Keyword Ranking Report: What to Include, How to Build It and a Template

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How should you find the right keywords?

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I am starting and don't know what people searchI have ideas but need numbersI have keywords but no time to write

A keyword ranking report (also called an SEO ranking report or search engine ranking report) is the most requested SEO deliverable, and often the least useful when it is a raw list of 300 keywords with arrows. This guide shows what to put in it, where to get the data, how often to send it, and gives a template you can copy.

What is a keyword ranking report?

It is a periodic summary of the positions your site holds on Google (and sometimes Bing) for a set of keywords you chose to track. Its purpose is to answer three questions quickly: are we gaining or losing visibility, on which topics, and why. Positions come from a rank tracker, which checks results from a given location and device, or from Google Search Console, which reports the average position seen by real users.

Rankings are one of the core SEO KPIs, but they are a means: what pays is clicks and conversions. A good report always places positions next to traffic.

What should a keyword ranking report include?

Where does the ranking data come from?

Two sources, which do not measure the same thing:

• Google Search Console: the Performance report gives, for each query, clicks, impressions, click-through rate and the average position of your topmost result, across all the users who saw it. It is free and reflects reality, but it only shows queries where you already appear, and averages mix countries and devices unless you filter.
• A rank tracker: it checks the results page for each keyword from a set location and device, every day or week. It covers keywords where you do not rank yet and competitors, but it shows one snapshot, not what every user sees, because results vary with location, language and device, as Google explains in How Search works.

A good report uses both: the tracker for the list of target keywords and competitors, Search Console for clicks and for the real average position. Search Console also records its daily data on California time, as noted in About Search Console data, so daily totals can differ slightly from other tools.

How often should you report keyword rankings?

Monthly for most businesses and clients; weekly for a site in a migration, a launch or a sensitive period. Daily positions move too much to support decisions: Google updates, competitor changes and test variations create noise. The free SERP volatility sensor helps tell a site-specific drop from a market-wide movement. Compare month to month and year to year to account for seasonality.

A keyword ranking report template

Here is a compact structure you can reuse in a spreadsheet, a Looker Studio dashboard or a PDF:

1. Header: site, period, comparison period, markets and devices tracked.
2. Summary: "Top 10 keywords went from 31 to 38 (+7), mainly on the pricing and comparison pages published in September. Clicks +12% month on month. Two pages lost positions after a competitor update."
3. Distribution table: positions 1 to 3, 4 to 10, 11 to 20, 21 to 100, not ranked; current period vs previous.
4. Top 10 gains and top 10 losses: keyword, URL, old position, new position, volume.
5. Topics: for each cluster, number of keywords in the top 10 and clicks.
6. AI visibility: mention rate on the prompt panel and the brands cited instead of you.
7. Actions: what will be done before the next report.

How do you add AI visibility to a ranking report?

Positions no longer tell the whole story: a query can show an AI Overview above the results, and buyers ask ChatGPT or Perplexity directly. Add a short section that tracks a fixed list of questions linked to your keywords and records, each month, the share of answers that mention your brand and the competitors named. Sorank's AI mention tracking runs these prompts automatically, and the GEO and SEO dashboard shows both kinds of visibility side by side. Our guide GEO vs SEO explains the metrics.

Which tools produce keyword ranking reports?

The large suites (Semrush, Ahrefs, SE Ranking) include rank tracking and exportable reports; Search Console and Looker Studio are free for the traffic side. Our comparisons of rank checking tools and white-label rank trackers go into detail, and the guide on checking positions with a Google API covers the do-it-yourself route.

For agencies, Sorank's white-label SEO reports connect Search Console and send a branded monthly report with traffic, top queries, AI mentions and the work delivered, without building the spreadsheet by hand.

The bottom line

A good keyword ranking report is short, grouped by topic, tied to clicks and closed with actions, and in 2026 it includes AI visibility. Sorank is SEO and GEO software that runs on autopilot: it finds keywords, publishes the content that ranks for them, and tracks both Google and AI answers. See the Sorank plans, with a 3-day free trial.