SEO Interview Questions Part 2

Technical / Tactics

People who claim they are SEOs often don’t know very much about SEO.

1. Describe briefly your general SEO experience. (This can usually bring a lot of “BS” talk and distract from the issue at hand)
2. Can you write HTML code by hand? (I don’t see a need for this question. Coding by hand is no longer necessary)
3. Could you briefly explain the PageRank algorithm? (I don’t even think Matt Cutts could do this without Guy Kawasaki saying “Bullshit!” to Matt as he did at PubCon in Vegas.
4. Have you created any SEO tools either from scratch or pieced together from others? (Is this an SEO interview or a programming interview? I don’t know many SEOs who are also programmers).
5. What your opinion of PageRank?
6. Do you recommend the use of XML sitemaps and why? (This is a solid question and should get their opinions on a lot of issues)
7. What are your thoughts on the direction of Web 2.0 technologies with regards to SEO?
8. What SEO tools do you use on a weekly basis?
9. Under what circumstances would you look to exclude pages from search engines using robots.txt vs meta robots tag?
10. What areas do you think are currently the most important in organically ranking a site?
11. Do you have experience in copywriting and can you provide some writing samples? (Personally, I would rather have these two jobs separate. I don’t believe a copywriter can be a good SEO and visa versa.
12. Have you ever had something you’ve written reach the front-page of Digg? Sphinn? Or be Stumbled? (Does this really matter? You can hit all three with enough Spam, it isn’t that hard).
13. Explain to me which META tags matter in today’s world. (Is this referring to “today’s world” or to the “search engine algorithms” because most meta tags do matter, they just aren’t indexed or counted in the algo)
14. Explain various steps that you would take to optimize a website? (A better option would be to show them a page, tell them the keyword and state, “You have exactly 12 minutes to optimize this page.” And then see how they do. Asking them to verbally state what to do is poor in my view. There are too many unknown factors. Get them to perform to see what they would do.)
15. If the company whose site you’ve been working for has decided to move all of its content to a new domain, what steps would you take? (Poor question as the chances of this happening are not common).
16. Rate from 1 to 10, tell me the most important “on page” elements. (I don’t think most top SEOs could answer this question, or really care about it. If you analyze any industry and the keywords that drive the industry, you will see that different elements count stronger than others in Google)
17. Review the code of past clients/company websites where SEO was performed. (This could be good to do, but also can be time consuming. Also, what proof is there that the person sitting across from you, or corresponding with you is the person which did the work?)
18. What do you think about link buying? (Great question)
19. What is Latent Semantic Analysis (LSI Indexing)? (and a good follow-up is what is their opinion of it).
20. What is Phrase Based Indexing and Retrieval and what roles does it play? (I’m not sure if this is a good interview question since this has more to do with detecting of Spam than it does in placement).
21. What is the difference between SEO and SEM? (If the candidate doesn’t know this, there isn’t a reason to continue).
22. What kind of strategies do you normally implement for backlinks? (A better option would be ask for the domain of a site they have reached a PR5 for and do a backlink analysis with a program such as SEO Elite.
23. What role does social media play in an SEO strategy? (I don’t see a need to ask this in an interview)
24. What things wouldn’t you do to increase rankings because the risk of penalty is too high? (I am assuming Black Hat tactics are sought after here).
25. What’s the difference bewtween PageRank and ToolBar PageRank? (I love this question. If you get “Aren’t they the same?” end the interview immediately).
26. Why might you want to use nofollow on an internal link? (This should also get their opinion on the actual use of the tag itself)

Analysis

A big part of SEO involves assessing the effectiveness of a campaign both relative to past performance as well as competing sites.

1. Which web analytics are you most familiar with? (Every SEO must be familiar with web analytics)
2. From an analytics perspective, what is different between a user from organic search results vs. a type-in user? (I am unsure of the real reason behind this question)
3. How do you distinguish the results of your search optimization work from a seasonal change in traffic patterns? (I’d toss this one out too)
4. How do you evaluate whether an SEO campaign is working? (Hopefully the answer here is “conversions” and not traffic)
5. What does competitive analysis mean to you and what techniques do you use? (make sure this answer stays brief or it could be very distracting)
6. If you’ve done 6 months of SEO for a site and yet there haven’t been any improvements, how would you go about diagnosing the problem? (I hate this question. If it takes you 6 months to figure out there hasn’t been any improvements, you’re doing it wrong. You should be able to see changes within three weeks of implementation. Six months is a joke in my book)
7. How many target keywords should a site have? (This is a poor question as well as it depends upon the industry and the goals of the company).
8. How do *you* help a customer decide how to their budget between organic SEO and pay-per-click SEM? (This is a poor question as well. You use PPC to understand which keywords convert and you concentrate on the keywords which are revenue producers on both the organic and PPC side)
9. You hear a rumor that Google is weighting the HTML LAYER tag very heavily in ranking the relevance of its results - how does this affect your work? (Hopefully the candidate discusses testing the rumor on a test domain before implementation on the target domain)
10. Why does Google rank Wikipedia for so many topics? )Great question which should produce insightful answers)

Industry Involvement

Is SEO just a job to pay the bills? Nothing wrong with that, but some senior positions can benefit from more enthusiasm and interest that can be measured by work done outside of the office.

1. If salary and location were not an issue, who would you work for? (Do you really want to know the answer to this? )

2. In Google Lore - what are ‘Hilltop’, ‘Florida’ and ‘Big Daddy’? (This shouldn’t be a “decision maker” if they get it wrong, but it would be good if they are “well read” in the industry)

3. Have you attended any search related conferences? (Follow-up should be pros and cons)

4. Google search on this candidates name, (if you cannot find them, that’s a red flag).

5. Do you currently do SEO on your own sites? Do you operate any blogs? Do you currently do any freelance work and do you plan on continuing it? (This is vital as any SEO who is good always has side projects)

6. Of the well-known SEOs, who are you not likely to pay attention to? (I love this one)

7. What are some challenges facing the SEO industry? (I don’t like questions like this as it becomes more of “speculation conversation” which isn’t very productive)

8. What industry sites, blogs, and forums do you regularly read? (This is a great question and they better rattle off less than a dozen, or they spend too much time reading and not enough time working)

9. Who are the two key people - who started Google? (Does this really matter?)

10. Who is Matt Cutts? (Same. Does it really matter? Honestly, if someone had no idea who Matt Cutts was, could they still be a great SEO? I say “Yes”)

11. If you were bidding on a contract, what competitor would you most worry about? (I don’t see a need for this one either)

Open-Ended

These questions are more about how an answer is given rather than the actual answer. They often scare interviewees, but with no wrong answer they’re actually a good opportunity to shine.

1. Tell me your biggest failure in an SEO project (good question - watch them “shift” in their seat)

2. What areas of SEO do you most enjoy? (look for direct and to the point responses)

3. In what areas of SEO are you strongest? (test these areas heavily to make sure they are really strong in those areas)

4. In what areas of SEO are you weakest? (make sure they actually admit to a weakness. Those who state “I’m too organized” or “I have too much attention to detail” are red flags. Everyone has weaknesses.)

5. How do you handle a client who does not implement your SEO recommendations? (This should produce some “passionate” answers. If they respond, “I’m okay with it, it’s their site, it is their choice” is a warning. You want someone who responds, “If they don’t implement the changes, why are they clients?” is a better answer.)

6. Can you get “xyz” company listed for the keyword “Google” in the first page? (I can only assume this is a trick question to see if the candidate understands the role of authoritativeness in the algorithm.)

7. What do you think is different about working for an SEO agency vs. doing SEO in-house? (This is another “philosophical” discussion that I would rather not have with a candidate.)

8. Why are you moving from your current position and/or leaving any current projects? (Ah, a great question. Listen close to the reasons, and any “bitching” which results, and if it does, just keep quiet and let them talk.)

Some of these questions were blatantly copied from the The Mad Hat’s list. Others came from Greg Meyers, Director of Search at Commerce360; Stoney deGeyter, Owner at Pole Position Marketing; and Liana Evans, Director of Internet Marketing at KeyRelevance.

Personally, I prefer to do a brief phone interview, and then to an in-person interview (if location permits) and I do the following:

1) .htaccess knowledge. Do they know how to do the non-www page protection? (If they don’t know how, I still continue the interview. If they do, and can do it with me, they score major points).
2) I have them show me a site which ranks well that they have done the SEO on, WHICH THEY STILL MANAGE. I then ask that they put my name at the bottom of the home page (I require they bring their own laptop). If they can’t do it (which means they don’t have FTP access to the site), I end the interview right there.
3) I have them do a search for a competitive phrase, and then a pick a random number, such as #34, and we go to that page and I ask, what three things would you first implement to get this page to move from #34 into the Top 20, and what is the expected time frame. This question gives me insight on their code reading ability, how they do competitive analysis and how to break down what a page needs to get a better ranking.

Good luck finding the right people for your business.