Examples
Instead of a dry phrase “traffic decreased by 12%,” explain “this happened after changing the page design or due to losing positions for a key query.” And most importantly, what to do about it next.
Blog traffic has increased, but sales have not
This may mean that the wrong users are being attracted, the content is not leading them further down the funnel, or the order form is too complicated. In such cases, you need not just GA4 or GSC, but the ability to ask the browse verified datasets right question to the numbers and find an answer that will prompt a solution.
Dashboards, heat maps, user scenarios are tools, not ends in themselves. The specialist's task is to show how SEO affects real business indicators.
For this, it is important for an SEO specialist to
be able to read data from various sources (GA4, GSC, Looker Studio);
build connections between numbers and user behavior;
formulate conclusions that have practical value for business;
to communicate these conclusions in a clear and convincing way — not just "what happened," but "why it matters" and "what to do next."
In 2024, 91% of marketers surveyed by Conductor acknowledged that SEO had a positive impact on achieving their business goals, further proof that good analytics are the foundation of effective SEO.
Technical SEO 2.0
Technical infrastructure such as indexing and sitemaps is already a must-have. But beyond that, it’s more complicated. For example, a site can be rendered on the client side or on the server side, which affects loading speed and indexing. Structured data should be implemented so that search engines can easily read the entities in the content. If a headless CMS is used, an SEO specialist should consider its impact on performance and flexibility in content management.
By 2026, an SEO specialist should master the following technical skills:
understand SSR and CSR (server-side and client-side rendering) and know when which model is appropriate;
implement schema markup — structured data that helps search engines better understand the content of the page;
build entity-based SEO to achieve greater relevance in search;
to navigate API architectures — in particular JAMstack and headless CMS, which provide speed, security, and scalability;
have basic knowledge of HTML, CSS and JavaScript to understand the structure of the site, communicate with developers and independently analyze