right months
A month on its own means little. Most local businesses have seasons: cleaners get busier around the end of tenancies and spring, injury firms after holiday travel, property firms with the school calendar. September compared with August can look like growth or decline purely because of the calendar.
Compare a month with the same month last year where you have the data, and look at a rolling three months rather than a single one. Watch for partial months too. A report sent on the 20th that compares the month so far with a full previous month will always look like a fall.
When a number moves a lot, ask what else changed that month: a website update, a Google update, a new competitor, a price change, an advert on the radio. The report should name the likely cause, not just the direction.
Split searches for your name from everything else
Searches that include your business name come from people who already know you. They rise when you advertise on the radio, win a big case, or sponsor the local football team, whatever the website is doing. Searches without your name are the ones where a stranger chose you over the alternatives, and they are the real measure of search work.
Search Console lets you filter queries by whether they contain your name. A report that does not separate the two can claim credit for your own reputation. Ask for the split; it is a two-minute filter.
Every number needs a date and a window
A figure without a window is not evidence. "20,400 appearances" means something only when you know it was 28 days, which property, and which tool counted it. Every number in a report I send carries where it came from and the dates it covers, so you can open the same report and check it yourself.
Ask for the same thing from anyone who reports to you. If a number cannot be traced back to Search Console, Analytics or your own call records, treat it as a claim, not a result.
How often to look
Weekly is too often for rankings. Positions move day to day for reasons that mean nothing, and reacting to them wastes money. Weekly is right for things that break: the site going down, the phone number on the listing changing, a form that stopped sending.
Monthly is right for the story: what was done, what moved and what is next. Quarterly is right for judging whether the whole engagement is working. A single month rarely proves anything either way; three usually do.
What a good monthly report contains, in order
One paragraph that says what happened
In plain words, before any chart. What moved, what did not, and the likely reason. If you only read this paragraph, you should know whether it was a good month.
The searches that pay, by name
Each important search with its position this period and last, and the window it was read over. No averages standing in for the searches you care about.
Enquiries, with their source
Calls, forms and bookings the website produced, and how each was counted. Next to them, the clicks and impressions that led there.
The work log
Every piece of work, the day it was done and what it was meant to move. The rest of the report should be written from this list, so it never claims more than was done.
What is next and why
The plan for next month, tied to a number it should move. Next month's report then checks whether it did.
Five questions to ask of any report
Which searches that bring customers moved, and by how much, over what period? How many enquiries came from the website, and how do you know? Which pages did Google refuse this month, and what was done about them? What work was actually done, item by item, and on which days? What is planned next, and which number should it move? A report that can answer those five is worth reading. One that cannot is a newsletter.
Questions people ask about SEO reports
Why did my impressions go up but clicks stay the same
Usually because you started appearing for more searches, often low on the page where few people click. It can be an early sign of progress, but it is not progress yet.
Is a lower average position always worse
No. It is an average across every search you appear in, so appearing for many new searches low down can pull it down while your important searches improve. Check the searches that matter individually.
What is a good click-through rate
It depends on position and the type of search. A result in first place gets far more clicks than one in eighth. Compare your own rate over time for the same searches rather than against a general figure.
Should my report include Ahrefs or Semrush numbers
They are useful for links and for estimating competitors. They are estimates, not Google's data, so they should sit alongside Search Console figures, never replace them.
What if my report has no enquiry numbers
Ask for call and form tracking to be set up. Without it, nobody can tell you whether the work brought in business, including the person doing the work.
Want a second opinion on your report?
Send me last month's report. I will tell you which numbers mean something and which ones are decoration.