Use Data Or Be Used By Data!

The January 26 issue of Seotistics is here for you!

What if I told you that not using data can be better than data?

Yes, because the goal is optimizing decisions, not using data!

You probably heard someone sound smart with "data-driven" and other words...

in reality it's harder than that.

​Read this in your browser​

📣📣 Important Announcements 📣📣

Thanks for voting in the last few weeks! I will prepare this new course about Analytics.

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

The topics I am planning to cover are:

• Coding in general (Python, SQL, R - all aided by LLMs)
• LLMs and how to use them properly
• Auditing websites and deeper business considerations (so not only SEO)
• The topics covered in this newsletter

If you forgot to vote and want to be included in future communications, please contact me.

You will be the first to be informed and get a special discount :3

WIP, you will get a release date and preorders soon 👀

Quick Decisions & Speed

The essence of Analytics is to be fast. Yes, it's not to make the best decisions possible.

In fact, it's kinda impossible making the perfect choice... and I wouldn't advise anyone to do so.

Data doesn't make any money, it's decisions.

This means you need to execute and prefer doing rather than overthinking like many currently do.

As I was taught back in college, the important is to understand when to decide.

For life-or-death situations, it's better to trust your gut and just do it.

And this is the cool thing, you don't need data at all for simple choices!

You've seen it all, people trying to brainwash you into thinking more data is needed and your gut is terrible.

Well, you shouldn't base your decisions on gut alone but it's not that bad.

My Personal Examples

For Seotistics, there isn't much data available and even keyword research is pointless.

Most of my topics are either thought-leadership or don't appear in tools... does this mean I stop writing?

Of course not!

This is a BIG opportunity to double down on what I do as the others overthink it.

For content changes on websites, I am AGAINST the obsession with data.

That is, unless you have to delete or merge pages, then you need hard data.

But for creative purposes or experimentation, you don't need data at all.

My advice is actually the opposite: test it first and gather data!

Others would tell you the opposite: gather data and only then decide or execute.

If you have some experience in life, you know this approach can't work.

Useless Data

You should always ask yourself what and what doesn't lead to meaningful decisions.

Some examples:

• A high Bounce Rate doesn't mean your page is bad. Also, how would you improve it?
• A high % of new users doesn't mean your website is attracting new people. Read the definition 👀
• Active users or engaged sessions are mostly non actionable.
• Botted traffic exists and heavily inflates your GSC and GA4 data

Was this data ever useful and aid in any meaningful decision? Not really.

These are vanity metrics asked by your stakeholders because they read some blog posts years ago.

All of them don't guide toward any decision.

And the same could be said for any other metric you know of:

• Reach/Impressions -> do they actually mean your brand is growing?
• Lower CPC -> cool you spend less... but don't you get worse leads too?
• More leads -> OK but are they qualified? Out of them, how many convert into opportunities?

The so-called useful data in most cases it's just metrics that others track and you do so too.

Did someone ever stop a moment to question the validity of such methods? Not really.

The Polar Opposite Is Bad

This doesn't mean you should ignore data and do your own way ALWAYS.

I've seen managers or clients denying the validity of the data, which could be true... but it's often not the case.

"But it can't be that traffic is increasing with LLM traffic"

This is a classic one, it's not implicit that your traffic will dip automatically.

Reality is more complex than numbers though and it's not implied that you are always correct.

Not using data at all because they don't support your world view is terrible and the situation of many companies.

This can happen because there is NO problem framing or problems are made up to build hype.

In Web, this is super common due to the inaccuracy of the data.

In my previous days, I've heard SEOs complaining about Google data... the problem is that we can't control it.

You can improve your tracking as much as you want, it doesn't change the gist.

GSC isn't affected by us, creating multiple subproperties doesn't fix the underlying issue of Google hiding data.

This means you can be somewhat correct and still profit out of it.

What's the difference if a page gets 2400 or 2700 users? Yeah the difference is NOT small but does it alter your decision process?

What would you do differently?

Decision/Execution First

Whoever said that saying NO more times makes you rich is 100% right.

Most meetings are useless and drain your energy, you often need to just do it.

I consider myself pragmatic and execution first because I couldn't care less about "strategic discussions".

Actual strategy feels tangible and makes sense, it's not a series of meetings in your calendar lol

The Road Less Taken

Analytics is the discipline of being hated by others because you highlight what they don't want to see.

You'll be the less liked person in the room but you will be respected for sure 👀

The thing is, pandering to your stakeholders is easy.

We assume we need to explain them everything and oversimplify what we do.

That's true... to a certain extent.

But if you have some domain knowledge, there is no need to be an analyst (only).

I am still a marketer at heart and not just another guy crunching data in the basement.

This is why I encourage you to become more aware of such dynamics:

Become a Top Data Analyst Now!

The best outcomes come from you knowing your craft and standing out.

What I promote and teach is the perfect mix of technical skills and domain knowledge.

Once you are competent and market-attractive enough, you can get away with much more stuff!

This is why analysts should risk more and avoid becoming subservient.

This issue was inspired by a book I often mention... about sword fighting! Yes, not using a sword is also part of being skilled with swords.

The same applies with any topic, really.

👥 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.

I will start posting more there as we have a forum channel now.

This is the best way to stay updated in real time on Seotistics:

Join our Discord Community!

🔎 Analytics For SEO Ebook - Course / Ebook

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

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!

Also in ebook:

Unlock Powerful Insights Now!

📚 Recommended Reads - Peak Content 🗻

Read these peaks:

• ​The Life-Giving Sword: Secret Teachings from the House of the Shogun or any other edition you can find. This book inspired this issue!
• ​A Business-Oriented Framework For Web Analytics​
• ​​Making Data Actionable: A Decisions-First Approach by Steen Rasmussen
• ​The Outside-the-Box SEO Tactics That Actually Drive Business by Ian Sorin (here I mention the no data way)
• ​Strategy + Web Analytics: How To Tie Data To Results​​
• ​GA4 BigQuery Data Modeling: From Nested to Usable Tables​
• ​The LLM Analytics Playbook: Stack, Methods & Processes​
• ​Analytical Skills for AI and Data Science : Building Skills for an AI-Driven enterprise​
• ​Data Literacy In Practice​
• ​Becoming a Data Head​
• ​Storytelling with Data​

As usual, my most recent LinkedIn content is here.

❗️ 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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