PLAYBOOK
Reporting for every client,
without rebuilding it each month.
Past a dozen clients, reporting starts to eat the agency. Each report is a day of exports and screenshots, they all fall due in the same week, and the people building them are the ones who should be doing the work. This playbook sets reporting up once for each client, and points your time at the accounts that need it.
Reports are due, for all of them at once.
Every client expects a report in the first week of the month. Each one takes most of a day, and each is built differently because a different person started it. The team dreads the week, the reports go out late, and nobody has time left to work out which client has a problem.
"I lose three days a month to reports."
Time that should go on strategy and client calls goes on copying numbers between tools.
"Why does ours look different from last month's?"
Reports built by hand drift. Different layouts, different metrics, different dates.
"We can't take another client without another hire."
When reporting grows in step with client count, it sets a ceiling on the agency.
Set it up once for each client.
The first client takes an afternoon. After that each new one is quicker, because the decisions have been made.
Give every client a project
Each client's site is its own project, with its own tracking and history. Pricing is per project, so adding people to an account costs nothing.
Pricing →SEORCE for agencies →Agree what every report shows
Decide the handful of numbers that go in every client's report, and build that dashboard for each project. Consistency is what lets you compare clients.
Reports and dashboards →SEO reporting guide →Put your name on it
Connect your mailbox, set your display name and reply address, and upload your logo. You do this once for the agency.
SEORCE for agencies →Let them send themselves
Put each client's report on a schedule. It goes out on the day whether or not anyone remembers.
SEO reporting guide →Spend your time on exceptions
With the routine handled, look across clients for the ones where something changed. Those get a call.
SEO uplift →Fix history →Audit a prospect's page in the pitch.
The extension works on any site, with no account and nothing to install on theirs. Open a prospect's page and you have something specific to talk about.
What gets set up, and how often.
Northwind Digital is our demo agency. It reports to twelve clients, and Ledgerly is one of them.
The same report, for every client.
Agencies resist a standard report because every client feels different. In practice the numbers a client cares about are much the same, and a common shape is what makes the rest possible.
- A project for each clientIts own crawl, rankings, AI visibility, links and analytics.
- The same few numbersGoals, visits, agreed positions, AI visibility and work completed.
- Room for one or two specificsA metric that matters to that client alone.
- Read-only access, if they want itA client can look for themselves without being able to change anything.
Your name, your mailbox, your logo.
The report is one of the few things a client sees every month. It should look like it came from you, because it did.
- Sent from your own addressConnect your Google account and client emails go out from your mailbox.
- Your display nameWhat the client sees as the sender.
- Your reply addressReplies come to your account manager.
- Your logoIn the header of every email.
Nobody has to remember.
A report that depends on someone finding the time will be late in exactly the months when things are busiest, which are usually the months the client most wants to hear from you.
- A schedule for each clientSet when it goes and who receives it.
- Built from live dataThe numbers are current on the day it sends.
- The work includedFixes applied and articles published, from their own logs.
Find the client who needs a call.
Once reports send themselves, the useful question each month becomes which accounts have changed. That is where an account manager earns their keep.
- Look for movementA drop in visits, new high-impact issues, a fall in AI mentions.
- Check the cause before you ringMarkers and the fix history usually explain it.
- Ask in plain languageAsk SEORCE answers a question about a client's project, in the app or on WhatsApp.
The client who needs a call this month
| What you see | What it usually means | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| Organic visits fell sharply | Something changed on their site, often a release. | Run the traffic drop playbook before you ring. |
| New high-impact technical issues | A deploy introduced a fault. | Tell them what broke and what has already been fixed. |
| AI mention rate fell | A source changed, or a rival gained one. | Check which prompts moved and why. |
| Visits rose, goals didn't | The new traffic isn't converting. | Look at which pages it lands on. |
| Nothing unusual | The work is on track. | Let the report go. No call needed. |
Where the first week of the month goes.
Same agency, same twelve clients. The reports are no better written in the second column. They just don't need building.
Reports built by hand
- –Twelve reports, each most of a day
- –Every one laid out differently
- –Sent under the tool's name, or as slides
- –No time left to look across the clients
Reports set up once
- ✓Twelve reports, sent on schedule
- ✓One shape, so clients can be compared
- ✓Sent from the agency's own mailbox
- ✓The week spent on the two clients with a problem
Northwind Digital and its clients are fictional. How much time you get back depends on how your reports are built today.
For agencies past their first few clients.
How do you run SEO reporting for many clients?
Give each client its own project, and agree one report shape that every client gets. Set up your agency's branding once: sending mailbox, display name, reply address and logo. Put each report on a schedule so it sends without anyone building it. Then use the time you've freed to look across clients and call the ones where something has changed.
Key facts
- When every report is built by hand, reporting grows in step with client count and caps the agency
- A common report shape is what makes clients comparable, and what makes scheduling possible
- Branding is set once for the agency: sending address, reply address, logo and display name
- SEORCE is priced per project, never per seat, so adding colleagues or clients as viewers costs nothing
- A client can be given read-only access to their own project
- The time saved is best spent on the clients whose numbers moved
Last reviewed 15 October 2026 by the SEORCE team.
Frequently asked questions.
By standardising. Each client gets its own project and the same report shape, branding is set once for the agency, and reports go out on a schedule. People then spend their time on the clients whose numbers changed.
Yes, on Agency accounts and above. Every email and report can be custom branded with your sending address, reply address, logo and display name.
Excel, PDF and Google Sheets.
Yes. A project can be shared as read-only, so a client can look without being able to change anything.
Adding people costs nothing, because pricing is per project and never per seat. Each client's site is a project, and anything beyond your plan's limits is priced custom.
Mostly, yes. Keep the core the same so clients can be compared and reports can be scheduled, and add one or two measures that matter to that client.
No. Access is shared project by project, so a client sees only the project you share with them.
Yes. The SEORCE browser extension audits any page you open, including a prospect's, and can export the result as a PDF. It's free and needs no account.
Set up one client, then copy the method.
Add a client's site as a project, build the report, and connect your mailbox. The second client goes faster.
Not ready for an account? Use the free browser extension or any of the free tools.