Top 43 Most Common SEO Interview Questions & Answers

Below are the list of top 43 most common and basic SEO Interview Questions and Answers given. It will be very useful for freshers and intermediate to crack the SEO interviews.

1. What is an SEO?

SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization, it is the process of changing the position or ranking of a page or whole website on a search engine search results like Google, Yahoo, Bing etc.

In other words, “the practice of optimizing a website to increase the traffic receives from search engine”.

2. What is the History of Search Engine?

The world’s first search engine, known as Archie, was created in 1990 to help people find information online. Google followed in 1996 and has since grown to become by far the biggest player in online search: roughly 70 percent of searches are now conducted using Google.

3. How many techniques used to do SEO?

Three techniques are there being used by SEO experts for optimizing the sites.

1. White Hat SEO (Ethical Techniques)
2. Black Hat SEO (Unethical Techniques)
3. Gray Hat SEO (Mix up of White Hat & Black Hat SEO Techniques)

4. What is white Hat SEO Techniques?

This is the genuine and ethical way to achieve top ranking organically on Search Results pages.

5. What are some techniques being followed for White hat SEO?

• Website Code Optimization
• Meta Tag Description
• Link Building
• Article Submission etc.
• Forum Postings

Read the list of full optimization techniques here.

6. What are Black Hat SEO Techniques?

Black Hat optimization is an unethical way to achieve ranking on Search Engine.

7. What are some techniques being followed for Black Hat SEO?

• Cloaking
• Doorway Pages
• Link Farming
• Keyword Stuffing
• Backlink creation on irrelevant sites

8. What are the Types of SEO?

Well! It has two types-
The first one is On-Page Optimization (Meta Tags, Internal Links & Web Analysis).
And the second one is Off-Page Optimization (Mostly Link Building)

9. What is On-Page Optimization?

To control whole website by you or using page coding is called On-Page Optimization, in which you have to dedicate on your boundary of website to bring it on # ranking over the digital world.

10. List of On-Page Optimization Activities?

• Code Optimization (HTML PHP, CSS, Java, etc.)
• Meta Tags insertion & optimization
• Update Blogs with Quality Contents
• Image Alt Tag Optimization

Get the list of Top 82 Activities to do in On-Page SEO: –

Top 25 Step by Step Guide for doing On-Page SEO Like a Pro – P1
Top 22 Step by Step Process for On-Page Optimization Like a Pro-P2
Top 25 Easy Steps to Optimize Your Content for On-Page SEO Like a Pro – P3
Top 10 Baby Steps to Optimize Your On Page SEO Like a Pro – P4

11. What is Off-Page Optimization?

Off-Page Optimizing is also known as Content Sourcing. It is opposite of the On-Page Optimization, and not controlled by the page coding only.

This is the process of optimization where you have to promote your page/ website by going to the third-party websites which are relevant to your business niche.

12. List of some Off-Page Optimization Activities?

• Link Building
• Blog Posting
• Video Sharing
• Image Sharing
• Article Submission
• Get high quality links from relevant sites
• Increase DA, Page Rank and Page Authority

Also read, Top 35 Step by Step Process to do Off Page Optimization

13. What is Back link in SEO?

It’s just liked a voting for your webpages. All the incoming links to your website or webpages through a good DA sites is called backlink. It is also known as incoming links, inbound links, inlinks, inward links etc.

14. What are Outbound Links?

Its opposite of inbound links. When we link other website’s URL which have good Domain Authority, to our content then it’s called outbound links.

15. What are Meta Tags?

A short information related to search query we put for every page is called Meta Tags.

• Think of tags as the words you are trying to rank for.
• Make sure the “Tags” are similar to your keywords that you are trying to rank for

16. What are some important Meta Tags for SEO?

• Meta Title
• Meta Description
• Meta Keywords
• Robot Tags

17. Where to place Meta Tags?

At the heading section of each pages.

18. What is Meta Title?

The title or heading you write to reflect on Google SERP as a result.

19. What is Meta Description?

A short and meaningful description for a website written in between 150 to 160 characters is called Meta Descriptions. It is fetched by Google bots to provide the relevant result to the user’s query.

Its literally just what it sounds like.

• It’s how you describe your content to the world in a line or two.
• Its also what’s seen first as a part of the search engine result just after searching your query.

Sometimes if description part is empty then Google would take this info from the content available in that particular page.

20. What is Character Limit of Meta Tags?

• Title:  70 Chars or 580 Pixels
• Description: 160 Chars or 920 Pixels
• Keywords: 200 Chars limit (Outdated now)

21. What SEO Factors matter for high ranking of a website?

• Domain SSL certificate
• Page load speed
• Domain Authority
• High Quality Content
• User Experience (Easy to use)

See the full list of SEO ranking factors.

22. What are the ways to get backlinks for SEO?

There are hundreds of ways to get the backlinks, but the few genuine and working ways are: –

• Blog Commenting
• Web 2.0 Websites
• Article Submissions
• Social Bookmarking
• Forum Posting
• Press Releases
• YouTube Marketing

23. Where can I see all the backlinks to a website?

Login into your google search console account. Scroll down and navigate to the “Links” option given in left side drop-down menu under “Legacy tools and reports”. Click it & you will get here all the backlink details about your website.

We can also use tools such as- “Backlink Checker” or “Moz Link Analysis”.

24. What is Keyword?

A word or phrase typed by a user in Search Engine to get some information, is known as “KEYWORD”.

Get in-depth knowledge about Keywords in this article

25. What platform should be used to perform keyword research?

First make a list of some random keywords related to your website and then go to “Google AdWords Keyword Planner tool”. The Google Keyword Planner will show you the most searched keywords with the volume and expected CPC.

26. What is the Process of Keyword Research?

1. Business Analysis and Products Categorization
2. Brainstorming to get keywords
3. Analyze the competition
4. Pick the best suitable keywords
5. Repeat the process regularly (Monthly)

27. Relevant Terms of Keyword in SEO?

• Keyword Density
• Keyword Prominence
• Keyword Proximity

28. What is Keyword Density?

Percentage of keywords used based on words included in an article is called Keyword Density. 1% – 3% of the keyword density is recommended to use inside your article.

e.g.: – if you have written a 1000 words article, you can use 10 to 30 times every keyword inside your content.

29. What is Keyword Prominence?

Keyword Prominence means – the places where we are using the keywords.
There are basically 6 places on a page where we can use it: –

1. Keyword in Page Title
2. Keyword in URL (Permalink)
3. Keyword in Body of Article
4. Keyword in H1, H2 or H3
5. Keyword in Meta Tags
6. Keyword in Images Alt Text

30. What is Keyword Proximity?

Keyword Proximity is the distance between the “words” which is included in search query.

e.g:- I am searching for “Content Writing Services”
I am getting result as –

A) Freelance Content Writing Services for Bloggers – ……… (If proximity is 100%, that’s too good)
B) Content Writing Agency for Affordable Services – …. (if proximity is <100% , it’s not too good)

31. What is Keyword Stuffing?

It occurs when no. of keywords used multiple times in an article or in Meta tags. The ratio says 1 to 3 percent of keywords should be used in a content. To avoid the repetition of keywords, it’s better to use the content written by a professional content writer and also keep in mind that no hidden text (text in same color as background) should be there.

32. What are the types of Keyword?

• Transactional Query
• Informational Query
• Navigational Query

There are three types of search queries people generally make:

• “Do”/ Transactional Queries: – I want to do something, such as book a movie ticket or listen to a Bollywood song.
• “Know”/ Informational Queries: – I need information, such as the rate comparison of a smartphone or the best Shopping Mall in Canada City.
• “Go”/ Navigation Queries: – We want to go to a particular place on the Internet, such as Facebook or the homepage of the NFL.

33. What is the Length of Keywords?

• Short Tail: 1-2 words (High Competition)
• Medium Tail: 3-5 words (Medium Competition)
• Long Tail: More than 5 words (Low Competition)

34. What are some parts of On Page Optimization Technique?

1. Always start with keyword selection, research and testing
2. Meta Description Tag
3. ALT Tags
4. H1 Tags
5. URL structure
6. Internal Linking Strategy
7. Quality Contents
8. Keyword Density
9. Site Maps, Both XML and User facing
10. Usability and Accessibility

35. Make a List of On Page SEO Research Topics?

1. What’s trending on internet
2. Use keyword planner
3. Use Google Trends and look for 12 months data
4. Use some tools like Href, backlink watch, Semrush etc to see the competitors strategy
5. Go for BROAD match by selecting your niche
6. Shortlist some exact match keywords from that list only if it’s relevant
7. Watch for Mobile vs. Desktop Traffic
8. If Keyword Research haven’t done, do it again.

36. What two types of results does Google provides?

• Paid Results, also known as Google Ads
• Organic Results, also known as SEO

37. What is ORM?

The abbreviation of ORM is Online Reputation Management.

• It is another field of SEO industry & it deals with client’s Online Reputation Management.
• ORM Companies basically focus on keywords such as Brand Name, Brand Name Review, Brand Name is bad, etc.
• The ORM companies work to push the positive review and presence of a company on internet world.

ORM Work is Divided into 3 Parts: –

1. Monitoring company’s online brand and following brand mentions around the web.
2. Building Assets on that brand name.
3. Fixing and minimizing damage to the brand.

38. What are the 9 Major Google Algorithm Updates?

SN	Algorithms	Launch Date	Impacts
1	Panda	February 24, 2011	Duplicate, Plagiarized & short contents.
2	Penguin	April 24, 2012	Spammy or backlinks from irrelevant sites, over-optimized anchor text.
3	Pirate	August, 2012	Decrease website rankings having copyright infringement reports.
4	Hummingbird	August 22, 2013	Exact match Keyword targeting, Keyword stuffing, low-quality content.
5	Pigeon	July 24, 2014	Poor on Page & off-page Optimizations.
6	Mobilegeddon	April 21, 2015	Lack of mobile responsive site layouts.
7	RankBrain	October 26, 2015	Lack of query-specific relevance features, Poor user experience.
8	Possum	September 1, 2016	Show the results of your nearby places.
9	Fred	March 8, 2017	Thin, affiliate-heavy content, Low-value, ad-cantered content.

39. What are the factors that can give you an SEO Advantage?

• Size of content
• Quality of Content
• Meta Tags
• Internal links to the content
• Use of relevant keywords, long tail & short tail
• Social following
• Social signals like sharing, likes, bookmarks & more.

40. What does a Quality Content Means?

• It should not be a copied content
• The articles should be 100% plagiarism free
• There shouldn’t be the grammar mistakes in writing
• Content should solves the problems. It shouldn’t be a long story
• Create information that shows people how to make things easy

41. What is “Social Following”?

The numbers of people who are connected to you via social media sites are your followers.

Possibilities are: –

• Facebook – Friends or Likes (If you have an updated business page)
• Twitter – Followers
• Instagram – Followers
• Pinterest – Followers

42. What is Social Signals?

Well! When your followers shares, likes or bookmark your content, each one of these will be counted as a social signal.

43. What are some Useful websites & Tools available for SEO?

• Google Keyword Planner
• Google Analytics
• Google Webmaster Tools
• Google Trends
• Schema Creator –
• Sitemap Creator
• DA Checker
• Alexa Page Rank Checker
• Free Competitor’s Backlink Checker

If you want more SEO Interview Questions & Answers, stay tuned to this blog for latest update about SEO QA.

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