When an SEO report is full of ranking screenshots, decisions get delayed. Individual keywords moving up or down a position or two creates excitement, but it does not tell the business what to do next month. A good report answers three questions through a handful of numbers: what changed, why, and what are we doing now?
The seven numbers below belong on the table at every monthly meeting. All of them can be taken from Google Search Console, Google Analytics 4 and your own lead or sales records.
1. Indexed URLs and URLs excluded on purpose
The “Pages” report in Search Console shows how many of your pages Google has indexed. Compare that with the number of pages you actually want indexed. Keep addresses you exclude on purpose – filter pages, tag archives, thank-you pages – on a separate line. An unexpected drop is often the first sign of a technical problem.
2. Impressions for target query groups
Look at topic groups rather than single keywords: “local SEO”, “Google Ads management”, “e-commerce website build”. Total impressions per group show whether your visibility on that topic is growing. The groups should carry the same names as the topics in your content calendar.
3. Qualified sessions
Not all organic traffic is equally valuable. Separate “qualified” visits with rules such as engaged sessions, a minimum time on site or at least two page views. Define the rule once and measure with it every month; if the definition changes, comparisons lose their meaning.
4. Organic leads
Record how many of the actions that matter to your business – form submissions, phone calls, WhatsApp clicks, quote requests – came from organic search. This is where SEO shows its business result. Tracking clicks on the phone number as a conversion is a good starting point for calls.
5. Conversions by page
Which pages generate leads, and which get traffic but no leads? This table points directly to pages whose copy, offer or form should be improved. A page with plenty of traffic and no leads is often a faster win than writing new content.
6. The first 28 days of new URLs
Track impressions and clicks of new pages and posts in their first four weeks separately. This number shows early whether content production is working. If a new page gets no impressions at all, first check that it is indexed and receives internal links.
7. Lost queries
List the queries that lost the most clicks compared with last month. Sometimes the reason is seasonal, sometimes a competitor published a better page, sometimes a change on your own page had an effect. This list sets the order of the content you update next.
Keep the report to one page
These seven numbers fit on one page. Next to each, write last month’s value, the change and a short comment; end the page with three priorities for the coming month. Detailed tables can be attached, but attachments are an archive, not a decision note.
Frequently asked questions
Should I stop tracking rankings altogether?
No. Rank tracking is useful for diagnosis, but it should not be the main agenda of the report. Looking at ranking data is enough when you are searching for the cause of a problem.
Where do these numbers come from?
Indexing, impressions, new URLs and lost queries come from Search Console; sessions and conversions from GA4; and lead counts from your CRM or own records.
Your next step with Zentora
If you want to apply these steps to your business but are not sure where to start, you are not alone. Zentora Agency works from Izmir with clients across Türkiye and abroad on SEO, Google and Meta ads, social media, web design and marketplace management. Let’s review where you stand today and build a measurable roadmap together.
Write to us via our contact page or call +90 506 093 12 97 for a free initial call.
