An SEO report comes together by pulling Search Console, GA4, and Core Web Vitals into one repeatable template with goals and owners.
Pulling data is easy; getting answers your team can act on takes a clear plan. This guide shows you how to craft a reporting setup that lands the right numbers, tells a clean story, and sets the next move. You’ll get a simple framework, two tables, and a repeatable workflow that saves time each month.
What Your Report Must Cover
Start with outcomes, not tools. Pick the business goals first. Then map metrics that tie to those goals. For search work, most teams track demand, visibility, traffic, engagement, and revenue or leads. Keep scope tight for the first version, then expand.
Next, decide the sources. Use Search Console for queries, pages, and positions. Use GA4 for sessions, engaged sessions, conversions, and revenue. For page speed and stability, watch the Core Web Vitals trio from field data.
Here’s a quick view of the core sections you’ll build and where each number comes from.
| Section | Where To Pull | What It Answers |
|---|---|---|
| Query & Page Performance | Search Console → Performance | Which terms and pages gained or lost and by how much |
| Traffic & Conversions | GA4 → Landing Page / Conversions | Which entries brought engaged sessions, leads, or sales |
| Core Web Vitals | PageSpeed Insights / CrUX / Lighthouse | Which templates pass or fail LCP, INP, and CLS |
| Index Coverage | Search Console → Pages | Which URLs are indexed or excluded and why |
| Action Log | Team Doc / Ticket System | What changed, who owns next steps, target dates |
Build A Search Reporting Template: Step-By-Step
Set the cadence. Monthly is common. Weekly can work for a fast-moving site. Pick a day, create a calendar invite, and stick to it. Consistency beats one-off deep dives.
Create a single slide deck or doc that holds the charts and the short notes. Give each section a question to answer. Examples: “Where did traffic grow or drop?”, “Which queries gained clicks?”, “Which pages slowed down?” Lead with the answer, then show proof.
Now wire up the data. In Search Console, open Performance and select the date range. Use the Pages and Queries tabs to see shifts. In GA4, use the Landing Page report and add conversions and revenue. For speed, run PageSpeed Insights or Lighthouse on key templates.
Finish with actions. Assign owners, set due dates, and add a short note on expected impact. Close the loop in the next cycle by marking items as shipped or blocked.
Metrics That Matter And How To Read Them
Demand, Reach, And Appeal
Clicks and impressions show demand and reach in search. CTR hints at listing appeal. Average position gives broad context, but don’t treat it as a rank for a single term. In GA4, engaged sessions beat total sessions when you need quality. Watch conversion rate and top landing pages to see which content pulls its weight.
Speed And Stability
Track LCP, INP, and CLS from field data. Pick thresholds that line up with Google guidance and flag pages that miss the mark. Add a short note about the layout, images, or scripts that might be slowing things down.
Index Status
Index status tells you whether pages can show up at all. Large swings in “Indexed” or sudden surges in excluded buckets call for a closer look at patterns, redirects, and sitemaps.
Set Up Each Data Source Fast
Search Console Setup
Verify the domain property, then open the Search Results view. Use filters for country and device to match your audience. Save the view you use each cycle. You can learn the metrics and chart behavior in Google’s Performance report.
GA4 Setup
Confirm that key events match your goals. Add the Landing page dimension, then add metrics like engaged sessions, conversions, and revenue. Save the report layout so the team sees the same grid each time. The GA4 docs spell out the engagement rate rules and how sessions count.
Core Web Vitals Setup
Run Lighthouse in Chrome DevTools or use PageSpeed Insights. Track the same set of page types each month: home, article, product, and checkout or form. Keep a log of template changes so you can link code ships to metric shifts. Google lists targets for LCP, INP, and CLS in the Core Web Vitals guide.
Index Coverage Setup
Open the Pages report in Search Console. Watch the chart and the reason codes. Sample a few URLs with the URL Inspection tool to confirm crawl and render status. If you need a refresher, see Google’s Page indexing report.
Build Charts That Tell A Story
Use time series for clicks, sessions, and conversions. Mark deploys or content launches on the chart. Add a table for top landing pages with change vs. last period and change vs. last year. Use a bar chart for query gains and losses. For Core Web Vitals, a simple scorecard with pass, needs work, and fail keeps it clear.
Label every axis and include the segment in the title, such as Mobile, US, or All Countries. Round numbers to readable units. Add short callouts near big swings so a reader grasps the why in a glance.
Write The Narrative In Plain Language
Keep the intro to four lines. State what moved, why it moved, and what the team will do next. Use bullets for actions. Tie each action to a person and a date. Keep tense simple: past for what happened, present for the decision, and next-step tense for the task you’re assigning.
Skip fluff. Cut hedging words. If you’re not sure, say what you checked and what you’ll check next. Stake a claim and back it with a chart or a table. People read faster when the writing is crisp.
Common Mistakes To Avoid
- Burying the answer. Put the takeaway on page one and the proof below it.
- Mixing segments. Don’t blend mobile with desktop or one region with another in the same chart.
- Chasing averages. Use distributions where it helps: time to first byte, LCP, and CLS often need it.
- Metric overload. Cap the deck at a dozen charts for a monthly cadence.
- Blank templates with no owners. Every action needs a name and a date.
- Skipping change logs. Keep a small log of code deploys, content launches, and site outages.
Workflow You Can Reuse Each Month
Day 1–2: pull data, paste screenshots or build live charts.
Day 3: write the story, list actions, and send for comments.
Day 4: present the report, agree on owners and due dates.
Day 5: create tickets, add links, and archive the deck in a shared folder.
Add a baseline checklist to speed things up: refresh date ranges, apply the same device and country filters, check that GA4 events still fire, and rerun speed checks on the same pages. Small habits save hours.
Recurring Schedule And Owners
| Cadence | Who | What To Deliver |
|---|---|---|
| Weekly | Analyst | Quick pulse: query gains/losses, top landing pages, open risks |
| Monthly | SEO Lead | Full deck: trends, Core Web Vitals scorecard, index status, action list |
| Quarterly | Manager + Dev + Content | Plan: themes to grow, technical fixes, content roadmap, budget asks |
What Good Looks Like
A clear title on every slide. One idea per chart. A short note that answers “what changed?” and “what will we do?” Links to the live sources in the footer. A closing slide with owners, due dates, and a tiny burn-down of last month’s tasks.
When you finish, ask one question: could a new teammate scan this deck in five minutes and say what to do next? If yes, you nailed it. If not, tighten the story, trim extra charts, and push actions higher in the deck.
Template You Can Copy
Page 1: headline summary and three bullets with actions.
Page 2: clicks, impressions, and CTR trend with a short callout.
Page 3: top queries movers table.
Page 4: GA4 landing pages with engaged sessions and conversions.
Page 5: Core Web Vitals scorecard and top offending templates.
Page 6: index status summary and any spikes.
Page 7: action log with owners and due dates.
Keep the file under ten slides until your team asks for more. Add deep dives in appendix pages instead of crowding the main flow.
Practical Tips That Save Time
- Save your default views in each tool. Use the same date ranges each cycle. Name screenshots with date and metric. Keep a single folder per month with the deck, exports, and notes.
- Set alerts. Search Console sends email for coverage or manual actions. GA4 can send custom alerts for drops in conversions. Speed trackers can ping you when LCP or INP drift.
- Keep a short glossary on slide two if your audience is cross-functional: clicks, impressions, CTR, engaged sessions, conversion, revenue, LCP, INP, CLS, indexed pages, and excluded pages.
From Numbers To Action
Great reporting isn’t a wall of charts. It’s a short, tight story that drives a plan. Pick a cadence, lock your sources, and ship a deck that answers the big questions in plain words. Add owners and dates, then use the next cycle to prove progress.