Use Data Or Be Used By Data!

The June 1 issue of Seotistics is here for you!

The Web Analytics industry is changing more and more... this will also be the topic of my talk this Saturday for MeasureCamp Copenhagen.

Gone are the times of just plugging GA4 and GTM and calling it a day.

In my previous issue I described how most Analytics ROI is invisible...

and well that's also because many didn't experience a good tech stack.

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📣📣 Important Announcements 📣📣

You can now preorder my new course at 30% off until June 15, the official launch date.

This will be for Analysts or everyone wanting to explore Web Data in general, not only SEO.

The course is split in 4 amazing modules:

✅ GA4, GSC and other data sources: how to use them
✅ LLM Workflows, BigQuery, SQL & Python
✅ Dataform & Pipelines
✅ Real Use Cases at work

I will speak at Web Analytics Wednesday (June 3) and MeasureCamp Copenhagen (June 6).

I will talk about Data Modeling at WAW and for MeasureCamp... let's see!

Yes, updates on the new course this week and much much more.

If you are in Denmark, let's meet!

Why All Of This

One of things that pisses me off the most is doing useless work or wasting time in activities that don't matter.

It's obvious that many hate their jobs when they have to do the same stuff over and over.

Apart from that, now marketers and not just analysts can also enter Analytics quite easily.

We can say that everyone can be an analyst or already is.

And... this is why you shouldn't be comfortable with bad stacks or processes and change them!

Even better, specialize in something as I always recommend because doing everything is they key to a quick burnout.

So if you are an analyst, find your niche, it can be a business model (e.g. Ecommerce) or a skill (data engineering).

The important is that what you learn and practice is aimed at solving specific problems.

Data Warehousing (& Cloud)

So, the best way to actually use your data is to first store it somewhere... which means, having a process to store it!

This is my most common point, I mention BigQuery every single day and the road is still ahead in terms of adoption.

But not only that, also understanding how they work for optimizing queries.

This also extends to understanding cloud systems, for example Google Cloud.

Google Cloud can also be used to implement your server-side implementation.

That's now my area of expertise but some do it!

In most cases, you can simply get BigQuery, Dataform and Data Studio... which are more than enough!

Most importantly, BigQuery recently added a feature that was also present among competitors.

That is the ability to create agents to analyze your data.

Oh and you can specify a LOT of things inside an agent so that it gets it better.

This will also be another area I will cover soon 👀

n8n + scripts

I've recently talked about it and despite being still overrated, it's extremely good in the right hands!

Just don't use it to automate the wrong things... like an actual content audit.

I still need to finish it and improve the output but yes, there is a lot of wiggle room here!

Well, you can actually automate parts of it but you still need manual reviews.

It's common to see companies bragging about "automating content" but the output is terrible, really.

What you should do in general though, is the following:

automating boring processes like extracting data from APIs
very simple yet annoying data cleaning
specific analyses (e.g. SERP Clustering)

Efficiency is underappreciated as I said in my last issue but the key to make your work less daunting.

After all, if you want to burn out, the secret is to do everything manually so you can also get it wrong!

Terminal + LLMs

The command line is cool again guys! But I've been telling you since at least a full year...

because the good ol' terminal is faster than clicking around.

I've shown some examples of how I use it, especially now that LLMs exist.

You can also add nice details like me every time you launch your terminal :3

My favorite terminal for macOS is cmux, which is imho one of the best ones.

Right now I use it for most of my activities because it's faster and well, I can move faster.

Claude Code + Codex is a great combo, the only limit is your time.

This is how I was also able to dabble with a VPS to test automation, use n8n on it and well... extract BigQuery data too!

I also showcased some extensions that are perfect:

Supefile was actually promoted in my Discord group by one of our dear members.

It's a file interface inside your terminal and it ROCKS.

It's super useful and in my case, better than the Finder in macOS.

quien is very nice for WHOIS analysis and in general, assessing domains. Just avoid it for checking the CMS a website is using... the output is inaccurate!

There is also cariddi, which some of you may like for assessing vulnerabilities in websites 👀

If I have more time (I hope so), I will also create my own extensions because they are SOOOO useful.

I may share more about this 👀 This is still underrated for analysts but trust me, the difference is real.

DBT & Dataform

Ever noticed that you spend hours cleaning your web data instead of adding value?

Well, you know the answer already, it's because you didn't properly model the data!

DBT is available in 2 tiers: core and cloud. You pay for the cloud version but you can use the core for free and set it up yourself.

Dataform is always free (the tool, not the queries you run inside lol) and available ONLY for Google Cloud data.

Which means that for easier and simpler projects, Dataform gives you maximum speed...

but it's not the right pick for most projects where you have non-web data sources.

So far I've been playing a lot with Dataform and that's also the topic of my upcoming course!

Antigravity

Or any equivalent... but seriously, check it out!

After the last update it got more confusing so, you have the old one (IDE) and then a new dedicated app for chatting with LLMs.

Both can make sense but I find myself using the IDE more. Inside it, you can run terminal instances, Claude Code and even BigQuery/Dataform connections!

What to say, Google has its strongest suit in the ecosystem and this is the right pick for Web Analytics.

Pretty much all what I mentioned before you can do via an IDE like Antigravity (well, the one with the dark icon).

For example, extracting BQ data from Antigravity without writing a single query: