Technical SEO Audit Workshop · Verifying fixes and reporting to stakeholders · lesson 12 of 14 · 13 min
Reporting to stakeholders
Different audiences, different reports
The Kiran Home founder, the marketing manager and the developers all need different things from your audit:
| Audience | Wants | Format | |---|---|---| | Founder / leadership | What happened, what it costs, what we do, when we will know | One-page executive summary, 3–5 slides | | Marketing manager | Plan, progress, what they own | Roadmap, status tracker, monthly report | | Developers | Exact tasks | Tickets (Module 4) |
The executive summary structure
Keep it to one page. Lead with the answer.
Kiran Home — Technical SEO audit: executive summary
What happened
After the relaunch, the new storefront told Google that UAE and Pakistan product
pages were duplicates of UK pages. Google therefore stopped showing most local
pages, and UK pages with GBP prices appeared instead. At the same time, Google spent
most of its crawling on filter and search URLs rather than products.
What it means
The markets that drive most revenue lost much of their product visibility in organic
search. (Illustrative: organic product-page sessions from the UAE and Pakistan fell
sharply after launch; UK was stable.)
What we will do (next 6 weeks)
1. Fix product and journal canonicals (1 sprint) — the main cause.
2. Restore redirects for old URLs that have links or historic traffic.
3. Stop filters and search pages being crawled; make category pages fully crawlable.
4. Fix product structured data and the slow reviews widget.
5. Add SEO checks to every release.
How we will know it's working
- Local product pages move to 'Indexed' in Search Console (weeks 2–6).
- Google's crawling shifts from filters to products in server logs (weeks 2–4).
- Organic sessions and revenue from UAE/PK product pages trend back towards
pre-launch levels. Timing depends on Google's recrawl and competition.
Decisions needed
- Approve 2 developer sprints; confirm the reviews-widget replacement budget.
Visuals that persuade
- Traffic by market/segment with the relaunch annotated — shows where the drop is.
- Googlebot requests by segment over time — the crawl-waste story in one chart.
- Indexed vs not indexed by sitemap segment — before and after.
- Roadmap timeline with owners.
Keep charts simple: one message per chart, a title that states the conclusion ("Googlebot spends most of its time on filter pages"), and annotations for releases.
Monthly progress report
For the marketing manager, a recurring report with:
- Status tracker: each ticket — owner, sprint, status (planned / in progress / live / verified).
- Leading indicators: index coverage by segment, Googlebot request mix, CWV status by template, rich result items, Bing indexed pages, and AI surface exposure (Search Console generative AI impressions; Bing AI Performance citations).
- Lagging indicators: organic clicks, sessions and revenue by market and template, year-over-year.
- Risks and blockers: what is slipping and what decision unblocks it.
- Next month's focus.
Honest attribution
Organic performance is affected by many factors: seasonality, demand, competitors, Google's updates, pricing and stock. Be careful with claims:
- Say "after the fix went live, local product pages returned to the index and organic sessions to those pages recovered over the following weeks", not "our fix increased revenue by X".
- Where possible, compare fixed segments to an unaffected control (UK pages were largely unaffected by RC1 — a natural comparison).
- Annotate confounders (a big promotion, a Google core update, Eid sales).
The walkthrough meeting
A 30-minute agenda that works:
- Five minutes: the story (executive summary).
- Ten minutes: top three root causes with one piece of evidence each.
- Ten minutes: roadmap and what each person owns.
- Five minutes: decisions and next steps.
Send the materials in advance, record decisions in writing afterwards, and set the date for the first progress check.
Hands-on: a monthly report data pull
Build the monthly numbers from the same sources every time so trends are comparable:
Source Metric Tool
Search Console (bulk export/BigQuery) Non-brand clicks by market × template, YoY SQL (Mastery Lesson 7.3)
Search Console Page indexing Indexed vs not indexed by sitemap segment UI export
Logs (weekly table) Googlebot share by segment Log lab script
CrUX API p75 LCP/INP/CLS by template Mastery Lesson 6.1
Bing Webmaster Tools Indexed products; AI Performance citations UI export
Search Console generative AI report AI impressions by page group UI export
Ticket tracker Status: planned / in progress / live / verified Jira/Linear export
Put the numbers in a Looker Studio (or similar) dashboard with release annotations, and keep the monthly written report to one page plus appendix.
Worked example 2: reporting a partial recovery honestly
Three months in (illustrative), Kiran Home's UAE and Pakistan product pages are back in the index and crawl has shifted to products, but revenue from UAE organic is only partly recovered because a competitor launched a large Eid campaign. The report says exactly that: leading indicators fixed and verified; lagging indicators improving; one external factor annotated; next actions (content for top categories, reviews widget replacement). The founder approves the next phase because the report was credible, not because it was rosy.
Common mistakes
- Opening with methodology instead of the answer.
- Burying the three things that matter in a 90-page PDF.
- Taking full credit for recovery without acknowledging other factors.
- Reporting only rankings, not revenue-relevant outcomes and leading indicators.
Video lecture: Reporting to stakeholders
Lecture coming soon · 13 chapters · about 9 minutes. Read the full transcript below.
- Reporting to stakeholders
- Three audiences
- Lead with the answer
- Plan, proof, decisions
- Visuals that persuade
- The monthly report
- Hands-on: the monthly data pull
- Honest attribution
- Example 2: a partial recovery (illustrative)
- Watch me do it: the executive summary
- Fixing a bad chart
- The 30-minute walkthrough
- Mistakes, recap, try this now
Lecture transcript
Reporting to stakeholders
An audit that isn't understood doesn't get funded, and an audit that isn't funded doesn't get implemented. The Kiran Home founder, the marketing manager and the developers all need different things from your work. In this lecture you'll write a one-page executive summary that leads with the answer, choose visuals that persuade, set up a monthly progress report with leading and lagging indicators, attribute results honestly, and run a thirty-minute walkthrough that ends with decisions.
Three audiences
Start with audiences. The founder wants to know what happened, what it costs, what you'll do, and when they'll know it's working, in one page and three to five slides. The marketing manager wants the plan, the progress and what they own: a roadmap, a status tracker and a monthly report. The developers want exact tasks, which are your tickets. One audit, three formats.
Lead with the answer
The executive summary leads with the answer, never the methodology. For Kiran Home: what happened. After the relaunch, the new storefront told Google that UAE and Pakistan product pages were duplicates of UK pages, so Google stopped showing most local pages, and UK pages with pound prices appeared instead. Meanwhile, Google spent most of its crawling on filter and search URLs, and the CDN was blocking Bing and AI search crawlers. What it means: the markets that drive most revenue lost much of their product visibility. Illustrative, of course.
Plan, proof, decisions
Then what we'll do in the next six weeks, in five numbered lines: fix canonicals, restore redirects with links or traffic, stop filters and search being crawled and make categories fully crawlable, fix product structured data and the slow reviews widget, fix the CDN bot rule, and add SEO checks to every release. How we'll know it's working: local product pages move to indexed, Google's crawling shifts from filters to products, and organic revenue from the UAE and Pakistan trends back, with timing that depends on recrawl and competition. And decisions needed: approve two sprints and the widget budget.
Visuals that persuade
Visuals that persuade. Traffic by market and segment, with the relaunch annotated, shows where the drop is. Googlebot requests by segment over time tells the crawl-waste story in one chart. Indexed versus not indexed by sitemap segment, before and after. And a roadmap timeline with owners. Keep charts simple: one message per chart, and a title that states the conclusion, like Googlebot spends most of its time on filter pages, not a label like crawl by segment.
The monthly report
The monthly progress report, for the marketing manager. A status tracker for each ticket: owner, sprint, and status from planned to in progress to live to verified. Leading indicators: index coverage by segment, the Googlebot request mix, Core Web Vitals by template, rich result items, Bing indexed pages, and AI surface exposure from Search Console's generative AI report and Bing's AI Performance citations. Lagging indicators: organic clicks, sessions and revenue by market and template, year on year. Risks and blockers. And next month's focus.
Hands-on: the monthly data pull
Hands-on. The lesson text lists the data pull for the monthly report: non-brand clicks by market and template from the BigQuery export, indexed versus not indexed by sitemap segment, Googlebot share by segment from the log script, Core Web Vitals from the CrUX API, Bing indexed products and AI citations, AI impressions from Search Console, and ticket status from the tracker. Same sources, same method, every month, in a dashboard with release annotations, and a one-page written summary.
Honest attribution
Honest attribution. Organic performance is affected by seasonality, demand, competitors, Google's updates, pricing and stock. So be careful with claims. Say, after the fix went live, local product pages returned to the index and organic sessions to those pages recovered over the following weeks. Don't say, our fix increased revenue by a precise amount. Compare fixed segments with an unaffected control; UK pages weren't affected by RC one, which makes a natural comparison. And annotate confounders like big promotions, core updates and Eid sales.
Example 2: a partial recovery (illustrative)
Worked example two, illustrative. Three months in, Kiran Home's UAE and Pakistan product pages are back in the index, and crawl has shifted to products. But revenue from UAE organic is only partly recovered, because a competitor launched a large Eid campaign. The report says exactly that. Leading indicators fixed and verified. Lagging indicators improving. One external factor annotated. Next actions listed. The founder approves the next phase because the report was credible, not because it was rosy.
Watch me do it: the executive summary
Watch me do it. I'll write Kiran Home's executive summary in thirty minutes. Minute zero: I open a blank page with five headings: what happened, what it means, what we'll do, how we'll know, decisions needed. Minute three: what happened, in three sentences a founder would say out loud. I read it back and cut the word canonical from the first sentence; I replace it with, the new storefront told Google that UAE and Pakistan product pages were copies of UK pages. Minute ten: what it means. I pull one number from the before-and-after pivot: the illustrative share of non-brand product clicks lost in the UAE and Pakistan. I state it once, with the date range. Minute fifteen: what we'll do. Five numbered actions, each with a sprint. Minute twenty: how we'll know. Three leading indicators with rough timing, and one lagging indicator, with a sentence on what can affect timing. Minute twenty-five: decisions needed. Two sprints of developer time and the reviews widget budget. Minute twenty-eight: I choose two charts for the slides: non-brand clicks by market with the relaunch annotated, and Googlebot share by segment. I retitle both so each title states its conclusion.
Fixing a bad chart
Now a common mistake in reporting, shown on a real slide. Here's a draft chart titled organic sessions, January to June. It has six lines, one per market and device, no annotations, and a legend in tiny text. A founder looks at it for five seconds and learns nothing. Let's fix it together. First, cut it to two lines: UAE and Pakistan product pages, and UK product pages as the control. Second, add annotations: the relaunch, the canonical fix going live, and the Eid sale. Third, rewrite the title as the conclusion: local product traffic recovered after the canonical fix; UK stayed stable. Now the same data tells the story in five seconds, and it's honest, because the Eid sale is right there on the chart for everyone to weigh.
The 30-minute walkthrough
The thirty-minute walkthrough. Five minutes for the story, the executive summary. Ten minutes for the top three root causes, with one piece of evidence each. Ten minutes for the roadmap and what each person owns. And five minutes for decisions and next steps. Send materials in advance, record decisions in writing afterwards, and set the date for the first progress check before you leave the room.
Mistakes, recap, try this now
Common mistakes. Opening with methodology instead of the answer. Burying the three things that matter in a ninety-page PDF. Taking full credit for recovery without acknowledging other factors. And reporting only rankings, not revenue-relevant outcomes and leading indicators. Recap: tailor formats to audiences, lead with the answer, use conclusion-titled visuals, report leading and lagging indicators monthly, attribute honestly, and run a decisive walkthrough. Try this now: write the what happened paragraph for your current project in three sentences a founder would understand.
Key takeaways
- Tailor reports: executive summary for leaders, roadmap and tracker for marketing, tickets for developers.
- Lead with the answer: what happened, what it means, what we will do, how we will know, decisions needed.
- Use simple, annotated charts with conclusion-style titles.
- Attribute results honestly, using control segments and noting confounders.
Try it
Write a one-page executive summary for an audit (real or the Kiran Home case) using the five-part structure.