Statistics, R, and You: Advice for a New Analyst?
-
Hey SEOMozers!
Two prongs to this question; I'll keep it succinct.
I've been working as an in-house SEO/SEM Analyst for about 5 months now. While I'm generally savvy at telling the story behind the traffic/conversion data, and making forensic recommendations (I worked in SEO prior to this while in college), ideally I'd like to see my reports read less like these piddly Excel charts and percent change statistics. Ideally they'd look more like Nate Silver's FiveThirtyEight blog for the New York Times, or OkCupid's periodic dispatches on OkTrends: visual, statistically-informed, and predictive, the kind of report that under other circumstances might plausibly generate backlinks.
Data analysts swear by R for statistical modeling, but is it useful for our Google Analytics data sets, holes and uncertainty and all? Is the steep learning curve worth the effort? Tutorials I've seen online assume a proficiency in programming or statistics that's beyond me, or they're written to support a textbook exercise. Any recommendations for a book, online course, or general resource with more of a niche focus?
And a general question about stats too, since it's related: what level would you prescribe if I really wanted to kick this up a notch? I studied a humanity in college and while it helps with the numerical storytelling, I wonder if the practical arcana of Bayesian Methods/abstract probability theorems have a place in Web Analytics. Do they? Are there options for us bushy-tailed young analysts to pick this up without resorting to B School?
Thanks in advance!
-
What Steve said.
Especially:
"Slipping in one or two suggestions about direction and budget in the verbal reports can be very beneficial."
I've found verbal briefings every week or two are far more effective than written reports. Sometimes we take a quick dive into the raw data in a "guided tour" type of way. Often that goes away over time. But first you have to establish trust. That means getting some wins user your belt. And it also includes fessing up to failed initiatives.
I see a lot of people get hung up on metrics of questionable significance and obsess over reporting. They never ask a basic question: "Is any there evidence my reports are being read?"
Of course, meetings and calls are far more easily arranged with small business owners than in big, bureaucratic organization that lack a single decision-maker. But I'd move heaven and earth to try to get a monthly 20 minute meeting with someone as high up the food chain as possible. Pretty soon, he'll start inviting others and stuff will really happen.
-
Hi,
I've just replaced an "In House" SEO with a consultancy model. The process related to me from the in-house guy was very bureaucratic as you have said.
From a consultant perspective I need to prove what I do does have a difference to te bottom line and then this builds trust.
Work out what will make a difference to the bottom line and attack that first. In my situation, they'd been running AdWords unsuccessfully for a while so I managed to get a small budget (£100) to prove a point. We ran a campaign for 2 weeks and got a noticeable spike in traffic and business. This has built the trust in my approach and process enormously.
On the reporting side I only report once a month in writing with other ad-hoc verbal reports of how things are going. Slipping in one or two suggestions about direction and budget in the verbal reports can be very beneficial.
Report less - Do more.
When reporting try to focus on the "what you did, what outcome you expected and what you learned" This should then feed back into an SEO Plan and overall strategy. In terms of SEO I've found business leaders like strategy.
Hope that helps
Steve
-
Love a good wacky, "out there" response to keep my intuitions in check!
I get what you're saying. That's happening, but in-house SEO/SEM is a slow and measured process, subject to approvals that go far up the chain of command. I figure if I can at least present my recommendations in a more salient way, they'll be able to defend themselves whether or not I'm in the room.
We also, as with most hotels, deal with affiliate sites. The cost/benefit of involvement there has considerable room for interpretation, and while it isn't exactly my onus to understand it, I'd like to. Basically looking to grow here.
-
Right.... make a change on the site and show how it increased sales.
Show what you have done that has hit the bottom line.
-
Ready for a really wacky, "out there" response?
Stop writing so many reports and start trying to influence decision makers in other ways.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Referrals - How is it possible I have 5 new users and 100 sessions over a 2 week period?
I have a referral from an email (2), android search(1) and another website(2) but my sessions is 100 over a two week period? I have NO returning visitors (still session data though?) Seems unlikely that just these 5 users have generated 100 sessions!! Any ideas?
Reporting & Analytics | | darrenbooy0 -
Launching a new site
What is the best method for Google Analytics implementation? Should I use the same UA id for the new site, or create an new one for the new site?
Reporting & Analytics | | brianvest0 -
Migrated website but Google Analytics still displays old URL's and none new?!
I migrated a website from a .aspx to a .php and hence had to 301 all the old urls to the new php ones. It's been months after and I'm not seeing any of the php pages showing results but I'm still getting results from the old .aspx pages. Has any one had any experience with this issue or knows what to do? Many thanks,
Reporting & Analytics | | CoGri0 -
What's the new "Value" column in GWT about?
I was checking out our GWT this morning and noticed a new column on the far right that was labeled "Value". Currently, there isn't anything of value (no pun intended) listed just $Nan. Anyone else see this or know what it might be? 014pThY
Reporting & Analytics | | Shawn_Huber0 -
Help w/ Google Event tracking w/ new Universal analytics.js
I want to implement Google event tracking after my visitors complete an estimate form. The form provides them an approximate range of costs based on their widget and widget amount. I have the php coding done, but I don't know JS and I need to send an event upon completion of the estimate form. However, all of Google's examples are button click events. How do I send the event upon completing a form if there is no separate landing page? If I have my Google analytics code on the page as well, would simply adding the following the completed estimate code work?
Reporting & Analytics | | TheDude0 -
How can you tell if your new content has been indexed?
Other than simply doing a search in each case, is there any way I can tell (in Webmaster Tools, for example) if the 500-1000 new pages of content I have added have been indexed and are now appearing in search results? My traffic hasn't risen much, but I know at least a few of them are in there... How can I tell when they're all in?
Reporting & Analytics | | corp08030 -
How do you eMail reports in the "NEw" version of google analytics
Bonjour from 9 degrees C Wetherby UK In google anlytics I want to export a monthly report to a client. Whilst I can do this in the old version where in the name of flying spacial jockstraps is it in the new version? Any insights welcome 🙂
Reporting & Analytics | | Nightwing0 -
New Google Analytics Site Speed tool and excel
Hello, I was wondering if there is a good tool or method to pull the new Google Analytics Site Speed data into excel and use this document to track site speeds on a weekly basis for multiple clients? Any good articles or how-to's would be awesome!
Reporting & Analytics | | Hakkasan0