The Seotistics newsletter is written by Marco Giordano, a Data/Web Analyst with the goal of combining business and web data. Tired of the usual boring Analytics content without any business impact? Seotistics teaches you how to use Analytics, web data and even content in your workflow while helping you with Strategy.
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5 Lessons I Learned As An Analyst
Published 2 months agoΒ β’Β 6 min read
β
Use Data Or Be Used By Data!
The June 23 issue of Seotistics is here for you!
Let's talk about career today.
Seotistics is big on upskilling and understanding how professionals can improve and I want to tell you my key lessons.
After 7 years as an SEO and around 4-5 years as a Data Analyst, this is my time to shine.
I wanted to make this issue different so you can also go beyond data.
Please move this email to your Primary inbox or reply to it. This is to prevent Seotistics goes into spam by accident. Gmail users can read this tutorial to do it.
"Analytics for SEO" ebook v9 (I swear, this one soon, even this week π)
More additions to "Analytics for SEO" course
More content for "Think Like a Web Analyst"
Even more articles
I am working a lot on my website too, so expect some cool changes soon!
It's my birthday this week so I will be even more busy π
1. Technical Skills Get You The Job Until...
Technical skills will definitely get you hired, especially as a junior.
If you are just starting out, it's important to know how things work...
But this knowledge is the bare minimum and will never position you as different.
Seotistics is a great example of differentiation according to my loyal readers and people because it covers a different angle.
You need to strike the right balance:
understand how things work
doing it in practice
communicating what you do in an understandable way
I started with:
R
SQL
Python
The Google Stack (GSC, UA and very basic GTM)
This is what opened many, many doors for me.
The ability to code especially before LLMs was huge, also thanks to the Data Science hype.
Now I can easily work with LLMs and be even more productive.
But again, these skills don't make you different or stand out.
Everyone can learn them....
this is why the following ones are more important:
Domain Knowledge
Business Acumen
Being charismatic
Communication
When I was in college I thought soft skills were fluff as I lacked real-work experience and depth.
It's also true that influencers often trivialize them and confuse them with "being nice".
Domain Knowledge is your compass in a sea of generic and recycled advice.
Speaking of which, I often talk about the basic concept of understanding business.
Yes, because there is a huge disconnect between the work analysts (or marketers) do and what businesses care about:
This is the real problem of data today, not GDPR or wrong implementations. If companies don't profit from data, they stop investing.
While this seems obvious, trust me, it's not.
I've worked with countless agencies and people, I can clearly tell that only a tiny fraction truly understanding marketing and business.
I teach technical skills and go beyond.
β
How to use the data, structure a project and present your findings are even more important... β yet not many show it properly.
2. Mainstream Resources Get You Average Results
When I started in SEO, I was reading the most famous content from the usual websites most of you are familiar with.
Being familiar with the industry jargon is step 1.
But I was soon disappointed after 2 years as I noticed that most content was repetitive and didn't allow me to improve as a professional.
The same is true for Web Analytics, apart from technical skills and Google tools, there isn't much.
Bridge the gap and see your life turn upside down as you can finally speak 1:1 to your stakeholders and not as a technical folk.
And even truer for Analytics in general, most content back then was Python slop and Udemy/DataCamp certifications that don't actually matter.
Ever wondered why some professionals go up and others don't progress?
Yes it's also networking but mindset and diversification matter too!
I entirely stopped reading cheap news content and big names from Marketing... as the content was recycled and trivial.
For Web (or Digital) Analytics, it's the same.
There is too much content about tools or recaps of Google documentation.
This is exactly why Seotistics exist.
My best advice is to look at more industries and learn...
this is what I do for you.
Most of the concepts on the left aren't even native to Data Analytics but for the sake of simplicity, I list them there.
I am still amazed that Web Analytics hasn't caught up to the Analytics done in other fields, but I am doing it for you π
3. You Can Learn Anything But...
You often hear stuff like "technical people aren't creative" or "creative people can't be technical".
This is absolutely false.
When I talk to my students, I notice that some of them have negative thoughts about their backgrounds.
"I can't do data, my background is in humanities"
This is a misconception for both Analytics and learning as a whole.
Some of the most brilliant people I've ever met have "unusual" backgrounds.
My mentor has a degree in Psychology and he is now working as a Data Scientist specialized in LLMs.
I got a Bachelor's in Business Administration and then pivoted into a Master's in Computer and Data Science.
I had to read this book and it was brutal. Have to say it was great mental exercise that shaped my entire life, though.
It was a hard change and I needed some time to adjust but still feasible in the end.
Best choice of my life.
Many people close to me said this was a bad idea in most cases but I ignored them.
The only caveat and what many get wrong involves the reason of upskilling.
If you are employed you most likely have limited time and can't afford wasting time and money on extra study.
Don't bother learning shiny topics like AI if you are only doing it for the hype. β Don't overexpand. I never touched Digital PR or studied Tag Manager with extreme detail. β Always delegated both and proud of it.
Anyone can learn what I preach but you need a good mentor and a LOT of motivation.
Like anything in life we can say...
4. Practice + Theory
It's super easy to dismiss formal education, especially on LinkedIn.
Truth is, a solid college background DOES make a difference in how fast you learn.
That alone isn't enough without enough practice and real-world understanding.
Thinking that Analytics is writing some Python and SQL is a flawed idea of what your work will entail.
In reality an analyst is closer to business than IT. If it's the other way around, you got the wrong label on you.
Practice is what makes you piece everything together, like a beautiful mosaic.
Having only practice will not make you aware of the context, though.
Having read some books give you broader context and lets you understand the history of your industry.
If you want to be a true innovator, you must first understand how we even got to the present situation.
To give a solid marketing and business background, I created the "Think Like a Web Analyst" course:
The Seotistics newsletter is written by Marco Giordano, a Data/Web Analyst with the goal of combining business and web data. Tired of the usual boring Analytics content without any business impact? Seotistics teaches you how to use Analytics, web data and even content in your workflow while helping you with Strategy.
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