What should SEO companies provide each month?

[ComputerCoders]

When we provide SEO we produce a worklog of our efforts as well as the usual reports.

I know that this isn't standard in our industry but I think it should be.

It's surprising how many of the larger SEO companies only provide keyword position reports.

[sirearl]

When we provide SEO we produce a worklog of our efforts as well as the usual reports.

I know that this isn't standard in our industry but I think it should be.

It's surprising how many of the larger SEO companies only provide keyword position reports.

I tell em what there positions are and they tell me how much money they made.Seems to work OK.

Earl

[I, Brian]

I tell em what there positions are and they tell me how much money they made.Seems to work OK.

Earl

The best arrangement. :)

If you're doing SEO, keyword positions you say you're targeting should perform. If not, there's something wrong in the first instance, and you don't need pages of notes to tell you that.

[ComputerCoders]

Fair enough, simple but effective. Cheers you guys.

[sirearl]

Fair enough, simple but effective. Cheers you guys.

I think my time can be better used getting on with the job in hand than writting reports for people who are very unlikely to understand them in any case.:)

Earl

[mobyme]

I think my time can be better used getting on with the job in hand than writting reports for people who are very unlikely to understand them in any case.:)

Earl

Amen to that.

[bizfox]

Detailed reports are sometimes overlooked. I believe that what get's measured, gets done.

[bluedreamer]

When we provide SEO we produce a worklog of our efforts as well as the usual reports.

I know that this isn't standard in our industry but I think it should be.

It's surprising how many of the larger SEO companies only provide keyword position reports.
I've yet to come across any SEO company that provides any useful reporting.

All those "keyword" reports and how many links have been added to crappy directories are pointless, the real measure of what SEO companies should be doing is measuring and reporting real success, such as sales or customer defined goals.

[harryboon]

I tell em what there positions are and they tell me how much money they made.Seems to work OK.

Earl

Why would they need more - all my clients want is to see results when they search for their keywords - simples!

I think my time can be better used getting on with the job in hand than writting reports for people who are very unlikely to understand them in any case.:)

Earl

Spending an hour a month writing detailed reports, which to be fair few would read nor understand would just drive up the cost to the customer.

I've yet to come across any SEO company that provides any useful reporting.

All those "keyword" reports and how many links have been added to crappy directories are pointless, the real measure of what SEO companies should be doing is measuring and reporting real success, such as sales or customer defined goals.

Well theirs your problem using a crappy SEO company that just adds your site to crappy directories - 500 directories for £200 I saw the other day utter rubbish!

[WeblinkPlus]

500 directories for £200 I saw the other day utter rubbish!

Coor, that's expensive...! :D

[harryboon]

Coor, that's expensive...! :D

Don't get me started lol - people buy into this trust me!

[WeblinkPlus]

trust me!

Haha Trust an SEO? Who'd possibly consider that! :D

I have been considering offering 30,000 profile links for £100 but can't quite get up enough gall! :p

[harryboon]

Haha Trust an SEO? Who'd possibly consider that! :D

I have been considering offering 30,000 profile links for £100 but can't quite get up enough gall! :p

O I see I am going to have trouble with you today lol :eek:

[jmslee123]

SEO and everything that goes with it is quite time intensive.You need to pay someone enough to make thier effort worthwhile.There are many SEO Hosting companies offering economical and competitive services.A comparative and comprehensive study of the plans is essential before you actually decide on any one of them.

[principleweb]

Hi ComputerCoders

We produce detailed reporting every month for all our customers, not just those receiving SEO as a separate service. Our web design & hosting package includes essential SEO as standard, so that's always included for those customers.

The report shows not only keyword positions (which is what would be used to find a website if it were searched on), but also actual performance of what keywords were in fact used to find the website, where those visitors went, how long they stayed, and the goals reached - e.g. completion of the contact page, making a purchase etc.

Depending on the website's functions we would also able to report on number of contacts made through the contact page, number of sales made, number of memberships started, number of new customers, etc.

We take customers through example reports prior to them coming to us, so they know exactly what they will get and how to understand it. And we put a covering summary on to each monthly report explaining the important aspects of the data, the main changes from the previous month and any important actions or recommendations.

It seems to work well for us and our customers.

What is interesting, is I've always believed this was an essential part of the service. Not having it would be like having a bank account and not getting a statement or access to your balance. However, not one of our customers who'd been elsewhere either as customers of other designers/hosts or for quotes had received or been offered this by anyone else.

Hope that helps.

[Webtistic]

We provide clients with full a full online reporting system as you can see here:

http://www.webtistic.co.uk/2010/02/seo-client-reporting-suite/

We plan all of our client's SEO and link building activity monthly in advance and then review progress at each month end. Everything is mapped out in advance, which works well because we use it to know what we are due to be doing each day or week. There are only 4 of us, but a central plannng and reporting system is essential and saves us all a lot of time.

Clients are provided with a login to the system and can see planned activity, time logs (updated daily), team communications, keyword reports, target goals, milestones, project documents, etc.

I agree that excessive reporting can be unnecessary and time-consuming, but this works very well for us and actually saves client time due to easier planning, organisation, and communication.

[sirearl]

Hi ComputerCoders

We produce detailed reporting every month for all our customers, not just those receiving SEO as a separate service. Our web design & hosting package includes essential SEO as standard, so that's always included for those customers.

The report shows not only keyword positions (which is what would be used to find a website if it were searched on), but also actual performance of what keywords were in fact used to find the website, where those visitors went, how long they stayed, and the goals reached - e.g. completion of the contact page, making a purchase etc.

Depending on the website's functions we would also able to report on number of contacts made through the contact page, number of sales made, number of memberships started, number of new customers, etc.

We take customers through example reports prior to them coming to us, so they know exactly what they will get and how to understand it. And we put a covering summary on to each monthly report explaining the important aspects of the data, the main changes from the previous month and any important actions or recommendations.

It seems to work well for us and our customers.

What is interesting, is I've always believed this was an essential part of the service. Not having it would be like having a bank account and not getting a statement or access to your balance. However, not one of our customers who'd been elsewhere either as customers of other designers/hosts or for quotes had received or been offered this by anyone else.

Hope that helps.

And how much does this cost your customers.?

Earl

[WeblinkPlus]

Surely it's better to agree what level of reporting a client wants and charge appropriately...?

I don't mind giving detailed reports if my time is paid for.

[RadiusBPO]

A lot of our clients are seo companies, they basically always want to know url, domain or page url, anchor text and location of link. sometimes they will just give us spreadsheet of pages where links are wanted and say go fetch :)

But I think if we offered services to "real" customers, they would like to know this report exists so they can see what they are doing, but some sort of live ranking report linked to anaylitcs to show traffic, and conversions would be best. After all thats what they are paying for!

[Ali-v-8]

I like to keep it simple.
My report says
"you are here for........."
"i suggest this"
"you owe me £xx"

Some times i just skip to "you owe me £xx"

[pickaweb]

Monthly reports and google analytics

[harryboon]

I like to keep it simple.
My report says
"you are here for........."
"i suggest this"
"you owe me £xx"

Some times i just skip to "you owe me £xx"

Yes I agree with Ali here - some of my customers want more details etc, however most just want to see results and traffic improvements. And as long as they see that why go over the top with fancy reports?

If I said to my clients - right I will spend 20hrs on seo for you this month or 16hrs on seo and 4hrs on building you a fancy report I know what they would say!

[Ali-v-8]

Thank harry, but you have high lighted something else.
Time it takes to optimise and continuous work.
I cannot give details on how long i have worked on a website for.
Senario

I optimise a website. Research takes a few days give or take, Then you got to choose terms content, then map the website for terms and internal linking.
Then deal with metas etc.

Then upload all work onto the website.
Now you wait, and wait and wait... but ... while you wait you monitor the progress.

Now i may look at the website positions for the next couple of weeks searching for the terms and looking for links but does that mean that i bill for every hour. NO.
I bill for the contract.
Because i cannot think of an hourly rate that would cover he work i do.
I have streamlined my process so what takes one person 3-4 hours to do, i can do it in 1. now doe that mean i only bill a quarter of what the other person does. NOT ON YOUR NELLY

[estwig]

I must admit to having been puzzled for some time, by the seo industries penchant for producing reports. Reports don't make the client any more money, but they do look pretty and are very easy for the seo to produce.

Fluff and non-sense, smoke and mirrors???

[BSUK]

I don't tell mine anything, that said I am in regular contact. They often tell me when their site has jumped or dropped.

I do quiz them on the performance of the actual business each month and how many web enquiries/sales have been generated. I find this is a better metric for judging the performance of an online businesses.

Ranking is one thing, conversion well it's another story.