Most Popular SEO Interview Questions

• What is the difference between organic and paid results?

• What does the term keyword frequency, keyword density, keyword difficulty, and keyword
proximity mean?

• What is the definition of a long tail keyword?

• What role does anchor text have in SEO?

• What is page speed, and why does it matter?

• What is keyword stemming, and why does it matter?

• What are rich snippets?

• What is a link audit, and why should you do one?

• How do you use content marketing for SEO?

• What is Domain Authority?

• General SEO Interview Questions for Freshers

1. What is SEO?

The practice of optimizing a website's architectural layout is known as SEO. It helps in content
relevancy and link attractiveness so that its pages are more readily found, more relevant, and more
prominent in response to use web searches, and hence rank higher in search engines.

SEO techniques enable companies to rank for possible keywords without paying a dollar on search
engine marketing, resulting in the most valuable visitors. It's known as 'organic,' 'free,' and 'natural'
outcomes. There are several optimization techniques and actions that Users should carry out to
ensure that your site is SEO-friendly and ranks for desired keywords.

2. Why is SEO important to businesses?

One of the famous jokes that run amongst individuals in the web sector is that you should put it on
Google's second page if you want to conceal a corpse. Because just a small percentage of people go
beyond the first page of Google results, your rivals will steal all of your clients if your industry isn't on
the first page. With each position, CTR lowers progressively. One significant benefit of SEO over PPC
is that, unlike PPC, your results will not end if you quit doing SEO today. SEO is crucial if a firm wants
to grow sales without splurging on promotions.

3. Name a few important Google ranking factors.

The most important Google Ranking Factors are:

• Quality Content
• Technical SEO

• Quality & Relevant Backlinks

• Mobile First

• Page Speed

• Brand Strength

• Domain Strength

• User experience

• Schema Code

• Social Signals

• Domain Authority

• Content-Type

• Content Depth

• Content Freshness

• HTTP

4. What is an organic result?

Organic results are provided by search results based on relevance, quality, and other ranking
variables and are one of the two kinds of search results in SERP. Organic results, sometimes known as
'free results' or 'natural outcomes,' are unpaid. Several criteria determine the ordering of organic
results.

The organic results appear underneath the sponsored results. Organic results cannot be influenced
by charging Google, or they may be improved by ensuring superior data and allowing users to engage
with it.

5. What is a paid result?

Paid results refer to advertisers who pay to show their ads alongside better organic results on SERPs.
Paid results are instantaneous, and advertisers are not obligated to enhance their website and
content to rank. Your Max CPC and quality score will determine your position. The more money you
save, the better your quality score.

6. What is Google Sandbox?

The Google Sandbox Effect asserts that new sites are often on probation (inside a box) and hence
cannot rank successfully for their most important keywords.

According to the notion, Google needs to contemplate before leaving the fictitious location. It might
be caused by constructing too many connections in a short amount of time. It was never formally
announced, although it was discussed while Google discussed various things.
7. What is Google Autocomplete?

Google Autocomplete is defined as a search engine feature that works with search engines such as
Google. When you start writing in the search field, Google autocomplete offers you a list of
suggestions to help you finish your query. It enables users to complete searches less quickly and with
much less initiative, particularly useful when searching on a mobile device. Search recommendations
are strongly impacted in queries as well as your previous searches.

8. What is a TLD?

The last portion of an internet address is the top-level domain (TLD). There are many sorts of TLDs
accessible, such as.com,.net,.org,.co.in, and so on.

9. What is ccTLD?

A ccTLD stands for a country code top-level domain. The domain extension for each nation is distinct.
All ccTLDs have just two characters. For instance,.in stands for India, while.us stands for the United
States.

10. What are keyword frequency, Keyword Density, Keyword Difficulty, and Keyword Proximity?

1. Keyword Frequency

The amount of times a specific keyword phrase occurs on a web page is known as keyword
frequency. When optimizing a web page, we must be careful not to overuse the term to the point of
keyword stuffing.

2. Keyword Difficulty

The keyword difficulty metric measures how tough it is to rank for a given term based on its
prominence and competitors. The more complicated the keyword, the more time or backlinks are
required.

3. Keyword Density

Keyword density is the proportion of times a term or phrase occurs on a web page. Search engines
may mistake the keyword frequency for term stuffing when the keyword frequency is significantly
over the optimal level. Consequently, we must ensure that the keyword density for any significant or
secondary search keywords is not excessive. For example, if a term occurs five times in a 200-word
piece, the density is 2.5 percent. Although there is no perfect keyword density, 3–4% is
recommended practice for SEO.
4. Keyword Proximity

The distance between two terms on a web page is measured by keyword proximity.

11. What is the definition of a long tail keyword?

Long-tail phrases include more than four words and are very specialized. Long-tail keywords, as
opposed to broad keywords, indicate the purpose and quality of the search, leading to a high
number of sales if adequately targeted. The ideal way to use long-tail keywords is on a blog. They
have a lower search volume than broad keywords, but when many long-tail keywords are combined,
we receive a lot of traffic with a high conversion rate.

12. What is the definition of bounce rate in SEO?

No SEO Interview Questions and Answers guide would be complete without this question. Bounce
rate refers to the proportion of website visitors who depart the landing page without viewing any
other pages or taking action.

Bounce rate is defined as single-page visits divided by all sessions, or the proportion of all sessions on
your site in which people saw just one page and sent only one request to the Analytics server,
according to Google.

To reduce bounce rates, boost page engagement (through internal links, CTAs, etc. ), improve page
performance, and provide consistent user interaction, among other things.

13. What is robots.txt?

It's a text file called robots.txt. It's everything done via this file. It addresses search engine crawlers
how to index and cache a website, a webpage or directory's file, as well as a domain.

14. What are anchor texts? What role does anchor text have in SEO?

The accessible text in a hyperlink is called anchor text. Anchor texts assist users in understanding the
purpose of the page. If keywords are used, it also has SEO value. However, if you are too optimized,
Google may penalize you.

Natural anchor text is vital, as is variety, such as branded, long tail, picture links, partial and precise
matches. Search engines utilize anchor text to determine the page's context to which it is connected.
This has some SEO significance in determining what the site is about for search engines.

15. What is Robot's Meta Tag?

16. What is an HTML Sitemap?

HTML sitemap is a new website that allows people to view a list of pages structured to understand
and traverse the site quickly. An HTML sitemap isn't essential if your website has a few user-
accessible sites. HTML sitemaps are very beneficial if you have a large website.

17. What is an XML Sitemap?

Extensible Markup Language (XML) is an acronym for "Extensible Markup Language." The purpose of
an XML sitemap is to provide search engines with information about the most recent changes made
to them. It contains a list of websites and the frequency with which they are updated. Using an XML
sitemap, we may request that search engines regularly scan and index our essential pages. When a
search engine discovers a website, among the first things it looks for is a sitemap.

18. Explain LSI

LSI Keywords are semantically linked to the principal term used by visitors in search engines.

When we use LSI keywords to improve a page, the keyword relevance will rise. LSI allows you to
optimize keywords on a web page without worrying about keyword stuffing. Google's algorithm uses
LSI keywords to determine the relevance of a search phrase. It aids search engines in deciphering the
semantic structure of keywords and extracting the meaning of the text to provide the best SERP
results.

19. What makes a website search engine friendly?

Several factors make a website search engine friendly, including keywords, quality content, titles,
metadata, etc. A website needs these factors to be ranked by a search engine and therefore found by
a user.

20. How do you measure SEO success?

You might want to answer this question based on the type of company you’re interviewing for, as
goals might differ. In addition, there are a variety of ways to measure key performance indicators
(KPIs) and, therefore, success. During an SEO interview, possible answers might include increasing
traffic to a website or particular landing page, increasing conversions such as newsletter signups or
sales, growing the number of inbound links, driving traffic for a particular keyword phrase, or
increasing referral traffic. It’s critical that an SEO professional measures result to know if the tactics
and strategy need to change to succeed.
21. How did you learn SEO?

Obviously, this answer will depend on your individual situation, but it matters because a potential
employer wants to ensure that you are well-versed in SEO best practices. If you learned SEO by the
seat of your pants at your last job because someone had to do it, an employer might doubt the
quality of the skillset you offer. And, if that’s the case, you can always get certified before applying for
that job to ensure you are well-trained!

22. Which SEO tools do you regularly use?

Various tools can make SEO jobs more accessible, and choosing the best one depends on your needs.

• ahref

• kwfinder

• sem haste

• quack SEO

• Moz

23. How do you approach keyword research?

As with the question above, your answer might vary. You’ll want to explain which keyword tools you
use for research, as well as how you go about it. For example, if you use Google Keyword Planner to
do your keyword research, then that’s your answer for the tool used. But you must also explain how
you go about it. You must demonstrate you do more than simply guess at a keyword and type that
into the tool before checking the results.

For example, if you use personas to consider potential problems a prospect faces, and you look for
keywords around that. You should also explain that you consider longer keyword phrases, search
volume, and the competitiveness of a keyword. Demonstrate that you know how to find the sweet
spot in keyword research, where the keyword narrower so it’s targeted and has good search volume,
but is not highly competitive.

24. What is link building and why does it matter?

Google exists to serve the searcher. That means Google is constantly trying to determine which
results are most relevant to any given searcher and any given time. In addition to relevance, Google
considers credibility too. So the search engine looks to see if other websites have linked to yours. If
so, that means your content is worth linking to and is, therefore, more credible when compared to a
website not linked to externally. In a nutshell, link building is what SEO professionals do to try and get
links to their websites in order to improve search results.
25. What are backlinks?

When a website links to another, a backlink is established. In other words, Backlinks to your website
are essentially a signal to search engines that people endorse your content.

26. What is page speed and why does it matter?

Page speed refers to how fast your site loads for a user, something Google takes into account while
ranking websites since a faster loading page directly translate to better user experience. If the
interviewer asks what you would do to increase page speed, describe how you’ve achieved this in
the past with examples such as reducing image sizes, enabling compression, reducing redirects,
removing render-blocking JavaScript, leveraging browser caching, improve server response time,
using a content distribution network to compress files, optimizing the code, etc.

27. What method do you use to redirect a page?

In general, 301, 302, and Meta Refresh are the three most widely used redirects.

Meta Refresh,

301, "Moved Permanently"—recommended for SEO

302, "Found" or "Moved Temporarily."

28. How can you do SEO for a video?

Videos are growing increasingly popular on the web, which can improve SEO if the videos produced
get attention and therefore share and backlinks. But to get the video seen can require SEO to get it
found, and Google can’t watch a video. It needs the same types of information required for text-
based pages to rank a video. Including the transcript as a text is an easy way to do SEO for a video
because search engines can crawl the text. In addition, the same attention should be paid to
keywords, page titles, and descriptions.

28. Which meta tags matter?

Meta tags have changed since SEO became a common practice, but two remain critical: the page title
and the meta description. Stick to these when answering your interview question. The page title
(sometimes called SEO title) plays an important role in ranking but it is also important because it is
the title that shows on the Search Results Page (SERP). It must use a keyword to rank well with
Google but it must also be compelling so a user will want to click on it. The meta description does
not affect ranking, but it also plays a role in the SERP because it also must make the user want to
click on the search result. You should also mention that Google recently increased the character
length limit of meta descriptions to around 280 to 320 (no one is sure of the actual limit yet).

29. What is the difference between a do-follow and no-follow and how are they used?

"Nofollow" and "dofollow" are attributes used in HTML to control how search engines follow and
index links.

A "dofollow" link is a regular hyperlink that allows search engine bots to follow the link and pass link
authority from the source page to the target page, potentially improving the target page's search
engine ranking.

A "nofollow" link, on the other hand, instructs search engines not to follow the link and not to pass
any link authority. It's often used for user-generated content, paid links, or to prevent link spam.

30. Which SEO factors are not in your control?

The biggest SEO factor not in your control is Google! How exactly Google ranks websites is unknown.
The company does not make public the search algorithms it uses, although SEO professionals have
determined the best practices we adhere to in order to achieve results. However, Google doesn’t like
young domains that aren’t yet tried-and-true, and you can’t control that if you’re launching a new
site. Nor can you force people to link to your site, share your content, spend more time on your site,
or come back to your site for another visit. Google looks favorably on all of these factors and ideally a
marketing department is working hard to create content and user experiences that will make these
happen, but these factors are beyond the control of the SEO person.

31. What is on-page vs off-page SEO?

This gets back to the question about the factors that are outside of your control. On-page SEO
includes the factors you can control, such as keywords, content, page structure, internal linking, load
time, etc. Off-page SEO includes those factors you can’t control, such as backlinks.

32. What are some black hat SEO practices to avoid?

Ideally, you won’t interview with an organization that condones any black hat SEO practices, but it
might be a trick question to make sure you wouldn’t use them either. Cloaking, keyword stuffing,
copying content from another site, exchanging or trading links, buying links, hiding text, and using a
link farm are all underhanded techniques frowned upon—and penalized—by Google.

33. What is the relationship between SEO and SEM?

34. What qualities are required in order to be effective in an SEO role, in your opinion?

This is a question requiring a subjective answer, but you might want to think through all of the
different skill sets required to be good at this kind of job. An SEO professional must have good
research skills, for one thing, as well as strong analytical skills. An ability to spot trends and adapt to
change is also important. As you think through the answer to this SEO interview question, consider
your own strengths as an SEO professional. Could you weave those into this answer?

35. What is DA?

Here is another commonly asked SEO interview question. DA or domain authority (a metric
developed by Moz) is a search engine ranking score, which ranges from 0 to 100. The score predicts
how well a website will rank on SERP. The higher your DA, the better chances you have at ranking
higher.

36. Explain the difference between DA and PA.

While DA (domain authority) explains the authority of your entire website, PA (page authority)
describes the authority of a specific page based on quality backlinks, social sharing, etc. The DA
requires more time and effort than PA, but the former is more worthwhile in the long run. However,
both are mutually beneficial.

37. Distinguish between a dofollow link and a nofollow link.

All hyperlinks are dofollow links by default unless specified as nofollow links. When search engine
crawlers find a link, they crawl the page and pass the link juice as a vote of quality. The dofollow links
from high-authority sites will help a site rank better in SERP by being quality backlinks.

Nofollow links are coded in a way that search engines do not crawl them or count them as votes of
quality. You can use this when you want to link third-party sites on your website without passing the
authority to those sites.

38. What are meta titles and meta descriptions?

Meta titles (page titles) and meta descriptions are two different pieces of the HTML code, which are
important when you are creating a web page. Much like the back-cover blurb of a book, these
elements will tell users the title of the page they have landed on and will give them the summary of
that page when it shows up on SERPs. This gives the users an idea of what your page is all about and
whether it will be relevant for them to visit your website.

Moreover, web browsers use the meta titles in the browser bars so that it is easy to distinguish
between different tabs of different pages if the users have opened multiple tabs in a session. The
page titles are also used when people bookmark a web page for future reference.

39. What is image alt text?

A search engine cannot understand an image or what it is about. So, to give it an idea, the image alt
text helps. It is an HTML attribute. If for some reason, the image is unable to be displayed on a
browser, one can read the alt tags and understand what the image is about. It even optimizes the
image for image searches and can be a Google ranking factor as well.

40. What is an HTML sitemap?

This is again a sure-shot SEO interview question. When on a page all the subpages of your website
are listed, it is called an HTML sitemap. It is helpful for the navigation of big websites with a lot of
subpages. Generally, HTML sitemaps are placed in the footer of websites.

41. What is a canonical URL?

If a page is accessible by several URLs or several pages have similar content (e.g., pages with both
mobile and desktop versions), Google will see these as duplicates and will pick one as the canonical
version to crawl unless you specify the canonical URL.

42. What are white-hat SEO and black-hat SEO?

Be prepared for this SEO interview question as well. White-hat SEO is a type of SEO that follows the
guidelines of search engines. It doesn’t involve the manipulation of search engines to rank higher, or
deploying questionable methods.

Black-hat SEO violates search engine guidelines and manipulates search engines to improve their
ranking on the search engines. If a website is found guilty of keyword stuffing, cloaking, link
exchange, link farming, PBN, buying links, link hiding, using doorway or gateway pages, etc., then it
gets penalized.

43. What are doorway pages?

Using a doorway page (gateway pages/portal pages/entry pages) is another means of implementing
black-hat SEO to manipulate search engine rankings by creating low-quality web pages for particular
phrases while sending visitors to a different page. Cloaking and redirecting pages are forms of
doorway pages.
44. What is cloaking?

Cloaking is a black-hat SEO technique used to display content that is not what is presented to search
engine crawlers to manipulate search engine rankings for certain keywords.

45. What is Google Analytics?

Google Analytics is a free web analytics tool offered that tracks and analyzes the performance of a
website. The main purpose of GA is to help you make sound decisions to improve your site’s
performance, drive traffic to it, and generate revenues for you.

46. What are some of the Google Analytics Reports?

This SEO interview question will be asked to test your GA knowledge. So, don’t forget to read up on
the following Google Analytics Reports:

• Real-time Reports

• Audience Reports

• Acquisition Reports

• Behavior Reports

• Conversion Reports

47. What are the common SEO mistakes?

• Lacking a unique title and description

• No freshness or quality in content

• Poorly written content

• Using very broad keywords

• Keyword stuffing

• Low-quality backlinks

48. Name 5 websites of sbm, image submission , profile creation that you use?

49. Name 5 classified submissions website of aus, can, us, india, dubai, new zealand?

50. Make analysis report of website?