But ranking reports don’t mean nearly as much as they once did. Search engine rankings change regularly, are different on various data centers, and won’t generate traffic to the Web site, much less generate leads and sales, especially if a site ranks well for keywords that aren’t often searched.

So, I preach to my prospects and clients that they should be focused on analytics and measurement of SEO much like they would (try to) measure any form of marketing effort. Is the SEO program generating qualified traffic to the site? Is the SEO effort generating phone calls (yes, you can track this)? Is the SEO effort delivering a solid ROI (for what I’m spending on these efforts, either in internal resources or outsourcing)?

Now, that’s not to say that a firm you’ve outsourced your SEO efforts to shouldn’t be delivering reports. They absolutely should. But, let’s try to focus on things that actually matter. These include things like solid keyword research, a competitive analysis, a site structure analysis and analytics reports that “mean something” (making sure that analytics programs are set up properly and tracking what matters).