Top 5 Essential SEO Reporting Tools for Agencies (2023)

Your clients trust you to deliver real results and achieve the KPIs that drive their business.

It can be difficult to understand the intricacies of how this works, so it's important to demonstrate your progress and efforts.

SEO reporting software presents key metrics in an easy to understand and visually presented way. They eliminate guesswork and manual referencing, and highlight achievements over time.

A great tool can also help you formulate action points, measure campaign performance, and see real results that can help you create new and innovative analytics.

Newer and supposedly better tools are coming out all the time, and they promise to transform the way you create reports.

Certainly, when deciding which software to implement, you must weigh a few factors. Price, features, and ease of use are the most important factors to consider.

An inexpensive tool with a steep learning curve may not be worth the money for its features. Similarly, an expensive tool can be more attractive if it is easy to use but can quickly add up to costs.

As with any transformational business decision, you need to carefully weigh the pros and cons to find the one that's right for you.

The central theses

• Cost, accessibility, and features are the common comparison threads for SEO reporting tools.
• To get the most out of an SEO reporting tool for your agency, you need to weigh several details, including scalability, customizability, integrations, and access to support.
• What could be considered a mediocre tool could be a game changer for an agency. Due diligence and research are key to knowing what works for your team.

What to look for in SEO reporting tools

It can be difficult to understand the tools available and choose which ones will benefit your agency the most.

These are the 10 essential requirements for SEO reporting tools.

1. Accurate and up-to-date regional data

SEO reporting is all about data. The software must have access to accurate and up-to-date data located in your customer's target region.

US search data is meaningless if your client is trying to rank for [London Plumbing Services], so localization is important.

The tool needs to update data regularly and with reliable accuracy so that you can make informed decisions about where your client stands compared to the competition.

2. Integration with third-party tools

Especially for large-scale digital marketing campaigns, the ability to report on all KPIs in one place is essential.

The more integrations available with third-party tools (eg Google Analytics, Google Business Profile, Majestic), the better.

Some tools even allow you to upload custom data sets.

3. Scalability

You don't want to have to retrain or invest in new software every time your agency reaches a new level.

The right SEO reporting tool should work well for the current size of your business and leave room for expansion as you acquire more clients.

4. Powerful feature set

A great SEO reporting tool should include:

• position tracking
• monitoreo de backlinks.
• Competitor data.
• Analyst.

It is an advantage if the tool has social media reporting, email marketing, call tracking, and/or paid ads features to make it a complete digital marketing software.

5. Continuously improve and update features

SEO is always evolving, just like SEO reporting tools.

As we continue to transition from website optimization to web presence optimization, a tool's ability to incorporate new features is critical.

6. Ability to customize reports

Every client has different KPIs, goals, and priorities.

Presenting the information that customers want to see is critical to campaign success and customer retention.

Your preferred reporting software should be able to highlight the right data at the right time.

7. Customer integration

A good SEO reporting tool has to keep the customer in mind.

It should provide a simple bird's eye view of the basics, but it should also be easy for customers to drill down to a deeper level.

This can mean automated summary reports or 24/7 customer access to the dashboard.

8. White Label Reporting Ability

While white labeling isn't strictly necessary (no customer will sniff at a report with a Google logo in the top corner), it helps maintain brand consistency and gives a professional shine to anything you send a client. .

9. Access to support resources

Quality support resources can help you find a detour when you hit a roadblock.

Whether it's detailed support documentation, a chat/technical support feature, or responsive customer support on social media, it's important to find the help you need to resolve your issue.

10. Value for money

With the right process, investment of time, and use of support resources, it is possible to get better results with a free reporting tool than one that breaks the bank.

This can mean automated summary reports or 24/7 customer access to the dashboard.

Top 5 SEO Reporting Tools

When evaluating five of the most popular SEO reporting tools based on the criteria above, they look like this:

1. Agency analysis

My overall rating: 4.7/5

Image Credit: AgencyAnalytics, December 2022

AgencyAnalyticsis a high quality preliminary/interim reporting tool for agencies.

Among the tools on this list, it is one of the easiest to use for small and medium agencies.

Starts at $12 per month per customer, with unlimited agent and customer logins, a white-label dashboard, and automated brand reporting. The minimum purchase requirements mean that the first two levels are $60 per month and $180 per month, respectively. But its ability to change the payment based on the number of customers could help keep costs down.

AgencyAnalytics comes with over 70 supported third-party data integrations.

However, this reliance on third-party data means that you may receive incomplete reports if transmission is interrupted.

Although new integrations are constantly being added, they can be buggy at first, making them unreliable to share with customers until they stabilize.

With the ability for customers to log in and see daily data updates, it provides real-time visibility.

Automated reports can be customized, and the custom drag-and-drop dashboard makes it easy to highlight priority KPIs.

2. SE Classification

My overall rating: 4.5/5

SE Classificationhas plans starting at $39.20 per month, although the $87.20 per month plan is required if you need historical data or more than 10 projects.

Setup is a breeze as the onscreen tutorial guides you through the process.

SE Ranking offers a powerful set of SEO-related tools, including current and historical position tracking, competitor SEO research, keyword suggestions, a backlink explorer, and more.

SE Ranking is connected to Zapier, allowing users to integrate thousands of apps and provide a high level of automation between apps like Klipfolio, Salesforce, HubSpot, and Google Apps.

SE Ranking is an effective SEO reporting tool for beginners and advanced users.

However, you may want to look in a different direction if your agency needs more technical implementations or advanced customization.

3. Semrush

My overall rating: 4.4/5

Semrush is one of the most SEO-focused reporting tools on the list, and this is reflected in its features.

Starting at $229.95 per month for the agency package, it is one of the most expensive tools on the list. However, Semrush offers a complete set of tools that can be learned at an intermediate level.

One big downside to Semrush, especially for cost-conscious agencies, is that an account comes with only one user login.

Purchasing individual licenses for each SEO Analyst or Account Manager adds up quickly, and the users you can add are limited by plan features. This makes scalability a problem.

Semrush offers branded and white-labeled reporting depending on the subscription level. It uses a proprietary data stream and tracks over 800 million keywords.

The ever-expanding Projects feature covers everything from position tracking to backlink monitoring to social media analytics.

While it doesn't fall specifically in the realm of SEO reporting, Semrush's innovation makes it a one-stop-shop for many agencies.

Project features include Ad Builder, which helps create compelling ad copy for Google Ads, and Social Media Poster, which allows agencies to schedule social media posts from clients.

The combination of such disparate features under the Semrush umbrella makes up for the relatively high cost, especially when you can choose not to use other redundant software.

4. Looker-Study

My overall rating: 3.6/5

Screenshot from Looker Studio, December 2022

Looker Studio, formerly known as Google Data Studio, is a Google service that has grown significantly since its inception.

While it is much more technical and takes longer to set up than most of the other tools on this list, it should be intuitive for those familiar with Google Analytics.

If you're undecided, Looker Studio is completely free.

A big advantage of this software is the excellent integration with other Google products like Analytics, Search Console, Ads and YouTube.

Like other reporting tools, it also allows for third-party data integration, but the ability to query data from databases, including Google's MySQL, PostgreSQL, and Cloud SQL, sets it apart.

You can customize reports with key KPIs with the right settings by pulling information from customers and leads. For eCommerce customers, you can even integrate sales data.

Although the initial setup will be much more technical, the ability to import templates saves time and effort.

You can also create your own templates that better reflect your processes and that customers can share. Google also offers introductory video tutorials to help you get started.

5. Authoritative Laboratories

My overall rating: 3.2/5

Photo Credit: Authority Labs, December 2022

Authority Labs gets the job done if you're looking for a hassle-free location tracking tool.

Authority Labs costs $49 per month for unlimited users, though whitelabel reports require you to upgrade to the $99 per month plan.

You can track regional ranking data, get insights on "(not provided)" keywords, track competitor keywords, and schedule automated reports.

However, the lack of other essential features like backlink monitoring or analytics data means that you need to complement this tool to give clients the full picture of SEO reporting.

Diploma

There are many high-quality SEO reporting tools on the market. What makes them valuable depends on their ability to work for the needs of their customers.

SE Ranking is excellent value for money, while Looker Studio has advanced reporting capabilities if you can handle a higher barrier to entry.

Agency Analytics prioritizes client access, which is a big deal when transparency is a core value for your agency.

Authority Labs keeps it simple and clean, while Semrush is always adding innovative features.

These five are just a snapshot of what's available. There are new and emerging tools that may have some features that are more attractive to your existing customers, or fill in the gaps that other software creates while still being a great solution.

Ultimately, you need to consider what is most important to your agency. It is:

• characteristic depth?
• scalability?
• Value for money?

Once you've weighed the factors that matter most to your agency, you can find the right SEO reporting tool. In the meantime, don't be afraid to try a few during a trial period.

If you don't want to sign up for a full month's use, you can also watch video tutorials and reviews from current users. The most informed decision requires an understanding of the intricate details.

Featured Image: Paulo Bobita/Search Engine Journal