hi there my name is Richard McMunn from the interview training company past my interview com and in this tutorial I'm going to teach you how to pass an SEO interview so if you have any kind of job interview coming up where you will be asked search engine optimization interview questions please make sure you watch this tutorial fully from beginning to end because it will make a huge difference to your preparation I promise to help make you the standout candidate or your interview and to achieve that goal this is what I will cover I'm going to
give you a list of SEO interview questions that I recommend you prepare for I will give you suggested answers to those questions and these are appropriate for all SEO job roles including SEO manager SEO marketer executive or strategist and I will also tell you the qualities that you must demonstrate throughout the duration of your SEO interview I will then also tell you about further resources you can get access to to help you pass your SEO interview now before I do that a very quick warm welcome to this search engine optimization interview questions and answers training
tutorial my name is Richard McMunn that is me there in the center of the screen I've been helping people for over 20 years to pass their interviews I always do that by giving you top scoring answers that you can't find anywhere else on that basis please make sure you subscribe to the channel by clicking the button below the video and then you won't miss out on any of the training videos I upload please do also connect with me on LinkedIn I have put my LinkedIn link in the description below the video and it's always great
to connect with like-minded professionals such as yourself and please also do give the video I like because that tells me you enjoy the content and I will therefore spend more time creating it for you ok let's get into those SEO interview tips the questions and the answers these are applicable for all SEO related roles take notes so the first question is tell me about yourself and this will be the first question asked during your SEO interview because it's the first question and we want to make sure that we cover following three areas in your answer
the first one we want to talk about your work ethics your professionalism your high standards of working and also the fact that you can work at a fast pace of working the second thing we want to include in our answer is the technical knowledge you have including any relevant experience and then finally number three tell them the main reason why they should hire you so here's my suggested answer to this first SEO interview question tell me about yourself the passion I have for search engine optimization is demonstrated in the time I spend keeping my technical
knowledge up to date and also the SEO projects I've worked on in previous job roles I am a dedicated enthusiastic and standards driven SEO specialist who always focuses on the end goal of the project I'm working on now for example in my previous SEO job position I was entrusted with an important clients website that had specific goals in relation to content marketing and targeted keywords and phrases that were highly competitive now this required a huge amount of work a unique approach to search engine optimization and also the need to keep in regular contact with the
client now if you hire me within this SEO position I feel strongly you will not only be impressed with my technical know-how and expertise but also my flexibility and adaptability my strong communication skills and also the fact you can leave me alone to get on with difficult and complex SEO projects safe in the knowledge I will deliver the necessary results required that's a very good answer and we want to give them an in-depth positive answer because this is the first interview question that then gives you the confidence to move forward with belief for the remainder
of your SEO interview now you can either pause this video if you want to and take notes of the answers or if you wait I will tell you where you can get a copy of these slides and also my full set of digital marketing interview questions and answers so the next question that I want you to prepare for is why you want to work for us in this SEO job role now it's very important you show you've carried out some research into their company especially in relation to how your own specific skills and qualities are
a strong match for their industry or niche so here's a great answer to this SEO interview question to help you prepare here we go as we all know SEO is a very important aspect of an organization's marketing strategy as the years go by the dependency on SEO for commercial gain will only grow now on that basis I want to work for your company because not only do you understand the importance of SEO but you will also commit the necessary time effort and resources to make it work SEO is a long-term objective and having researched your
company prior to the interview I know you will not only support me in my role but you will also share my passion for making sure the SEO work we carry out is to the highest standards achievable by doing so we will achieve sustainable and long-lasting growth so that is a unique answer nobody else will use that kind of answer to their SEO interview it shows that you've researched them you know that the skills and qualities you have are a strong match for their own ambitions the next question is what are the different components of an
effective SEO strategy now this is a rather clever SEO interview question because it is basically assessing your level of knowledge from a strategic perspective now most candidates will give a lengthy complex answer that is designed to impress the hiring manager with their technical competence and expertise however in my opinion the best way to answer this is just to use a response that is simple logical and that consists of only three elements don't forget you are probably going to be talking to a hiring manager or recruiter who has very little knowledge of SEO so we don't
want to confuse them here's a brilliant answer SEO strategy is often considered to be a magical under-the-radar approach to manipulating algorithms by gaining an unfair on advantage when in fact it is a simple three-step approach that focuses on the marketing and commercial goals of the organization the first step of an SEO strategy is to ensure an on-site optimization audit is conducted now this includes content page load speed structure and the layout of the website both desktop and mobile we have to make sure the website is found by search engines and unless it is optimized correctly
to meet the needs of the website visitor this is unlikely to happen now the second step of the SEO strategy is the creation and publishing of high quality usable content we need to make sure the end user finds the online content useful informative and engaging now finally step 3 is where we build off-site Authority in this instance less is more and I would always utilize an approach where the content we create and publish earns authority by people wanting to link to as naturally as opposed to manually gaining inbound links now of course there are many
other factors involved however the three steps I have just mentioned are the ones that I would focus on when creating a long-term strategy for search engine optimization so like the fact that you're talking there about three easy to remember steps so you are not trying to bamboozle the interviewer or the hiring manager with technical competence you are showing that you know what you're talking about you're gonna be working to high standards and as you and I know SEO is all about the end-user so the next question how would you measure the success of an SEO
campaign now within your answer to this interview question it's important to talk about metrics so I recommend you talk about the following nine metrics because I believe there are really good ones when measuring the success of an effective SEO campaign here we go I would use nine different metrics to assess the performance of an SEO campaign these are number one keyword rankings now this is in relation to whether or not we are ranking across multiple search engines for our targeted keywords and phrases number two is the quality of backlinks are they high authority and are
they naturally earned backlinks number three natural organic search traffic much of our traffic is natural which means then we're not having to spend money on paid for apps number four is click through rate CTR what percentage of people who search for specific searches are visiting our website obviously the higher the CTR the more successful our campaign is the visitor retention rate how long are people spending on our website and what do they do when they are there number six is the bounce rate that I would measure this is the percentage of visitors who navigate away
from our site after viewing only one page and we need to keep this as low as possible number seven is mobile traffic versus desktop how much of our traffic is coming from mobile devices now the vast majority of users now come from mobile devices so we need to make sure this is a metric against our SEO campaign number eight is domain Authority this is a search engine ranking score developed by Mazda com whilst not definitive it is a useful metric to be used as part of an ongoing long term SEO strategy and number nine is
the returning visitor metric what percentage of our visitors are returning versing new visitors so I like the fact that you are using nine different metrics there and you are explaining what they are that demonstrates your knowledge of search engine optimization so you would use those mapped out those metrics to measure the success of a campaign and it shows that you know what you are talking about the next question tell me something most SEO professionals think is true but you think it's BS so this is a very difficult SEO interview question to answer now there are
lots of misconceptions around search engine optimization and this question assesses your depth of knowledge regarding SEO and in particular what works and also what doesn't so the question again is tell me something most SEO professionals think is true but you think it's BS here we go that's a good question I think the biggest misconception relating to SEO is that it's easy to rank long term it isn't easy at all it takes skill organization a definitive plan and patience I also think most SEO professionals believe keywords and backlinks are the be-all and or when they are
not yes quality usable content is very important but there are better ways to rank simply by giving web users what they want based on their own needs now for example if you were to create a YouTube channel that provided exceptional actionable content and then linked the videos to a client's website via the use of end screens and cards you will get more traction on your website simply because you have already built the trust through the initial YouTube video I would like to think I can differentiate between what people think will work and what actually works
and this is based on the fact I am always keeping my knowledge up-to-date and current when it comes to SEO best practice so that is a difficult interview question that's a brilliant answer because it shows that you understand you know what really does work and the fact that you have to create quality quality usable content that is useful to the end user you are then given an example of how you could do it and how it would work the next question this is another difficult SEO interview question a client wants you to do a particular
SEO strategy on their website you think it's a really bad idea and you recommend something else instead now you are meeting them tomorrow what will you say at the meeting that's a difficult question now most people will go on about how the client should listen to them because they are the SEO expert and they'll make sure the right strategy is used however that's not the best way to answer this here is a great response to this tough interview question I would prepare for the meeting by assessing the reasons why I think it's not a good
idea and then provide them with information and data to back up my thoughts and then present them with the strategy that I recommend I believe it would be important to give them practical examples of where my proposed strategy has worked in the past and also go into details why I think it will work for them also when dealing with clients it's important to back up your claims with information facts and examples where possible because this then helps to build trust and it also helps retain their business long-term it's a very good answer next question of
your SEO job interview what you strengths and what are your weaknesses so when responding to this common SEO job interview question my advice is to read the job description for the role you're being interviewed for before aligning the key requirements with your own strengths and then give them five strengths that you can bring to the role before giving them just one weakness that is not a match for the SEO position that you're being interviewed for so we don't want to say our weaknesses that were not particularly organized because obviously you have to be very well
organized to work in any SEO job role here's my suggested answer I have numerous strengths that I feel will add value to your organization in this SEO job role these include an analytical and data-driven approach to tasks exceptional planning and organizational skills strong communication and interpersonal skills and also solid technical competence capabilities now with regard to my weakness I would say it's my impatience when dealing with third-party suppliers and contractors on occasions when carrying out SEO campaigns and projects in the past I would utilize the services of outsources now in the early days of using
outsources I failed to set definitive contracts for each job and sometimes their lack of punctuality put back my own plans resulting in my impatience and frustration however since there and I have learnt to make use of agreeable contracts for each job which has in turn reduced stress and frustration when dealing with essential contractors that's a brilliant answer you were given four or five strengths and then you're only giving one weakness which isn't a match for the job description but then you are saying at the end how you have learnt to improve upon that weakness so
it's a really good answer so the next thing to do if you'd like a copy of these slides and also my full set of digital marketing interview questions and answers click the link in the top right hand corner of the video it takes you through to my website pass my interview comm where you can download these slides on my full set of digital marketing interview questions and top-scoring answers please don't forget to subscribe connect with me on LinkedIn as I say my little LinkedIn link is in the description below the video it would be great
to connect with you and also give the video a like because that just tells me you enjoy the content if find it useful on our wall therefore spend more time creating it for you thank you very much and I wish you all the best for passing your SEO job interview have a brilliant day
