Build decision-oriented reporting and avoid conclusions that the data cannot support. Work through the four lessons, apply each exercise to a real, approved, personal, or sandbox site, and retain the result in your continuing portfolio.
Recommended prerequisite: access to a real, client-approved, personal, or sandbox website. Units 1–3 require no prior SEO experience.
Progress is self-reported. Mark a lesson complete only when you are satisfied with the applied work—not because you reached the bottom of the page.
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Lesson 10.1Not started
Reading Search Console Correctly
Clicks, impressions, CTR, average position, query/page dimensions, filters, brand segmentation, and annotations.
Open on YouTube. Interfaces, platform policies, and product details may have changed; learn the durable principle rather than memorizing buttons.
Learn
The working idea
Clicks, impressions, CTR, average position, query/page dimensions, filters, brand segmentation, and annotations.
Translate this principle into an observable decision: identify the audience task, the evidence available, the business consequence, and the verification method. Keep facts, assumptions, and recommendations separate.
Do the work
Exercise
Analyze the same period by query, page, device, country, and brand/non-brand. Record how conclusions change.
Acceptance check: your output should name its source evidence, assumptions, intended user or business outcome, and how the conclusion could be verified.
Quick check
Compare your reasoning
1. Why can sitewide average position be misleading?
Compare with guidance
It blends unlike queries, pages, locations, devices, and result appearances.
2. What can high impressions and low CTR mean?
Compare with guidance
Weak snippet fit, low positions, result features, mixed intent, brand mismatch, or changing query mix; more evidence is needed.
Portfolio handoff
File the evidence
Save the exercise output in your own course workbook or project folder. This site does not upload or retain your work.
Lesson 10.2Not started
Diagnosing Drops Without Jumping to Conclusions
Technical incidents, demand shifts, seasonality, algorithmic changes, competition, tracking, and visual drop shapes.
Open on YouTube. Interfaces, platform policies, and product details may have changed; learn the durable principle rather than memorizing buttons.
Learn
The working idea
Technical incidents, demand shifts, seasonality, algorithmic changes, competition, tracking, and visual drop shapes.
Translate this principle into an observable decision: identify the audience task, the evidence available, the business consequence, and the verification method. Keep facts, assumptions, and recommendations separate.
Do the work
Exercise
For one simulated decline, create at least five competing hypotheses and a test for each.
Acceptance check: your output should name its source evidence, assumptions, intended user or business outcome, and how the conclusion could be verified.
Quick check
Compare your reasoning
1. Why should Google Trends or market demand be checked?
Compare with guidance
Search demand can change independently of site performance.
2. Does timing after a site edit prove causation?
Compare with guidance
No; temporal order alone does not rule out confounders.
Portfolio handoff
File the evidence
Save the exercise output in your own course workbook or project folder. This site does not upload or retain your work.
Lesson 10.3Not started
Combining Search, Analytics, Crawl, Rank, and Log Data
What each source observes; conflicting definitions; joining at page/date granularity; why no tool is the whole truth.
Open on YouTube. Interfaces, platform policies, and product details may have changed; learn the durable principle rather than memorizing buttons.
Learn
The working idea
What each source observes; conflicting definitions; joining at page/date granularity; why no tool is the whole truth.
Translate this principle into an observable decision: identify the audience task, the evidence available, the business consequence, and the verification method. Keep facts, assumptions, and recommendations separate.
Do the work
Exercise
Build an evidence matrix: source, question answered, blind spots, date range, dimension, and confidence. Reconcile one disagreement.
Acceptance check: your output should name its source evidence, assumptions, intended user or business outcome, and how the conclusion could be verified.
Quick check
Compare your reasoning
1. What can server logs show that GA4 cannot?
Compare with guidance
Actual server requests from verified or claimed bots and other clients.
2. Why might Search Console clicks differ from analytics sessions?
Compare with guidance
Different definitions, time zones, consent, tracking loss, redirects, sessionization, and attribution.
Portfolio handoff
File the evidence
Save the exercise output in your own course workbook or project folder. This site does not upload or retain your work.
Lesson 10.4Not started
Reporting to Decision-Makers and Avoiding False Causality
Leading versus lagging indicators, first-user versus session acquisition, correlation versus causation, confidence, and executive narrative.
Assignment note: SEO Reporting and selected sections of Strategic SEO Reporting for Marketing Leaders. Then compare first-user and session acquisition, and interpret correlation claims with sources and .
Open on YouTube. Interfaces, platform policies, and product details may have changed; learn the durable principle rather than memorizing buttons.
Learn
The working idea
Leading versus lagging indicators, first-user versus session acquisition, correlation versus causation, confidence, and executive narrative.
Translate this principle into an observable decision: identify the audience task, the evidence available, the business consequence, and the verification method. Keep facts, assumptions, and recommendations separate.
Do the work
Exercise
Produce a one-page report containing outcome, leading indicators, completed work, interpretation, alternatives considered, risks, and next decisions.
Acceptance check: your output should name its source evidence, assumptions, intended user or business outcome, and how the conclusion could be verified.
Quick check
Compare your reasoning
1. Why can GA4 acquisition reports disagree?
Compare with guidance
They use different scopes and attribution questions, such as first user versus current session.
2. What should a correlation become before it becomes a recommendation?
Compare with guidance
A hypothesis tested against context and, where possible, an experiment or triangulated evidence.
Portfolio handoff
File the evidence
Save the exercise output in your own course workbook or project folder. This site does not upload or retain your work.
Unit 10 exam
Apply it without pretending the browser is your professor.
Status: Not attempted
Knowledge prompts
Define all four Search Console metrics; list three sources of discrepancy; distinguish correlation from causation; explain first-user versus session acquisition.
Practical assignment
Diagnose a simulated 25% decline using GSC, analytics, crawl, rank, trend, and log evidence, then present an executive report with confidence levels.
Rubric
Segmentation 20%; triangulation 25%; inference discipline 25%; business communication 20%; limitations 10%.
Exam guidance
The highest score goes to the learner who considers competing explanations and states what cannot yet be concluded—not the learner with the most confident story.
This site does not calculate a grade. Use the rubric honestly or ask a qualified reviewer to evaluate the work.