How to improve client retention with reporting

To use reporting to keep a client, give the report two jobs beyond the numbers. Have a clear answer ready when a client asks how you handle reporting. Then use the monthly report call to show the work in plain words.

How do you answer a client's question about analytics reporting?

Answer in four short parts: what's in the report, where the numbers come from, when it arrives and who walks the client through it. Write the answer down once, so everyone at your agency gives the same one.

A client may have read the list of questions that Google gives a business to ask an SEO. One of them is short: "How do you measure your success?". The list also asks what results to expect, and in what timeframe. It asks how the two sides will be in touch, and whether the SEO will tell the business about every change to its site and give the reasoning behind what it recommends. Google also tells businesses to ask for an explanation if something is unclear.

A full reporting answer speaks to each of those.

The four parts of the answer

1. What's in the report. Name the numbers, and say why you chose each one. Tie each number to a goal the client gave you. Say that the report also lists the changes you made and the reason for each.
2. Where the numbers come from. Name the source of each number, such as the client's own analytics or search account. Tell the client they can look at the same source.
3. When it arrives. Give the day of the month, and keep to it.
4. Who walks them through it. Name the person, and say how: on a call, in a short video or in a written note.

Here's a sample answer to make your own: "Each month, on the same day, you get one report. It shows the numbers we agreed on at the start, the changes we made and why, and what we plan next. Each number names its source, so you can check it. Then I walk you through it on a call, and you can stop me at anything that isn't clear."

What to leave out of the answer

• Trade words the client hasn't heard before.
• A promise about where the numbers will go.
• A number you can't trace to its source.

How you build and send the report is a topic of its own. For the habits that make a report land, see client reporting best practices.

Where the report fits

The report goes to the client under your agency's name. For why a report with your name on it matters, see Why is white label SEO reporting important?.

One reason given for using branded reports or white label SEO is that clients stay. Every page we read that gives it sells the service or a report tool, and we found no official or neutral source that backs it with a fact. So treat a steady report as a habit to keep, with no result promised.

Reporting is one habit among several. For the wide view, across every service, see how to keep an agency account.

A new SEO account brings its own reporting question, which is what to show before results do. For the slow first months of an SEO account, see how to retain SEO clients.

What do you say on the monthly report call?

Say what you did, what the numbers show and what comes next, in that order. Use plain words, and leave room for the client's questions.

Before the call

1. Send the report ahead of the call, so the client can read it first.
2. Pick the one point you most want the client to take away.
3. Check each number against its source.
4. Read your notes from the last call, and bring what you said you'd do.

On the call

1. Start with the goal. Read back the goal the client gave you at the start, in their own words.
2. Show the work. List what you changed since the last call, and give the reason for each change.
3. Show the numbers. Use the same few numbers each month. Say what each one counts before you say which way it moved.
4. Say what didn't move. Name it before the client finds it, and say what you'll try next.
5. Say what's next. Give the plan for the month ahead, and anything you'll ask the client for.
6. Ask for questions. Ask which part of the report was hardest to follow.

Lines to try on a call:

• "Here's what we did this month, and why we did it."
• "This number counts the visits that came from search. Here's which way it went."
• "This one didn't move. Here's what we'll try next."
• "Which part would you like me to go over again?"

If a word in the report takes explaining, explain it once and use the same words each month. For plain words for what SEO is, see how to explain SEO to clients.

Keep the report in the same order each month, so the call can follow it. For the parts of a monthly report, in order, see SEO report template.

After the call

Follow up in writing the same day. Cover what you showed, what was decided and what happens next.

If the client can't make the call, offer a short recorded walk-through or a written summary in its place. Keep the report's date either way.