Are you looking for a search engine optimization, or, SEO analyst to hire? If so, before you make your decision, you must ask the right questions. Hiring an incompetent one can be a costly mistake. Here are 7 conversational and challenging questions that will tell you if they know what they're talking about!
Prepare for your job interview ahead of time if you're going for an SEO position at a novice level. Prepare with these SEO interview questions for recent graduates or beginners, which are many of them appropriate 1-year expertise and geared toward someone with a solid education in SEO or some actual on-the-job experience.
1. What makes a website search engine friendly?
2. How did you learn SEO?
3. Which SEO tools do you regularly use?
4. How do you approach keyword research?
5. What is link establishment and why does it matter?
6. Which strategy do you use to redirect a page?
7. Which meta tags matter?
8. What makes a website search engine friendly?
Keywords, high-quality content, titles, metadata, and other elements make a website search engine friendly. A website's ranking and visibility by a user are dependent on these factors.
How did you learn SEO?
An individual may have learned about SEO through school or training courses, blogs, forums, and social media websites. They could also be self-taught so; obviously, this will be determined by your unique situation, but it is relevant because a potential employer wants to ensure that you are familiar with SEO best practices. An employer may question the quality of your skillset if you learned SEO by the seat of your pants at your previous position since someone had to do it. And, if that's the case, you should be able to explain why your previous SEO tactics were not compliant with best practices.
Which SEO tools do you regularly use?
In this question, the employer will describe a tool and ask which ones you have used before or are familiar with. To answer, research common SEO software that is relevant to your industry and company size as well your experience with this and which is your top tool.
If you use SEO tools, such as Moz or Ahrefs, mention it. If not and that's a problem for your potential employer then they either will need to invest in training or hire someone who already has the SEO experience necessary to understand these SEO tools.
How do you approach keyword research?
In this question, the answer can be different from one analyst to another. An SEO analyst's approach to keyword research will depend on the SEO tools they use or their preferred method of finding keywords. You may want to ask your potential employers what SEO software they use and describe how you'd conduct this process if it is not clear.
The key here is knowing why long-tail keywords are important, which ones are best and which ones you can weed out. You must identify high-volume, low competition keywords that are relevant to the SEO campaign.
What is link Establishment and why does it matter?
This question could give you great insight into how much your potential employer knows about SEO tactics. Link building helps increase a website's ranking by increasing its authority which will positively impact organic search rankings in the Google SERPS.
You may want to ask the employer what SEO tactics they will use for link building and how long you can expect it to take to get results. Generally, this is 10-12 weeks from when the links go live.
Which strategy do you use to redirect a page?
A web developer or someone with more SEO knowledge than others might answer this question by saying 301, 302, 307, or meta refresh but that's not correct.
The best way is by using a 301 redirect at the server level. That means editing the .htaccess file.
If you don't know how to do that then ask your SEO analyst what method they use and whether or not they can show you.
Which meta tags matter?
Meta tags are metadata, which is data about the page's contents such as keywords and description. This information is used by search engines to understand a website better so it can be ranked accordingly in SERPs for relevant searches. Each tag should contain only one keyword phrase with an emphasis on long-tail phrases of three words or more rather than short-tailed keywords of two words or less. So, instead of "SEO tools" use "best seo software." The Meta Description Tag says directly below the title what a user will see if click through from Google listings but will not be visible on the website.
When asked which meta tags matter, you should know that it's important to focus on what search engines see and not include too much information in these fields or leave them blank altogether. The best answer is that all of them are relevant because some webmasters will choose just one while others use two but they don't have any effect if they're left empty so an SEO analyst may fill out each field depending on their preference.
In Conclusion
If you’re looking for an SEO consultant to hire, before making your decision, you must be able to ask the right questions. Hiring a bad one can cost you more than just money – it can impact your business reputation too! Asking these 7 conversational and challenging questions will help ensure that the person you want on your team knows what they are talking about. What makes a website search engine friendly? How did you learn SEO? Which SEO tools do you regularly use? These types of questions should give any potential candidate pause as they answer them in detail. Do not hesitate to ask follow-up questions if their responses don't seem satisfactory or accurate enough for what's being asked. The best way to find out if they know what they're talking about is to ask the right questions and pay attention.
These SEO analyst interview questions will likely come up in conversation as you speak with your potential candidate or prospective employer. Thanks for reading and Good luck!