Hi BHW, If you were to send a SEO report to your clients, would you want a... 1. PDF report for your clients 2. I don't really care as long as it displays my clients data in a professional way and my clients see all the data they want to see Which would you choose? 1 or 2.
Hey srinu0812, thanks for the answer. If it doesn't matter how you show it, wouldn't your answer be #2 instead of #1?
Not really understanding your question... ...if you've told the client they're getting a report, then it's pretty damn important! if you mean how important is it that you use a PDF, then it depends on what you've told the client to expect. Client expectation management is really what matters. If you're doing SEO work, then reports are important as a thermometer if nothing else. You always want to keep dialogue open and active, so you can spot issues before they become a cancellation.
Basically the question is whether SEO providers... 1. need a report in a PDF format 2. or don't really care as long as the report looks professional and presents all the data the clients want to see Offtopic: I have to agree that managing client expectations is a key part that a lot of people overlook. Some clients want to see results on page 1 in 1 month and some are more understanding and understand the whole process of SEO. It doesn't hurt sending an email about "what do you expect from this SEO service". You will be surprised on the answers you get and use that feedback to continually improve the service.
PDF is preferred because it can retain its format better. HTML could be distorted by different browsers.
What matters is you provide them the results and can demonstrate it to them in some kind of report. If you have to email them a link that's OK in my opinion. However, it's worth noting that any HTML report can be easily converted to a PDF so really there's no real issue here as you can have both / whichever you like. Personally I provide reports in .PDF format since it's what most clients are familiar with.
I would rather prefer to receive a direct link to see quickly what progress has been made and an option alongside on the page to export/download the report in pdf format to keep it for my records. But ensure that the formatting stays perfect in all the browsers when planning to provide a direct HTML report.
What if the HTML report is compatible with all browsers ? Would you mind giving your clients a direct link to the HTML report or would still stick to a pdf report? 1 of the advantage of HTML reporting is that the report can be made interactive (e.g: clients can view data based on different date ranges & not only on the data you specified the report to generate)
Packaging is always important, never forget that. So you should create a report that is elegant and usable in the same time. PDF is better in terms of being elegant, but don't forget the links to be clickable
