7 Essential SEO Client Reporting Tools for Agencies

Having good SEO client reporting tools can make a huge difference in keeping your clients happy.

This is true for agencies of any size (as well as solo consultants). Your clients will always want signs that their investment in your services is paying off.

Good SEO reporting tools will help you automate your reporting to clients to save on time. You can spend hours manually putting together all the data your client wants to see in one report.

When you cut that time out, you can focus more on offering better quality services.

But knowing which reporting tool has the best balance of features, cost, and effectiveness can be difficult. There are many, many reporting tools out there, and only so much time to research them all.

That’s why we put together a list of the seven most essential SEO client reporting tools that you can use as an agency.

SEO Reporting Tools

SEO reporting tools are resources that help you display data relating to key SEO metrics. They pull data from every source on a scheduled and automated basis in a format that is easy to read for clients.

Here are the seven best SEO reporting tools that we’ve used as an agency:

1. Google Analytics
2. Google Data Studio
3. Agency Analytics
4. Swydo
5. Reportz
6. Dashthis
7. Databox

We will introduce you to each of them with the basic information. We encourage you to research which ones sound like they would suit your agency’s needs the most.

1. Google Analytics

Google Analytics has all of the basics that you need to start SEO reporting. If there is one tool that is truly essential, it is this. This is because most other tools will rely on data pulled from your Google Analytics account. The fact that it’s also free means you have no reason not to use it.

As an agency you can get access to each of your client’s Analytics data in one location. You can easily switch between specific clients to focus on their reporting on a day to day basis. What we like the most is being able to set up basic custom reports according to the KPIs they want to see.

The weakness with Google Analytics is that you have to do a lot of work to set up the reporting. It’s intuitive to use at a basic level, but advanced reporting can take a lot of manual work. The customization at various levels helps, but only so much.

If your client doesn’t want deep analysis, you can get away with using Google Analytics most of the time. If you need more than that you will need a tool that can do the heavy lifting for you to save time.

Pricing: Free!

Features:

• Customizable dashboards
• Integration with your Google Search Console account
• Customizable goals and events to track results of SEO campaigns
• Flow visualization to find
• Custom reporting

2. Google Data Studio

Google Data Studio takes those problems with Google Analytics and improves on them. It is able to pull together more data than what you can with Google Analytics. You can integrate data sources with It also has much better tools to make your reporting look better. It gives you the ability to query data from databases such as MySQL, PostgreSQL, and Google’s Cloud SQL.

Most important for agencies, it is a lot easier to work on a client’s report together. The insights you can draw from it are easy to share with each other, and you can collaborate on it together on the cloud. With its improved visualization tools, your reports will look much better as well.

It may take some time to set up, but it is a time saver in the long term. It has several reporting samples you can use to make it easier to set up your clients’ reports. It also gives you the ability to create your own templates, which makes scaling your reporting much easier.

Pricing: Free!

Features:

• Data visualization tools for charts and tables
• Easy connection to several data sources
• Shareable insights
• Collaborative reporting capability
• Built in report samples

3. Agency Analytics

Agency Analytics is one of the best SEO client reporting tools for agencies. You can set it up with multiple campaigns, users and clients that you can scale to a level that suits your agency.

Its calling card is the 30+ integrations with third-party data sources, and they’re always adding more. You will likely be able to pull reporting from most if not all your SEO tools. They include email marketing, call tracking, Google properties, and more.

You can also give your clients the ability to sign into an account to view customized dashboards. You can set them up according to the KPIs and visualizations they want. It’s an effective strategy to foster trust and transparency so they can get real-time updates when they want.

Finally, there are the automated reports you can set up custom for each client with the data they want to see. This feature uses easy drag-and-drop elements and data points so they are quick to set up.

Pricing: Three plan levels from $49 to $399 per month.

Features:

• SEO rank tracker for Google and Bing
• Website auditor with automated scheduling
• Branded and white label reporting
• Several data integrations
• Customizable dashboards

4. Swydo

Swydo is a total digital marketing analysis and reporting tool. The name is actually an acronym that stands for “Show What You Do Online”, and it offers features to help you do just that. It is especially suited for agencies looking to save time on reporting without cutting any quality.

There are a few features that are very valuable for an agency. First, it comes with many pre-built reports that are easy to customize to a specific client’s needs. That helps you make new reports from scratch much quicker.

Next is the third-party integrations, including 20+ sources already included. Most important, it offers custom integration to specific data sources you have. If you have any SEO data from lesser known sources, you can still set up an integration to pull into your account.

It also offers white label reporting, so you can have them branded for your company or your client. Their automated reports are easy to set up, and look crisp and professional.

Pricing: Three plan levels from $75 to $360 per month, plus a full enterprise level.

Features:

• Quick reporting set up
• Pre-built reporting templates, widgets, and scheduling
• White label reporting you can brand for your agency
• Automated report scheduling
• 20+ third-party integrations with custom integration capability

5. Reportz

Reportz is a tool that uses dashboards and widgets to make your SEO reporting easier to put together. It was designed with agencies and enterprise-level companies in mind. It offers the usual set of features, including white label reports and schedule automation.

What sets it apart is definitely the dashboards and widgets. You can customize them to drill down into the data to an almost insane degree. The customization lets you filter, merge and display your SEO metrics in as much detail as you want.

The dashboards lets you set up white label reports for each client. You can have them customized with as many widgets or data they ask for. For example, you can combine metrics from your online ads with your SEO campaigns.

Like other tools on this list, it offers a lot of third-party integration with 30+ partners already set up. The automation and scheduled reporting lets you set everything up for your client and let the tool do the rest.

Pricing: set by the number of dashboards you want, from $29.82 to $637.50 per month.

Features:

• Easily customizable reporting with pre-built widgets
• Custom widget builder
• Pre-built reporting templates for different campaigns
• Automated reporting schedules
• Data importing from CSVs

6. Dashthis

DashThis is a great SEO reporting tool for agencies. Other tools limit access to some features depending on what plan level you have. They give full, open access to all features for all plan levels. They also allow for unlimited clients, data sources and user accounts.

So even if you are a smaller agency, you can get the most out of every DashThis feature. Their dashboards look very professional and are easy to use as well. You can create and edit dashboards in bulk, making it quick and easy to scale your changes across all your clients.

Like other tools mentioned above, it comes with pre-built and customized templates. You can create the reports as white label, so you can brand them how you want. Every feature and functionality DashThis uses will save you time and make it easier to make data-based decisions.

Pricing: 5 plan levels from $33 to $499 per month.

Features:

• Integrations for 30+ most commonly used digital marketing tools
• Customizable dashboards that can include every type and source of data
• CSV data import for custom integration
• Complete access to all features for all plan levels
• Unlimited client accounts for agencies

7. Databox

Databox is a true complete SEO reporting solution for your agency. They offer separate pricing plans for agencies so you can choose the level that works best for you. Databox is constantly updated and improved by its community of experts and agency partners.

As a result, it offers an amazing amount of features, integrations, and resources. You can mix and match data from several sources into one dashboard. Their user interface and report set up is easy and intuitive to use. The reports look professional and clean.

What more can we say? It has 70+ third party integrations, with other ways of pulling data from different sources. You can set up alerts, goals, multi-device databoards, scorecards, and more. There is a query builder and over 200 pre-built reports, and so much more.

Despite having so many features, it does not lack on quality. They have a free version and a free trial, and we recommend you try it for yourself to see what you can get out of it.

Pricing: Four levels levels from $49 to $248 per month, with agency pricing plans as well.

Features:

• Customized dashboards
• 200+ varieties of pre-built reports
• 70+ third-party data access via integration
• SQL database connections and custom data imports
• New metrics calculation based on data you pull

So, What Reporting Tool Features Do You Need?

The selling point of any SEO reporting tool you use and pay for should be the features.

You don’t want to pay for a tool that can’t do what you need it to do. Here are some of the main types of features you should look for when comparing tools:

• Accuracy (& location data) – reporting is useless without having accurate data for your clients’ location.
• Third-Party tool integrations – being able to automatically pull data from all your SEO tools and resources saves a lot of time manually importing it.
• Will it scale? – your agency will grow and shrink over time and your reporting tool should be able to scale with you.
• Features you need – the tool that has the most features you actually need for your reporting will make the most logical sense.
• Regular updates – the SEO world changes frequently and your reporting tool needs to update to keep up.
• Customizable – each client may want different types or levels of reporting, so you need to be able to customize reports for their needs and wants.
• White label? – while not essential, being able to brand reports from a tool with your company does add a professional touch.
• Support documentation – if your reporting is interrupted due to technical issues with the tool they should provide documentation you can pass on to clients.
• Exports – both you and your clients may want raw data to do their own filtering or checks.
• Automation – Being able to automatically pull data, create reports, and schedule new reports is the biggest time saver that these tools have to offer.
• Usability – there’s no point in paying for a tool that’s difficult or confusing to use.

When you finally settle on the best reporting tool for your agency’s needs, it will be the one that checks the most of these boxes.

Why Is SEO Client Reporting Important?

SEO client reporting is one of the most important things you will do to manage your relationship with them. It helps reassure them that you are working to meet their needs. Not just that you’re actually doing the work, but that you are doing quality work.

It’s the main way to show that you are meeting the goals they asked of you when they signed on with your agency. If you aren’t showing how you are meeting their goals, they’ll quickly wonder how and if you’re worth the money they give you.

The SEO reporting you send to your clients is also a great opportunity to have regular communication with them. You don’t have to just send the report and leave it at that. You can set up a meeting or call with them to go with the report. Talk through the report so they understand everything and answer all of their questions or concerns.

You can also ask them questions, find out what’s going on in their business that you might want to know. That communication is so important to the success of both your agency and the client. Maintaining that trust may lead to them investing more in your agency in the future, or to refer you to others.

Sidenote: What to Include in SEO Reports?

What exactly you include in your SEO reports will vary widely, both from client to client but also from agency to agency. That said, here are some of the most common SEO metrics that most clients ask for:

• Traffic Overview by Channel
• Organic Conversion Rate & Goal Completions
• Landing Page Traffic
• Page Speed Insights
• Time on Site & Bounce Rate
• Keyword Rankings
• Content Marketing (link to: /content/)
• Link Building (link to: /link-building/)
• Future Recommendations

Some metrics will only be relevant if you offer SEO services that use them, and your client might not even care about a lot of data points. Make sure the SEO reporting tool you choose can report on all of the metrics your clients want.

Summary

Reporting on the SEO services you provide to your client can be time consuming and complicated. But it doesn’t have to be, thanks to these great SEO reporting tools designed for agencies like yours. They can dramatically cut down on the time you spend on reporting tasks.

There are many, many tools for reporting that you can find. It can be difficult to know which one will give you the most bang for your buck. Our list of 7 essential SEO reporting tools to help agencies is a good starting point for you. As you look into each one or try them out with a free demo or trial, you may find that none of them are quite right.

But the experience and research will help you hone your search to find what would work best for you. You may prefer something like SEMRush or SE Ranking for what features they offer. The important thing is to make an informed decision, and don’t just pick the first tool you come across.