The Top 9 SEO Interview Questions You’ll Likely Be Asked

If you’re looking for a job in SEO, you’ll likely be asked some questions about your experience and knowledge of the field.

We will go over the top 9 questions that are commonly asked in SEO interviews.

Knowing what to expect can help you feel more confident going into the interview!

The Top 9 SEO Interview Questions

Question #01: What are your current SEO goals?

The interviewer wants to know if you have a solid understanding of SEO and if you’re currently working on any initiatives.

They also want to know if your goals align with the company’s goals.

Be sure to share specific examples of campaigns or strategies you’ve implemented in the past.

Question #02: How do you stay current on SEO changes?

They are looking for someone who is up-to-date with the latest trends in search engine optimization.

You should be able to share specific ways that keep yourself informed about any new developments or strategies related to SEO best practices and how it benefits their business.

Question #03: What is the difference between SEO and SEM?

They are looking for someone who understands the different strategies involved in search engine optimization (SEO) and searches engine marketing (SEM).

You should be able to share specific examples of how you’ve implemented these strategies in your role.

Question #04: How do you keep track of the latest trends in SEO?

They are looking for someone who is up-to-date with the latest trends in search engine optimization.

You should be able to share specific ways that keep yourself informed about any new developments or strategies related to SEO best practices and how it benefits their business.

Question #05: What do you think are Google’s priorities when it comes to ranking websites?

When a business is looking for an SEO professional, one of the key questions they will ask is what Google’s priorities are when it comes to ranking websites.

This question probes into your understanding of how search engines work and how you can help their website rank higher.

Question #06: What kind of link building do you specialize in?

Link building is one of the most important aspects of SEO and can be a difficult task.

When a business is looking for an SEO professional, they will want to know what kind of link building the specialist specializes in.

This question probes into your understanding of how to build links and methods you may have used in the past.

Question #07: What is the difference between page authority and domain authority?

This question may seem simple but it can be difficult to answer because there are many aspects that come into play when determining what each one means.

Page Authority (PA) and Domain Authority (DA) are two important metrics for SEO professionals; however, they are not the only ones.

PA is a metric created by Moz that measures the ability of a given page to rank in search engine results pages (SERPs).

It is based on data from the web crawler and takes into account links to the page, as well as other factors such as keyword density and social shares.

Domain Authority (DA), on the other hand, is a metric created by Moz that measures the ability of a domain to rank in SERPs.

It is based on data from the web crawler and takes into account links to the site, as well as other factors such as age and number of pages on the site.

Both PA and DA are important metrics for SEOs to track, as they can help indicate the competitiveness of a given keyword and the overall strength of a website.

SEO interview questions will likely cover both PA and DA, as well as other important SEO metrics.

Question #08: What is the difference between a 301 and 302 redirect?

Redirects are used to send users from one URL to another.

The most common types of redirects are 301 (permanent) and 302 (temporary).

A permanent redirect, also known as a 301, indicates that the destination page has permanently moved or replaced the original page.

Temporary redirects, also known as 302s, are used when a page has temporarily moved and will return to the original page at some point in the future.

In SEO, 301s are preferable because they do not cause search engines to lose ranking value for the destination pages (though there may be small losses of PageRank until the redirected pages are indexed again).

302s, on the other hand, can sometimes cause search engines to lose ranking value for the destination pages.

For this reason, it’s best to use 301 redirects whenever possible.

Question #09: How do you check the index coverage of your website?

Indexing is one of the critical factors to make a blog SEO friendly.

The more pages get indexed on Google, the higher chances are that they will rank well in search results.

However, there’s often a delay between when you publish content and when it gets indexed.

You can use the index coverage report in Google Search Console to check how many of your website’s pages have been indexed.

The report shows you the number of pages from your site that were found and indexed by Google, as well as the total number of pages on your site.

To generate the index coverage report:

• Go to Google Search Console
• Click on “Index Coverage” in the left sidebar
• Select your website from the dropdown menu

The report will show you how many pages have been indexed out of the total number of pages on your site.

It also includes a list of errors that may prevent pages from being indexed, such as non-indexable content or server errors.

The report is divided into four sections:

“Errors,” “Valid with warnings,” “Valid” and “Excluded.”

You can click on each to learn more about the indexing issues preventing your pages from being crawled and indexed by Google bots.

• In the “Errors” section, you’ll see a list of errors that are preventing pages from being indexed. These could be things like non-indexable content (like images or PDFs) or server errors.
• The “Valid with warnings” section includes pages that have some issues but are probably not preventing them from being crawled and indexed. For example, you may have too many on-page links or you might be blocking resources like JavaScript files.
• The “Valid” section includes pages that Google has successfully indexed but could still include some issues that aren’t considered critical to crawling and indexing. These might be things like low-quality content or incorrect titles and descriptions.
• The “Excluded” section includes all of the URLs that Google will never crawl, including pages blocked in your robots.txt file and any URLs with a no-index tag on them.

Bonus Q – What is a 302 Found?

A 302 Found (sometimes also called a “temporary redirect”) is a redirect where the page has temporarily moved.

This can happen for many reasons, such as when a website is undergoing maintenance or its content has been moved.

302s are also sent to browsers by web servers so users do not need to be constantly redirected back to the same page every time they visit it.

It’s important to note that 302s do not pass as much link juice as 301 redirects (see our blog post on SEO for more information), so you should use them sparingly.

Bonus Q – What is a 307 Temporary Redirect?

A 307 Temporary Redirect is very similar to a 302 Found, except that it indicates that the page is only temporarily unavailable.

Like 302s, 307s are also sent by web servers to browsers and do not pass as much link juice as 301 redirects.

The 9 SEO interview questions listed above are some of the most common SEO interview questions that you’ll be asked in an SEO job interview.

If you’re looking to land your next SEO role, now is a great time to brush up on these SEO concepts and get acquainted with their definitions before your next interview.