Monthly dashboard plus a 30-minute walkthrough call. Here’s exactly what’s in it.
The Looker Studio dashboard
Every retainer client gets a Looker Studio dashboard that updates automatically. You log in any time and see current state — not a once-a-month snapshot. The dashboard pulls from:
- Rank tracking tool — tracked keyword positions, week-over-week movement, map pack vs. organic, by location
- Google Search Console — impressions, clicks, click-through rate, top queries, top pages, indexation health
- Google Business Profile insights — searches, profile views, calls, direction requests, website clicks, photo views
- GA4 — sessions, conversions, top landing pages, source/medium breakdowns
- Citation tracker — citations claimed, citations verified, NAP consistency score, top-60 status
- Review tracker — review velocity, average rating, response rate, response speed, sentiment trends
The dashboard is structured so that the metrics that drive your business sit on the first screen — calls, form fills, direction requests, qualified traffic — not vanity metrics like “total impressions.”
The monthly written summary
On the first business day of each month, I publish a written report that lives alongside the dashboard. Not a copy of the dashboard data — a written interpretation. Three sections:
- What we shipped last month. Specific work delivered: citations claimed, schema deployed, content published, GBP updates, technical fixes. Itemized.
- What the data shows. Where rankings moved, where they didn’t, what GBP insights are telling us, what’s working in the content cadence, what’s underperforming.
- What’s next. Priorities for the coming month, plus any decision points where I need input from you.
The summary is typically 1-2 pages. Long enough to convey real analysis, short enough to actually read.
The monthly call
A 30-minute call to walk through the report. The call exists because dashboards alone are insufficient — data without interpretation is noise.
On the call we cover:
- The most important 2-3 movements in the data and what’s driving them
- Anything anomalous (algorithm hits, competitor moves, GBP weirdness)
- Decisions I need from you (content priorities, photo asks, review-request campaigns)
- Adjustments to the next 30-day plan
Most clients come prepared with questions. I’d rather you ask “why did this metric drop” than have me skip past it because the answer is uncomfortable.
Raw data and exports
If you want raw data — keyword position history exports, full citation audit data, GBP insights raw exports, GSC backups — just ask. I’ll send CSVs the same day. Some clients use this for board reporting or for their own internal dashboards.
If you have a BI tool you’d rather feed the data into (PowerBI, Tableau, internal warehouse), I can export to a Google Sheets that auto-updates, which is usually the cleanest interop path.
What I won’t do in reporting
A few patterns I deliberately avoid:
- Vanity-metric padding. If a metric isn’t tied to your business outcomes (calls, leads, revenue), I don’t lead with it. Lots of agencies report on “keyword universe size” or “domain authority deltas”; those are vanity metrics dressed as KPIs.
- Hiding bad months. When a month underperforms, the report says so up front. Bad months happen — algorithm updates, competitor moves, seasonal dips. Hiding them just means we’re rebuilding trust from scratch when you notice anyway.
- Cherrypicked timeframes. Reports compare consistent windows (last 30 days vs. prior 30 days, last 12 weeks vs. prior 12 weeks). No “compared to your worst month ever” framing.
What good reporting actually changes
Reporting is mostly for two things: keeping you informed enough to trust the work, and giving us a shared artifact to make decisions against. The dashboards and the call are calibrated for both. You should leave each monthly review knowing what shipped, what worked, what didn’t, and what’s coming. If the reporting isn’t doing that, tell me on the call — it’s adjustable.