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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The (Lost) Foundations Of Analytics
Published 7 months agoΒ β’Β 6 min read
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Use Data Or Be Used By Data!
The July 28 issue of Seotistics is here for you!
In a world where people obsess over the Google Stack and AI, I am here to show the truth.
Traditional skills are the foundations for everything.
Learn these and you will have the edge over many others who like shiny tools.
I may cover more details in my next issue too, I am super tired by all the content I am producing lol
P.S. The Seotistics Summer Sales end tomorrow at 23.59 (CET). Hurry up because there won't be sales for a while π
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.
I am updating my Discord community to make it a reference for my readers.
Since social media have lower reach and emails can bounce, communities are the only way to ensure you get my message.
We do have a baby forum too now and I will try to organize my thoughts there.
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Terminal
Yes, using that thing on your computer that hackers in movies show all the time.
Your terminal is perfect for learning how to interact with your computers and handle basic operations.
If you have basic knowledge of it, you can do a LOT of operations without ever using programming languages like Python.
Even if you are learning Python, you need some Terminal knowledge to play with CLI apps and install libraries.
This is the #1 skill you can work on and it's quite simple to learn the basics.
macOS/Linux users have it easy compared to Windows users.
And even better, you can use Claude Code and Gemini CLI in your terminal.
Look at the style, how can you even hate it?
This is the biggest pro right now and a great incentive to get started.
Plus, it makes you look cooler in front of non-technical people!
If you want an example of what you can build in terms of CLI apps, go check my SERP Clustering repository.
Coding
You know, I always talk about coding and why it makes a big difference.
I am not a big fan of treating code as the panacea to all of your problems.
This doesn't mean it shouldn't be learned.
Actually, the opposite.
Python/SQL and Javascript give you complete freedom over many tools and unlock endless possibilities.
They also separate you from the average analyst who only knows GA4 and GTM by the way. Coding is only a means though, so you still need to know how to do analysis.
Instead of asking an engineer, I can build a small app on my own and extract the data I want.
This is a very easy way to differentiate yourself from others (but not enough if you only know coding).
LLMs made it remarkably easier to produce code for Analytics.
I am not an expert Javascript user at all but now I can create something useful thanks to Claude.
Talk about progress.
Git is also a must, at least the basics. Understanding how to commit code into a repository is crucial.
SQL is the first language to master if you are serious about Analytics and data as a whole.
It's immortal and used for databases, do you need more reasons?
99% of my job involves SQL and you can't sleep on it.
Some BigQuery functions to learn... different warehouses may use slightly different SQL syntax though.
Python was popularized in Marketing and SEO but it doesn't even come close in terms of usefulness.
Quick scripts are nice to have but compare it to literally pulling data from any database.
SQL is the English of data, if you may.
Databases
If we mention SQL, it's impossible not to mention databases.
Having an idea of why BigQuery is structured that way massively helps when writing queries and also for optimization.
You don't want to be good with spreadsheets and then have 0 clues when talking to engineers.
BigQuery isn't exactly the best place to start actually but what 99% of you reading this newsletter need, so go for it.
Beyond Code
On a surface level, coding is associated to creating cool scripts and apps to automate boring things.
It's deeper than that, Computer Science is about framing and decomposing problems so that even a stupid machine could get them.
This is uncannily familiar to Analytics!
The ability to think about problems is extremely underrated and only a minority of people can do it.
Yes, you see most people rushing things out and immediately jumping to a solution.
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This is what happens when agencies propose you to do X or Y before auditing your exact situation.
When I say that most problems don't need data, this is exactly what I mean.
With proper framing you can easily get away with no data.
This is what I teach in my course "Think Like a Web Analyst", 30% off until tomorrow with code "SUMMER25".
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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