Software to create reports for SEO clients

J

jon_xx_x

Elite Member
Joined
Nov 15, 2008
Messages
3,476
Reaction score
1,617
Any recommendations on SEO software to print reports for clients? I picked up a pretty big client that is leaving another company that prints up a big fancy report that's tied into google analytics. I only do a few local clients so don't want to spend a ton of money monthly on it. Is there any free or cheap reporting software out there?
 
Advertise on BHW
Mondovo includes serp tracker plus lots more useful tools. There is a thread here somewhere as well.
 
Results are the only thing that matters. I write my reports up in Word.
 
Paste your tools outputs into LibreOffice documents, then save as PDF. It's what I do. comes out smooth, as long as the tool outputs are html or something compatible.
 
bartosimpsonio said:
Paste your tools outputs into LibreOffice documents, then save as PDF. It's what I do. comes out smooth, as long as the tool outputs are html or something compatible.
Click to expand...
Since I'm about to adventure into this,
what tools do you consider must have?
 
As someone who doesn't like to solely rely on 1 tool for any given task, I currently have in my arsenal, Majestic, Ahrefs, LongTail, SEOToolbox, SerpFox, Mondovo, and Semrush. I probably use Majestic SEO and Semrush the most.
 
Tove said:
Sad thing is most agencies actually spend more time on report than doing SEO, and clients think that fancy reports mean they are doing the work
Click to expand...
You are so right here :)
 
I had a client years ago who was paying an agency £1000 per month for 6 months. When he signed up with me, he sent me 1 of his monthly reports. I don't know what tools they used as it was white label, however it looked fancy and sh*t with graphs, pie charts and the whole nine yards. However when I checked the reports for targeted keywords, strategy etc, all they had been doing was targeting keywords with 100-300 monthly searches, and building spammy links. It actually seemed like they were outsourcing on Fiverr. In six months they only managed to move a low comp 390 search volume keyword from 96 to 72.

Tove said:
Sad thing is most agencies actually spend more time on report than doing SEO, and clients think that fancy reports mean they are doing the work
Click to expand...
 
Tove said:
Sad thing is most agencies actually spend more time on report than doing SEO, and clients think that fancy reports mean they are doing the work
Click to expand...


I've worked for two award winning and major agencies as a SEO manager and yes, we would charge ten hours a month time and spend three of those writing reports, one hour talking about the reports and two hours giving bloggers products to review for free

I left and four years of running my own SEO based company, reporting is cloud based and APIs with google... the time we charge actually focuses on results
 
You need to get google console webmaster. That way you can see the number of clicks, where they are coming from, which pages are popular. You can easily take screenshots of that. Should be enough to let them know what is going on.
 
whatsapp said:
I had a client years ago who was paying an agency £1000 per month for 6 months. When he signed up with me, he sent me 1 of his monthly reports. I don't know what tools they used as it was white label, however it looked fancy and sh*t with graphs, pie charts and the whole nine yards. However when I checked the reports for targeted keywords, strategy etc, all they had been doing was targeting keywords with 100-300 monthly searches, and building spammy links. It actually seemed like they were outsourcing on Fiverr. In six months they only managed to move a low comp 390 search volume keyword from 96 to 72.
Click to expand...
Ha ha, I've seen those embellished reports before! Whenever I get a new client, I always tell them, "Look, I'm going to give you 2 choices: either you pay me to do the work and send a Word document report every now and then, or I'll do less work and spend more time making the report prettier".

OP, I just remembered that there was some SEO software I used a while back that had a nice reporting feature. Unfortunately, the software was generically named (something like "SEO Software"), so I can't seem to find it.
 
Last edited:
Zwielicht said:
Ha ha, I've seen those embellished reports before! Whenever I get a new client, I always tell them, "Look, I'm going to give you 2 choices: either you pay me to do the work and send a Word document report every now and then, or I'll do less work and spend more time making the report prettier".

OP, I just remembered that there was some SEO software I used a while back that had a nice reporting feature. Unfortunately, the software was generically named (something like "SEO Software"), so I can't seem to find it.
Click to expand...


Nearly like me - I have the odd quarterly meeting in a pub, cafe, office for a catch up - The rest is odd emails and 'have you thought of this' chats
 
Tove said:
Sad thing is most agencies actually spend more time on report than doing SEO, and clients think that fancy reports mean they are doing the work
Click to expand...

whatsapp said:
I had a client years ago who was paying an agency £1000 per month for 6 months. When he signed up with me, he sent me 1 of his monthly reports. I don't know what tools they used as it was white label, however it looked fancy and sh*t with graphs, pie charts and the whole nine yards. However when I checked the reports for targeted keywords, strategy etc, all they had been doing was targeting keywords with 100-300 monthly searches, and building spammy links. It actually seemed like they were outsourcing on Fiverr. In six months they only managed to move a low comp 390 search volume keyword from 96 to 72.
Click to expand...

Well that's the problem. This client is right now paying $4500/month and I looked at the report and it's crap. I looked at a report of what they said they're doing each month and it's crap, I couldnt believe it. It doesn't even say in it they build links. It said post to the blog, fix broken links, fix missing content, etc. Didn't even state they were trying to build links. I said I'll do more for half that. But they have some big fancy report that makes them look like they're doing so much. It's like a ten page report, seems most of it is just fill int he blank based on Google Analytics though. Pie charts, graphs, bullet points, etc. So I'm sure this client will want to see something from me when they leave them. They gonna be like "xxxx had a big report showing us this and that". Even though they have no clue what it even says in the report.
 
Zwielicht said:
OP, I just remembered that there was some SEO software I used a while back that had a nice reporting feature. Unfortunately, the software was generically named (something like "SEO Software"), so I can't seem to find it.
Click to expand...

SEO Powersuite, maybe?
 
4.5k month client

Dashboard in analytics
Rankings of targeted keywords
Semrush for other keywords
If you really must, quite note about google updates/news
Quick paragraph what you've down - share a Dropbox link and dump ya shit in it so they see 'work' - share and they'll ignore it
Bullet points of what you're doing the next month


One page report. Mostly copy and paste

Done
 
P.s the reports they're churning out sounds automated

However, you're also looking at automating reports ;) be careful you're not going to turn into that agencie
 
Last edited:
Advertise on BHW
You must log in or register to reply here.
Sign up now!

Main Menu

Home Main Forum List Black Hat SEO White Hat SEO BHW Newbie Guide Blogging Black Hat Tools Social Media Downloads

Marketplace

Account Selling Content / Copywriting EBooks / Methods Hosting Misc Proxies For Sale SEO - Link building SEO - Packages Social Media Social Media - Panels Web Design More

Making Money

Affiliate Programs Hire a Freelancer IM Journeys Making Money Pay Per Click Site Flipping Want to Buy

BlackHat World

Dispute Resolution Forum Suggestions & Feedback Introductions Lounge
Back
Top