Sending clients monthly reports or weekly?

Hi guys, I have been really kicking myself over how often I should send seo reports. Monthly reports seem to be to long to engage clients once a month. I seem to find clients check there 2nd week report or 3rd and are ready to cancel because there not front page yet. Its irritating as all hell. What should I do monthly reports or weekly.

Weekly reports are useless IMHO. I do monthly. The reason why weekly reports are useless is because you probably will not be able to improve their rankings significantly in a week's time, especially if they're not indexed and/or are so far back that no one is visiting their site from the search engines. Moreover, I find that it's generally much harder to improve rankings once you're on page one or two because the competition is a lot more fierce. If you do weekly reports once you're in this territory and the client sees that there's not as big of a change as compared to previous weeks, you're in trouble. They start to doubt your competency and their decision to sign a contract with you. Don't let it get to this point.

The only time I do weekly reports is if I'm seeing good results across the board and I shoot off a quick email to them so it gets them excited for our monthly meeting.

Make absolutely sure that before you start work, you're very clear with your clients about the fact that SEO doesn't produce results overnight. Alright, sometimes it does...but usually it doesn't. Be upfront with your clients about this.

Help them understand great results rarely come fast no matter who they choose, and that's about it.
Anyone who wants to quit on you even after learning this are not the client you want anyway.
Just remember 90% of people think fast is the new normal just because TV makes it seem that way. Things haven't changed, just our perspective.

Before I do any work, I just make it absolutely clear that it takes awhile for results to show, usually even months.

If they understand that, they usually won't complain too much about lack of immediate results.

Tell them what you will be doing for the month before hand and send the report after.
Weekly reports? How much are they paying you?
All these businesses now want you to have paperless billing, Create a backend they
can log into anytime and see their standing.

True enough, I try to do the same thing for national clients, and they do seem to understand, its some international clients i have that seem to not. But as for 2014 all reports will be monthly and make them well informed ahead of time.

just4ivaylo said:

The only time I do weekly reports is if I'm seeing good results across the board and I shoot off a quick email to them so it gets them excited for our monthly meeting.

Make absolutely sure that before you start work, you're very clear with your clients about the fact that SEO doesn't produce results overnight. Alright, sometimes it does...but usually it doesn't. Be upfront with your clients about this.

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Just wondering what if the good results you see is only a temporary dance and the site falls right before you met the client ? How will you explain that ?

That is why i prefer monthly reports or building a backend for real time tracking and report delivery is maybe the most effective option.

The real time taking back end system does sound like a great idea. You could also go mid-way and do bi-weekly reports.

In generally real time stats for client are nice idea but in my experience there are one big risk. In SEO company I work privies my college have very annoying client that check stats in panel every day and spam him every second day why this or that happened and drive him crazy so he spend lot off time just answering his stupid questions. But we have at list once a weak something to laugh abut xd As weekly / monthly rapports I will go monthly remember that crating rapport is your time you could spend improving ranks rather them writhing it.

Yes I spent much tine on support and rapport. Don't mind those at all. I just hate the clients that check there reports daily and call me. Especially when there only paying $99-$299 for Seo
.

Yes! its so obvious that people do expect a lot than they give.. in some cases i have to deal with very competitive keywords for $199 seo pack, and they will expect a huge serp rise in a matter of weeks... Well, some links will take time to index anyway. here is what i do! i ll just send the plan and the completed phases at that instance once in 10 days. usually my plan is 4weeks only (20days excluding the holidays)... and i ll send the 2nd tire report once its done. this helps me to gain some trust among my clients. usually i wont promise sure results unless you have waited for a long time or the service is recurring.. :biggrin1:

Once a month is enough imo, however you can send twice a month if needed.

A report once a month should be enough in most cases. It's better to just get in touch with them via a quick chat like sdseoguru stated to let them know you're on top of things.

Monthly report is the standard here. I will only give a weekly or bi-weekly report if the client requests it.

Reason for a monthly report is that the clients will be able to see more results in a monthly report than a weekly report. SEO doesn't happen overnight but most clients don't understand that part.

Another thing is setting the expectations before getting them on board.

Overall, clients love transparency and when there's negative results, explain to them what is causing them and what actions you and your team will be taking the following month to get them back on track.

Trust me, clients appreciate that kind of service. Not just a report.

We do monthly reports. But in the beginning we do reports every week. Not updating them on rankings, but updating them on the work we do. Its also crucial to going trough the time table and the plan right after the sell so the client truly understands what SEO is and that it takes time.