What SEO Reports Can Open-SEO Generate? A Complete Technical Guide

Open-SEO can generate eight distinct SEO report types—including keyword research, site audits, backlink analysis, domain overviews, rank tracking, saved keywords, AI brand visibility, and AI search prompt exploration—each powered by dedicated server functions and feature page definitions in the TypeScript codebase.

Open-SEO is a modular, open-source SEO platform maintained in the every-app/open-seo repository that exposes a comprehensive suite of reporting capabilities. Understanding what kind of SEO reports open-seo can generate requires examining both the feature page registry and the underlying server function implementations that fetch data from DataForSEO APIs, Lighthouse audits, and AI search endpoints.

Keyword Research Reports

The platform provides granular keyword intelligence through two interconnected report types.

Real-Time Keyword Research

The keyword research report delivers search volume, keyword difficulty, CPC estimates, SERP results, and clustering data. This functionality is defined in featurePages.keywordResearch within the feature registry.

Data is retrieved via the researchKeywords server function, implemented in [src/serverFunctions/keywords.ts](https://github.com/every-app/open-seo/blob/main/src/serverFunctions/keywords.ts#L26-L33). This endpoint validates input through Zod schemas and enforces project context before querying DataForSEO APIs.

// Fetch keyword research data
const response = await fetch("/api/keywords/research", {
  method: "POST",
  headers: { "Content-Type": "application/json" },
  body: JSON.stringify({
    domain: "example.com",
    seed: "content marketing",
    market: "US"
  })
});
const keywordData = await response.json();

Saved Keywords Management

For tracking researched terms over time, the saved keywords report (featurePages.savedKeywords) aggregates tagged keywords with volume, difficulty, and CPC metrics. Export functionality is handled by exportSavedKeywords in [src/serverFunctions/keywords.ts](https://github.com/every-app/open-seo/blob/main/src/serverFunctions/keywords.ts#L64-L71), generating CSV downloads for offline analysis.

Technical Site Audit Reports

Crawler-Based Technical Analysis

The site audit report (featurePages.siteAudit) provides page-level technical signals including HTTP status codes, title tags, meta descriptions, heading structures, indexability status, image alt attributes, internal/external links, and server response times. The underlying data is collected by workflows defined in src/server/workflows/siteAuditWorkflow* and stored in the audit repository.

Lighthouse Integration

For performance-centric insights, the getAuditLighthouseIssues function ([src/serverFunctions/lighthouse.ts](https://github.com/every-app/open-seo/blob/main/src/serverFunctions/lighthouse.ts#L46-L66)) retrieves Lighthouse audit data from Cloudflare R2 storage. This augments crawl data with Core Web Vitals, accessibility scores, and best-practice violations.

// Retrieve Lighthouse issues for a specific audit
const lighthouseReport = await fetch("/api/audit/lighthouse", {
  method: "POST",
  headers: { "Content-Type": "application/json" },
  body: JSON.stringify({
    projectId: "proj_123",
    resultId: "audit_456"
  })
}).then(r => r.json());

The backlink checker report (featurePages.backlinkChecker) analyzes referring domains, backlink counts, target URL distributions, domain ratings, and spam signals. It identifies broken, lost, and nofollow links through the backlinks endpoint in src/serverFunctions/backlinks.ts, which interfaces with DataForSEO's backlink database.

Domain Intelligence Reports

For competitive analysis, the domain overview report (featurePages.domainOverview) surfaces estimated organic traffic volumes, total organic keyword counts, top-ranking terms, and highest-traffic pages. The domainOverview server function in src/serverFunctions/domain.ts aggregates this data through POST requests to /api/domain/overview.

// Fetch competitor domain metrics
const domainStats = await fetch("/api/domain/overview", {
  method: "POST",
  headers: { "Content-Type": "application/json" },
  body: JSON.stringify({
    domain: "competitor.com",
    market: "US"
  })
}).then(r => r.json());

Rank Tracking Reports

The rank tracking report (featurePages.rankTracking) monitors desktop and mobile search positions over time, capturing SERP feature appearances (featured snippets, knowledge panels) and position velocity. Implemented in src/serverFunctions/rank-tracking.ts, this endpoint accepts POST requests to /api/rank-tracking with project context validation.

AI Search Visibility Reports

Brand Mention Detection

The AI brand visibility report (featurePages.aiBrandVisibility) tracks brand mentions within ChatGPT responses and Google AI Overviews, citing sources and platform distribution metrics. The aiBrandLookup function in src/serverFunctions/ai-search.ts exposes this via POST /api/ai/brand-lookup.

Prompt Comparison Analysis

For LLM optimization, the AI search prompt explorer (featurePages.aiSearchPrompts) compares answers across supported language models, highlighting citation URLs and brand presence. The aiPromptExplorer endpoint in the same file handles queries to /api/ai/prompt-explorer.

// Check AI search visibility for brand mentions
const aiVisibility = await fetch("/api/ai/brand-lookup", {
  method: "POST",
  headers: { "Content-Type": "application/json" },
  body: JSON.stringify({
    brand: "OpenSEO",
    market: "US"
  })
}).then(r => r.json());

Report Architecture and Data Flow

Each report type follows a consistent architectural pattern within the open-seo codebase:

  1. Feature Page Definitions: The featurePages constant in [web/src/lib/feature-pages.ts](https://github.com/every-app/open-seo/blob/main/web/src/lib/feature-pages.ts) serves as the central registry, defining metadata including slugs, descriptions, and FAQ content for UI rendering.

  2. Server Function Implementation: TanStack createServerFn endpoints in src/serverFunctions/ handle HTTP requests. Each function enforces authentication via requireProjectContext and validates inputs using Zod schemas before executing domain logic.

  3. Data Source Integration:

    • DataForSEO APIs power keyword, backlink, and domain data
    • Crawler Workflows (src/server/workflows/siteAuditWorkflow*) generate technical audit data
    • R2 Storage houses Lighthouse JSON reports for retrieval
    • OpenAI-Compatible Endpoints supply AI search visibility data
  4. Export Capabilities: Reports support programmatic export via CSV/JSON generation, enabling integration with external BI tools and automated reporting pipelines.

Summary

  • Open-SEO generates eight core SEO report types: keyword research, saved keywords, site audits, backlink profiles, domain overviews, rank tracking, AI brand visibility, and AI prompt exploration.
  • Feature pages are centrally registered in web/src/lib/feature-pages.ts, providing the UI configuration and metadata for each report.
  • Server functions use TanStack's createServerFn with Zod validation and project context enforcement to secure data access.
  • Data sources include DataForSEO for search metrics, custom crawlers for technical audits, Lighthouse for performance data, and AI endpoints for generative search visibility.
  • All reports support API access via POST endpoints and export functionality for CSV/JSON download.

Frequently Asked Questions

How does open-seo validate data before generating SEO reports?

The platform uses Zod schemas to validate all incoming request parameters in the server functions. Each endpoint calls requireProjectContext to ensure the authenticated user has access to the requested project data before querying external APIs or internal databases.

Can I export the SEO reports generated by open-seo to CSV or Excel?

Yes. Open-SEO includes dedicated export functions such as exportSavedKeywords and exportAuditLighthouseIssues that generate CSV files. These endpoints are accessible via POST requests and return downloadable file streams or JSON data that can be converted to spreadsheet formats.

What data sources power the technical site audit reports?

Site audit reports combine data from two sources: the custom crawler workflows (src/server/workflows/siteAuditWorkflow*) that capture on-page HTML elements like titles, meta descriptions, and status codes, and Google Lighthouse audits stored in Cloudflare R2, which provide performance metrics and accessibility scores.

Is AI search visibility reporting available for all open-seo users?

The AI brand visibility and AI search prompt explorer reports are implemented in src/serverFunctions/ai-search.ts and query OpenAI-compatible endpoints. Availability depends on your specific deployment configuration and whether AI service credentials are configured in your instance of the platform.

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