When you want to learn, research, find, or purchase something, the first action is usually to open Google. Indeed, this search engine dominates — over 89% of all search queries globally are conducted on Google. Consequently, businesses do their best to tame it and ensure their service or product is visible online. This is what search optimization is about. This is why it’s an essential part of marketing — more than half of the traffic originates from organic search.

No wonder various SEO reporting tools have become integral to project management workflows. However, an SEO report often contains technical data that can be difficult for non-SEO specialists to interpret. If project managers (PMs) are unsure how to use it correctly, they risk missing opportunities.

This article explains how to manage SEO projects and turn reports into actions. You’ll learn how to prioritize tasks, allocate resources effectively, track progress, and keep your marketing, content, and development teams working together with the help of an insightful SEO report.

Key SEO Metrics Project Managers Should Track

The key metrics project managers should monitor and include in SEO reports depend on the client or internal stakeholders′ goals. It’s important here not to add all possible metrics to the report but to focus only on those that matter to a client. 

Here are some of the key metrics typically added to SEO reports for effective project management:

• Traffic trends. This shows how many people visit your site over time. Analyzing traffic patterns helps you understand whether the estimated budget is justified and, therefore, spot growth opportunities or areas where visibility is dropping. This data typically comes from Google Analytics.
• Keyword rankings. This is about understanding which keywords bring in the most traffic. If some drops, competitors are likely more popular now, and your content needs an update. This way, you can allocate additional resources and add relevant tasks to a content plan.
• Backlink profile. This is a list of all backlinks (external links that lead to your website) and how they impact your website’s authoritativeness. You typically use dedicated backlink analysis tools to get such data. 
• Technical SEO health. When a site loads slowly, contains broken links, or is not mobile-friendly, it affects user experience and Google rankings. You should monitor such technical SEO issues and fix them in a timely manner to prevent situations when your estimated budget simply doesn’t work as planned because of poor site performance.
• User engagement metrics. These are metrics like bounce rate, dwell time, and session duration. They demonstrate how users interact with your site. For instance, if they leave pages quickly, the content probably doesn’t satisfy their intent or is not engaging. If you spot poor engagement metrics, you can plan extra work with content and UX improvement, allocating relevant specialists and costs. 
• Conversions. This shows the percentage of website visitors who turn into customers, newsletter sign-ups, white paper downloaders, etc. If you spot a low conversion rate, your strategy needs adjustments. It’s great to add conversion-related KPIs to your plan so that everyone knows what they’re working on and your client sees the value the team brings.
• Local SEO. This is especially important for offline business and is tied to Google Business Profile, which demonstrates your clients′ online presence.  You can add metrics like profile views and customer actions or reviews to a report. 
• Competitive research. This data highlights how your website performs compared to top competitors. It allows you to spot areas where rivals are stronger and adjust your strategy to beat them.

For a more detailed description of these and other metrics and their impact on project management and decision-making, check out the SE Ranking’s comprehensive guide on SEO reports. It explains how to generate an SEO report that analyzes traffic trends, keyword rankings, and other crucial factors influencing project success.

How Project Managers Can Use SEO Reports for Better Decision-Making

Here’s how project managers can use data from SEO reports effectively: 

• Task prioritization. A perfect SEO report helps to see areas that need attention, such as fixing broken links, outdated content, or poor site speed on mobiles. As a result, project managers set the right priorities, create corresponding tasks to fix issues, and the team focuses on what will have the most significant impact.
• Resource allocation. Not every issue needs immediate action. An SEO performance report helps managers decide where to invest time and resources. For instance, if organic traffic is dropping, you may first need to allocate more effort to content creation or technical SEO audit.
• Progress tracking. SEO reports allow comparing data over time. Project managers can see whether recent changes, like a new content strategy or site updates, improve rankings and traffic, especially with clearly pre-defined KPIs or OKRs. 
• Collaboration with teams. Project managers should share SEO insights with different teams so everyone is aligned on goals, from the content department to developers. For example, writers can focus on high-ranking keywords, developers can fix technical issues, and designers can improve UX.

Integrating SEO Reports into Project Management Workflows

So, how can you integrate SEO reports into your day-to-day project management process? Here are a few ways.

Using SEO Dashboard in Project Management Tools

Many project management tools, such as OneThread, Trello, or Asana, can be customized to show SEO dashboards. This way, project managers can monitor key metrics in one place, and the entire team is kept updated without the need for separate reports.

Setting Up Automated SEO Reporting

Some SEO project management tools allow automated reporting. For instance, you can schedule an automated report sent to your clients every week, month, or quarter (depending on your agreements). This way, they get real-time updates on key metrics and see the impact of your SEO efforts, and you save a lot of time. 

Using an SEO Report Template

Many SEO reporting platforms offer ready-to-use SEO report templates with set metrics for display. Alternatively,  you can also create customized templates based on your project goals. So, instead of spending hours crafting a report from scratch every time, you can generate a detailed and insightful report in just under 20 minutes.

Creating SEO-Focused Sprints or Milestones

Search engine optimization is an ongoing effort, so breaking it into sprints or milestones aligns with best practices in project management for SEO and helps teams stay on track.

Let’s say you spot a website drop in traffic, demonstrate it in a recent report, and now your client has a goal to increase organic traffic. The milestones for your team might look like this:

Disclaimer: This is just a very basic illustration of what SEO-focused milestones for a team might look like. When planning a sprint for your team, rely on your specific project goals and needs.

By structuring tasks like milestones or sprints, you can track progress more effectively and measure results over time. Additionally, this is how you demonstrate to the client the ROI of SEO efforts.

Launching Content Marketing Campaigns

One practical application of SEO-driven workflows is a content marketing workflow, which could include:

1. Keyword research. Identify high-potential keywords.
2. Content creation and optimization. Write and optimize articles for search intent.
3. Publishing and promotion. Schedule content and increase reach through social media and backlinks.
4. Performance analysis. Create SEO reports to assess engagement and refine future content.

Integrating Multiple SEO Tools

To get a complete view of website performance, project managers should combine tools like:

• Google Analytics (traffic insights and user behavior)
• Google Search Console (indexing, keyword rankings, some technical problems)
• Ahrefs / SE Ranking / Moz (backlinks, competitor analysis, and ranking dynamics)

Making SEO Reports Actionable for Project Managers

Project managers don’t need to be SEO experts, but they do need to turn SEO data into clear action plans. Here’s how they can make reports more useful:

• Interpreting complex data. Since a complete SEO report is generally too technical, PMs should customize it. For instance, visual dashboards with colorful charts and summaries help to understand the metrics better. Moreover, you can add your brand colors or logo to the report, making it more appealing to customers.
• Bridging the gap between SEO and project goals. In SEO project management, PMs should align SEO efforts with overall business objectives, whether that’s increasing leads, getting more sales, or improving brand visibility online. It ensures all business units are moving to the same objective and clients get what they need.
• Managing cross-team collaboration. SEO success depends on teamwork. PMs should facilitate collaboration between marketing, content, and development teams so that each department efficiently acts on insights from a professional SEO report.
• Keeping up with algorithm changes. Search engines update frequently. To ensure the business stays competitive, PMs should stay informed about major changes and adjust strategies promptly without disrupting workflows.

Summing up

Insightful SEO reports are an impactful tool for project managers to make decisions. Reports contain key metrics, such as traffic trends, keyword rankings, or conversions, that highlight areas that need attention for a business to stay competitive. 

Based on the report’s insights, project managers can adjust strategies and allocate the required resources to implement changes. Moreover, it helps keep stakeholders informed about SEO efforts and ROI.

On the bright side, PMs don’t need to be SEO experts to read reports′ data —  they customize them in the most relevant way and focus on what matters. 

Choose a reliable reporting tool that meets your business’s requirements and use its insights to improve your business′ position and team efficiency.

Tasin Ahmed

Meet Tasin Ahmed, a seasoned content writer specializing in the SaaS niche, with a particular focus on project management. With a knack for creating engaging and informative content, Tasin helps businesses communicate complex concepts in a simple, effective way.

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