SEO Job Interview Questions

Discussion in 'Search Engine Optimization' started by TheMadHat, Jan 10, 2007.

  1. #1
    I just finished a post on SEO Job Interview Questions. Would be interested to know if anyone else has any compelling questions I could ask. We're hiring a new SEO for our team and the interviews are starting this afternoon.
     
    TheMadHat, Jan 10, 2007 IP
  2. dcristo

    dcristo Illustrious Member

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    #2
    * What SEO results can you show?
    * What do you believe are important things to take into consideration when optimising a site?
    * Who do you respect in the industry?
    * What web analytics programs are you familiar with?

    That's some Q's which came to mind... Good luck.
     
    dcristo, Jan 10, 2007 IP
  3. sarathy

    sarathy Peon

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    #3
    cool questions i would say.,

    In My Opinion One Question is Enough
    Mention your Digital Point Username :D
     
    sarathy, Jan 10, 2007 IP
  4. thegypsy

    thegypsy Peon

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    #4
    uuhhh... sorry ..caught me off guard.... tryin to think of a few..

    What level? Intermediate? Program manager?

    How about these..get's all these U are in business.. no order really.. just off the top o my head

    1. What is SEO and what ISN'T it (folks tend to confuse CONVERSION related activities with SEO) LIKE ON YOUR QUESTIONAIRE "14) Are you familiar with A/B testing and multivariate testing?" ha ha ha ha ha

    2. What market share do the Big 3.5 have (include ask at what 2% these days?)- leading towards the value of targeting each engine

    3. List On-Page SEO factors

    4. List 5 link building techniques




    Then get Ugly

    5. What is page segmentation? (ever heard of VIPS?)

    6. What's the difference bewtween PageRank and ToolBar PageRank?

    7. What is Latent Semantic Analysis (LSI - Indexing)?

    8. What is Phrase Based Indexing and Retrieval and what roles does it play?

    9. In Google Lore - what are 'Hilltop' Florida' and 'Big Daddy'?



    Ha ha ha.. I dunno.. that's the kind of directions I would be looking in.. hope maybe some helped... hard to say not knowing more about the situation person(s) coming in)
     
    thegypsy, Jan 10, 2007 IP
  5. TheMadHat

    TheMadHat Peon

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    #5
    Intermediate on the minimum. I like the uglies, those will probably trip some people up.
     
    TheMadHat, Jan 10, 2007 IP
  6. dcristo

    dcristo Illustrious Member

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    #6
    I don't necessarily think you need to know them to be a good SEO though.
     
    dcristo, Jan 10, 2007 IP
  7. imnajam

    imnajam Well-Known Member

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    #7
    How about adding some very basic questions like:-

    (*) What is sandbox?
    (*) How long does it take to get out of sandbox?
    (*) How can you track your rankings?
    (*) What services does the wordtracker offer, and how do they relate to seo?
    (*) What are the common factors between google/yahoo/msn?

    I understand that these are they very basic question but it migh help starting an interview.

    Just my random thoughts.!
     
    imnajam, Jan 10, 2007 IP
  8. Voasi

    Voasi Active Member

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    #8
    Yeah, I agree with Dcristo. Those "uglies" aren't important.
     
    Voasi, Jan 10, 2007 IP
  9. TheMadHat

    TheMadHat Peon

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    #9
    Agreed, although some knowledge of what they are will give me some idea of the skill set.
     
    TheMadHat, Jan 10, 2007 IP
  10. thegypsy

    thegypsy Peon

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    #10
    (*) What is sandbox? - A Myth

    (*) How long does it take to get out of sandbox? -- Couple weeks.. ask any Black Hatter

    (*) How can you track your rankings? -- Oh come on..the comany should supply the tools so all data is uniform

    (*) What services does the wordtracker offer, and how do they relate to seo? -- who cares if the company hiring isn't using WT

    (*) What are the common factors between google/yahoo/msn? --- maybe




    5. What is page segmentation? (ever heard of VIPS?) ;; Very important these days on a page/content development angle as well as understanding valuations of links (internal and back links). Block level anaysis is in all of the big 3. A must for a core understanding

    6. What's the difference bewtween PageRank and ToolBar PageRank?-- PageRank is a live calculation that goes far beyond a 1-10 scale. It's value in scoring has been consistently devalued since 2002-3.
    TBPR on the other hand .. well... http://forums.digitalpoint.com/showthread.php?t=110660 or even http://forums.digitalpoint.com/showthread.php?t=214226&page=2

    7. What is Latent Semantic Analysis (LSI - Indexing)? Certainly one every self respecting SEO better know - at least in a cursory manner. I am not gonna rant here on this (maybe a new thread?)

    8. What is Phrase Based Indexing and Retrieval and what roles does it play? -- Same deal. Used not only in onpage factors but off page as well for creating effective link text strategies. Google even used it for Spam detection (potentially) these days. There is a great deal of information of relevance contained in here.

    9. In Google Lore - what are 'Hilltop' Florida' and 'Big Daddy'? ALL clients want Google rankings - if a staff member understands the history of the Google algo - they are my kinda person.. ya'll just gotta know this stuff....



    There's my additions for ya'll -- I will be hiring later this year.. so it has been fun so far M8... let me know when you get the final list done
     
    thegypsy, Jan 10, 2007 IP
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  11. imnajam

    imnajam Well-Known Member

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    #11
    Hey thegypsy, I wasn't asking you these questions:p anyways. A nice compilation.

    Well done(Y)
     
    imnajam, Jan 10, 2007 IP
  12. thegypsy

    thegypsy Peon

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    #12
    He he... yeah.. I know, I was just being cheeky... My Bad :D
     
    thegypsy, Jan 10, 2007 IP
  13. oseymour

    oseymour Well-Known Member

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    #13
    play fair gypsy
     
    oseymour, Jan 10, 2007 IP