35 SEO Interview Questions (Top Answers from the Experts)

We have one goal for this article: to help you land an SEO job.

This isn’t a generic piece on SEO interview questions. Yes, we’ve broken the questions down by career stages and SEO types to help you prepare.

But we’ve also spoken to people who actually hire talent in the SEO industry. To learn what hiring managers are looking for and the type of questions they might ask you.

Keep reading to learn common SEO interview questions and the answers that’ll get you hired.

Interview Questions for SEO Freshers

An SEO fresher is usually someone new to the industry who wants to land an SEO internship.

These questions are relevant to you if you’re one to two years into your career. In this case, you’ll likely be interviewing for entry-level SEO or junior SEO associate roles.

1. What Is SEO?

We spoke to Nick Reijmerink, lead SEO at Skydreams, about his go-to interview questions for SEO freshers.

Nick, who manages a team of SEO specialists and is also responsible for hiring new talent, says:

“With this question, I’m looking to see that a candidate has a basic understanding of what SEO is and how it works. Even if a beginner hasn’t done SEO professionally, they should at least know this.”


Backlinko – What is SEO

Further reading: SEO Basics: A Comprehensive Guide for Beginners


2. What Is an Example of an SEO Problem You Faced and How You Fixed That Situation?

Nick uses this next question to assess a candidate’s critical thinking, creative problem-solving, and stress management skills.

Why?

Because problem-solving is a big part of the job.

“SEO equals resilience. The success of a specialist is often measured by the ability to resolve problems.”


Running small SEO experiments on your own website is one of the best ways to show your problem-solving skills.


3. How Do You Learn a New Skill To Help You in Your SEO Career?

Nick shares another interview question for SEO freshers to gauge their interest in keeping up with industry changes and SEO trends.

“SEO is a never-ending learning process. You can learn a lot from someone’s way of acquiring knowledge.”


In your answer, an interviewer is looking for your learning methods, growth mindset, and resilience.

4. What Interests You About Starting a Career in SEO?

Because you’re right at the start of your career, the interviewer is trying to determine what motivates you by asking this question.

There’s no right or wrong answer here.

It’s best to share what genuinely interests you about SEO. A passion for the work tells the interviewer you’re more likely to stay in the industry.

Which sends the message that you’re worth the company’s investment as an entry-level hire.

Interview Questions for Mid-Level SEOs

As a mid-level SEO, you’ll typically be about three to five years into your career. You might be interviewing for mid-level jobs like an SEO specialist or SEO strategist.

5. What’s the Difference Between On-Page and Off-Page SEO?

On- and off-page SEO are two different elements of work done by SEO specialists.

You might not have both types of experience. It all depends on the specific role. But as a potential mid-level SEO hire, you should know the differences between the two.

6. Why Does SEO Matter to a Business?

SEO results shouldn’t necessarily be separate from more tangible business metrics like revenue. Of course, SEO matters for outcomes like brand awareness.

Yes, gaining traffic matters, too. But so do clicks, conversions, and revenue.

Further reading: How to Become an SEO Expert


7. How Do You Work With Developers To Implement SEO Recommendations?

You’ll be responsible for identifying technical SEO issues with audit tools and prioritizing fixes. But it may or may not be your job to implement them.

Site Audit – Report

This is why a recruiter wants to assess how you work with the development team to get tech fixes over the line.

8. What Does an Average Day Look Like in Your Current Role?

If asked this question, the interviewer wants to assess your current competency and responsibility level.

Be honest here.

Don’t exaggerate your day-to-day responsibilities. If they hire you based on an embellishment, and you ultimately can’t deliver, it could hinder your long-term employment with the company.

Pro tip: If there’s something on the job description that doesn’t match your existing experience, mention you’re interested in learning how to do that specific task or taking on that responsibility in your answer.


Interview Questions for Senior SEOs

Senior-level SEOs are usually over five years into their careers. Typical roles include senior SEO strategist or senior technical SEO specialist.

9. How Do You Think the Latest Google Updates Will Change SEO?

We spoke to John Skinner, Creative Director at Candour, to learn a common interview question he asks senior SEOs.

“When we’re hiring a senior position within the SEO team, it’s these kinds of questions rather than a ‘can you use X tool’ or ‘can you do this task’ that are important to us. I want to know if they’ve tied the search ecosystem to the commercial realities of running a business. Candidates should be able to show an understanding of Google’s goals and the benefits of running an SEO strategy in parallel to that, so I know the team will be in good hands.”


Further reading: Google E-E-A-T: How to Create People-First Content


10. How Do You Stay Updated with the Latest SEO Trends and Algorithm Changes?

Many SEO fundamentals stay the same. But as an SEO, you’ll need to keep up with algorithm changes and trends.

Let’s get one thing clear, though: Trends and marketing hype are not the same thing.

In your answer, explain that, while you’re curious about SEO trends, you’d prefer to test them on a personal site first.

Don’t have one?

Tell the interviewer you read forums to see what SEO experts say about the legitimacy of the trend and the results they’re seeing on their sites.

11. Describe an SEO Marketing Campaign You Worked On. What Was Your Role and What Were the Results?

For a senior role, the recruiter will want to know if you’ve created and implemented an SEO marketing campaign. And if so, they’ll want to know how successful it was.

Backlinko – Users

Specifics about the campaign, your role, and the results matter here.

Interview Questions for SEO Managers

SEO managers usually have at least five years of experience in the industry. Aside from having advanced SEO skills, you’ll need leadership qualities, too.

12. A Client Demands More Work from the SEO Team. But They’ve Used Up Their Retainer Hours. How Would You Help Them?

This is Mark Williams-Cook’s favorite question. As the director of the digital agency Candour, he uses it when interviewing potential SEO managers.

“There’s no one ‘correct’ answer for this question, but it gives instant insight into someone’s priorities when they’re juggling levers on profitability, client satisfaction, and the big one—protecting the team they’re managing.

One of the most common mistakes I’ve seen within agencies is the assumption that an SEO manager is always the career path as you progress through SEO. It’s not. A manager has to have specific, non-SEO skills with the management of people and situations, so these are the skills I’m most interested in if someone is applying for this role.”


13. How Do You Measure the Commercial Impact of SEO Efforts?

At a managerial level, you should be confident in tying SEO efforts to a business’s commercial gains.

That’s not to say that SEO should always focus on revenue. A campaign has many moving parts, and there are different reasons you might launch one.

It all depends on the specific end goal behind a business’s SEO strategy.

14. How Do You Delegate to Direct Reports?

There’s no denying it: As a people manager, you need to delegate to your team.

When you step up to this level, it’s no longer as much about doing specific tasks. It’s more about supporting others to do those specific tasks.

For this question, the interviewer wants to see that you know how to delegate.

More specifically, they’re assessing that you:

  • Understand the person you’re delegating to
  • Take the time to brief them properly
  • Allocate enough time for a direct report to finish a task

SEO Marketing Interview Questions

An interviewer will ask SEO marketing interview questions to determine whether you understand how SEO fits into the broader marketing picture.

These questions are relevant to any SEO role linked to marketing, such as an SEO strategist.

15. How Do You Collaborate With Other Marketing Teams?

We reached out to Zoe Ashbridge, co-founder of SEO and PPC agency forank, for her go-to SEO marketing interview question. And it’s all about collaboration.

“The hardest part about SEO is that it’s often a top- to middle-of-funnel marketing strategy, so the SEO team needs to work with other departments to nurture traffic and convert them into a paying customer.”


With this question, the interviewer wants to know how the candidate works with other marketing teams. And hopes to see a collaborative approach in their answer.

SEO vs SEM

Further reading: SEO vs. SEM: What’s the Difference?


16. How Would You Repurpose a Blog Post on Another Marketing Channel and How Does This Tie into SEO?

SEO is at its best when united with other marketing efforts.

If you’re asked this question, the interviewer wants to know that you understand SEO’s role in marketing.

Backlinko – Content repurposing

Interviewers are also testing how you might get more value from a single piece of content by sharing it across marketing channels.

Further Reading: What Is Repurposing Content?


17. How Does the Content Marketing Funnel Relate to SEO?

Each stage of the content marketing funnel matches a different search intent. Someone in the Awareness or ToFu stage is looking for content that educates them about a specific problem.

This could be a blog post targeting a ToFu query like “What is the keto diet?”

Users enter website at top of the funnel

Someone in the Action or BoFu stage likely wants a product or service to solve their problem. So, you’d aim to create optimized sales pages targeting something like “keto supplements.”

Long story short?

Your interviewer wants to see that you can meet your audience at different funnel stages with content that matches their search intent.

Local SEO Interview Questions

You might get asked these questions for general positions like an SEO executive or roles specializing in local SEO.

18. In Past Local SEO Campaigns, What Percentage of Leads Came Through the Client’s Website Versus Their GBP?

We reached out to Christopher Levy, SEO manager at Made Ya Click, for his favorite local SEO question. And why he finds it beneficial to ask.

“A local SEO campaign relies heavily on winning the battle to rank on Google Maps. Many local search terms trigger the local map pack, which is a large and visually appealing SERP feature. Then, there are mobile users who search within the Google Maps app directly.

This is a way of gauging how well the dichotomy works between the client’s website and their Google Business Profile. For many local service providers, their Google Maps listings outperform their websites.”


Google SERP – Listing details

19. What Techniques Have You Employed To Earn Legitimate Reviews for Your Clients?

Christopher’s next go-to interview question is related to online reputation management.

“To succeed at SEO, you have to understand your audience. I’m not interested in growth hacks that could probably not be implemented on corporate clients. If you do not understand whom your client is attempting to reach and how to reach and motivate them, your local SEO campaign will not succeed.”


20. What Do You Look for in Local SEO Tools?

In local SEO, it’s essential to work with tools with local data rather than just national. You also need to ensure you can see local search results similar to what your employer or clients see.

Local SEO tools – Local search

Your interviewer wants to assess your understanding of that nuance and whether you know how to apply it using tools.

Further reading: 5 Powerful Local SEO Tools to Get More Customers


Technical SEO Interview Questions

An interviewer will ask technical SEO interview questions to test your understanding of the topic.

As with local SEO, you might be asked these questions at interviews for general SEO roles at different levels. That said, these questions also apply to jobs like technical SEO specialists.

21. What’s Your Biggest SEO Fail?

Liam Fallen is an SEO consultant and the founder of the MostlyMarketing Slack Community and LiamFallen.com.

As a tech SEO specialist, he’s helped well-known companies hire for technical SEO roles.

“I ask this question because it shows whether the candidate has a test website and is openly testing theories rather than following the crowd. Testing and failing forward is one of the best ways to learn technical SEO, and from my experience, SEOs with a test website tend to be better overall hires.”


We couldn’t agree more.

Beyond a test website, it also shows you have the humility to admit failure and can learn from the mistake to avoid it in the future.

While your answer will vary by personal experience, Jess Joyce, an SEO consultant at jessjoyce.com, shared her best answer to this question for inspiration:

22. What’s the Difference Between a Noindex Directive and Disallowing Googlebot Access via robots.txt Directive?

You’ll likely be asked this question when interviewing for entry- to mid-level roles. The interviewer wants to check your foundational knowledge and see if you have the desired experience.

Google SERP – Nofollow link

A lot of people learn this answer by trying to deindex their staging environment with a disallow. But if the crawler has no access, it can’t noindex it.

In your answer, show you know the difference.

Pro tip: Provide a relevant example of the concept in action to show you’ve applied your knowledge in the real world.


Further reading: Robots.txt and SEO


23. What Is Page Speed and Why Is It Important?

This is one of the more basic SEO interview questions you might get asked for a junior or internship role.

At its core, page speed matters in SEO because a faster-loading page creates a better user experience. And let’s remember that Google has used page speed as a ranking factor since 2010.

PageSpeed Insights – Backlinko

In your answer, clearly explain page speed and what can happen if your page is slow-loading. Bonus points if you add an example of how you’ve improved page speed on a site.

Further reading: Core Web Vitals: What They Are and How to Improve Them


24. Explain the Difference Between Crawling, Rendering, Indexing, and Ranking

Ed Roberts, SEO and paid manager at Milexa Group, shared his favorite technical SEO interview question with us.

“My go-to question when interviewing candidates is to get them to explain the difference between crawling, rendering, indexing, and ranking. This might seem like something obvious that every SEO should know, but it’s surprising how many don’t fully understand or are mistaken about how each stage works.

A good SEO, especially those in technical roles, should have a clear understanding of how search engines work so they can correctly identify issues and opportunities for improvement at each stage.

I look for candidates to demonstrate a strong grasp of each element, how they relate to each other, and their importance for SEO. It doesn’t have to be a super detailed answer, as long as they can show this understanding.”


Off-Page SEO Interview Questions

Off-page SEO involves anything you do off-site to optimize and improve a website’s or webpage’s rankings, such as link building.

If you’re applying for a role at a digital PR agency, you’ll be asked questions on this topic. Roles like SEO strategists and junior SEO executives may also require off-page skills.

25. How Would You Evaluate a Backlink’s Impact on a Target Page?

We contacted Olivian Stoica, senior SEO specialist at Wave Studio, to learn his best off-page SEO interview question.

“The question is tricky because it depends. A single backlink may not move the needle for a page. But a link-building campaign targeting the same page can. It depends on the context and nuance of the campaign.

I have worked with an SEO agency that ran campaigns on several pages owned by a company I worked at. Within a few short months, we could see impressions growing in our GSC report. Knowing we’d continue to build inbound links for the website, I needed someone onboard who could not only find an opportunity but own it from creation to result.

I remember one of the candidates said they would check the referral traffic in Google Analytics. Honestly, I rarely follow a link within an article. That was an answer that didn’t impress me. Because even if people wouldn’t click the link, search engines could still see it as a trust signal for the referred page. What I was looking for was how they understand the power of a link and how to use tools to see how it performed for the website.”


26. How Do You Determine an External Website’s Health Without an SEO Tool?

SEO tools can come in handy for many things, including gauging a website’s health. But you can also learn a lot about a site’s health and whether you should include it in a link-building campaign based on a manual review.

Long story short?

When asked this question, the interviewer wants to see that you have good instincts about what a low-quality website looks like.

27. How Do You Measure the Authority of a Website?

A website’s authority gives a quick overview of how well it’s likely to rank on search engines. If asked this question, the interviewer wants to see how well you use tools.

Bonus points if you understand these scores are general indicators.

Note: A free Semrush account lets you analyze up to 10 domains per day using the Domain Overview tool. Or you can use this link to access a 14-day trial on a Semrush Pro subscription.


28. What Is One of the Most Important Factors To Consider When Creating Link-Building Outreach Pitches?

A big part of link building is reaching out to publishers or journalists. And the strength of your outreach pitch can determine whether you earn a backlink for your campaign or not.

When answering this question, show that you know what a great pitch entails.

On-Page SEO Interview Questions

On-page SEO involves anything you do to optimize and improve a website’s or webpage’s rankings.

Tasks include optimizing content with keywords, developing an internal linking strategy, and creating title tags and meta descriptions.

These tasks are relevant to most SEO jobs across different experience levels.

29. How Do You Place Target Keywords Strategically Throughout a Blog Post?

There are certain hotspots where you can place keywords throughout your content. Doing this helps Google (and your readers) scan your page and see what it’s about.

When asked this question, your interviewer evaluates whether you understand where these hotspots are and why they matter.

Further reading: What Is an H1 Tag? Best Practices and Examples for SEO


30. What Does a Click-Worthy Meta Description Look Like to You?

Meta descriptions don’t necessarily impact SEO because they’re not a ranking factor. And sometimes Google will override your meta description anyway.

But compelling meta descriptions can help increase clicks. So, creating custom content for them is often still worth the effort.

Backlinko – Meta description

When answering this question, demonstrate your ability to evaluate whether a meta description is eye-catching and relevant enough to earn a click.

31. How Do You Make Your Content More Helpful Than a Competitor’s?

When asking this question, an interviewer wants to see if you understand Google’s helpful content update (HCU) and the competitive nature of search.

Google – Helpful content update

Demonstrate that you know what it takes to create content that outperforms competitors.

One way to do this is to ensure your content is even more helpful than what already exists in the SERPs. You should also show that you genuinely care about providing your reader with an excellent experience through content.

32. How Do You Use Data and Analytics To Inform On-Page SEO Decisions?

For this next question, we turned to Leigh McKenzie, head of SEO at Backlinko.

“I like to ask open-ended questions that dig into a candidate’s process and systems thinking. As much as possible, I want to understand how they think and how they would apply it to working together on the given job.”


SEO Content Writer Interview Questions

SEO content writers (sometimes called SEO copywriters) write web content with organic traffic and conversion optimization in mind.

The following interview questions are specific to SEO writing roles.

33. What’s the Difference Between Content and Copy?

Although people often use SEO content writer and SEO copywriter job titles interchangeably, you should understand where the roles differ.

That starts by knowing the difference between content and copy.

If you’re asked this question, the interviewer wants to see that you understand the nuance. And know when to use copy versus content techniques in your writing.

34. How Do You Optimize Content for Both Search Intent and Keywords?

Understanding search intent is a non-negotiable for SEO content writers. (And anyone in SEO, for that matter.)

Why?

Because search intent affects every stage of the writing process. From content format to subtopics.

With this question, the interviewer wants to see if you can create content that’s a double threat. Meaning, it ranks well and satisfies user queries.

Further reading: SEO and Content Marketing: A Complete Guide


35. How Do You Approach Keyword Research?

Whether the role requires you to handle keyword research yourself or not, you’ll want to display a basic understanding.

While keyword research tools are essential, an interviewer wants to see that your research methods go beyond them.

In your answer, show that you do preliminary research first. This could be as simple as asking customer support about common queries and sales tickets.

Nail Your Next SEO Interview with Ongoing Education

Ongoing education will keep your skills sharp and your interview game strong.

If you’re ready to find your next job, an SEO certification can help. Whether you’re looking for advanced tactics or just learning the basics, SEO courses can help you get hired—and stay hired.

The post 35 SEO Interview Questions <br>(Top Answers from the Experts) appeared first on Backlinko.

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