Article · Reporting
The monthly SEO report email: a template for normal, mixed and bad months
Assume the client may read only the email and skim the report. Write the email so it stands on its own: a clear subject line, five sentences in the same order every month, and one request with a date.
Why the email deserves as much care as the report
The report is the reference. The email is what the client reads, often on a phone. If it answers "are we on track, and what do you need from me?", the report can serve as backup. If it only says "report attached", the client has to do the summarizing.
We build the email from the same parts as the report, the six-part outline in our guide, with search results moved up to sentence two, so the two never tell different stories.
Subject line patterns
Use the same prefix every month so the client can search for past reports, then add a short, honest status. Never hide bad news in the subject; state it calmly.
| Month type | Pattern |
|---|---|
| Normal | [Client] SEO report, [Month Year]: on track |
| Normal, with a request | [Client] SEO report, [Month Year]: one item needs your OK |
| Mixed | [Client] SEO report, [Month Year]: mostly on track, one thing to watch |
| Bad | [Client] SEO report, [Month Year]: search traffic down, our plan inside |
The five-sentence body
Five sentences cover the six parts of the outline, because site health and visibility usually fit in one line. Keep the order fixed so clients learn where to look.
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The headline
One plain sentence on how the month went, taken from the report's three-line summary. If something went wrong, it goes here, not in sentence four.
-
Search traffic and results
Clicks from search and the leads, calls or sales they produced, each with one comparison: last month, or the same month last year if seasonality matters. Use only the numbers you agreed on at the start; our guide to SEO KPIs for clients covers how to choose them. For where each number comes from, see the monthly table in the GA4 organic search report.
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Visibility and site health
How the agreed keyword set moved, as a direction rather than a list of positions, plus any technical issue the client should know about. See how many keywords to track for keeping that set small. For the site health clause, see Page indexing statuses explained and Core Web Vitals in a client report.
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Work completed
The one or two tasks that matter most, each tied to a goal. The full list lives in the report.
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Next month and your request
What happens next, then exactly what you need from the client and by when. End on the request, as the outline does, so it is the last thing they read.
After the five sentences, add one line that says where the report is and offers a short call. That is the whole email.
What to attach and what to link
Pick one primary format and at most one extra link. Use these rules:
- Attach a PDF when the client forwards reports to a partner or reads them offline. Name it the same way every month, for example
client-seo-report-2026-10.pdf. - Watch the file size. Gmail lists a 25 MB attachment limit for personal accounts (work and school accounts follow their admin's settings) and turns larger files into a Google Drive link. Compress chart-heavy PDFs.
- Add a link when the client checks numbers between reports. In Search Console, the Share button creates a link to the current report view only; it does not give the recipient access to other pages or let them act on the property. Open the shared link in a private window before you send it; if it asks for a Google sign-in, add the client as a user instead. For lasting access, add the client as a user instead, as described in our Search Console reporting setup.
- Test every link in a private browser window. If a link asks the client to sign in, assume they will not click it.
If your reporting tool sends the PDF for you
Several tools can email a scheduled report. In Semrush's My Reports, for example, you can generate a PDF and schedule it daily, weekly or monthly with recipients and an optional message, as listed on 28 October 2026. On the same date Semrush listed up to 30 recipients for paid users and up to three for free and trial users, who also cannot include links in the message. Sharing a report by link is listed as a Pro report feature ($20 per report per month); Base reports ($10) list sharing with Semrush users instead, alongside PDF export and scheduling.
A scheduled PDF cannot tell a good month from a bad one. Our rule: let the tool deliver the file, but send your own five sentences the same day. On a bad month, make sure your email reaches the client before the scheduled report does.
The walkthrough shows the scheduling steps, including sending the first PDF to yourself before any client sees it.
When to send
Agree the reporting day at kickoff and put it in writing; it belongs on your client onboarding checklist. Then hold to it.
Do not send on the first of the month. Search Console flags its most recent data as preliminary and says it may still change, and Google Analytics says data processing can take 24 to 48 hours. We send on the third to fifth business day, in the client's morning, on the same weekday pattern each month.
| Situation | What we do |
|---|---|
| Ordinary month | Send on the agreed day. |
| A Google ranking update is still rolling out at month end | Send on the agreed day, say the picture is partial, and give a date for a follow-up note. Google's core update guidance suggests waiting at least a full week after an update finishes before analyzing Search Console data, then comparing the week after with the week before it began. |
| Something serious happens mid-month (site down, pages dropping out of the index, a security warning) | Tell the client that day, in a separate email, and refer back to it in the monthly email. A client should never learn about a serious problem from the report. |
| You are missing data the client cares about | Send on time with what you have, name the missing piece, and say when it will follow. |
How to handle a bad month
Before you write, rule out the usual causes. Google's guide to debugging search traffic drops names technical problems, security issues, spam or manual actions, algorithm updates, site moves, shifting demand and reporting glitches. A short check:
- Is it a reporting glitch? Check Search Console's data anomalies page, where Google lists known logging and data-processing issues that can make report numbers rise or fall without any change on the site.
- Was there a ranking update? The Google Search Status Dashboard lists ranking updates with a date and a duration. It does not cover problems limited to a single site.
- Is it seasonal? Google suggests viewing the last 16 months in Search Console and using the Compare tab against the same period last year, and checking Google Trends to see whether interest in the topic fell more broadly.
- Did something change on the site? Redesigns, migrations, new templates, removed pages. Ask the client too.
- Did the business outcome drop too? Fewer clicks with steady leads is a different conversation from fewer leads.
Then write the email with these rules:
- Put the bad news in sentence one, with its size and scope: which pages or queries, compared with what.
- Separate what you know from what you suspect. "We don't know yet" is acceptable if it comes with a date.
- Say what you have already done and what you will do next.
- Do not promise a recovery date. Google's own core update guidance says improvements can take several months to show, and that a small drop may not call for drastic changes at all.
- Do not blame Google, the client or a previous agency in writing.
For a longer explanation to the client, see how to explain a ranking drop to a client.
Three templates you can copy
Replace everything in square brackets. Delete any clause that does not apply rather than padding it out.
Template 1: a normal month
Subject: [Client] SEO report, [Month Year]: on track
Hi [Name],
[Month] was a steady month: [main result in one plain phrase].
Search brought [X] clicks and [Y] [leads/calls/sales], compared with [X] and [Y] in [previous month].
The [N] keywords we track [mostly held or improved / moved as follows: one short phrase], and there were no new issues stopping Google from indexing the site.
This month we [finished task 1], which supports [goal], and [finished task 2].
Next month we will [plan]; the one thing we need from you is [request] by [date].
The full report is [attached / at this link]. Happy to walk through it on a 15-minute call if that helps.
[Your name]
Template 2: a mixed month
Subject: [Client] SEO report, [Month Year]: mostly on track, one thing to watch
Hi [Name],
[Month] was mixed: [what improved] went up, while [what slipped] went down, and I explain both below.
Search brought [X] clicks and [Y] [leads/calls/sales], compared with [X] and [Y] in [previous month]; the dip is concentrated in [pages or queries] and [matches / does not match] the pattern from [same month last year].
Our tracked keywords [summary], and on site health, [issue] is [fixed / in progress, due by date].
This month we [finished task], and we have started [response to the slip].
Next month we will [plan], and to keep it on schedule we need [request] from you by [date].
The full report is [attached / at this link]; the [section name] section has the detail on [topic].
[Your name]
Template 3: a bad month
Subject: [Client] SEO report, [Month Year]: search traffic down, our plan inside
Hi [Name],
I want to start with the main point: search clicks fell to [X] in [Month], from [Y] in [previous month], and most of the drop is in [pages or queries].
What we know so far is [confirmed cause, or "that it coincides with a Google ranking update that ran from [date] to [date]"], and what we don't know yet is [open question].
[Leads/calls/sales] were [X] compared with [Y], so the effect on the business is [smaller than / about the same as / larger than] the traffic numbers suggest.
We have already [action taken], and over the next [period] we will [next steps], with an update from me by [date] even if nothing has changed.
From you we need [request] by [date] (or: nothing right now), and if you would rather talk it through, reply with two times that suit you.
The full report is [attached / at this link], with the detail in the [section name] section.
[Your name]
Example of a filled-in headline, for a hypothetical client: "October was a steady month: contact-form leads from search went up for the second month running."
Before you press send
- Every number in the email matches the report, and each one has its comparison period.
- The subject follows your usual pattern and tells the truth about the month.
- The request is the last sentence of the body, with a date.
- The attachment opens and is under your email provider's size limit, or the link opens in a private window without a sign-in.
- On a bad month, the client has already heard about any serious incident, and a scheduled report will not arrive before your email.
- You read it once on a phone screen.
Sources
- Search Console preliminary data and the Share button: Search Console Help, Performance report
- Adding users to a Search Console property: Search Console Help, Managing owners, users, and permissions
- Search Console known data issues: Search Console Help, Data anomalies
- Causes of traffic drops, 16-month view, Compare tab and Google Trends: Google Search Central, Debugging drops in Google Search traffic
- Waiting after a core update, what to compare, recovery time: Google Search Central, Google Search's core updates
- Ranking updates with dates and durations: Google Search Status Dashboard, Ranking history; what the dashboard covers: How to use the Google Search Status Dashboard
- Google Analytics processing time: Analytics Help, Data freshness
- Gmail attachment size limit: Gmail Help, Attachment size limits
- Semrush My Reports prices, recipients and sharing (as listed on 28 October 2026): Semrush KB 34, My Reports
- Semrush scheduled PDF reports (as listed on 28 October 2026): Semrush KB 1178, Report automation