SEO Job Interview Questions. The result of a job interview relies on how well you qualify for it. Interview preparations not only involve studying for your job but also how you select to answer the questions posed. In this blog post, I have made a list of top questions and answers for SEO interviews to assist you to get your dream SEO job.

Please note, these are some search engine optimization questions I would ask a candidate based on the position they are applying for and may not necessarily be asked by others.

SEO Interview Questions 

The set of SEO questions detailed below is especially for someone who is fresh out of college, someone who has just finished a digital marketing certification course or has recently finished an internship.

1. What is SEO

This is one of the most basic questions asked by the interviewer during an interview, especially for the fresher or beginner level. 

SEO is known as search engine optimization.

SEO is the technique of optimizing your website to enhance your site’s visibility or ranking on search engines and for their users. 

In other words, it is a method that will help your website show up more usually on the Search Engine Result Page(SERP) for relevant searches.

2. Name 5 basic on-page elements in SEO?

Content Optimization 

Content is certainly the most crucial factor when it comes to on-site SEO. Without quality content, search engines won’t have enough details to index your pages perfectly and help you rank. One should not only look into creating new content but also do changes and update their existing content from time to time.

URL Structure 

URL is a short form of “Uniform Resource Locator” and is used to determine the address of particular records or other resources on the internet. Search engines require a unique URL for each piece of content to do crawl and index content and direct user to it!

Header Tags 

It can be used to determine the structure of your website content. This makes it more comfortable for the bots to crawl and comprehend the page better and allows users to navigate your content. 

Meta Description

Search engines like Google, Yahoo, Bing, and others can utilize the meta description tags as snippets for your web pages in search results. While a page’s title is a few words, the description can be a sentence or even a short paragraph. Adding a meta description tag to each of your web pages is always a good exercise in case Google cannot find a good piece of text to use in the snippet.

Title Links

A title link is a title that appears on the search engine result pages and other properties that link to the web page. Google can automatically choose the title link by using various sources, but you can display your preferences by following the guidelines shared by Google. A title tag is an HTML component defined in the HTML code of a webpage. 

3. How does Google Search Works?

One of the Important questions asked by the interviewer, no SEO interview questions guide is complete without this question. 

Google’s mission is to collect all the data available across the globe and make it available and useful for one and all. Google Search works in three stages:

Crawling

Crawling refers to following the links on a web page to new pages, and persisting to discover and follow links on new pages to other new pages.

The search engine will find new pages when it follows a link from a page already available.

Indexing

After a page is crawled by a Google bot or the Google crawler, Google tries to define the purpose of a page. Google analyses the images files, videos, page content, and attempts to understand them. 

This information is stored in the Google Index, which is a huge database that’s stored on various computers. This method is called indexing. 

While most of the web pages are crawled before indexing, Google may also index pages without accessing their content.

Serving Search Results

When someone searches for a particular query on Google or other search engines, Google tries to find the most relevant answer from its index based on many ranking factors. Google attempts to deliver its users with the highest quality answer by evaluating factors such as the type of device, location, language, and previous queries.

4. Why SEO is important to businesses?

Search engine optimization is the most cost-effective and practical way to both comprehend and reach customers in key moments that matter.

SEO helps in creating a website’s visibility thereby enhancing its presence online.

Apart from that, SEO is fairly cheap and cost-effective as compared to other marketing channels. 

With the pandemic, a lot of customers shifted to online markets to address their needs. A lot of companies and brands turned to SEO to serve to their online customer.

5. What are the different types of Sitemaps?

Mainly there are two types of sitemaps:

• HTML Sitemap
• XML Sitemap

XML Sitemaps are further split into the following types:

• Video Sitemap
• News Sitemap
• Image Sitemap

6. How do you approach keyword research?

For this question, the answer may differ from person to person. Below list a few points on my approach to keyword research:

• Firstly, try to understand the business, goals, target audience, and niche.
• Make a list of products or services the business/website offers
• Make a list of root/seed keywords
• Utilize keyword research software or you can use Keyword planner to get a wider range of keywords and search terms 
• Complete the set of keywords and map with the search intent 

How To Get A Job In Top-Rated SEO Company

So, you have decided to work in the SEO sector. Let me tell you that you have made the best decision of your life. The SEO industry is an evergreen industry not only in the USA but also all across the globe.

Change in technology, rapid modernization, and technological updates makes the SEO industry evergreen. 

Also, the market size of the SEO industry globally has significantly grown over the past 5 years.

Why should work in the SEO industry?

Before we move ahead and understand how to get a job in your dream SEO company, let us first understand what are the perks, advantages, and benefits of working in the SEO sector in the USA.

• 

  Good salary package. One of the biggest advantages of working in an SEO company is the high salary package. In the USA, the average salary that one can expect in top SEO companies ranges from 3-10 lakhs dollars per annum.

• Recession-proof industry. The other benefit of working in the SEO sector is that it is a recession-proof industry. No matter what happens, there will tremendous amount of job opportunities in the SEO sector for ever. You just need to have the right skills and mindset in order to make the most of your career in the SEO industry.
• Amazing leave policy. Now here comes the hear and soul of every SEO company. I agree with the fact that employees can’t work every day through the year. Leaves are required for pleasure, leisure, emergency, or for health-related issues. TCS, a top-rated SEO company allows its employees to get 34 days of leave. This includes 8casual leaves,16 earned leaves, and 10 sick leaves.
• Onsite opportunities. Certain SEO companies also send their employees abroad to work with clients in their locations. This gives you an opportunity to travel to a different part of the world and get more knowledge.
• Learning opportunities. Learning opportunities in the SEO industry are immense. Companies give induction training to all their newly hired employees so and make them aware of their job roles.  Of course, leadership training and other skill-based training are also concluded for the managerial level employees.
• Growth IT companies also give timely promotions, salary hikes, and other growth opportunities to their employees. 

How to get a job in an SEO Company?

Now you might have got an overview of the SEO industry and why you should be working in an SEO company. Now let me share 11 amazing tips with you that can help you in getting a job in your dream SEO company, especially in a country like the USA.

1) Get a degree in engineering 

If you want to work in a top-rated SEO company, then you must have a degree in engineering. The USA is the largest producer of engineers and shows the demand for engineers in the USA is quite good.

Every year SEO companies like TCS, Wipro, Infosys, Accenture, and Tech Mahindra hire engineers in bulk and offers them lucrative salary packages.

The average salary package offered by these companies ranges from 3-5 lakhs for a fresh engineer graduate in the USA.

This clearly indicates that having a degree in engineering will help you in getting a job in an SEO company.

2) Learn necessary skills

One of the most important things that will help you in getting a job in an SEO company is your skillset. Right skills can get you a job even if you are not a graduate or have a degree in engineering.

In fact, companies like Google, Amazon, Facebook, and Twitter are already hiring candidates who are not having degrees but have the right skill set.

Hence, it is of utmost importance for you to learn relevant skills.

Although there is no specific skill required to get a job if you are good in programming or C++ then companies will hire you. Java is Python is also on a boom, so must also have a bit of knowledge about them.

Apart from this, here are the following skills that you think of learning;

1. Programming.
2. Website designing and development.
3. Mobile app development.
4. Graphics designing.
5. Big data
6. Analytics.
7. SEO and SEM.

3) Prepare the best ever resume

If you seriously want to get hired by top SEO companies, then pay attention while preparing your resume. A lot of fresh graduates take resume making process lightly and register later.

Don’t do this mistake.

A resume is something that can help you in creating a good first impression in front of your employer. It also details your skillset, education, previous work ex, certification, degree, and a lot more about you.

Hence, make sure to create a good resume so that you can get a job.

Take a look at my resume and try creating something like this;

My resume is short, simple, and up to the point. I have covered all my skills and expertise in this resume. This is a resume that you need to create as a fresher. If you have experience then you can show write about for which companies you worked before and your job profile.

4) Shortlist companies

There are more than 10,000 SEO companies in the USA and you can’t think of applying to each one of them. Hence, you need to create a list of top 5-10 SEO companies depending upon your choice, preference, and education qualification.

5) Apply on the company website

The other thing that you need to keep in mind while applying for a job in SEO companies is that you need to apply for a job directly via the company’s website. This will ensure that your resume reaches out the HR working in that company or the concerned person.

A lot of companies do have dedicated web-page related to careers and job openings. Here you can find vacancies and the latest job openings in companies. You can also search for a job that matches your profile.

Although there are multiple ways by which you can apply for the job in IT companies but directly applying on a company’s website is the best.

This ensures that there is no mediator involved and you directly work on the company’s payroll if selected.

6) Submit your resume on job portals

If you are not getting any response by submitting your resume directly on the company’s website then start using job portals. With millions of job post listings along with other resources like blog posts, career tips, resume preparation tips, and the company’s overview and work culture, using job portals is one of the best ways to find a job in 2021.

I personally got my first job by using Indeed.com, a top-rated job-hunting websites.

Today, there are tons of job portals available on the internet, but I would personally suggest you use Indeed.com.

This is the most genuine job portal out there on the internet. The rest of the job portals are filled with scammers and thugs who’ll ask you for a commission to get a job in companies.

On indeed, you’ll directly get interview calls from the company, provided that your resume is shortlisted.

7) Leverage LinkedIn

With more than 30 million companies listed and 20 million job postings, LinkedIn is surely one of the best social media websites for professionals. LinkedIn can help you in finding your dream job easily if you leverage it wisely.

There are two ways by which you can find a job on LinkedIn.

First, you use the job search feature and look for a job depending on your skill, knowledge, location, company name, or salary.

Second, by connecting with the HRs of your dream company. You can send them a connection request along with a note and ask them if there is any vacancy available related to your profile. 

Be straightforward and on the point. LinkedIn is a professional networking site and people use it solely for job finding, hiring candidates or networking with other professionals.

8) Go through consultancy

HR consultant firms are the ones who act as a connecting dot between companies for candidates. Nowadays, top companies outsource their entire hiring process to a third-party company that looks for candidates and line interviews for them in various companies.

If any company hires you by this process then you’ll be working on a contract basis in which your employer will be your constancy and client will be the company in which you’ll be joining.

Moreover;

You’ll also be working on the payroll of your consultancy.

After completing your contract, your client company can think of hiring you as a full-time employee depending on your performance.