Use Data Or Be Used By Data!

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The April 8 issue of Seotistics is here for you!

Google Analytics 4 is a hot topic and mostly because it's a bad product.

But do you actually need to learn it all?

No, and I am here to show you why!

P.S. This is number #50, we have gotten this far together!

I am also publishing a cool article tomorrow on seotistics.com!

​Read this in your browser​

Why So Hated?

GA4 has a terrible UX and it's hard to find what you need, there isn't much room for discussion.

Universal Analytics wasn't a technical tool and GA4 isn't either.

The average marketer doesn't have to go through heaps and leaps just to see who visited your pages.

Speaking of which, I show you 2 ways to tackle this problem...

Option 1: Learning GA4

If you want to stay in the non-technical limbo forever, GA4 is a great choice!

You can study all you want and memorize the most common processes.

There is nothing wrong with this opinion, although it's a bit subpar and cranky.

But still, I wouldn't say it's too hard.

Option 2: Use GA4 As A Data Source (Recommended)

GA4 and GSC aren't only tools but also data sources.

In most cases you need their data, not the interface they provide you.

When working on large projects, it's wrong to work with UIs.

Google Cloud Platform offers many well-documented tools to play with SEO data.

GA4 even has a free connector to send data to BigQuery!!!

This is huge if you consider how easy it can be to use such tools today.

If no one stored the data, you have to start linking GA4 to BigQuery and then wait.

In the meantime, you can use the GA4 API to get the data you need (with some limitations).

Embracing The Dark Side

If you love being fast and doing proper work, you will always go with Option 2.

GA4 isn't supposed to be a tool for most of the use cases, you have to just get the data and DIY.

I know... this isn't the typical marketing advice.

It's the most correct though.

It's 2024 and the influence of IT is everywhere...

you can choose to be a player or be played by data and technology.

The only downside is that you need to understand the schema of GA4 data in BigQuery.

GA4 Isn't Enough

Your first data source as an SEO is GSC and only then, GA4.

GSC contains the most valuable information for us but lacks details about user engagement (and all the other channels).

GA4 alone is too broad for SEO work, so you need to combine the 2 datasets and take the best from both.

This is also why BigQuery makes it so easy.

Unfortunately not even GA4 and GSC can compensate the extra power of Google Tag Manager.

Events like:

• button clicks
• form submissions
• sign-ups

are all custom events you need to implement via GTM.

Which Metrics To Pick?

I could start a war on this topic because the majority of the content out there is basic.

Many dashboards often report on standard metrics, such as:

• Users
• Pageviews
• Sessions
• Bounce Rate
• Engagement Rate

The outcome is that you get a dashboard conveying a lot of information but 0 action.

At a strategic level (i.e. you talk to the board), this is OK. They just want information and you need to show off.

But if you have to create a dashboard to be useful, then you can't afford to show me Users and Sessions and call it a day.

There are other valuable options like:

• Leads/Conversions
• Custom events
• Custom metrics

Every business is different so you'd better create custom metrics.

Avoid relying on the baseline metrics that don't make much sense for you.

What Everyone Gets Wrong About GA4 Metrics

After years in Marketing, it's normal to notice some recurring mistakes:

• Taking Bounce Rate seriously
• Using engagement metrics without a benchmark
• Users/Sessions/Pageviews everywhere
• Not cleaning/filtering data (again)
• ​Comparing different scopes​

Avoid these mistakes and you will be a "power user".

Bounce Rate and many other metrics don't make any sense in isolation.

SEO is NOT CRO. The 2 often interact but we are not CRO specialists.

Google does track user engagement in its own way but not with the metrics we see in GA4.

Unless you can provide a baseline, those numbers have no meaning.

Using critical thinking is what differentiates quality from quantity.

In some cases, high bounce rates can be a very positive signal. People can convert in weeks or even months...

don't take every number at face value!

N.B. Some of these limitations or mistakes will be explained in the next issue!

Beyond The Mainstream

Many current practices are suboptimal and we all know deep down.

Dashboards in most cases shouldn't even exist as no one is actually going to use them.

The only certainty is that you need to store and monitor your data.

GA4 isn't that hard to learn but it's not going to make a difference if you want to add value.

You must know SEO or any other channel to understand the data you play with.

Too much advice out there is either too technical or too fluffy.

That's why I am creating a course to teach you all you need to use SEO data.

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

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The Struggle For Logic

One of the problems I always complain about is how Web Analytics is treated.

The majority of the industry is too focused on tools and not on the data itself.

Read it again.

On tools, not on the data.

This is problematic because many learn how to use Google tools but not how to interpret data or extract meaning from it.

That's why Seotistics exists.

GA4 happens to be the most striking example...

How many articles have you seen detailing data interpretation in depth?

Integrating More Data Sources

A good analysis doesn't require all the data but more is certainly better in some scenarios.

Spending time to practice with other data is important, for example:

• Google Ads
• Social media
• YouTube
• Crawl data
• CMS
• CRM
• Log files

If you can play with SEO data, then you will have no problem catching up.

In most scenarios, GSC and GA4 will often do the trick along with some crawl data.

In SEO we don't often focus on user behavior in terms of data and this can be a great starting point to do the opposite.

(No folks, checking heatmaps and saying write great content is not analyzing user behavior).

The ideal outcome is having a table with all the page information you need, for example:

More information about a page allow for clearer classifications.

Financial metrics, engagement and traffic data give you the best overview of what to prune.

👥 Join Our Community

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

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

Join our Discord Community!

🔎 Analytics For SEO Ebook (v7)

If you want to learn about Analytics for SEO and get the best resource out there, this is for you.

It will teach you or your employees to:

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👉 Move the needle faster with efficient SEO systems ⏳

This comes with periodical updates to keep the content fresh.

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📚 Recommended Reads - Peak Content 🗻

Google has great documentation on the tools I mentioned (at least):

• ​Google Analytics 4 Documentation​
• ​BigQuery Documentation​

You also want to check these resources:

• ​GA4 API in Python​
• ​SEO Automation with Google Cloud​
• ​GA4 SQL GPT​
• ​The Definitive SEO Analytics Stack [+ Workflows]​

And tomorrow I will publish a cool article about BigQuery and also GA4... so stay tuned!

📞 One-Hour Call

If you have doubts about SEO or Analytics, you can book a call with me.

Look no further, I can help you:

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Book A Call Now!

❗️ Feedback and Recommendations

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

Marco Giordano
​SEO Specialist & Data Analyst

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Bernerstrasse Süd 169, Zurich, Switzerland
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