Greetings! If you’re in search of 50+SEO Interview Questions and Answers for new hires and working employees, we’ve got you covered. From beyond-page SEO interview questions to off-page SEO interview questions, basic SEO interview questions, and technical SEO interview questions, we offer a comprehensive collection. Our repository includes 2024 SEO interview questions and answers, among many others.
The following are typical questions and responses for SEO interviews that a new hire and working employees can encounter:
SEO Interview Questions And Answers for Freshers :
Qno.1. What is SEO? What are its types?
Ans. SEO {Search Engine Optimization} is a process or practice to improve a website’s visibility and ranking on search engine results pages (SERPs).It is also known as organic,and ‘natural’ way to rank higher. It consists of two words: search engine + optimisation.
It has two types:
1. On-page Seo
2. Off-page Seo
Qno. 2. Which tools are used for SEO?
Ans. There are many tools which used for seo optimization:
1. Google analytics
2. Google search console
3. Google Keyword planner
4. Yoast Seo
5. Semrush
Qno.3. What do you mean by backlinks?
Ans. Backlinks are the part of off-page seo which is also known as “inbound links” or “incoming links. These links play a crucial role in the field of search engine optimization (SEO) because search engines like Google,yahoo consider them as a signal of a website’s authority, credibility, and relevance.
Qno. 4. Which elements affect a website’s Google ranking the most?
Ans. Here are some of the most important Google ranking factors:
1. Quality of content: Content should be unique & relevant. Also ensure that your content fulfills the queries and needs of your target audience.
2. Backlinks:The quality of a backlink matters more than the quantity. Backlinks from reputable, high-authority websites carry more weight and have a more positive impact on the website.
3. User experience: Includes factors like mobile friendly, fast page loading time.
4. Technical SEO: It ensures that the website meets all the technical requirements such as sitemaps, crawling,indexing,structure of website.
Qno. 5. What are keywords? What are its types?
Ans. Keywords is a word or phrase for which you want a specific page to rank. Search engines store keywords in the database and when a search is done, it will come up with the best possible match in front of the user.
It has 2 types:
1. Short- trails keywords
2. Long-trails keywords
Qno. 6. What is on-page & off-page SEO?
Ans. On-page seo: On-page seo refers to optimizing the parts of your website you control like HTML,URL.
● Content optimization
● Keyword rich content
● Optimized URLs
● Image Optimisation
Off-page seo: Off-page seo focus on the ranking factors occur outside of your website like backlinks.
● Backlinks
● Domain Authority
● Guest blogging,etc
Qno. 7. What is black hat SEO?
Ans. Black hat SEO refers to wrong and manipulative practices that some individuals or companies use to try to improve their website rankings. These methods violate search engine guidelines & are designed to exploit loopholes in algorithms. Some common black hat SEO practices include such as keyword stuffing,link farming,Cloaking, etc.
Qno. 8. Explain the difference between DA & PA.
Ans. DA {Domain Authority} explains the authority of your entire website rank on search engine result pages (SERPs). It’s a score on a 0 to 100 scale, with higher scores indicating a stronger and more authoritative website.
PA {Page Authority} describes the authority of a specific page based on quality backlinks, social sharing, etc.Like DA, it is scored on a scale of 0 to 100.
Qno. 9. What is the difference between SEO & SEM?
Ans. SEM: SEM {Search Engine Marketing}, it is used for the promotion of websites through paid advertising such as pay-per-click (PPC) to increase their visibility in Search Engine Result Page (SERP).
SEO : SEO {Search Engine Optimization} is an organic {non paid} method to increase the visibility in Search Engine Result Page (SERP).
Qno. 10. What are sitemaps? What are its types?
Ans. A sitemap is a file that helps crawlers to understand your website and it also provides information about the pages,videos and other files on your websites.
It has two types:
1. XML
2. HTML
Qno. 11. How many search engines are there more than Google?
Ans. Yes, there are many search engines apart from Google like
● Bing
● Yahoo
● Ask.com
● AOL.com
● Baidu.
Qno. 12. What is a search engine?
Ans. A search engine is a software system that is designed to carry out searchers. Search engines play an important role in helping users navigate the vast and diverse content available on the internet. Google is the most well-known search engine, but there are many search engines apart from Google like Bing, Yahoo, Baidu, and others, each with its own algorithms and methods for indexing and ranking web content.
Qno. 13. What is SEM & SMM?
Ans.Search Engine Marketing or SEM is a digital marketing strategy that involves the promotion of a website by increasing its visibility in search engine results pages (SERPs) through paid advertising such as pay-per-click.
Social Media Marketing or SMM is a digital marketing strategy that involves creating and sharing content on different social media such as pinterest,linkedin,etc. to achieve marketing and branding goals.
Qno. 14. What does URL stand for?
Ans. URL stands for “Uniform Resource Locator.” It is a reference or address used to access resources on the internet.
Qno.15. What is an organic search result?
Ans. Organic search results are the natural, unpaid listings that a search engine algorithm deems most relevant to a user’s search.
SEO Interview Questions And Answers For Intermediate:
Qno. 1. What are the latest updates in SEO?
Ans. Panda 2011 {Quality content}
Penguin 2012 { End of the black-hat seo}
Hummingbird 2013 { Relevancy of query and content}
Qno. 2. Which is the most crucial place for your keywords to appear?
Ans. Here are some most important area to include your keywords are:
● Page Title {Title Tag}
● Meta Description
● Body Text
● Heading tags {H1,H2,H3,etc}
Qno. 3. What is Google Analytics?
Ans. Google analytics is a free web analytics tool provided by google that tracks and analyzes the performance of websites.It also helps you to understand the user’s experience.
Qno. 4. What is Google Search Console?
Ans. Your site’s search traffic and performance can be measured with Google Search Console, and you can also use it to identify and resolve issues that improve your site’s visibility in Google Search Results Pages, or {SERPs}. It helps you to understand crawlers,indexing interaction on websites.
Qno. 5. Explain LSI?
Ans. LSI (latent semantic indexing) Keywords are words or phrases which are related to the main keyword or topic of a webpage. It allows you to optimize keywords on a web page without worrying about keyword stuffing.
For example, if you are searching for credit cards it will show all the related things like money, credit score and interest rate.
Qno. 6. What are the common SEO mistakes?
Ans. Here are the some of the common seo mistakes:
1. Keyword stuffing
2. Neglecting page speed
3. Low-quality backlinks
4. Lacking a unique title and description
5. Ignoring Mobile optimization
Qno. 7. What is 301 redirect?
Ans. 301 redirect is a method by which the user is redirected to a new url from an old url. This permanent redirect can also be used to move link juice from an old URL to a new one. Here are a few particular situations where a 301 redirect is used:
● Changing a URL
● Recreating a piece of content
● Move the content from one domain to another.
Qno. 8. How many characters limits in title and Meta Description tags?
Ans. We can use 50-60 characters in title tags and 140-160 in Meta Description tags.
Qno. 9. What do you mean by cloaking?
Ans. Presenting consumers and search engines with alternative information or URLs is known as cloaking.The purpose of cloaking is used to manipulate search engine rankings by presenting content that is optimized for search algorithms but may differ significantly from what users see.
Qno. 10. What are canonical issues?
Ans. A canonical issue refers to a situation where multiple URLs on a website point to the same or comparable information.
Some of the scenarios that result in canonical issues include:
● HTTP vs HTTPS
● www. vs non-www URLs
● URL parameter
Qno.11. Which SEO tools do you regularly use?
Ans. A SEO Specialist uses different tools such as SEMRush,Google Analytics, Google Keyword Planner, Google PageSpeed Insights, and Google Search Console for improving the ranking of websites in search results,researching keywords.
Qno.12. How did you learn SEO?
Ans. These interview questions approached SEO in a different way. Once you’ve discussed your professional and educational background to become an SEO expert, describe how you now stay up to date with the latest SEO trends and best practices.
A good SEO expert is one who is committed to:
● Continue learning
● Considering the dynamic nature of the work and the methodology used to generate search results.
If you’re interested in this position, an employer would like to know how you stay up to date on SEO techniques using online courses, blogs, webinars, tutorials, social media, and other continuing education programs.
Qno.13. Benefits of SEO In Digital Marketing
Ans. Below are some advantages of SEO
- It helps build trust in your brand.
- Brings valuable visitors to your website.
- Shows performance with concrete data.
- Advertises your business constantly.
- Reaches customers at different buying stages.
- Increases brand awareness.
- Attracts potential customers and boosts sales.
- Enhances the effectiveness of pay-per-click campaigns.
Qno.14. What is Google suggest or Autocomplete?
Ans. When we search for anything on the Google Search bar, it shows us some suggestions automatically. This plays an important role to help users complete the searches more conveniently and faster. The autocomplete process shows the suggestions on the basis of what is being searched on Google and it is of great use in SEO. Therefore, we can understand what people are searching for related to our topic, product, service, or business.
Qno. 15. What are negative keywords?
Ans. Negative keywords are terms or phrases that you specify to exclude from your online advertising campaigns. In online advertising, platforms like Google Ads, Bing Ads, or other pay-per-click (PPC) advertising systems, negative keywords help advertisers refine their targeting and prevent their ads from being displayed in irrelevant or unwanted contexts.
Qno. 16. Why are backlinks important?
Ans. The foundation of Google is the backlink model. That’s what set the Google search engine apart from the competition. The authority of the domain is increased by inbound connections from highly reputable websites, particularly those in the same industry.
Having links from reputable, industry-relevant websites is the aim. You will be listed higher in the SERPs if you have more and of higher quality.
Qno.17. What is the difference between do-follow and no follow backlinks?
Ans. A do-follow link is a standard hyperlink that Google will add to the web’s general structure.They pay “link juice” from one page to another, which is crucial for SEO.
A no-follow link is set up that Google will not follow and won’t transfer any SEO juice from one page to another.
Qno.18. What is the difference between domain name and domain name extension?
Ans. The domain name is the full name of a website. For example:
● Kayrainfotech.com,
● google.com,
● youtube.com, etc.
Domain name extension is only suffix.For example:
● .com
● .in
● .net
Qno.19. What is keyword stuffing in SEO?
Ans. Keyword stuffing is the practice of overusing keywords on a website in order to rank highly for all of those keywords.
It indicates that there is no context or flow to the material when the keywords are employed. Although many SEO experts started doing it on a daily basis a few years ago, Google increasingly prioritizes the context of the content and keywords used.
Keyword stuffing is now considered a black hat SEO tactic and lowers your website’s ranking.
Qno.20. Where do we use keywords in SEO?
Ans. Keywords play a crucial role in Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and they are used in a number of different places on a page. In on-page SEO optimization, we use keywords in:
1. Content
2. URLs
3. Title tags
4. Meta Descriptions
5. Header Tags (H1, H2, etc.)
6. Anchor Text
Qno.21. Why is sitemap important for SEO?
Ans. Sitemap is a file that helps crawlers to understand your website and it also provides information about the pages,videos and other files on your websites.
Usually, Google can quickly crawl links on small websites when all the connections are located in the menu or footer. However, a sitemap becomes essential if your website is vast and has hundreds of pages.
Qno.22. How to find a sitemap of any website?
Ans. The easiest way to find a sitemap of any website is entering the URL of that website and adding sitemap.xml behind it.For example:
https://www.kayrainfotech.com/sitemap_index.xml.
If this doesn’t work then you should try the other variations of the sitemap file name followed by site URL,such as:
● /sitemap_index.xml
● /sitemap.xml
● /sitemap/index.xml
Qno.23. How do you measure SEO success?
Ans. A lot of companies ask questions of this kind frequently. Success can be measured in a multitude of ways by utilizing key performance indicators (KPIs). Increasing website or landing page traffic, increasing conversions like sales or newsletter signups, increasing the number of inbound links, increasing traffic for a certain search phrase, or increasing referral traffic are some possible answers to an SEO interview. An SEO specialist must analyze the data to determine whether the plan and techniques need to be adjusted for success.
Qno. 24. What is interlinking?
Ans.The process of making hyperlinks between several pages or pieces of material on the same website is known as interlinking. These connections are essential to search engine optimization (SEO) and facilitate user navigation inside the same website. Another name for this is internal linking.
Qno. 25. How to check keyword density?
Ans. The ratio of times a target term or phrase occurs on a webpage relative to the total number of words on that page is known as keyword density.
Here is the formula to calculate keyword density:
Keyword Density=(Keyword count/Total word count)×100
Qno.26. How to create a sitemap for a website?
Ans. A crucial first step in search engine optimization and visibility enhancement for your website is building a sitemap. Here is guide on how to create a sitemap:
1. Step-1: Understand what actual sitemaps do.A sitemap is typically an XML file for crawlers and HTML for human visitors.
2. Step-2: Organizing your content is crucial part for creating sitemaps.
3. Step-3: Use sitemap generator such as plugins and various online tools that can automatically generate a sitemap for you.
Qno. 27. What is anchor text?
Ans. Within a hyperlink, anchor text is the text that can be clicked. When you create a hyperlink on a webpage, the anchor text is the visible, clickable part of the link that users see. It serves as a concise description of the content or page to which the link is pointing. Search engine optimization (SEO) and user experience both benefit from anchor text.
Qno. 28.What is Guest posting in seo?
Ans. A type of content marketing and link building known as guest posting involves reaching out to another webmaster, generally through email, offering to write for them in exchange for a contextual link back to your own website or blog.
Qno. 29. What is the Rankbrain algorithm in SEO? Why is it important?
Ans. Google RankBrain is a machine based algorithm that has now become a crucial part of Google’s core search engine algorithm. RankBrain intelligently interprets the context or purpose of a search query to display the most pertinent results.
Qno. 30. What is a Google Penalty?
Ans. A Google penalty is a punitive action taken by Google against a website for violating its guidelines. Google imposes penalties to maintain the quality and relevance of its search results and to discourage webmasters from engaging in practices that manipulate search engine rankings.
Qno. 31. What kinds of penalties are available on Google?
Ans. Here are some common types of penalties that Google may apply:
1. Algorithmic Penalties
2. Hacked Content Penalty
3. Hidden Text and/or Keyword Stuffing
4. Cloaked Images
5. Thin Content With Little or No Added Value
Qno. 32. Which methods are available for determining how many backlinks a website other than your own has?
Ans. There are many tools available to check the number of backlinks to a website other than your own.
● SEMrush
● Ahrefs
● Moz Link Explorer
● Google Search Console
● Ubersuggest
Qno. 33. What is the formula of bounce rate?
Ans. Bounce Rate = Number of Single Page Sessions/Total Number of Sessions)* 100
Qno. 34. What is web crawling?
Ans. Web crawling is the process by which automated programs, called web crawlers or spiders, systematically browse the World Wide Web to collect information about web pages.It is also known as web spidering.
Qno. 35. Which SEO metrics are the most important to measure?
Ans. The most important metrics to measure in SEO are:
● Click-through Rate (CTR)
● Conversion Rate
● Bounce Rate
● Ranking of primary keywords
● Total website traffic on a monthly basis
Qno. 36. Why is the robot.txt file so important?
Ans. The robot.txt file serves a variety of purposes, chief among them being the regulation of web crawlers’ actions and the guarantee that they retrieve and index web content in a way that respects website owners’ wishes and policies. Here are the key reasons why the robot.txt file is important:
● Control over Crawling
● Privacy and Security
● Crawl Budget Management
● Improved User Experience
● Preventing Duplicate Content Issues