50 SEO Interview Questions and Answers

1) What is SEO?  What are the important types of SEO methods? 

Search engine optimization, or SEO, is a process of changing the position of a web page or

website in a search engine results by using keywords or phrases.

Two Types of SEO are:

1. On-Page Optimization
2. Off-Page Optimization

2) What SEO tools do you use?

The SEO tools that I use are Google Analytics, Keyword Planner, Alexa, Open Site Explorer, and Google Webmaster.

3) What do you mean by Backlink?

The incoming links to your website or webpage are referred to as backlinks. It is also called an inbound link.

4) What are outbound Links?

The outbound links are Links from your website to another webpage or website.

5) Explain Googlebot

To index and update a webpage ,Google uses the Googlebot (Web Spider). Caching, Crawling, and indexing of a webpage are done through Googlebot by collecting details from that webpage.

6) What is Cross-linking?  What is the function of Crosslinking?

Cross-linking is the process of linking one site to another site.It provides users with reference sites that contain content related to the search.The 2 websites cross-linking are not be owned by the same person.In other words, cross-linking is a barter wherein I link to you, and you link to me.It could be a 2-way link or 3-way link.

In a 2-way link, site A links to site B, and site B links to site A.

In a 3-way link, site A links to site B, site B links to site C, and site C links to site A.

7) What is the main purpose of using keywords in SEO?

A keyword is a single word, and while a combination of those keywords makes phrases. These keywords or phrases are used by the search engines to populate the subjects on the internet. Search engine stores keywords in the database, and when a search is done, it will come up with the best possible match.

8)  Explain body content relevance

Whenever there is a text that does not have images on the web page is referred to as body content relevance or non-image text.It helps optimize the sites and improves your ranking in the search engine.

9) Expain Spiders, Robots, and Crawlers

Spiders, robots, and crawlers, they are all the same and referred by different names.It is a software program that follows or “Crawls” various links throughout the internet, and then grabs the content from the sites and adds to the search engine indexes.

10) What does it mean if nothing appears while searching for the domain?

On searching for your domain, if nothing appears, then there are three possibilities.

1. Maybe the site is banned by search engines
2. Maybe no index by search engines
3. Some canonical issues

11)What is keyword stemming?

The process of finding out new keywords from the root keyword of the search query is referred to as keyword stemming.Adding a prefix, suffix, or pluralization can be used to create a new keyword.

12) Name some SEO blogs that help you enhance your content marketing strategies

1. Google Webmaster Central
2. Search Engine Land
3. SEOSmarty
4. MOZ
5. Search Engine Journal
6. BacklinkO

13) What do you mean by Cloaking?

Cloaking is a deceptive way of optimizing your website for search. In this technique, different content will be shown to the search engine crawler than what is presented to the end users.

14) How many types of Meta Tags are there in SEO?  What are their character’s limits?

There are main types of Meta tags in SEO.

1. Meta Description tag with 150 to 160 Character limits
2. Meta Keyword tag
3. Title Tag with 60-character limits
4. Meta Robots

15) How many characters are limited in the & Meta Description tag?

We can add 60 characters in a title tag and 160 characters in the Meta Description tag. Though Google now places a pixel limit.

16) What is Google Sandbox?

Google sandbox is an imaginary area where new websites and their search rating are put on hold until they prove worthy for ranking.In other words, it checks the standard of the website.

17) What is Black Hat SEO

In order to get a high ranking in the SEO search engine result page, websites go for various methods and techniques which are characterized by two categories.One method that is acceptable by search engine guidelines is known as White Hat SEO, while the other method, which is not acceptable by search engine guidelines, is known as Black Hat SEO.

18) What are some famous Black Hat SEO techniques?

1. Link Farming
2. Hidden text, etc.
3. Gateway or Doorway pages
4. Cloaking
5. Keyword Stuffing

19) State the difference between ‘nofollow’ and ‘dofollow’ link

Nofollow links do not pass Link juice and have no impact on the Google Ranking Algorithm. A dofollow link passes link juice and has an impact on the Google Ranking Algorithm.

20) What is the difference between PR (page rank) and SERP (Search engine result page)

Page rank is calculated on the basis of quality inbound links from other websites or webpages to our webpage or a website.SERP (Search Engine Result page) is the placement of the website or webpages which is returned by the search engine after a search query or attribute.

21) Why is the Title Tag on a Website valuable?

Title tags are essential in SEO, as it tells about the contents on that web page. Through title tags, only the search engine will notify the user what is there in the page.

22) What is considered more significant, creating content or building backlinks?

Both are necessary for creating quality content is equally important to building backlinks. Although link building is useful in building authority to a site and for ranking as well, quality content is the first element that is considered to be more responsible for ranking.

23) What are the differences between SEO and SEM?

SEM (Search Engine Marketing), it is used for the promotion of a website through paid advertising by increasing its visibility in the Search Engine Result Page (SERP) in the Ads section.  While SEO is optimizing the site to increase the organic ranking of a site.

24) Explain the term LSI

LSI stands for Latent Semantic Indexing. This technique is established to obtain the data by relating the word to its closest counterparts or its similar context. For example, if you are searching for something with the keyword “CAR” it will show all the related things like classic cars, car auctions, Bentley cars, car races, etc.

25) How will you cross-check whether your SEO campaign is working or not?

In order to check whether your SEO campaign is working or not, the first approach is to check the website’s statistics, which tells you about the origin of the traffic.  The other way of checking is to make a search based on the relevant keywords and key phrases and look for the search result. The number of search results will tell you whether your SEO campaign is working or not.

26) What is the meaning of competitive analysis?

Competitive analysis does the comparison between the website I am optimizing and the website that is ranked highly in search results.

27) What are the social media platforms used for SEO?

Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Land inkedIn are some important platforms which is used for online promotion.

28) What is PPC?

PPC stands for Pay Per Click and is an advertisement campaign hosted by Google.  It is segmented into two modules, CPC ( Cost per click) and CPM ( Cost per thousand impressions) through flat rate and bidding, respectively. In CPC, if the user clicks on the advert, only then the advertiser will be charged.

29) What is a 301 redirect?

It is a method by which the user is redirected to new page url to a new page URL. It is a permanent redirect, and it is also useful in directing link juice to the new URL from the old URL.

30) What are Webmaster tools?

Webmaster tool is a service provided by Google from which you can get backlink information, crawl errors, search queries, Indexing data, CTR, etc.

31) What is keyword density, and what is the formula for knowing keyword density?

From an SEO point of view, keyword density will definitely help to stand out your content from others. The formula to know the keyword density is ( Total number of keywords/ total number of words in your article) multiplied by 100.

32) What is robots.txt?

Robots.txt is a text file. It is through this file. It gives instructions to search engine crawlers about the indexing and caching of a webpage, file or a website directory, domain.

33) What will you do if the company website you are working for decides to move all the content to a new domain?

The first step would be to update the previous site with a permanent redirect to a new page for all the pages. After that, I will remove the previous content from the search engine in order to avoid duplicate content issues.

34)How can you optimize a website that has millions of pages?

From an SEO point of view, for a dynamic website, special additional SEO stuff has to be implemented.

1. Good Internal link structure
2. Generation of dynamic title and description
3. Dynamic XML sitemap generation

35) What is the latest update in SEO?

The latest updates in SEO are:

1. Panda
2. Penguin

36) What are the key aspects of the Panda update?

Panda is to improve the search on Google. The latest version has focused on quality content, proper design, proper speed, proper use of images and many more.

37) What are the key aspects of the Penguin update?

Penguin is the code name for Google’s algorithm. Its main target is to decrease the ranking of those websites that are violating the Google Webmaster guidelines. These guidelines are violated by using black hat techniques like cloaking and stuffing.

39) How can you check if someone is not building or redirecting a low-quality backlink to your site?

To prevent someone from building or redirecting a low-quality link to your site, you can use tools like,Ahrefs,Open Site ExplorerAt regular intervals. You can either request the webmaster to remove the bad link or disavow it.

40) How do backlink tools work?

Backlink tools run a series of tests to tell you how many backlinks are pointing to the web link you entered.  Additional information is also being collected like anchor text used, Domain Authority & Trust of the backlink source, and any potential flags or warnings for each link.

41) How often should you perform a link audit?

A link audit may be a tedious and complicated process.  If you have just started on building links, you can do an audit quite often.  But a complete link audit should be done approximately once a year.

42) What do you understand by Frames in HTML?

A-Frame in HTML is a technique that divides the content of a page into several parts.  Search engines consider Frames as completely different pages and may have a negative impact on SEO. We should avoid the usage of Frames and use basic HTML instead.

43) Which is the most important area to include your keywords?

The most important area to include your keywords are,

1. Page title
2. Body text
3. Meta Description

44) What will you do if the search engines ban your website for black hat practices?

If the search engines ban your website for black hat practices, you can apply for re-inclusion after correcting your wrongdoings.

45) What will be your approach if your SEO method doesn’t work?

If the SEO method doesn’t work, then do the  following,First, see whether it is a new project, then re-check the keywords.Then look for relevant keywords that can be helpful.Make changes in page text, title, and description.If still not ranked, then there may be some other serious issues like bad links, penguin/panda or other Google penalty, crawlability issues, UI issues, etc.

46) How does HTTPS affect SEO?

Websites with HTTPS (SSL certificates) are more secure and get a slight ranking boost compared to HTTP sites. Google Chrome even marks HTTP sites as “Not Secure,” impacting user trust and SEO performance.

47) What is E-E-A-T in SEO?

E-E-A-T stands for Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness. It’s part of Google’s Quality Rater Guidelines, and it’s crucial for YMYL (Your Money, Your Life) websites like finance, health, or legal industries.

48) How does Mobile-First Indexing affect SEO?

With Mobile-First Indexing, Google uses the mobile version of your site for crawling and ranking. Ensuring mobile-friendly design, fast loading, and responsive content is critical for SEO success.

49) What is an XML Sitemap and how is it different from an HTML Sitemap?

1. XML Sitemap: A file that lists all important pages for search engines.

2. HTML Sitemap: A page on the website designed for users to navigate easily.
   Both improve crawlability and SEO visibility.

50) Explain the difference between a Canonical Tag and a 301 Redirect.

1. Canonical Tag: Used when you want multiple versions of a page to exist but indicate the “preferred” version to search engines.

2. 301 Redirect: Permanently redirects users and search engines from one URL to another.
   Both help solve duplicate content issues, but their usage depends on the situation.