7 Data Analysis Tips to Make You from a Rookie to a Veteran Rookie

Posted by Ryan on 2011-08-13

I could always feel that my colleagues started to tremble when I told them I’d like to talk a little bit about data analysis in tomorrow’s morning meeting.

People are afraid of math, aren’t they?

Well, hate or love it, as an (Internet) marketer, data analysis is one of the things that make you stand out from the crowd of “experts”, especially when it comes to SEO. With proper data, you can always say something without adding “I guess” in front of it.

Numbers don’t lie.

Although it has been a few years since I dipped my toe into data/text analysis, NLP, statistics and mathematics, I still consider myself a rookie, because I really am – there are always new mathematical models, algorithms, tools, etc that I know nothing about.

Thank goodness I am only a SEO!

Okay, today I want to share 7 basic tips on data analysis with you, as an veteran rookie who survived all this without a background for math:

1. Understand your business:

See? It is not about math (yet)!

Understanding your business is an very important step to doing good data analysis jobs. You should always keep it in mind – numbers are not only just numbers, but an abstract of aspects of the real business, like mathematics is an abstract of reality.

2. Define your goals:

Rookie data analysts ask “What can I get from the data?”, while veteran rookies ask “What data do I need to accomplish the goals?”.

3. Learn marketing and management basics

This can help you achieve Tip 1&2.

4. Complicated or simple, those which solve problems are good methods:

If you can use primary-school level knowledge to solve a problem, don’t open your high-school books.

5. Complicated or simple, those which solve problems are good tools:

Traffic analysis tools like Google Analytics and WebTrends, server log softwares, competitor analysis tools like Hitwise, professional data analysis tools like Excel, Excel, and Excel… They are all awesome data analysis tools for search marketers.

“What? You don’t talk about SPSS, SAS, the R language, or Matlab?”, says Random Reader.

Yes, seriously I don’t recommend them, at least when you just start learning data analysis, because even for real data analysts, Excel can solve most of their problems, let alone for SEOs. That’s why I repeated “Excel” three times above.

6. Speak using graphs and reports:

Numbers are only what you may be interested in – use graphs and reports for Muggles

To get a quick start, focus on Microsoft Powerpoint.

7. Live a healthy life:

Being a data analyst/SEO/programmer/etc can be stressful, which usually lead to irregular sleep patterns and diet.

The last tip is from my dad actually, who has seen too much how my Internet friends and I are being bad examples for living a healthy life.

Related posts:

Stay up to date