A few years back, I wrote a popular post on SEOmoz featuring a set of questions I felt were a litmus test for SEOs seeking to charge for their consulting services. It's time to revisit that, as many of the answers have changed and the baseline has moved (forward).
If you're in the SEO business professionally - either as an in-house marketer helping your team with SEO or as an SEO consultant (solo or agency), this knowledge should be second-nature. And if you're hiring a new SEO or seeking interview questions for someone to bring onto the team, feel free to use these to separate the wheat from the chaff:
- Which is more likely to have a positive impact on a page's search engine rankings and why - 10 links from 1 website or 1 link each from 10 different websites?
_ - Explain the difference between the following items and how the search engines treat them - 301 response code, 302 response code, canonical URL tag and meta refresh.
_ - How can the meta robots tag impact how search engines crawl, index and display content on a web page?
_ - Who are the top 2 search engines (as ranked by share of queries) in the following countries - the United States, United Kingdom, Russia and China?
_ - Name at least 3 elements critical to ranking well in Google Local/Maps/Places search.
_ - What aspects of social media marketing have a positive impact on search engine rankings (apart from the value of direct links from the social sites)?
_ - List 5 tags/locations on a page where employing a target keyword can have a positive effect on search engine rankings.
_ - Describe the distribution of search query demand and what is meant by the "fat head" and "long tail."
_ - Name 6 tools/sources that will display a list of external URLs that link to a webpage.
_ - What are some ways to positively influence the ratio of pages a search engine will crawl and index on a website?
_ - BONUS! Describe the concept of topic modeling and how modern search engines might use it to improve the quality of their results.
I'll post answers to the questions in the next 12-24 hours and link to it from this post. In the meantime, I'm looking forward to the comments and discussion of answers, including any additional suggestions you have for "litmus test" quality questions.
UPDATE: Answers to the questions above are now live here. Enjoy!
List at least 3 tools and/or resources for conducting keyword research?
List at least 3 ways to harm your own search engine rankings? - Because sometimes, knowing what not to do is as important as knowing what to do.
Nice additions James.
Thanks Darren. I bet Dr. Pete has a good one for the Not-To-Do list:)
All I really do is wreak havoc on sites, report about it, and then pretend to be an SEO expert. So far, it's working pretty well ;)
Cite 2~3 effective ways for link baiting.
My 12th question: In the afternoon, will you fall asleep at your desk without the aid of coffee?
I worked with other in-house SEO guys since January of this year. This was a battle waged daily. Implementing a mile-long list of 301's will turn anyone into a zombie.
Knowing and doing are two very different things. How about asking the SEO to show 3 clients that they've successfully ranked for competitive terms that they can contact. I know some will disagree, but if an SEO can't provide this than they are either just beginning or have not produced results for their clients. Either way it brings out one of the most important factors in SEO... Results.
This is the way that I have gotten a job the last 3 years.
I see people suggest this so often, and I have to disagree, firstly if someone is still employed and looking to move jobs, this is a sure fire no no, if they're in house they won't want you contacting their boss and if they're agency they won't be able to put you in touch with their clients. Secondly, it assumes that every member of an seo team will have had direct contact with a client. I can think of many instances where an SEO will have been instrumental in a campaign, but is not the main point of contact for a client and therefore may not be able to get a recommendation from them.
Yes you can look for things like linkedin recommendations, but expecting to be able to talk to someone for a recommendation will in many instances be unreasonable.
I see what you mean, but I think in general it the right type of question. You could phrase it slightly more openly:
Results based questions are good, you just have to leave it slightly open - because really, you are not judging on the result, but on the techniques and knowledge needed to get there
Hi Yoshimi,
I see your point with in house SEO's and how that may be difficult. While it does put those SEO's in a tougher position I still believe it is a good best practice for any business to get references from past clients.
If you were going to hire a contractor to build you a home you would want to see homes they've built before... yes?
Webfor - I completely see where you're coming from, and for the first few years of my career, that's how I felt, too. However, as I've seen more situations, particularly with large enterprise clients, I'd say that many great SEOs likely won't have much in the way of results to show for a lot of their engagements, simply because the clients won't take action for months or years. There are consulting clients frmo SEOmoz's past (e.g. some from 2006 and 2007) who are literally taking action this year on recommendations we gave 3-4 years ago.
Knowledge is a powerful weapon, and for many of the top market SEOs, their experience is in how to work through corporate structures, around politcal roadblocks and in spite of technical or resource challenges. The results won't be #1 for a high value keyword, but they'll often be and improvement in overall search traffic - # of keywords sending referrals, # of pages receiving traffic, # of total search visits, # of conversions from search, etc.
I cannot but ask this side question Rand: is not somehow frustrating from a consultant point of view to see your recommendations being put in practice after so many years? What about all the things that have changed in between? Or, contractually (and theoretically talking) there was a somehow "following for updates"?
I ask it because having passed 3/4 years at least some of the many actions suggested can be now outdated due to all the news that took place in the industry.
To conclude: even if a big company has its bureaucracy, to wait so long to act in a field that is so fast moving seems to be - IMHO - myopic, or am I wrong?
Hi Rand,
I can see how that would be much more difficult to prove results, especially with corporate bureaucracies taking years to take action. How frustrating that would be! I also understand how experience creates different perspectives and I can't say that I'm consulting any fortune 500 companies on their SEO strategy, so to that I will defer to your expertise.
If I was an unbiased consultant working with a business to choose an SEO firm or SEO Consultant, I would still have a hard time not recommending that they look at what that company or individual has done in the past and ask to speak to clients, see case studies, testimonials, etc.
I think, as you pointed out, that it depends on if they're consulting an internal team or if they themselves are implementing the SEO initiatives. While the architect can create an amazing plan they cannot be responsible for the builder not building it. Quite the dilemma.
Kevin
I did actually think about employing this approach to getting input from the SEO community on my approach to SEO... ah well..
One thing I am absolutely delighted to read is that you share the same frustration I do with a lot of recommendations not being implemented or more to the point, that SEO in large organisations is more than a bit of on page optimisation and link building. I have just lost out on a pitch because the client asked to see who I am working with (not case study, just who I am working with) so I gave them the big names to make a good impression.
They then got someone to check the SEO on these sites.... the sites that have barely had anything done to them because I am still working my way through the political and technical obstacles that you find with large organisations.
Aaaaargh!! So they went with the company who rank for a generic "SEO term" that appears in their URL and for which none of the well known and respected agencies rank for... I rest my case.
I am sorry but I find this pretty stupid to think like that, I mean one can only play the games once he know how to play it. I don’t think knowing and doing is very different from each other it’s very simple I guess… I do cuz I know and I know so I can do.
Yes Linked in recommendations and other testimonials on the personal profile and yes the personal blogs or may be guest post he/she writes is the best way to predict the level of expertise.
I have to agree Yoshimi… in this case.
Great post, Rand! I couldn't help but think of the "Litmus Configuration" scene from Midnight Run (https://bit.ly/fs8Z7l) after seeing the title! =)
Here are some questions to add on:
• List 5 SEO suggestions specifically for a web developer/designer regarding website structure and page templates.
• Does SEO credit get passed via URL-shortened links?
• Name at least 3 tactics to search engine optimize the following: A) Video B) Facebook Page C) Twitter Page
• What is the impact of social bookmarking on SEO? Would you include it as part of your SEO strategy? Why or why not?
• Name 3 tactics specific to ecommerce that would help a product appear in search results.
• List at least 3 semantic search engines. Does SEO strategy change for semantic search engines versus Google?
• What is the difference between "black hat" and "white hat" SEO? Which one are you?
This is fun. =) I think we should make an official "SEO Certification Test" out of all these somehow. Thoughts?
I would like to see some of your Qs added, and yes, an SEO cert from SEOmoz would be very cool!!
Looking forward to your answers! I felt like back in school when trying to answer to your questions and now I want to see my grade.
Very timely, I've been thinking a lot about good answers to difficult SEO questions this week :D
Ive been out looking for a job the last week or two and I was wondering why only 1 company that I saw was asking questions like this.
I think if your going out there looking to work with an SEO company or inhouse, you should be looking for people who ask these questions.
It was really worrying to sit through an interview and not be asked anything technical or meaningful like this. If they dont ask it in the interview, I think its unlikely that they will be doing this type of stuff in their normal course of work - means you can end up in really the wrong working environment if you're not careful.
I think im doing well on your questions, but I'll keep mum till you post the answers hah!
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Probably a good place to point people to sharkseo's test too, if these questions didn't stretch you enough.
Why did you have to send the link to sharkseo?! I had work to do today, now I'm just addicted to finishing this! hehe
Fun! I thought I'd take a stab at answering them (and I promise I'm not just googling the answers, that would be lame!). :)
1- Depends, really. The short answer is 1 link from 10, as having varying linking domains has been shown to boost rankings. However, 10 links from a 12 year old PR9 .edu site vs 1 link from 10 PR0 sits that just launched.. Well, you get the idea.
2- 301- Permanently moved a page, 302 temporarily moved a page, Canonical helps battle dupelicate content issues by defining the intended URL, and the meta refresh just refreshes the page.
3- I've only used it to block search engines from indexing or caching, but I'm sure there's lots more you could do.
4- US- Google & Youtube. I've never done any seo out of the safety of the ol US of A, so I can;t speak for the rest.
5- A local address, geo targeting, and inbound links from other local websites.
6- You get a good ripple effect. Meaning, when something goes viral you're likely to get lots of natural link love from blogs.
7- Page Title, H1, P, IMG ALT, Bold, Italic..
8- I've never heard of fat head, but I'm googling that in like 10 seconds. The long tail is the longer (3+ word) searches that are more qualified, have less competition, and typically have less volume.
9- Open site explorer, Yahoo SIte Explorer, Market Samurai, wordtracker's link building tool.. Uh.. I think I used one called backlink watch once. That's all I got.
10 - sitemap.xml, google's webmaster tools, the SEOmoz campaign tool's error reporting, making sure pages have a few links (both internally and externally).
11- You mean my keyword stuffed footers might stop working?!?!?!?!? :)
That was fun. I look forward to seeing how close I came.
Thanks!
Kevin
Great answers! I bet M. Cutts couldn't even get all of these right. Haha
Hey Rand, a couple suggestions:
1) What are some of the most important factors in international SEO? (per my formspring question to you and @tomcritchlow's great post about it)
2) Something about media optimization (alt tags, indexable content for videos, etc)
Great seo-knowledge questions. Here are some that we have found helpful to clients:
Do you guarantee rankings?
Do you have a "special relationship with Google?"
Can you get me to the number 1 position in Google by tomorrow?
Are you working with any of my competitors?
How would you describe your position on the Google Webmaster Guidelines?
What type of and when should I expect results?
What is your experience in my industry?
What specific strategies do you plan on implementing on my behalf?
Another question I would ask is:
What are your 3 favorite link building strategies or the 3 you believe can make a big impact?
I'm always curious when discussing SEO with other professionals as to how they enjoy tackling link building
This would be interesting. Link building is what I struggle with the most, and learning about others strategies would be immensely helpful.
I think the logic behind all these questions is far more important then the actual answer. Say, getting 10 links from one site that is incredibly niche related and authoritative vs 10 links from blogs in which all links are from a do follow blog?
or
the top two search engines regardless of location is Google and Yahoo/Bing. The trick being someone trying to list Baidu or something along the lines of that seems tricky!
Rand, tell us honestly - you wanna coolect opinions to get answers to those questions by yourself, LOL. That's a good technique!
Number one in Russia is Yandex, for example.
More tricky, with the actual rumors, would be to ask what is the most used Search Engine in Japan ;)
Great post Rand! Those questions are tough. I look forward to the answers!
I'd like to show this list of questions to the endless amount of salespeople that tell me "We can get you #1 on Google!"
This test is pretty hard. I used to work for a top SEO consulting company and I really only know a half of them for sure.
It might be useful with one more question that reveals the color of the seo hat. For example if it's a good idea to buy/sell links; if it's a good idea to get nofollow links (black hats tend to not care about these as the effect are long term rather than short term) etc.
I remember when I took for the first time that test you talk about... the results were pitiful. Rethinking, I've to admit that it was one of many reasons I started to dig into the SEOmoz blog and "learning center" and to become a Pro (with the 1 $ dollar promotion).
I'm glad that I was able to answer to the questions now, even though (spoiler) the one about website architecture was the one I saw I've to look at better.
The funniest? That I can almost point to the main posts here discussing those themes (suggestion: with the results, put the links to those posts).
My 12th question: What is the rel canonical and when it is highly suggested to use it and what dreadful mistake has to be avoid?
Great post Rand. What about a question pertaining to the advantages of using microformats, microdata, and RDFa? Also, I dont think I saw anything about business citations? Thanks again for the great post.
i wish i would have had this list a year ago
Great Post!
I like how the questions are very particular and have the opportunity to open up for expansion to show your knowledge. Cant wait for the answers; I think I scored somewhere in the 80-90 percentile.
I think a good followup for this would be a common/standard terminology. Some of the questions, I can answer 2 ways. ie, for the bonus about top modeling, I could possibly answer this from an search optimization standpoint or from a SE standpoint. Meaning, how our site would model a topic into silos and structure and internal link strategy complete with a dedicated sitemap to develop a topic roadmap for SEs..or.. I could explain how Google is taking trends from other search channels related to a query and including it into one blended search result (universal search) and how optimizing for all channels has the benefit of possibly grabbing more organic listings.
The query is very cool but the answer is missing and i think 24 hours has been flied away? So when can we expect the answer?
Should have the answer post up by this afternoon! Wanted to give everyone a chance to read through and answer for themselves first.
You're going to try and approach a prospective client via e-mail. Do you start with:
"We notice your website is not ranking in Google for it's important keyphrases"
or
Actually give them a taste with some useful information that shows you've done some research, understand what they are trying to achieve and have some solid ideas on how real improvements can be made.
I usually do a phone call - Hi while doing some research on your industry's use of online marketing your site came up as an example of someone not paying much attention to online marketing. I wanted to send you the information we found since it is already done and hope it may help whoever is in charge of getting you more sales.
If you have any questions or want some help just reply to the email.
What about mixing both?
We have a 25 question quiz for people coming into our firm as web designers/SEO. You would be surprised at the number of "experts" that fail it. Your questions are pretty decent I think though for number 12 I would ask:
Please explain the three things you do when beginning a SEO campaign.
Hey, i only know that mata tags are used for the setting to edit the title and description which bring out the new title and description.While writing the title and description just make sure the title and description are carefully written.
These are not a good set of questions. They are too general. They do not actually ask anything in regards to techniques, methodology and results.
Eg, How would you SEO a large ecommerce website that has 5000 items, duplicate pages and overlapping product categories ? How would you SEO a flash website ? Things like Chmod Rewrites and Ht access could also be questioned(for technical jobs).
But I guess your questions are to gauge the inteviewee's knowledge of SEO(all around).
I have been asked it all from Attribution modelling upto merging SQL databases when going for SEO roles.
Thx for sharing these ten questions but these questions are normally asked by every interviewer's...
Structured data vs Non Structured Data for Blogger blogs? Which could be the best one? Most of your blog posts does not have breadcrumbs? They i think would play a crucial role? But still, why is SEOmoz ranking higher in search results?
Could any one advise my a good structure for writing blog posts?
Great list, Rand, and I liked all the other additional questions. This is a great forum. :)
Is really Search Engines Crawl social networking sites??
Out of 10 first five was easy but last five was intermdeiate level questions.
For #9, why 6? We could live with Open Site Explorer and Yahoo! Site explorer as a backup ;-) I also agree with AStevens regarding adding the question about "advantages of using microformats, microdata, and RDFa" as we believe application of these will become key for ranking for competitive keywords known to have high commercial intent, especially as other factors that are highly correlated now, such as exact match domains become deemphasized by Google and others.
Great quiz. I have prepared the answers to compare for when the real ones are out. It's a shame there are no badges we could print out so I could wear my "I'm an SEO professional" or "I took the SEOMoz quiz and got 90%" (here's hoping) badge around the office and show the boss...
10 links from Google would be better than 10 links from seperate PR 0 domains?
But 10 links from seperate PR10 domains would be better than 10 links from a PR0 domain.
Trick question?
Good questions, eye opener on how much everyone (including myself) needs to swat up.
Common Rand, We are waiting...I know the answers of 7-8 question but having very much interest in knowing the answers of remaining questions. Waiting for your answers.
The 12th question can be : How you did what you claim you did? Like how you did link building for ABC site and improved traffic by X or how you did the CRO and improved conversions by X? Yes i am talking about a powerful convincing case study.
Ah, my personal favorite ... actual results :)
Are you going to link to posts that answer each of the questions? And would that be a good SEO tactic?
I am blessed that I keep up with SEOmoz as I know all of these answers. Not fully on the foreign search engines.
And yes I am bragging, but bragging on SEOmoz's ability to disseminate the best information!
Thanks guys!!
Another question
Which one comes first, Links or contents?
Does link alone has any value?
Hold on a second! Is number four a trick question? China? I mean, really?
I reckon these questions will definately sort the wheat from the chaff. I have to admit I don't know the answers, but then I'm not claiming to be a professioanl seo.
Terry
Nice test.
I only know the answer to 6 straight away, so will be looking forward to the results.
100% throw some SEO technical questions at people, these ones usually pick the SEO people apart. I mean all the basic SEO questions can be known by most people after a few months of research.
hi Rand, i like this post and i am from China, Could i translate this post into Chinese and share your intelligent with Chinese SEO ppl. As i know, many of them are fans of SEOmoz. I promise I would leave a resource link to the original text below the Chinese Version. Thx, hope your reply =)
keeping us on our toes :-)
No questions about what metrics would he use, and how?
Great questions! I had my entire consulting staff go through these questions to keep them on their toes.
Did they all pass?!!? =)
wooh that cool's, so Rand are these questions the interview questions at SEOmoz? ;)
Let see, I have note down the answers let see how closely it matches with the answers you provide.
I think you should be putting up posts like this more often, it just refreshes the readers of the blog.
This is a great test Rand. I have to admit, I only know about 7 or 8 of these off hand. Can't wait for the results!
lol are these really questions for PROs? I wonder ...
not all... :) just few of them... i think there is lot more you can add into it. Just like if you are going to take an interview of a Geek, you must ask these question first (if he is a real pro, he must be answering like this:1) What are the major ranking factors to get a site ranked?
2) Will you submit my site to the search engines?
3) Can you guarantee #1 ranking?
Anwer of First Question:Good Content and Backlinks.Answer of 2nd Question:It it not necessary to submit a site on all search engines. If your site is listed on Google, Yahoo and Bing, there is guarantee it will be listed on other local and International Search Engines.Answer of 3rd and Last Question:Not exactly. I will put my efforts into getting a good rank but not sure how long it will take. As SEO is a slow process and I would recommend to go with legal SEO techniques that has slow speed but lasting effects.Thanks,
Bilal Qayyum
As we've seen through many of the comments, every person/company is going to have different expectations of their SEOs and thus different litmus test questions. I think your list, Rand, is pretty fair with the exception of the international questions - in most situations I don't think SEOs have to worry about international optimization.
The big curiosity about this list that I have is that most hirings in the SEO community that I have seen or heard of are either a) someone who has no experience but is highly motivated and trainable or b) someone who has experience and at least somewhat of a reputation that the hiring person knows of already.
So I would be very interested in hearing how companies who have hired SEOs chose their employees.
First question - Are you a member of SEOmoz?
A legitimate question might be "name 3 popular SEO blogs/communities/forums" to prove that you read around the latest industry developments. SEOMoz would of course be on this list, but this site is not the be-all-and-end-all. Honestly, such sycophantic posts drive me mad.
During my interview for where I work now (where I was planning on becoming designer/seo but ended up purely designer because of being too busy) I ended up talking about SEO and SEOmoz in particular at length. I think it's good to talk about how one keeps up to date with the latest advances/theories in something, so I think it's definitely important <em>to an extent</em> to ask them how they keep up to date. However, "are you an SEOmoz member" shouldn't be a question, just something similar. It shows willing from the candidate and want from the potential employer.