101 Most Important SEO Interview Questions with Answers
If you’re preparing for an SEO job interview, this post is for you!
We have listed the 100 most important SEO questions and answers, based on current trends and real interview patterns.
These questions are divided into:
Basic Level (for beginners and freshers)
Intermediate Level (for those with some SEO experience)
Advanced Level (for those targeting expert roles)
So, whether you’re a college student, digital marketing fresher, or someone switching careers, this guide will help you understand and revise all SEO concepts easily.
Let’s get started.
Master SEO skills & crack your next interview with confidence!
34 Basic Level SEO Questions and Answers
Q: What is SEO and why is it important?
A: SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization. It improves a website’s visibility in search engine results, helping increase traffic and brand awareness.
Q: What does SERP stand for?
A: SERP means Search Engine Results Page. It displays the results after a user enters a search query in a search engine.
Q: Name some popular search engines other than Google.
A: Bing, Yahoo, DuckDuckGo, Baidu, and Yandex.
Q: What is the difference between crawling and indexing?
A: Crawling is the process where search engines scan websites. Indexing is storing and organizing that content to show in search results.
Q: What is the purpose of a search engine?
A: A search engine helps users find information online by matching search queries to relevant web pages.
Q: What is a domain name?
A: A domain name is a human-readable address used to access a website, like example.com.
Q: What are meta tags?
A: Meta tags are snippets of HTML code that describe a page’s content, mainly used by search engines.
Q: What is a meta description?
A: It is a brief summary of a webpage that appears in search engine results under the title.
Q: What are heading tags in HTML?
A: Heading tags (H1 to H6) define headings on a webpage. H1 is the most important, H6 the least.
Q: What is an alt tag in an image?
A: It provides a text alternative for images, helping both users and search engines understand the image.
Q: What is a sitemap?
A: A sitemap is a file that lists all pages of a website, helping search engines crawl and index them.
Q: What is the use of a robots.txt file?
A: It tells search engine bots which parts of the website they are allowed or not allowed to crawl.
Q: What is internal linking?
A: It means linking one page of a website to another page on the same site.
Q: What is anchor text?
A: It is the clickable text in a hyperlink, often keyword-rich to improve SEO.
Q: Why should you name your images properly for SEO?
A: It helps search engines understand the image content and improves visibility in image search.
Q: What is an XML sitemap?
A: It is a sitemap designed for search engines in XML format, making it easier to index the site.
Q: What is a URL structure?
A: It’s how URLs are organized and presented. Clean and keyword-rich URLs are SEO-friendly.
Q: What is the importance of keyword research in SEO?
A: It helps identify the search terms your audience uses so you can optimize your content accordingly.
Q: Name one free keyword research tool by Google.
A: Google Keyword Planner.
Q: What are long-tail keywords?
A: These are longer, more specific keyword phrases that usually have lower competition and higher conversion rates.
Q: What is keyword stuffing?
A: Overusing keywords in content, which can make it unnatural and harm rankings.
Q: What are backlinks?
A: Backlinks are links from other websites pointing to your website. They are important for SEO authority.
Q: What is the difference between do-follow and no-follow backlinks?
A: Do-follow passes SEO value; no-follow tells search engines not to pass value or follow the link.
Q: What is Google Page Rank?
A: It is Google’s algorithm that ranks web pages based on the quality and number of backlinks.
Q: What is social bookmarking?
A: Saving and sharing web pages on platforms like Reddit, Digg, and Stumble Upon to increase traffic.
Q: What is business listing?
A: Listing your business on directories like Google My Business to improve local visibility.
Q: What is blog commenting?
A: Posting comments on blogs to engage with the community and sometimes gain backlinks.
Q: What is directory submission?
A: Submitting website details to online directories to gain visibility and backlinks.
Q: What is the difference between on-page and off-page SEO?
A: On-page involves elements on your website; off-page involves external factors like backlinks.
Q: What is Google Analytics used for?
A: It tracks website visitors, behavior, sources of traffic, and user engagement.
Q: Name any 2 types of keywords.
A: Short-tail keywords and long-tail keywords.
Q: What is the use of hashtags in SEO?
A: Hashtags help content become more discoverable on social platforms.
Q: What is niche selection in SEO?
A: Choosing a specific topic or target area to focus SEO efforts and attract a defined audience.
Q: What is Keyword Density?
A: The number of times a specific keyword or phrase appears within a piece of content, relative to the total number of words.
33 Intermediate Level SEO Questions with Answers
How does a search engine rank pages?
Search engines rank pages based on relevance, quality content, backlinks, user experience, and technical SEO factors.
Explain how crawling works in Google.
Googlebot uses algorithms to discover, crawl, and index content from links and sitemaps on the web.
What makes content SEO-friendly?
Original, keyword-optimized, structured content with proper headings, links, and readability.
How would you optimize a webpage for a specific keyword?
Use the keyword in the title, meta description, URL, headings, image alt text, and body naturally.
Best practices for writing SEO-friendly URLs?
Use hyphens, avoid special characters, include keywords, and keep it short and descriptive.
Ideal character length for meta titles and descriptions?
Meta titles: 50–60 characters; Meta descriptions: 150–160 characters.
What is a canonical URL?
A canonical URL tells search engines which page is the preferred version among duplicates.
How does image optimization affect SEO?
It improves load speed, enhances accessibility, and helps image search rankings.
Purpose of robots.txt with an example?
It restricts search engine bots. Example: Disallow: /private blocks the /private folder.
How to create an HTML sitemap?
List all website pages with internal links on a single page for users.
Difference between XML and HTML sitemap?
XML is for search engines, HTML is for users.
How does Google Keyword Planner work?
It provides keyword suggestions, volume, and competition data.
Difference between short-tail and long-tail keywords?
Short-tail: broad, high competition. Long-tail: specific, low competition.
How to avoid keyword stuffing?
Use synonyms, distribute keywords naturally, maintain density around 1-2%.
What is link juice?
The SEO value passed from one page to another through hyperlinks.
Benefits of internal linking?
Enhances navigation, distributes authority, and improves indexing.
Importance of image alt text?
Improves accessibility and helps search engines understand images.
What is bounce rate in GA?
The percentage of users who leave after viewing only one page.
How to track page views in GA?
Use GA tracking code and monitor reports under “Pages and Screens”.
Benefits of business directory submissions?
Increases visibility, credibility, and supports local SEO.
How to identify low-quality backlinks?
From irrelevant, spammy, or low-authority domains.
What is article submission in SEO?
Publishing articles on third-party sites with backlinks to your site.
How does blog posting help SEO?
Regular fresh content, keyword targeting, and backlink opportunities.
What are RSS feeds?
Feeds that syndicate web content for automated distribution.
What is domain authority?
A Moz score (1–100) that predicts website ranking potential.
What is page authority?
A Moz score predicting how well a specific page will rank.
How do search engines measure content quality?
Based on depth, originality, engagement, and keyword relevance.
Why is duplicate content bad?
It causes ranking confusion and can lead to penalties.
How do hashtags support content discovery?
By categorizing content and improving reach on social platforms.
Tools for competitor keyword research?
SEMrush, Ahrefs, Moz, Ubersuggest, SpyFu.
What is keyword density?
The percentage of times a keyword appears in content.
Difference between anchor link and regular link?
Anchor: same-page navigation; Regular: to another page/site.
Difference between 301 and 302 redirect?
301 is permanent (passes SEO value); 302 is temporary (limited value).
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34 Advanced Level SEO Questions and Answers
How would you perform a complete SEO audit of a website?
Analyze site structure, crawlability, on-page content, technical SEO, backlinks, page speed, mobile usability, and indexing.
Explain the importance of technical SEO.
It ensures search engines can efficiently crawl, interpret, and index your site.
How does Google’s algorithm evaluate content relevance?
Through keyword usage, semantic meaning, backlinks, content structure, and user engagement.
What are Core Web Vitals?
Google’s metrics for user experience: LCP (Largest Contentful Paint), FID (First Input Delay), CLS (Cumulative Layout Shift).
What are LSI keywords?
Latent Semantic Indexing keywords are terms related to your primary keyword to give more context.
What is schema markup?
Code added to pages (often JSON-LD) that helps search engines understand and display rich results.
How would you recover from a Google penalty?
Identify issues, fix them (remove spammy links, improve content), and submit a reconsideration request.
How do you track the performance of backlinks?
Use tools like Ahrefs, SEMrush, or Google Search Console to monitor link quality, authority, and anchor text.
What are white-hat and black-hat SEO techniques?
White-hat: ethical practices like quality content; black-hat: manipulative practices like cloaking, keyword stuffing.
How to use Google Search Console for SEO?
To track indexing, fix issues, submit sitemaps, and analyze search performance.
How does mobile responsiveness affect SEO rankings?
Google uses mobile-first indexing, so responsive design improves rankings and user experience.
What is duplicate meta content and how can it be fixed?
When different pages share identical titles/descriptions; fix by writing unique metadata for each page.
What is cloaking in SEO?
Showing different content to search engines and users – a black-hat practice that leads to penalties.
How do you handle keyword cannibalization?
Merge pages or update them to target different keywords.
What is E-E-A-T in SEO?
Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trust – quality signals Google looks for in content.
What are doorway pages and are they good for SEO?
Pages created to rank for specific queries but redirect elsewhere. They are penalized by Google.
How does HTTPS influence SEO?
HTTPS encrypts user data and is a confirmed ranking factor in Google.
What is the importance of page speed in SEO?
Affects user experience and bounce rate, both of which influence rankings.
How does canonicalization prevent duplicate content issues?
It tells search engines which version of a URL is preferred, preventing dilution of SEO value.
What is structured data?
Machine-readable data (like schema.org) added to HTML to help search engines understand the page.
Difference between sitemap index and individual sitemaps?
A sitemap index is a file referencing multiple sitemaps; each sitemap lists URLs.
What is the effect of thin content on SEO?
It lacks value, affects ranking, and may be penalized by search engines.
What are Google’s ranking factors in 2024?
Content quality, backlinks, mobile-friendliness, Core Web Vitals, HTTPS, and E-E-A-T.
How can you perform a backlink audit?
Use tools to assess link origin, domain authority, anchor text, and disavow bad links.
What is the importance of disavowing links?
It tells Google to ignore low-quality or spammy backlinks that may harm your ranking.
How does link velocity impact SEO?
Too many links too quickly may signal manipulation and lead to penalties.
What is SEO cannibalization and how to fix it?
When multiple pages compete for the same keyword. Fix by merging, redirecting, or refocusing content.
Explain bounce rate vs exit rate.
Bounce: visitor leaves after one page. Exit: visitor leaves from a particular page after browsing.
Best tools for site speed optimization?
Google PageSpeed Insights, GTmetrix, Lighthouse, WebPageTest.
Example of traffic increase using SEO?
By targeting low-competition long-tail keywords, optimizing on-page content, and gaining backlinks.
How to optimize SEO for voice search?
Use natural, question-based language and include structured data and FAQ sections.
What is mobile-first indexing?
Google predominantly uses the mobile version of content for indexing and ranking.
How do you manage multilingual SEO?
Use hreflang attributes, localized content, and separate URLs for each language version.
What are KPIs to measure SEO success?
Organic traffic, keyword rankings, domain authority, backlink quality, bounce rate, and conversions.
Conclusion
You’ve just read 101 most expected SEO interview questions – all in one place.
📌 We grouped them as:
Basic → For beginners and freshers
Intermediate → For those with 3–6 months experience
Advanced → For experts or job switchers
💡 Use this blog to revise concepts, practice answers, and crack interviews confidently.
Need more help with interview preparation or project training?
📞 Contact Learn2Earn Labs — we train students with real-world SEO tools, case studies, and projects.
