{"id":14589,"date":"2022-06-28T12:49:42","date_gmt":"2022-06-28T12:49:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.searchenginejournal.com\/seo-and-the-cio\/455940\/"},"modified":"2022-06-28T12:49:42","modified_gmt":"2022-06-28T12:49:42","slug":"seo-and-the-cio-5-search-concepts-you-need-to-know","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/marketingnewsbox.com\/?p=14589","title":{"rendered":"SEO And The CIO: 5 Search Concepts You Need To Know"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cOur SEO program would be so much more successful if only our CIO understood\u2026<\/em>\u201d<\/p>\n

As the executive responsible for the management, implementation, and oversight of information and technologies in your organization, the Chief Information Officer is an essential ally to SEO.<\/p>\n

Having the CIO\u2019s support and understanding throughout the decision-making and prioritization processes can be massively helpful for the CMO (chief marketing officer).<\/p>\n

Indeed, this is not a relationship you want to be adversarial. On the contrary, it needs to be symbiotic.<\/p>\n

Fostering a solid relationship between marketing and technology at the executive level is essential in creating the rich, personalized experiences today\u2019s hyperconnected consumer expects.<\/p>\n

According to analyst data, more than 20%<\/a> of the marketing budget is used for technology, and one-third of marketing organizations already have a dedicated technology team.<\/p>\n

How can you better educate your CIO about the value of SEO and nurture closeness in this essential interdepartmental relationship?<\/p>\n

Here are a few search concepts you\u2019ll want your CIO to know.<\/p>\n

1. The Impacts Of Page Speed & UX On SEO<\/h2>\n

Core Web Vitals<\/a> and the broader Page Experience update emphasized the importance of a fast, seamless browsing experience for searchers.<\/p>\n

Google uses the CWV metrics \u2013 Largest Contentful Paint, First Input Delay, and Cumulative Layout Shift \u2013 to better understand people\u2019s experience on your page.<\/p>\n

If you are meeting the minimum thresholds for CWVs, you\u2019re meeting Google\u2019s page speed<\/a> requirements.<\/p>\n

Your pages will not be penalized for not excelling at the Core Web Vitals metrics.<\/p>\n

Rather, you may be missing out on valuable opportunities to get an additional boost<\/a> that could help you surpass your competition in search.<\/p>\n

Ensure your CIO has access to this Advanced Technical SEO Core Web Vitals Guide<\/a> so they can develop an appreciation for how these requests on your support tickets translate directly to increased visibility and site traffic.<\/p>\n

Using a Content Delivery Network (CDN)<\/a> can also help support your SEO page speed goals by delivering content from geographically distributed servers that are closer to the searcher.<\/p>\n

These servers cache your page content so it can more quickly and easily be served when needed, reducing page latency and load time.<\/p>\n

When CIOs collaborate with SEO and content marketers, the business impacts can be clearly visible.<\/p>\n

This is especially true with Core Web Vitals, as research (disclosure from my company BrightEdge) has recently shown this collaboration can lead up to 58% improvements in performance.<\/p>\n

\"coreImage from BrightEdge, June 2022<\/em><\/span>\"core<\/div>\n

2. Technical Site & CMS Errors Can Be Critical<\/h2>\n

Technical errors in your code and CMS (content management system)<\/a> can cause all kinds of problems, from hindering crawling and preventing indexation to security issues, orphaned pages, and duplicate content.<\/p>\n

It can help your CIO and their development team to provide a method of prioritizing your SEO-related technical requests.<\/p>\n

Is this error preventing users from accessing the site or causing a vulnerability?<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t let that get buried in redirect requests.<\/p>\n

Helping your CIO learn about the most common types of technical errors that can impact rankings<\/a> enables them to spot potential issues coming up in requests from other departments.<\/p>\n

Another critical area where the CIO and SEO come together is the utilization and implementation of AI (artificial intelligence).<\/p>\n

This is where many CMS come up short.<\/p>\n

AI can be leveraged to improve site and customer experiences with intelligent content recommendations, SEO-friendly outputs, and automated quick fixes of critical errors.<\/p>\n

3. Security Implications Of Data And SEO<\/h2>\n

The CIO is acutely aware of security and compliance issues \u2013 you don\u2019t need to educate here.<\/p>\n

What can help is showing your CIO that you are mindful of the security risks, as well, and taking care to assess those risks before making requests of their team.<\/p>\n

The worst-case scenario is an anti-SEO CIO who became that way after a breach or other major issue they attribute to an optimization requested by SEO or marketing.<\/p>\n

Show your CIO that you are well-versed in the SEO spam tactics hackers are using<\/a> to inject code, implement harmful redirects, and otherwise manipulate your site.<\/p>\n

As we are amid an explosive data growth revolution and Web 3.0, data compliance and user privacy become important for the SEO, data scientist, and the CIO<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Share your risk assessment when you make a request that could raise the dev team\u2019s eyebrows.<\/p>\n

Be proactive and get ahead of those arguments against the optimization by showing the CIO you care about security every bit as much as they do.<\/p>\n

4. How Schema Works<\/h2>\n

Structured data markup is not a ranking factor but helps search engines better understand your page\u2019s content.<\/p>\n

From there, it can help trigger valuable Featured Snippets that give your brand additional real estate and added functionality in the SERPs (search engines results page).<\/p>\n

Schema<\/a> is the type of markup that search engines, including Google, Bing, and Yandex prefer.<\/p>\n

Adding schema to your pages helps to provide the context that enables Google to match your page to a relevant query, making it an essential element of your SEO strategy.<\/p>\n

Properly adding and testing schema becomes more difficult the larger the site, making your CIO\u2019s understanding of it essential at the enterprise level.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s worth sharing details of schema.org and pages like this where Google takes a deep dive into structure data<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"GoogleImage from Google, June 2022<\/em><\/span>\"Google<\/div>\n

You can automate schema with the right technology.<\/p>\n

However, manual checks and balances should still be in place to ensure it\u2019s actually doing the job.<\/p>\n

It only works if the meaning and context your markup conveys to the search engine are accurate.<\/p>\n

You may invite your CIO to have a seat at the table as you determine which markup to automate and what is better off hand-coded, so they understand what\u2019s being marked up and why.<\/p>\n

5. CRM Support Of SEO<\/h2>\n

Customers should be the priority for any CIO and every type of SEO platform<\/a>.<\/p>\n

As SEO becomes a board room agenda item ensuring your CRM system is helping manage your leads, and customer data is a must.<\/p>\n

SEO pros use CRM to turn prospects into sales and elevate their performance across an organization also.<\/p>\n

While different CRM systems have other purposes, it is essential that the CIO helps choose which one hits the objectives of SEO and content teams.<\/p>\n

With the rise of CDPs (customer data platforms), DAMs (Digital Asset Management), and DMPs (digital management platforms<\/a>), the role of the CIO is critical in:<\/p>\n