Freshers SEO Interview Questions

Difference between On page and Off page SEO?

Both are needed. On-page SEO makes the page good, and off-page SEO shows the search engines that others trust it. Technical SEO (speed, mobile, sitemap) is often counted as a third part. See Types of SEO.

Which is more useful between an HTML sitemap and an XML sitemap?

They are made for different readers, so one is not simply better than the other.

For SEO, the XML sitemap is more important, and almost every site should have one. An HTML sitemap is optional and useful for big sites. See XML Sitemap.

Why has my Google ranking suddenly dropped?

First do not panic and do not change everything at once. Find the reason step by step.

• Google update: check if a core update or a spam update was announced around the date of the drop.
• Technical problem: a wrong noindex tag, a blocked robots.txt, server errors, a broken redirect or a slow site after a change. Check the Pages report and the URL Inspection tool in Google Search Console.
• Site changes: a new design, a new URL structure, a migration without redirects.
• Lost links: an important backlink was removed.
• Competitors: other pages became better than yours for that search.
• Content problem: the content is old, thin, or does not match the search intent anymore.
• Manual action or spam: check the Manual actions and Security issues reports.

Use the Performance report of Search Console and compare the dates before and after the drop. See which pages and which searches lost clicks. Then fix the real cause. See Google Search Console.

How much time does it take to rank on Google?

There is no fixed time. A new website often needs three to six months or more before it gets steady traffic, and a hard keyword can take a year or longer. Nobody can promise a first position in a few days.

The time depends on:

• Competition: an easy long tail keyword is faster than a big keyword with strong sites.
• Age and trust of the site: a new domain starts with no history.
• Quality of the content: how well it answers the search intent.
• Backlinks: good links from relevant sites help to build trust.
• Technical health: if Google cannot crawl or index the pages, nothing happens.
• How often you publish and improve the pages.

To see the first signs sooner, target easy long tail keywords and check Google Search Console for impressions. See Keywords and Analysis.

What is SEO?

SEO means Search Engine Optimization. It is the process of improving a website so that search engines can understand it, and show it higher in the organic (unpaid) search results for the related searches.

It includes on-page work (content, titles, headings), technical work (speed, mobile support, sitemap) and off-page work (backlinks, reputation). The goal is to get more quality visitors without paying for each click. See SEO Introduction.

What is the difference between SEO and SEM?

Many businesses use both. Paid ads give quick visitors, and SEO builds a base for the long term.

What are the types of SEO?

• On-page SEO: content, title, description, headings, images, internal links.
• Off-page SEO: backlinks, mentions, reviews and other signals outside the site.
• Technical SEO: speed, mobile support, HTTPS, sitemap, robots.txt, structured data.
• Local SEO: ranking for searches near a place, with Google Business Profile.

By the method, SEO is also called white hat (follows the rules) or black hat (breaks the rules). See Types of SEO.

What is on-page SEO?

On-page SEO is the work you do on the pages of your own website to make them clear for visitors and search engines.

• Title tag and meta description
• Headings (H1, H2, H3)
• Helpful, original content with the focus keyword used naturally
• Image file names, alt text and sizes
• Short and clear URLs
• Internal links with good anchor text

See Title Tag, Headings and SEO Content Writing.

What is off-page SEO?

Off-page SEO covers everything which happens outside your own website but affects your ranking. The biggest part is backlinks: links from other trusted websites to your site.

• Earning backlinks with useful content, guest posts and digital PR
• Brand mentions on other websites
• Online reviews and local citations
• Being active in communities and social media, where it brings real visitors

Avoid buying links or link schemes. See Backlinks.

What is technical SEO?

Technical SEO is about the setup of the website itself, not the content. It helps search engines to reach and understand every important page.

• Fast loading pages and good Core Web Vitals
• Mobile friendly design and HTTPS
• XML sitemap and a correct robots.txt
• Canonical tags, redirects and no broken links
• Structured data
• Clean site structure and internal links

See Page Speed and Core Web Vitals and Robots.txt.

What is a keyword in SEO?

A keyword is the search phrase of a user, for example “best laptop for students”. In SEO, you choose the keywords which match your page and your audience, and use them naturally in the title, headings and content.

Types: short tail keywords (broad, like “laptop”), long tail keywords (specific, like “best laptop for students under 40000”), and keywords by intent (informational, commercial, transactional). See Keywords and Analysis.

What is a long tail keyword?

A long tail keyword usually has three or more words and describes exactly what the person wants, like “waterproof running shoes for women” instead of “shoes”.

• Less searched, but less competition.
• Clear intent, so visitors convert better.
• Good for new websites to get the first traffic.
• Many long tail keywords together can bring more traffic than one big keyword.

How do you do keyword research?

1. List the main topics of your website.
2. Collect ideas from Google Autocomplete, People also ask, Google Search Console and a tool like Keyword Planner, Semrush or Ahrefs.
3. Check search volume and keyword difficulty.
4. Open the search results and check the search intent and the competition.
5. Choose one focus keyword for each page and note it in a sheet, so two pages do not target the same keyword.

See Keyword Research Tools.

What is a meta description?

<meta name="description" content="Learn how to write a meta description that gets more clicks.">

Keep it near 120 to 155 characters, make it unique for each page, and describe the page honestly. Google may show its own text instead. See Meta Description.

What is a title tag and what is its ideal length?

The title tag is the <title> element in the head of the page. It shows as the blue link in search results and in the browser tab.

<title>SEO Title Tag: How to Write a Good Title</title>

Google cuts titles by pixel width, so about 50 to 60 characters is a safe length. Write a unique title for each page, put the main keyword near the start, and do not stuff keywords. See Title Tag.

What is a backlink?

A backlink (also called an inbound link) is a link on another website which points to your page. Search engines treat links from trusted and relevant sites like recommendations.

Quality matters more than number. One link from a respected site in your field is better than hundreds of low quality links. See Backlinks.

What is the difference between dofollow and nofollow links?

Every normal link is “dofollow” by default. You do not write anything special. To mark a link as nofollow, add the rel attribute.

<a href="https://example.com">Normal link (dofollow)</a>
<a href="https://example.com" rel="nofollow">Nofollow link</a>
<a href="https://example.com" rel="sponsored">Paid or affiliate link</a>
<a href="https://example.com" rel="ugc">Link in user comments</a>

Google treats these values as hints. Use sponsored for paid links, ugc for user content, and nofollow for links you do not want to support. See Anchor Tag and Links.

What is a robots.txt file?

It is a text file at https://example.com/robots.txt with rules for crawlers.

User-agent: *
Disallow: /admin/
Sitemap: https://example.com/sitemap.xml

Blocking a page in robots.txt does not hide it from search, and it does not protect private data. See Robots.txt.

What is an XML sitemap?

It is a file, usually at /sitemap.xml, which lists your important pages and, optionally, their last modified dates. It helps search engines to discover new pages. One file can have up to 50,000 URLs or 50 MB (uncompressed). Submit it in Google Search Console and add it in robots.txt. See XML Sitemap.

What is a canonical tag?

<link rel="canonical" href="https://example.com/shoes/">

Use it to solve duplicate content, for example with tracking parameters or www and non-www versions. It is a hint for Google, not a command. Every page should have a self referencing canonical. See Canonical URLs.