Beat the Competition: Start Integrating SEO with Data Science

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sources. Google Analytics and other commonly used analytics tools like SEMRush, Ahrefs, Google Search Console, and technical audit tools can be considered as good data sources. However, with the rising complexity of SEO and its integration to areas of Digital Marketing like Content Marketing, Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO), Customer Experience (CX) management and Sales, it would not be wise to rely on these solutions alone. Gaining better insights will depend on your current setup and post-adoption goals. The areas where your visibility is limited should be considered and based on that data sources should be chosen.Excel at using Microsoft Excel. Getting a firm grip on this skill will help you massage the data and give you the insights your business needs to flourish. It's one of the simplest of skills to pick up and one of the fastest and easiest ways to transform large amounts of data.Track the relationships between the dependent and independent variables. This will help you influence your marketing strategies. For example, let's say we want to explore the relationship between a website managed proactively and its organic visibility on Google rankings by looking at its SEO score. Then, our dependent variable will be the SEO score and independent variables would be Google Analytics data, amount of freshness in content, and social media activity. Tracking the relationships between these variables can lead to making better decisions on SEO strategies.Knowing your metrics is a must. Understanding website metrics like Organic Traffic, Bounce Rate, Organic CTR, etc can impact your business significantly and set you on the path to success.Formulate a hypothesis and test it. A hypothesis is nothing but a question or an idea that you can test through study and experimentation. Hypothesis testing is generally a 4 step process that involves:<ul><li>Formulating a Hypothesis</li><li>Collect data to be used for the hypothesis</li><li>Analyze the data to gather insights</li><li>Draw some conclusions based on the analysis</li></ul>Focus on storytelling and not just numbers. Track metrics that are directly tied to business KPIs — such as those reflecting higher customer engagement, conversions, returning customers, etc. It is important to look beyond the numbers of the SEO campaign and mull over what drives those resu

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lts. I cannot stress enough on the <a href="https://bit.ly/3isle69">importance of Data Storytelling</a>, as it will explain certain customer behaviors and their correlation with your marketing campaign.Make use of Data Visualizations to get a unique perspective on your data. Numbers stashed in an Excel spreadsheet can be hard to digest and you can overlook an important story hidden in your data. A good Data Visualization will help you compare and contrast, uncover patterns, digest large amounts of data and reveal questions that would otherwise be missed thus making your SEO data even more actionable. Tableau is one such free software that allows anyone to connect to a spreadsheet or file and helps create interactive and insightful data visualizations, so you know where to spend your time and energy.<figure id="052e"><img src="https://cdn-images-1.readmedium.com/v2/resize:fit:800/1*VPG4Bh0LTb-SrSBHV7biBg.png"><figcaption>Source: <a href="https://www.startribune.com/business-forum-what-your-company-needs-to-do-to-get-analytics-right/490037931/">StarTribune</a></figcaption></figure>The more you know, the more you grow — so learn as much as you can about the traffic on your website. SEO Data Science is your tool to know your customers, their behavior patterns, and how they found you in the first place. It is all about having good questions, getting your hands dirty on the best data, and then structuring your analysis to get answers. Instead of assuming what data would be useful for the SEO of your website, let Data Science give you the insights to curate your marketing strategy.SEO is a marathon and not a sprint. It requires regular maintenance and data-driven decision-making that will have long-term results. Therefore, to transform your business, start integrating your SEO data with Data Science.So, have I been able to pique your interest in using Data Science for SEO? Leave your comments below!Archit is a Data Scientist and has started writing blogs recently to share his love for Data Science, Mentoring, and Stock Market Investing. Feel free to connect with him on <a href="https://www.instagram.com/ablogbyarchit">Instagram</a>, <a href="https://www.twitter.com/ablogbyarchit">Twitter</a>, or join his group for new bloggers on <a href="https://bit.ly/fbblggrp">Facebook</a>. Let’s Connect !!!</article></body>

Go beyond Google Analytics and traditional SEO to outrank your competition.

Google only loves you when everyone else loves you first — Wendy Piersall

Search Engine Optimization(SEO) has become so fiercely competitive and commonplace that relying on conventional techniques that everyone has mastered is no longer an option. Simply put, SEO is nothing but a quest for getting a website to appear in one of the top search results on search engines like Google. Now, in this fast-paced digital world, making effective use of data is a no brainer. Accepting everything that Google tells us without validating it, would be irrational. As Google’s algorithm is largely a black box, there are no definitive answers in SEO. Thus, most people never question why something is the way it is and get misled and therefore this mindset needs to change. This is where you need to use Data Science techniques to give you an edge and unlock hidden opportunities. Using Data Science will help you decipher the performance and traffic of your website, and you will be able to achieve a competitive edge over other businesses.

But, first, let us address the elephant in the room — What is Data Science? In layman terms, any insights gathered from data or trends identified in data that can be turned into a meaningful solution is called Data Science. For example, if you study the data of a blog, you may find a pattern that whenever a post is published at 8 am it gets 30% more traffic compared to when published at 6 am. Now, this insight gathered from data can be termed as Data Science.

So, put on your SEO Data Scientist hat and let us look at a 7 point framework that will help you transform your business.

Figure out your data source - Insights gathered from your data will only ever be as good as your data sources. Google Analytics and other commonly used analytics tools like SEMRush, Ahrefs, Google Search Console, and technical audit tools can be considered as good data sources. However, with the rising complexity of SEO and its integration to areas of Digital Marketing like Content Marketing, Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO), Customer Experience (CX) management and Sales, it would not be wise to rely on these solutions alone. Gaining better insights will depend on your current setup and post-adoption goals. The areas where your visibility is limited should be considered and based on that data sources should be chosen.

Excel at using Microsoft Excel. Getting a firm grip on this skill will help you massage the data and give you the insights your business needs to flourish. It's one of the simplest of skills to pick up and one of the fastest and easiest ways to transform large amounts of data.

Track the relationships between the dependent and independent variables. This will help you influence your marketing strategies. For example, let's say we want to explore the relationship between a website managed proactively and its organic visibility on Google rankings by looking at its SEO score. Then, our dependent variable will be the SEO score and independent variables would be Google Analytics data, amount of freshness in content, and social media activity. Tracking the relationships between these variables can lead to making better decisions on SEO strategies.

Knowing your metrics is a must. Understanding website metrics like Organic Traffic, Bounce Rate, Organic CTR, etc can impact your business significantly and set you on the path to success.

Formulate a hypothesis and test it. A hypothesis is nothing but a question or an idea that you can test through study and experimentation. Hypothesis testing is generally a 4 step process that involves:

Formulating a Hypothesis

Collect data to be used for the hypothesis

Analyze the data to gather insights

Draw some conclusions based on the analysis

Focus on storytelling and not just numbers. Track metrics that are directly tied to business KPIs — such as those reflecting higher customer engagement, conversions, returning customers, etc. It is important to look beyond the numbers of the SEO campaign and mull over what drives those results. I cannot stress enough on the importance of Data Storytelling, as it will explain certain customer behaviors and their correlation with your marketing campaign.

Make use of Data Visualizations to get a unique perspective on your data. Numbers stashed in an Excel spreadsheet can be hard to digest and you can overlook an important story hidden in your data. A good Data Visualization will help you compare and contrast, uncover patterns, digest large amounts of data and reveal questions that would otherwise be missed thus making your SEO data even more actionable. Tableau is one such free software that allows anyone to connect to a spreadsheet or file and helps create interactive and insightful data visualizations, so you know where to spend your time and energy.

The more you know, the more you grow — so learn as much as you can about the traffic on your website. SEO Data Science is your tool to know your customers, their behavior patterns, and how they found you in the first place. It is all about having good questions, getting your hands dirty on the best data, and then structuring your analysis to get answers. Instead of assuming what data would be useful for the SEO of your website, let Data Science give you the insights to curate your marketing strategy.

SEO is a marathon and not a sprint. It requires regular maintenance and data-driven decision-making that will have long-term results. Therefore, to transform your business, start integrating your SEO data with Data Science.

So, have I been able to pique your interest in using Data Science for SEO? Leave your comments below!

Archit is a Data Scientist and has started writing blogs recently to share his love for Data Science, Mentoring, and Stock Market Investing. Feel free to connect with him on Instagram, Twitter, or join his group for new bloggers on Facebook. Let’s Connect !!!