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The goal is a report you build properly once and reproduce each month by duplicating and moving the date range.

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1. Build the template

Create a report — blank or from a template — and open the editor. A structure that reads well, in order: Headline numbers. Four stat cards at most: Avg. Position, Total Keywords, Referring Domains, and one that matters to this client. More than four and none of them registers. Trends. Ranking History and Backlink History as line charts. Direction is what a monthly report is for — a single month’s snapshot says nothing. What moved. Top Gainers and Top Losers. Include the losers. A report with only good news stops being believed, and the losers are usually where the next month’s work comes from. Technical. Audit Summary, and Audit Issues if you’ve been working on them. Detail. Position Distribution, and All Keywords if the client wants the full list. These are the widgets that survive a PDF worst, so put them last.

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2. Write the commentary

Use Text / Note widgets. This is the part most reports skip and the part you’re actually being paid for — a page of charts makes the reader do the interpretation. At minimum: a short summary at the top saying what happened and what you’re doing next, and a note under any chart that would otherwise be misread. A traffic drop that’s seasonal, a position loss caused by a Google update rather than the site — say so in the report, not in a follow-up email.

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3. Set the date range

The date range applies to every widget. This is the single most common source of a wrong report. A range left on last month’s dates produces a report full of correct-looking but stale figures. Check it before every send.

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4. Choose how it’s delivered

Most engagements want the automated email plus a share link.
A share link shows live data for the report’s date range — it isn’t frozen at the moment you shared it. Only a PDF is a genuine snapshot. If you need a record of exactly what a client was shown, export the PDF and keep it.
Set a password and an expiry on share links. The default is no password and never expires, which means a forwarded URL keeps working indefinitely.

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5. Automate delivery

On Automation: enable it, choose Monthly (1st), add recipients, and set the hour. The timezone is applied, so set the hour in your own zone — 09:00 with America/New_York selected sends at 09:00 New York time. Note that Monthly (1st) is an interval of one month from the last send, not a fixed calendar date. Enable it on the 1st and it stays on the 1st; enable it on the 14th and it sends on the 14th. The date range decides what actually goes out. A range fixed to a specific month sends identical figures forever; a rolling range moves with each send. For a recurring monthly report, use a rolling range.

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6. The monthly routine

Once the template exists, each month is:
  1. Duplicate last month’s report.
  2. Rename it with the new period. Names are all that distinguishes them in the list — Monthly SEO Report - March 2026, not Monthly SEO Report.
  3. Move the date range forward.
  4. Update the commentary. The charts refresh themselves; the narrative doesn’t.
  5. Export the PDF for your records, then send or share.
A duplicate carries widgets and layout but not share links or automation — which is what you want, since inheriting last month’s recipient list by accident would be worse.

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Before each send, check

  • The date range is the period you mean
  • The audit widget isn’t showing a crawl from three months ago — audits don’t run on a schedule
  • The commentary matches what the charts show
  • Anything with an empty widget either gets data or gets removed
That third one matters. Charts that contradict the summary text is the fastest way to lose a client’s confidence in the reporting.

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