How to Build an SEO Baseline Report Before a Campaign Starts

An SEO baseline report is a dated record of where a site stands before any SEO work goes live, the document every later report is measured against. Build it in the week you sign, from Google’s own records first: as of August 2026, Search Console keeps a rolling 16 months of query and page data and deletes anything older, so the export cannot wait. Add a frozen panel of 50 to 200 keywords mapped to pages, a crawl (Screaming Frog’s free version covers 500 URLs per crawl as of July 2026) and, with a suite, a tracker project: SE Ranking Core (£95 a month, or £76 a month billed annually, checked 26 September 2026) tracks 2,000 keywords daily. Below: the eight sections, how to gather each, and how to freeze the result.

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Why a baseline exists

You cannot show progress without a starting point, and you cannot defend it without a dated one. Six months into a retainer, the argument is never about this month’s figures but about what they were before the work started, and the client remembers ranking on page one for a phrase nobody tracked. Without a frozen record, both sides argue from memory, and memory favours whoever is unhappier.

Our client SEO report template covers the monthly report that justifies a retainer: wins, traffic, rankings, leads, work completed and next month’s plan. This post covers the document that comes before month one: the baseline every one of those reports is compared against, with the site’s known problems and an owner against each.

When to take the baseline

Before any change goes live, ideally in the week you sign. If a robots.txt fix ships on day three and the baseline is taken on day ten, the engagement’s biggest technical improvement has already vanished from the record.

Search Console’s 12-month view cannot be taken again once its 16-month window rolls on, and a tracker only knows positions from the day you add the project (as of July 2026, SE Ranking keeps six months of history on Core, all-time on Growth). If neither was in place on day one, say so rather than reconstructing figures from memory.

The eight sections, and how to gather each free

Every baseline we build has the same eight sections, and each can be gathered free. Our best free SEO tools list carries each free tier’s limits, and our SEO tools hub covers the paid ones.

1. Site inventory and indexed pages. How many URLs the sitemap declares, how many the crawl finds, and how many Search Console’s page indexing report counts as indexed, with each exclusion reason. The three rarely match; the gaps are the first finding.
2. Top queries and pages. Export Queries and Pages for the last three and 12 months before anyone touches the site; our guide to keyword research inside Search Console covers the filters. Add Bing Webmaster Tools, free and unlimited as of July 2026, whose index feeds ChatGPT search and Microsoft Copilot.
3. A frozen keyword panel. 50 to 200 keywords the business wants, each mapped to the page that should rank for it, wording frozen from this day. The free starting position is the average position from the 12-month export, blended across every location and device, so label it as one.
4. Technical health. Screaming Frog’s free version crawls up to 500 URLs per crawl with no sign-up; our one-hour technical SEO audit says which reports to keep. Then record the Core Web Vitals verdict from PageSpeed Insights (free, from Google) for three key templates.
5. Backlink profile. The Search Console Links report exports up to 100,000 rows, but Google calls it a sample. SE Ranking’s free backlink checker gives link and domain counts, Domain Trust and the dofollow ratio, no signup needed. Record both with the tool and date; our guide to who links to your website covers each one’s limits.
6. Google Business Profile state, for any local business: claimed and verified or not, primary category, review count and rating on the date, and whether name, address and phone match the site. Google’s guidance says the local pack rewards relevance, distance and prominence, so record the inputs to each.
7. Conversion tracking in GA4. Whether the tag fires, which enquiry actions count as conversions, whether consent mode is in place, and last quarter’s organic sessions and conversions. GA4’s count is a floor, not a census, because a visitor who declines the banner is invisible.
8. Known issues with owners. Every problem the first seven surfaced, with a severity, a named owner (agency, client, developer, hosting) and a status.

For a small local site the free route is complete enough, and we say that as an agency that earns a commission when readers buy SE Ranking through our links.

Gathering the baseline with a paid suite

A suite does not change the eight sections; it cuts the time each takes and adds daily starting positions from a chosen town. Two we use ourselves.

SE Ranking Core costs £95 a month, or £76 a month billed annually, checked 26 September 2026, for 10 projects, 2,000 keywords tracked daily and 250,000 audit pages a month. The tracker checks the top 100 daily, splits desktop from mobile and targets down to city level, so a Cambridge plumber’s panel is tracked from Cambridge. The audit runs 115+ checks with Core Web Vitals, the backlink module reports Domain Trust, and Search Console and GA4 connect to the same project. The 14-day trial needs no card (confirmed 26 September 2026). Our full SE Ranking review covers the rest.

Semrush’s entry SEO plan showed £113 a month, or £95.07 a month billed annually, to UK visitors when we checked on 26 September 2026, for 5 websites and 500 keywords tracked daily. As of July 2026, Site Audit runs 140+ checks and Domain Overview carries an Authority Score, with two cautions: exports are disabled during the 7-day trial, which needs a card, so a trial cannot produce a baseline; and the free account (10 tracked keywords, a 100-page audit) covers the Authority Score reading and little else. Our Semrush pricing guide sets out every plan.

Whichever suite you pick, pick one: Authority Score, Domain Trust and Moz’s Domain Authority are different scales, none is a Google metric, and a baseline in one with a monthly report in another is unusable.

Free versus suite, section by section

Here is how the two routes compare, keyword limits checked 26 September 2026 and the rest as of July 2026; times are our own estimates for a site of a few hundred pages.

Section	Free route	With a suite	Time, free then suite
Inventory and indexing	Search Console page indexing report	Same; no suite sees Google’s index	30 minutes, 30 minutes
Queries and pages	Search Console exports, 3 and 12 months; Bing Webmaster Tools	Same exports, pulled into the project	45 minutes, 30 minutes
Keyword panel	12-month average position; 10 daily keywords on free Semrush	2,000 daily keywords on SE Ranking Core, 500 on Semrush SEO	2 to 3 hours, 1 to 2 hours
Technical health	Screaming Frog free, 500 URLs; PageSpeed Insights	SE Ranking audit, 115+ checks; Semrush Site Audit, 140+ checks	1 to 2 hours, 45 minutes
Backlinks	Links report sample; SE Ranking free checker	Full export with Domain Trust or Authority Score	30 minutes, 20 minutes
Google Business Profile	Manual screenshots	Profile connection in SE Ranking; screenshots still needed	30 minutes, 30 minutes
GA4 conversions	Manual check	Same; a suite cannot fix the tagging	45 minutes, 45 minutes

The eighth section, known issues, is written from the other seven either way; the suite saves about half a day, at £76 a month for SE Ranking Core or £95.07 a month for the Semrush SEO plan on annual billing.

How to present the baseline

Two pages, then appendices. Page one carries the figures every monthly report is compared against: indexed pages, 12-month clicks and impressions, panel size and how many keywords sit in the top 10, referring domains, Core Web Vitals, review count and rating, and last quarter’s organic conversions. Page two is the known issues list with owners.

Annotated screenshots beat tables: a page indexing report with the date circled and an arrow on the largest exclusion reason explains a problem in one glance. Risks go in plain English: “the contact form fires no conversion event, so enquiries from search cannot be measured” is something a client can act on; “GA4 events not configured” is not. A live dashboard is the wrong format: Looker Studio is free and connects Search Console and GA4 natively (see our best SEO reporting tools comparison), but a live link never goes out of date, the one property a baseline must not have.

How to freeze the baseline

A baseline that can change is not a baseline. Four rules keep it fixed.

• Export to a dated PDF and send it. Date in the filename, on page one and in the email; both parties hold a copy. A baseline that lives only inside a tool lasts as long as the subscription.
• Freeze the panel wording. Keywords recorded exactly as typed, with the page each maps to. New keywords go in a dated second panel; the original is never edited.
• Name the tool and the date on every figure. A referring domain count without its tool is unusable; every index differs.
• Put the rate and date beside any converted price. If the baseline records costs in another currency, write the exchange rate and its date beside the pound figure, for example the Bank of England daily spot rate of 1.3220 dollars to the pound on 24 September 2026.

Start the annotation log the same day: one dated row per site change and per known Google update, so that in month four a drop or a climb has an explanation.

The mistakes that undo a baseline

• Starting tracking after the first fix. The tracker project gets created in week three, after the redirects and title tags, so the biggest gains never show.
• Changing the keyword panel. Swapping five keywords that were not moving for five that are turns the trend into fiction. Our guide to a keyword ranking report covers reporting a frozen panel month to month.
• Baselining rankings without pages. A position means nothing unless the baseline says which URL held it; pages get merged mid-campaign, and the content audit that decides what to consolidate needs the same mapping.
• No annotation log. Every later movement becomes a mystery, and mysteries get blamed on the agency.

For clients, we take the baseline in the week the agreement is signed: Search Console verified and exported, the panel agreed in writing, the tracker project created in SE Ranking, the crawl run, and a dated two-page PDF sent, then attached to every monthly report that follows so the comparison is always against the same page.

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Frequently asked questions

What is an SEO baseline report?

An SEO baseline report is a dated record of where a website stands in search before any SEO work goes live. It is taken in the week the agreement is signed, before the first change ships, and frozen as a PDF that both sides keep so the figures cannot be edited later. Every monthly report that follows is measured against it.

What should an SEO baseline include?

Eight sections: indexed pages from Search Console, top queries and pages for the last three and 12 months, a frozen panel of 50 to 200 keywords mapped to pages with starting positions, a crawl plus Core Web Vitals from PageSpeed Insights, backlinks from one named tool, Google Business Profile state for local businesses, GA4 conversion tracking status, and known issues with an owner against each.

When should you take an SEO baseline?

Before any change goes live, ideally in the week the agreement is signed. Search Console keeps a rolling 16 months of data as of August 2026 and deletes anything older, and a rank tracker only knows positions from the day its project is created, so a baseline taken after the first fixes has already lost the engagement’s biggest gains.

Can you build an SEO baseline for free?

Yes. Search Console, GA4, Bing Webmaster Tools, PageSpeed Insights and Google Business Profile are free with no caps that matter, Screaming Frog’s free version crawls 500 URLs per crawl as of July 2026, and SE Ranking’s free backlink checker gives link and domain counts. The free route lacks daily tracked positions from a chosen town; a 14-day SE Ranking trial with no card covers the starting positions.

How is a baseline report different from a monthly SEO report?

The baseline is taken once, before any work, and frozen as a dated PDF; the monthly report compares each month’s figures against it. The monthly report covers wins, traffic, rankings, leads and work completed. The baseline covers the site’s starting state and its known issues. Without it, a monthly report is a comparison against memory.