Frequently Asked Questions For SEO Interview

Search Engine Optimization or SEO is a process to improve or enhance the traffic on your website, including both its quality and quantity. Search engines like Google and yahoo have certain algorithms or programs that navigate through different websites and display the most relevant results with quality content on the top of the search results; these are called rankings. If your website is ranked higher, there are better chances of it catching the attention of several users. SEO is a part of Digital marketing and helps your content to be shared and liked by a larger audience.

There are Search Engine Optimization specialists who help you to analyze and review your website so that there is maximum traffic and improve the ranking of your page by search engines. It requires an SEO specialist to have skills to develop engaging content, and they are required to test different latest optimization techniques that will make the website grow. The following are included in what an SEO specialist should know:

• Develop content that is relevant and catches the attention of the users
• Including keywords or phrases that are included in similar queries
• Test various search engine marketing techniques
• Have in-depth knowledge about search engine algorithms

It is important to have a lot of web experience and should be qualified for the position of an SEO specialist. He or she should also have knowledge of programming languages and should have previous experience in blogging or developing creative content.

SEO interview questions and answers

The following are some questions that are frequently asked in an SEO interview, even if it is a digital marketing professional or a newbie:

What do you understand by SEO and different SEO methods?

Ans – Search Engine Optimization is a process of enhancing or optimizing webpages and websites so that they are displayed as the top results when a user puts a similar query or keywords. Two types of SEO are:

1. On-page optimization
2. Off-page optimization

What is cross-linking its role?

Ans – The process of linking one particular site to another is known as cross-linking. Cross-linking is essential to provide the users with sites they can refer to that contains related content.

What is the objective of using keywords in SEO?

Ans – keywords are a part of the phrase that is searched by the user, keywords are stored in the databases of search engines when a search is finished, search engines will show the best possible matches as results.

Name some SEO tools that will work best for content marketing

• Search Engine Land 
• SEOSmarty
• MOZ
• Search Engine Journal
• BacklinkO

What is black hat SEO?

Ans – websites use various methods and techniques in order to be ranked higher by a search engine, these methods are characterized under two categories white hat SEO, and the other one is black hat SEO.

State some black hat SEO techniques

• Gateway or doorway pages
• Cloaking
• Keyword stuffing
• Link farming
• Hidden text

What is meant by PR and SERP? State the difference between them.

Ans – PR refers to Page rank, and SERP refers to Search Engine Result Page. The PR is calculated by number and the quality of links to a page to determine the importance of the website. SERP is where the website is placed as returned by the search engine after a search or query is made by a user.

According to you what is more important, relevant content or building more backlinks?

Ans – Creating quality content and building backlinks, both are equally important. While content is considered to be the king as it helps in the ranking, but at the same time, backlinks are essential for building authority to a site.

What do you understand by SEM? How is it different from SEO?

Ans – SEO is used to enhance and optimize the website to increase its ranking, and for more traffic; however, Search Engine Marketing or SEM is used to promote the website through advertising and increasing its visibility in the ads section of the search result page.

What will be your approach towards a website’s optimization if other methods and techniques do not work?

Ans – I would first try to know the problem and will later try to resolve it step by step:

• I will recheck and review the keywords that have been included.
• I would look for some related and relevant keywords to the content of the website.
• Will make some changes in the design of the website by changing its description, page text, and titles.
• I will check if the site has not been indexed properly and will work more on it by trying some latest techniques and sticking on something that caters to the need.

What will be the most important section to include your keywords?

Ans -The page title, body text, and meta description are the most important areas to include your keywords.

Differentiate between a backlink and an outbound link.

Ans – An incoming link towards a website is called a backlink, while an outbound link is used to link one website to another webpage or website.

According to you what are the most common SEO mistakes?

Ans – Not using the appropriate keywords, focusing more on the number of links than on the quality of both the links and the content, not having a good strategy are some of the most common SEO mistakes.

Name some of the SEO tools that you have used in the past.

Ans – I have used many SEO tools in the past, but the ones that I have found to be the most useful are- SEM rush, Spyfu, and Google’s keyword tool.

Why do you think SEO is a growing need in the digital world today?

Ans – SEO is very important to make your website easily accessible to several people by driving a higher ranking from the search engines and to use creative techniques to make your website grow.

Some Short Questions For SEO Interviews

• What is PPC?
• What do you understand by competitive analysis?
• Define webmaster tools with some examples.
• What is keyword density, and how is it important?
• How will you optimize a website that contains millions of pages?
• What are the latest updates introduced in Search Engine Optimization?
• Do you think HTML frames have a negative impact on SEO? Why?
• What social media platforms will you use for online promotion?
• What are meta tags?
• Tools you will use to track and manage campaigns?
• What are some SEO strategies that have NOT worked for you?
• What do you think is the most important factor in an SEO campaign?
• How do you plan to change the mind of a client who believes that SEO is a scam or is not needed these days?
• What tools will you use to perform data analysis?
• How will you implement SEO recommendations?
• Why does content play an important role in SEO strategies?

How to prepare for a SEO interview?

If you are a beginner, it can be intimidating for you to be seated in front of SEO experts. However, each of these experts had once been where you are, and thus, if you think you are starting from ground zero and are thinking that you won’t be selected, it certainly would be a wrong approach. The SEO industry is full of opportunities for beginners. Good knowledge of SEO and some practical experience will prepare you for the interview. It is very important to be clear with SEO terminologies and knowing the difference between some methods or techniques that are a part of SEO. And equally important to go through frequently asked interview questions, keep your answers brief and to the point will always give you an added benefit.

Also, it is important that you should be aware of the fact that no matter how qualified you might be, it is not possible to know everything about something as vast as SEO. Still, you should have the ability to comprehend the question and understanding which points you should make.

The above frequently asked questions will make you confident, and if similar questions are asked, you will be able to answer spontaneously, which will leave a good impression on the interviewee.

Some Tips

• Come up with creative solutions to opinion-based or strategy making questions.
• Go through the frequently asked questions in an SEO interview properly.
• Be ready to answer questions where you have an alternative approach if your planned SEO marketing strategy does not work.
• Make sure that you know about all the latest SEO techniques and methods.
• Do extensive research on the algorithms of various search engines.
• Be aware of the latest updates in SEO methods.