How often should an SEO company provide reports?
Often enough that something meaningful can change between one report and the next, and no more often than that. For ongoing SEO work, that points to a regular written report on a fixed schedule, with a live view of your data available in between and prompt notice when something significant happens. Tighter reporting makes sense for limited periods, such as a site launch or a recovery, and should come with an end date. The schedule matters less than what each report is for, so the useful thing to agree is the purpose and content of each form of reporting.
The test for any reporting frequency
Ask what could reasonably change between two reports. Rankings, traffic, and inquiries move with the work, the season, and changes in search, and short periods can make normal variation look like a trend. A report that arrives before the work has had time to show anything gives you numbers to react to rather than information to act on. A report that arrives too rarely leaves you without a view of whether the work is happening. Agree a frequency that sits between those two, and ask the company to explain why it suits your site.
Three forms of reporting, each with a job
A scheduled written report is for understanding progress. It should say what was done since the last report, what changed in the measures that matter to you, why the company thinks it changed, and what comes next. It should arrive on a predictable date so you can compare like with like.
A live dashboard is for checking numbers whenever you want. It is useful only if it draws on accounts you own, such as your analytics and Search Console, and if you know what each figure means. It does not replace the written report, because a dashboard shows numbers without the explanation.
An alert is for events that should not wait. A sudden drop in traffic, pages falling out of the index, a technical failure, or a significant change in search that affects your site should reach you when the company sees it, not in the next scheduled report. Agree in advance what counts as significant enough for an alert.
When reporting should become more frequent
Some periods justify closer contact: the launch of a new site or section, a migration, recovery from a penalty or a sharp drop, or a campaign with several moving parts. In those periods decisions need to be made quickly, so weekly or even more frequent updates can be reasonable. They should come with an end point, such as two weeks after launch or until the recovery steps are complete, after which reporting returns to the agreed schedule. Without an end point, temporary reporting can become a permanent stream of updates that nobody reads.
Writing the reporting terms into the agreement
Agree the schedule for written reports and the date they arrive, what each report contains, which accounts the dashboard draws on, what triggers an alert, and how reporting changes during intensive periods.