joogy06 SEO Data Analyst
Overview
Data-driven SEO requires querying three platforms: GSC (search performance), GA4 (user behavior), and Clarity (behavioral/UX signals). This skill covers what an AI agent can access programmatically, rate limits, and practical workflow recipes.
This skill is the READ side — pulling and analysing existing data. To DESIGN and RUN experiments against it (A/B tests, sample-size and statistical-validity guards, cache-safe variation delivery, readout rules), see ecommerce-cro-experimentation.
Platform Summary
| Platform | What It Provides | Auth Method | Rate Limit | Cost |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| GSC | Keywords, impressions, clicks, CTR, position, indexing status | Service account | 1,200 QPM / 50K rows/day | Free |
| GA4 | Sessions, engagement, conversions, funnels, e-commerce | Service account | 200K tokens/day | Free |
| Clarity | Heatmaps, rage clicks, dead clicks, scroll depth, session recordings | Bearer token | 10 requests/day | Free |
All three use service accounts or tokens for headless access — no browser required.
Authentication (Headless Setup)
GSC & GA4 (Google Service Account)
- Create GCP project, enable "Search Console API" and "Google Analytics Data API"
- Create service account, download JSON key
- Add service account email as user in GSC (Settings → Users) and GA4 (Admin → Property Access)
- Set
GOOGLE_APPLICATION_CREDENTIALS=/path/to/key.json
Clarity (Bearer Token)
- Clarity Dashboard → Settings → Data Export → Generate API token
- Pass as
Authorization: Bearer TOKENheader
MCP Servers (Direct AI Agent Access)
| Tool | Package | Platform |
|---|---|---|
| mcp-gsc | github.com/AminForou/mcp-gsc |
GSC |
| Clarity MCP | @microsoft/clarity-mcp-server |
Clarity |
| SEO MCP | seomcp.dev |
GSC + GA4 + 39 tools |
Agent Workflow Recipes
1. Content Decay Detection
Data source: GSC Search Analytics API
Method: Compare two 28-day periods, per-page metrics.
Period A: last 28 days → dimensions: ["page"], metrics: clicks, impressions, position
Period B: previous 28 days → same query
Alert thresholds:
- Clicks down 20%+ AND position dropped 2+ = competitive loss → refresh content
- Clicks down, position stable = SERP feature crowding → refresh meta/title
- Impressions down, everything stable = demand shift → new angle or consolidation
Content published < 3 months ago is too fresh to diagnose.
2. Keyword Cannibalization
Data source: GSC Search Analytics API
Dimensions: ["query", "page"] → paginate to 50K rows
Group by query → filter where count(distinct page) > 1
Flag: queries where different pages have similar positions (both competing)
Resolution: See seo-keyword-strategist skill for decision framework.
3. Striking Distance Keywords (Positions 4-20)
Data source: GSC Search Analytics API
Dimensions: ["query", "page"]
Filter: exclude branded queries (regex)
Post-filter: position >= 4 AND position <= 20 AND impressions > 50
Sort: impressions descending
These are your highest-opportunity keywords — close to page 1, worth optimizing.
4. Purchase Funnel Analysis
Data source: GA4 Data API (runFunnelReport — v1alpha)
GA4 tracks the e-commerce funnel:
view_item → add_to_cart → view_cart → begin_checkout → add_shipping_info → add_payment_info → purchase
Calculate drop-offs:
- Cart rate = add_to_cart / view_item
- Checkout rate = begin_checkout / add_to_cart
- Purchase rate = purchase / begin_checkout
Break down by deviceCategory and sessionSource to find device/source-specific friction.
5. Blog-to-Conversion Attribution
Data source: GA4 Data API
Dimensions: ["landingPage"]
Filter: pagePath BEGINS_WITH "/blog/"
Metrics: conversions, purchaseRevenue, sessions, engagementRate
Identifies which blog posts drive the most revenue — prioritize these for refresh.
6. UX Frustration Analysis
Data source: Clarity API or MCP server
Dimension: URL
Metrics: Dead Click Count, Rage Click Count, Quickback Click, Excessive Scroll
Cross-reference: Pages with high frustration signals + declining GSC metrics = highest-priority fixes.
7. Combined GSC + GA4 Analysis
Join key: URL path (strip domain from GSC URLs to match GA4 pagePath).
| Analysis | GA4 Data | GSC Data | Insight |
|---|---|---|---|
| Content gap | High bounce rate | Low impressions | Content doesn't match intent |
| SEO wins | High conversion pages | Low position | Improve ranking for converting pages |
| CTR optimization | High engagement | Low CTR | Meta descriptions need work |
| Keyword intent | Conversion rates | Search queries | Match content to buyer intent |
Key Limitations
| Platform | Limitation | Workaround |
|---|---|---|
| GSC | 50K rows/day per site per search type | BigQuery bulk export (free, unlimited) |
| GSC | ~47% of queries anonymized | BigQuery reveals slightly more |
| GSC | 2-4 day data delay | Use dataState: "all" for preliminary data |
| GSC | 16 months retention | BigQuery export (indefinite retention) |
| GSC | No AI Overview/AI Mode data in API | Monitor Google announcements |
| GA4 | Sampling above ~10M events | BigQuery export (unsampled) |
| GA4 | Segments not available via API | Use audiences instead |
| GA4 | Path exploration not in API | BigQuery for sequence analysis |
| GA4 | Predictive metrics need 1K+ qualifying users | May not activate for small stores |
| GA4 | 20-60% data loss in EU without advanced consent mode | Enable Consent Mode v2 advanced |
| Clarity | 10 requests/day per project | CSV export for deeper analysis |
| Clarity | 1,000 row max, no pagination | Filter to specific segments |
| Clarity | No heatmap image API | Manual dashboard review |
| Clarity | Copilot AI insights not in API | Raw data only via API/MCP |
BigQuery (Power Tool)
Both GSC and GA4 can export to BigQuery for unlimited, unsampled data access.
| Feature | GSC Export | GA4 Export |
|---|---|---|
| Data | Site/URL impression tables | Raw event-level data |
| Granularity | Aggregated (like API) | Every event with all parameters |
| Sampling | None | None |
| Cost (small store) | ~$0/month (free tier) | ~$0-5/month |
| Setup | GSC Settings → Bulk data export | GA4 Admin → BigQuery Links |
For small e-commerce: BigQuery free tier (10 GB storage, 1 TB queries/month) is likely sufficient.
Google Trends (Keyword Research)
No official stable API. Options:
- pytrends (Python): Free but unreliable, may break
- SerpAPI Google Trends: $75-275/month, reliable
- Manual: trends.google.com — compare keywords, identify seasonality, geographic demand
Use Google Trends for: seasonal trend identification, geographic demand analysis, comparing keyword popularity, identifying rising topics for content planning.
Anti-Patterns
| Don't | Why |
|---|---|
| Rely solely on search volume from tools | 54% overestimated; use GSC actual impressions as proxy |
| Ignore anonymized queries (~47%) | Nearly half of click data has hidden query strings |
| Pull Clarity data more than needed | 10 requests/day — be strategic |
| Skip BigQuery for large sites | API has 50K row cap; BQ is unlimited and free |
| Use GA4 data retention default (2 months) | Change to 14 months; API not affected but Explorations are |
| Diagnose decay on content < 3 months old | Too fresh — wait for data to stabilize |