Off-Page SEO Report: What to Include and How to Use It
An off-page SEO report shows how a website performs beyond its own pages. It brings together information about backlinks, brand mentions, local visibility and other external signals that may influence search performance. A well-prepared report helps you understand what is working, spot risks and decide where to focus your efforts next.
What is off-page SEO?
Off-page SEO covers activities and signals that take place away from your website but can affect how it is discovered and perceived online. Link building is often the best-known part of off-page SEO, but it is not the whole picture. Relevant brand mentions, local business listings, digital PR and genuine engagement with your organisation can also contribute to its online presence.
Search engines use many factors to assess and rank pages. No single backlink or metric guarantees improved rankings, so an off-page SEO report should provide context rather than treat one score as a measure of success.
Why create an off-page SEO report?
Regular reporting makes it easier to track changes over time. It can help you:
- See whether your website is earning new links from relevant sources.
- Identify lost links or unusual changes in your backlink profile.
- Understand which pages and topics attract attention from other websites.
- Review local citations and business listing consistency.
- Measure the results of digital PR, outreach and partnership activity.
- Agree practical priorities for the next reporting period.
Key sections to include
Summary of findings
Start with a short overview of the most important changes since the previous report. Highlight meaningful gains, concerns and recommended actions. This gives readers a clear picture before they look at the detailed data.
Backlink profile
Report on links pointing to the website, including the number of referring domains, newly discovered links and links that have been lost. Where possible, include the pages receiving those links and the pages on your site being linked to.
Quantity alone can be misleading. A smaller number of relevant links from reputable websites may be more valuable than a large number of unrelated or low-quality links. Consider the source, context and usefulness of each link rather than relying solely on third-party authority scores.
Link quality and relevance
Review whether linking websites are relevant to your industry, audience or location. Note links that appear editorially earned, such as references in a useful article, separately from links that may have been created through directories, sponsorships or other arrangements.
Investigate suspicious patterns, but do not assume that every unfamiliar or low-authority link is harmful. Search engines regularly ignore many links they consider unhelpful. Disavowal should be approached cautiously and is generally appropriate only when there is a clear reason, such as a serious history of manipulative link building.
Anchor text
Anchor text is the clickable wording used in a link. A report can show common anchor text and flag patterns that look unnatural, such as an unusually high concentration of exact-match commercial phrases. A natural backlink profile usually contains a mixture of brand names, page titles, descriptive phrases and plain URLs.
Brand mentions and digital PR
Not every mention of a business includes a link. Track notable online mentions, press coverage and references to your organisation, products or services. These can help show how visible your brand is, even where they do not directly pass link value.
Local citations
For businesses that serve a specific area, check key directory and map listings. Confirm that the business name, address, telephone number, website and opening hours are accurate and consistent. Record any duplicate, incomplete or outdated listings that need attention.
Competitor comparison
A competitor review can provide useful context. Compare relevant referring domains, notable industry links and the kinds of content attracting coverage. The aim is not to copy a competitor’s backlink profile, but to identify realistic opportunities and gaps that matter to your audience.
Outcomes and next steps
Connect off-page activity with wider business and SEO outcomes where possible. This might include organic traffic, visibility for priority topics, enquiries or sales. Search performance is affected by many factors, so avoid attributing every change to link activity alone.
Finish with a prioritised action list. Each recommendation should explain what needs to be done, why it matters, who is responsible and when it should be reviewed.
How often should you prepare a report?
For many websites, a monthly or quarterly report is sufficient. Monthly reporting can help when a campaign is active or a site has a large backlink profile. Quarterly reporting may be more practical for smaller organisations or slower-moving campaigns.
Use the same data sources and reporting period each time where possible. This makes comparisons more meaningful. Keep a note of tool changes, campaign launches and major website updates that could affect the figures.
Common reporting mistakes
- Focusing on one score: Third-party authority metrics are estimates, not official search-engine measures.
- Counting links without reviewing them: Relevance and context matter more than a headline total.
- Reporting activity instead of results: Outreach emails sent are not the same as useful coverage or links earned.
- Ignoring lost links: Important links can disappear when pages are removed or websites are redesigned.
- Making unsupported promises: No report can guarantee a particular ranking or timeline.
- Providing data without recommendations: Readers need to know what the figures mean and what to do next.
A practical reporting checklist
- Set the reporting dates and note the tools used.
- Summarise new, lost and notable backlinks.
- Review the relevance and context of important links.
- Check anchor text, brand mentions and local citations.
- Compare key findings with the previous period and selected competitors.
- Relate activity to organic visibility and business outcomes where possible.
- List clear, prioritised actions for the next period.
Make the report useful
An effective off-page SEO report is more than a collection of charts. It explains what has changed, why those changes matter and what should happen next. By focusing on relevant links, brand visibility, local accuracy and measurable outcomes, organisations can make better-informed decisions and build a stronger online presence over time.
Essential Tips for Crafting an Effective Off-Page SEO Report
- Track referring domains, not just backlinks.
- Assess link quality and relevance.
- Monitor lost and newly gained links.
- Review anchor text for unnatural patterns.
- Compare backlink growth with competitors.
- Flag toxic links and recommend action.
Track referring domains, not just backlinks.
Track referring domains, not just backlinks, when preparing an off-page SEO report. Several links from the same website may be less valuable than links earned from a range of relevant, reputable websites. Monitoring referring domains gives a clearer view of how widely your content is being recognised and helps reveal whether your backlink profile is growing in a balanced, sustainable way. Consider the quality and relevance of each domain as well as the total number, and note any significant gains or losses over time.
Assess link quality and relevance.
Assess the quality and relevance of the links pointing to your website, rather than focusing only on the total number. Look at whether the linking site is reputable, relevant to your industry or audience, and links to your content in a natural, useful context. A few well-placed links from trusted, relevant websites can be more valuable than many links from unrelated or low-quality sources. Include notable gains or losses in your off-page SEO report, and investigate suspicious patterns without assuming that every unfamiliar link is harmful.
Monitor lost and newly gained links.
Monitor lost and newly gained links as part of every off-page SEO report. Tracking new backlinks shows which content, campaigns or relationships are attracting attention, while reviewing lost links can reveal broken pages, removed references or changes to a linking website. Focus on links from relevant, reputable sources rather than the total number alone, and investigate significant changes before deciding what action to take.
Review anchor text for unnatural patterns.
Review the anchor text used in links pointing to your website to spot patterns that may look unnatural. For example, a sudden increase in links using the same exact-match commercial phrase could suggest manipulative link-building activity. A healthy backlink profile will usually include a natural mix of brand names, page titles, descriptive wording and plain URLs. Check any unusual trends in context before taking action, as varied anchor text alone does not guarantee link quality or indicate a problem.
Compare backlink growth with competitors.
Compare your backlink growth with that of relevant competitors to understand how your website is progressing within its market. Look at the number of new referring domains over the same period, as well as the relevance and quality of the websites linking to each business. This can reveal gaps in your backlink profile and highlight potential outreach or content opportunities. Treat competitor figures as context rather than a target: steady growth from trustworthy, relevant sources is generally more useful than simply chasing a higher link count.
Flag toxic links and recommend action.
Flag potentially toxic links in the report, explaining why they may be concerning and whether they appear to form part of a wider pattern. Avoid treating every low-quality or unfamiliar link as harmful: assess its source, relevance and context before recommending action. Where there is clear evidence of manipulative link activity, outline appropriate next steps, such as documenting the links, contacting the site owner or, in serious cases, considering Google’s disavow tool. Include a clear rationale and assign responsibility for any follow-up.
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