Use Data Or Be Used By Data!

The January 20 issue of Seotistics is here for you!

Whether you are an agency or a freelancer or an in-house, you will need to manage projects to some extent.

The most common mistake I see with projects is that they are useless...

and users don't have guidance.

I will show you a simple framework to solve this issue and I will expand it in my next issues.

Yes, this will be eventually expanded into an article too!

P.S. My Analytics for SEO course was updated, go check it out 👀

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Also, thanks to your feedback related to the previous polls, I am working on new courses for Web Analytics.

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P.S. My friend Solomon Kahn has a great newsletter on Data Leadership that I recommend!

The Idea

The plan is asking the right questions first and find what is the most suitable solution to tackle a given problem.

Strive for simplicity and go after concrete solutions that get the job done.

This Saturday I helped a friend of mine with a retail project he was working on.

Before even looking at data or getting down the technical rabbit hole, I proposed to sketch what we want to achieve.

Yes, a metric tree to understand what the goals are.

We decomposed the outcomes into levers to see where we could act.

It turns out this exercise made a big difference in understanding how to structure the entire project.

This is why the approach of Seotistics starts by asking why and working on questions.

Readers with a sales background will understand why.

If you sacrifice this step just to show something cool, chances are the project will fail.

It's always better to ask the important questions before so you can't be held accountable in case the other party misbehaves 👀

The Most Common Mistakes I See

The issue with the Web Analytics industry lies in the discrepancy between technical stuff and domain knowledge.

You see technical people being responsible for deciding the marketing metrics (💀💀).

This is the perfect recipe for disaster!

And even worse, when what you produce is not tied to a process.

You are asking for people to sleep on what you did... they will simply go back to what they did before.

I also made these mistakes in the past, it's absolutely normal!

Understanding The Context

Would you propose AI and ML to a company without a data warehouse?

You'd be surprised but most people do it anyway!

Before reaching for the sun, focus on what's feasible and suitable for the organization.

This is why we ideally divide Analytics into multiple parts and I show you 4 of them:

In most cases, you are fine with Descriptive work (aka dashboards, aggregates) and a little bit of common sense.

In fact, if you are knowledgeable enough about your industry, you won't even need to obsess over predictions.

The point persists, you should never miss the forest for the tree, like hyper fixating on details or edge cases:

If you have followed my previous steps correctly, you shouldn't arrive at this point without a clue.

All the uncomfortable questions should have been asked at the beginning (and during development).

Countless times I've seen projects being canceled because there was no real problem.

After a quick chat, you'll realize how most use cases require basic solutions...

and you'll rarely touch complex methods.

If the opposite happens to you, I have very bad news!

Not So Fast... What About The Data?

Knowing how to manage a project is crucial but you know what's even more important for my readers?

Understanding Web Data!

Yes, because most people you'll talk to have no clue about GSC, GA4 and all the other tools out there.

Or they know but they lack enough marketing expertise to consider different interpretations:

So you must be that person with the actual expertise.

I've already covered GSC +GA4 in BigQuery with extreme detail:

If you know the data and what it means, you are already ahead.

A real project won't simply use the schema Google gives you but something custom...

and this will be a topic for the future issues!

If you want to get full guidance, the code, 1:1 explanations and future updates, I can help you:

[Analytics For SEO Course - v4 / New Update]

If you want to be guided and start from scratch, this is the course for you!

Everyone working with websites should know this.

You will:

✅ Use GSC and GA4 Data to their fullest potential

✅ Learn Python/SQL for your needs

✅ Get a complete blueprint for auditing websites

✅ Learn how to 10x your productivity

✅ Learn BigQuery to work on large websites

The new update is rolling out and this is what more you can expect:

👉 More on GA4 data (and more to come soon)
👉 Even more SQL and BigQuery
👉 Cohort and Funnel Analysis with GA4 (coming soon)
👉 Traffic source dimensions (partially released)

I teach you what's needed to go from 0 to a professional Data Analyst.

Even if you leave SEO, the foundations are the same for other jobs!

Learn Analytics for SEO Now!

Deployment

Mind you, not simply releasing a dashboard or the technical process, this is not the responsibility of an Analyst or a Marketer.

You are not supposed to replace engineers, otherwise you'd need to change jobs.

This is more about the process of making your product(s) available to the end users.

For example, how to handle access groups and being sure row-level masking is implemented?

I know, a lot of strange words here, let's say it's about ensuring the right people get the right data.

If you use Looker Studio this is a simple and smooth process, nothing to say.

I recommend having a dashboard that includes your important leading indicators and your lagging indicator(s).

But how do you make sure people get your message and use them?

Simple, you need to do content!

You have a plethora of options, for example:

blasting a bulk email (works if pulled off properly)
contacting pilots aka beta testers

Needless to say, I believe having advocates is mandatory at any step.

There is no way you can do change management without people involved.

And nope, sending some emails is not enough alone.

You need to use the same omnichannel approach I preach for content.

Processes

Understanding how all of this maps to one or more processes is key.

Feel free to skip this part at your own risk.

Remember that people hate extra work and thinking in their free time.

Some may even resist change because your solution is perceived as an attack on their tasks.

This happened to me very recently because I proposed to automate a process where some politics was involved.

This is exactly why you should understand your stakeholders and consider processes as soon as possible...

but also who is affected by them.

Analysis

Everyone mentions automation but always forgets analysis...

which is spending some time familiarizing with the data and the consequent results.

First, you generate hypotheses and avoid wandering through the data:

Then, you must tie them to action or people will not act on them, trust me.

Pretty much what I already told you when describing processes but with more steps.

You can check my previous issue to complete this topic.

Remember, analysis is the opposite of automation BUT it's a big part of your role.

Some projects may not require deep analysis and I talk too much every week about it, so I will keep it short!

Documentation

If you don't document what you do, maintenance will be impossible!

This is where you can also be more creative as I don't have a cookie-cutter approach, it's up to you.

My approach is to distinguish between:

technical
business

The 1st type is for whoever will maintain the project and fix errors.

The 2nd one is for the end users to understand how to use what you offer.

It should include:

Meaning of metrics
Processes
Use cases
which problems your project solves

If you simply deploy an average dashboard without more instructions, you are not excelling in your craft.

This is the bare minimum, and it won't last long.

That's also why I dislike talking about saturated topics, those will NOT give you a return in isolation.

And The Cycle Repeats Itself...

You will have to maintain your product and be sure they work over time but the effort is worth it.

See? This approach is much more methodical and clear than the social media slop that pushes you learning some "scripts".

You want to make sure business value is there and a concrete impact is created.

Please, remember the DIKW Framework:

You start from data and ideally move up the pyramid until you get to the action part.

To recap:

ask great questions at the start
once you build something, tie it to a process and inform people
document your work

Let me know how it goes with your projects from now on!

👥 Join Our Community

Our Discord community offers a small place where we can talk business and web data.

If you hate all the noise of social media, then this place is for you.

Join our Discord Community!

🔎 Analytics For SEO Ebook (v8)

If you want to learn about Analytics for SEO and prefer self-study, this is for you!

It will teach you or your employees to:

👉 Prepare audits that make sense and are actionable 🔥

👉 Avoid common pitfalls that cost you money 💸

👉 Create analyses that add value and money💯

👉 Move the needle faster with efficient SEO systems ⏳

This comes with periodical updates to keep the content fresh.

Unlock Powerful Insights Now!

📚 Recommended Reads - Peak Content 🗻

The usual peak content:

My LinkedIn Content:

❗️ Feedback and Recommendations

If you have ideas/recommendations for the next issues of Seotistics, you can simply reply to this email.

Marco Giordano
Data/Web Analyst

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Bernerstrasse Süd 169, Zurich, Switzerland
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✅ Making A Web Data Project Successful In 2025