SEO Report Template: A Free Monthly Report Built on Search Console

What to include in a monthly SEO report

A monthly SEO report should answer four questions in this order: did search traffic go up or down, why, what did we do, and what will we do next. Here are the KPIs the template tracks and where each one comes from.

Google defines CTR as clicks divided by impressions, and average position as the topmost position of your link, averaged across queries (Google: what are impressions, position and clicks).

A year-over-year caveat for 2026 reports. Google says a logging error over-counted impressions in Search Console from May 13, 2025 to April 27, 2026. Clicks were not affected, and Google is not correcting the old data (Google: data anomalies in Search Console). So until May 2027, lead with clicks when you compare a month to the same month last year, and add a note when impressions, CTR or position look worse year over year.

Leave out numbers the client cannot act on. Backlink counts and "domain scores" from third-party tools change for reasons no one controls. If you report them, put them below the Search Console numbers, not above.

How to fill in the template from Search Console

This takes about 30 minutes the first time and 15 after that.

1. Open Search Console, pick the property, and go to Performance > Search results.
2. Click the date filter, open the Compare tab, choose Custom, and set last full month against the month before (for example 2026-09-01 to 2026-09-30 against 2026-08-01 to 2026-08-31). Google's docs explain that comparing adds a Difference column to the table (Google: advanced filtering and comparison).
3. Turn on all four boxes above the chart: Total clicks, Total impressions, Average CTR and Average position. Type the totals into the Summary sheet.
4. Click Export (top right) and choose Google Sheets, Excel or CSV. One export holds every tab, including Pages and Queries (Google: export data from a report).
5. Paste the Pages tab into "Clicks & impressions by page" and the Queries tab into "Queries", as values only. Mark branded queries Yes.
6. Change the comparison to the same month last year and type those totals into the Same month last year column.
7. Go to Indexing > Pages and type the Indexed count into Summary.
8. Read Wins & losses, write one reason per big move, then fill in Work done, Next month plan and Notes for client.

Wait until about the 3rd of the month before you export. Search Console dates use Pacific Time, and the newest days can still be preliminary (Google: Performance report dimensions).

SEO report example (from the template)

This is the Summary sheet filled in with example data for a made-up store, northwind-outdoors.com, for September 2026:

And the first lines of Notes for client, written by the formulas from those numbers:

Visits from Google: 4,150 this month, up 12% from last month and up 31% from the same month last year. Average spot in Google moved from 19.6 to 18.4. Lower is better, so this is an improvement. Biggest gain: https://northwind-outdoors.com/tents/ (+250 clicks). Biggest drop: https://northwind-outdoors.com/guides/how-to-choose-a-sleeping-bag/ (-80 clicks).

You then add the "why" in your own words. For example: "The tents page moved from position 12 to just under 10 after we added a comparison table. That put it on page 1 and clicks rose 41%."

Month-over-month vs year-over-year: which to lead with

Lead with month-over-month for momentum and year-over-year for truth. Many sites have seasons. A camping store will always dip after summer, so a September drop against August can be normal. If the same month last year was lower, the business is still growing.

Search Console keeps 16 months of data, which is enough for one year-over-year comparison (Google: debugging search traffic drops). Save each month's report so you never lose the history.

How to explain the numbers to a client

• Say "visits from Google" instead of "organic clicks".
• Use one number per sentence.
• Explain once that a lower position number is better.
• Name the page ("the tents page"), not the URL path.
• If a drop is seasonal, show the same month last year next to it.
• End with what you need from them, with a date.

Limits to know before you send the report

Who this template is for

• Agencies sending a monthly report to each client. Duplicate the file per client per month.
• In-house SEO and marketing teams reporting up to a manager or founder.
• Freelancers who want a clear report without paying for a reporting tool.

It is not a technical audit. For a list of site problems, use our SEO audit report template instead.

Sources

All checked October 2026.

• Export formats and the 1,000-row limit: https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/12919797
• Clicks, impressions, position and CTR definitions: https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/7042828
• Performance report tabs, private queries, Pacific Time: https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/17011259
• Comparing date ranges: https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/17011165
• 16 months of data: https://developers.google.com/search/docs/monitor-debug/debugging-search-traffic-drops
• Page indexing report: https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/7440203
• Looker Studio connector: https://cloud.google.com/looker/docs/studio/connect-to-search-console
• Search Console API export: https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/12919192
• Bulk data export to BigQuery: https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/12918484

Use SEOmatic to build my monthly SEO report for mysite.com, laid out like the SEOmatic SEO report template.

1. Run connect_seomatic so I can sign in and connect Google Search Console.
2. Summary: use gsc_performance with action trend for the last 60 days. Add up clicks and impressions for the last 30 days and for the 30 days before, and work out CTR as clicks divided by impressions for each. If no tool gives me average position for both periods, say so and tell me to copy it from Search Console. Remember that for position a lower number is better.
3. Pages: use gsc_performance with action top_pages for the last 30 days. Show clicks, impressions, CTR and position for the top 20 pages.
4. Queries: use gsc_performance with action top_queries for the same period. Then use gsc_insights with action brand_split, with my brand terms "mybrand", and show branded vs non-branded clicks.
5. Wins and losses: use gsc_performance with action compare_periods (dimension page, then dimension query) to compare the last 30 days with the 30 days before. From the results, list the top 5 page and query gains and the top 5 drops by click change. For each, suggest one plain reason I can check.
6. Trend: from the daily trend (run it for 90 days if needed), tell me if any drop looks sudden or seasonal.
7. Work done: use task_manage with action list and show what SEOmatic changed this period, with dates and status.
8. Next month plan: use gsc_insights with action ctr_outliers and strategy_insights with action strategy. Pick 3 tasks, each with the number that justifies it (for example "11,200 impressions at position 6.4 but CTR 0.5%").
9. Draft those 3 tasks for my approval with task_manage action create, then show them with show_approval_cards. Do not publish anything.
10. Notes for client: write 5 short sentences in plain words: the month in one sentence, what went up and why, what went down and why, what we did, and what we will do next. Say "visits from Google" instead of "organic clicks".

Two numbers these tools do not give: year-over-year totals and the indexed page count. Tell me where to copy them in Search Console (Performance > Search results compared with the same month last year, and Indexing > Pages).