Niharika Mahendra, Author at Coursedom

November 30, 2018 by Niharika Mahendra Leave a Comment

SEO Interview Questions and Answers

Q1: What is SEO & Why is it so important?

Ans 1: SEO or Search Engine Optimization is the process that is performed for the improvement of Search Engine rankings of websites, products, services or other content.

It shows unpaid results which are also referred to as “free”, “organic”, “natural” or “earned” results. SEO is important as it offers the websites organic traffic and is a crucial factor in determining the rank of a website in the SERP.

Q2: How SEO is better than other web rank improvement methods?

Ans 2: SEO provides real-time information, is supportive and has a vast support available. It is pretty much economical and effective as compared to other methods.

Q3: Name some SEO tools?

SEO Tools

Ans 3: Some of the SEO tools are Google Analytics, Keyword Planner, Alexa open site explorer, Google Webmaster and many more.

Q4: Explain Search Engines and give a few examples.

Ans 4: A Search engine is a web-based software system that is developed to search and locate relevant information on the World Wide Web. They generally answer the queries entered by the users and give them a list of search results. The names of some search engines are Google, Bing and Yahoo.

Q5: How do you measure SEO success?

Ans 5: There are a variety of ways to measure key performance indicators (KPIs) to determine the success of an SEO project. For example, increasing traffic to a website or particular landing page, increasing conversions such as newsletter signups or sales, growing the number of inbound links, driving traffic for a particular keyword phrase, or increasing referral traffic.

Q6: Name the Types of SEO?

Types of SEO

Ans 6: Search Engine Optimization is of 2 types:

On Page SEO: This is the process of optimizing a website that incorporates on-site work like writing title, content, Meta tags, ALT tag, and description. On Page SEO also ensures that the design of the website and the code are crawled and indexed by the search engines properly.

Off Page SEO: This is the process of earning backlinks from various websites to improve the ranking of the website. Various methods like article submission, blog posting, forum, Press release submission are used.

Q7: What steps would you follow to optimize a website?

Ans 7: For optimizing a website conduct a comprehensive keyword research, craft outstanding content with keywords, speed up the website and update page titles.

Q8: What do you understand by Web Optimization?

Ans 8: The process of making random changes such as adding new features, removing the old ones, posting new content, changing themes or appearances for improving the user experience of a certain webpage or website is web optimization.

Q9: What is the main purpose of using keywords in SEO?

Ans 9: A keyword is a fundamental part of the SEO strategy. A keyword is generally defined as a single word and combinations of various keywords form a phrase.

The search engines use these keywords to open particular subject matter over the internet and then these keywords are stored in the database. Hence, the keywords are used to get the best possible match available on the internet.

Q10: What is link building and why is it important?

Link Building

Ans 10: Google constantly put forward the results which are most relevant to any given searcher and any given time. Apart from relevance, Google also favours credibility.

Hence, the search engine looks to see if other websites have linked to yours. If so, that means your content is worth linking to and is more relevant and accurate when compared to a website not linked to externally. Hence linking us a process used by SEO professional to get links to their websites in order to improve search results.

Q11: What are backlinks and outbound links?

Ans 11: Backlinks are the incoming links to your website or webpage. They are also called inbound links. While the outbound links are those links that are pointing to different websites from your website.

Q12: What is the difference between SEO and SEM?

Ans 12: SEO is the process of optimizing the ranking if the website in the search engine whereas SEM is usually used to promote a website through paid or unpaid ads.

Q13: What is a Pagespeed and why is it important?

Ans 13: Page speed is the speed of how fast your site loads for a use. This is one of the factors that Google takes into account while ranking websites since a faster loading page directly translate to the better user experience.

Q14: Explain Web Page SEO and Website Seo?

Ans 14: Web Page SEO is making efforts to improve the rank of a specific webpage on the search engine whereas Web SEO is the process of improving the rank of the entire website on a search engine.

Q15: What are the two main SEO Techniques?

Black and White Hat SEO

Ans 15: There are two SEO techniques: White Hat SEO and Black Hat SEO or Negative SEO.

Q16: How to make a website Search Engine Friendly?

Ans 16: There are several factors that make a website search engine friendly which is using Keyword in the title tag, keyword in meta description tag, keyword in the H1 tag, using keywords in the page’s copy, the length of the content, duplicate content, canonical tag, Image Optimization and many more.

Q17: Is it possible to optimize a website in one day?

Ans 17: SEO is a complex process and hence, needs a lot of factors to be paid attention to. Therefore, the optimization of a website is not possible in one day. It takes time depending on a lot of factors.

Q18: Which method will you use to redirect a page?

Ans 18: A 301 redirect is the best way to redirect a page so that you don’t lose any SEO value that has been collected so far.

Q19: What are the various ways of generating traffic on websites?

Ans 19: Traffic can be enhanced on any website through a number of approaches like:

Updating the website content with respect to time
Considering Google AdWords
Adding new features to the website
By diverting the traffic from other sites
Posting Ads

Q 20: What do you understand by Googlebot?

Google Bot

Ans 20: Googlebot is the search bot software that is used by Google. It collects documents from the web to build a searchable index for the Google Search engine.

Q21: List some common mistakes that are made by SEO professionals.

Ans 21: Some common mistakes that SEO professionals make are:

Not optimizing images with a proper ALT tag
Duplicate Title and description Tag
Short content or Duplicate Content
Having improper site structure
No Anchor text variation

Q22: Can you adopt different strategies for SEO at the same time?

Ans 22: Yes, it is possible. The best results can be obtained only when the users consider multiple approaches simultaneously.

Q23: How to cross check if the SEO campaign is working or not?

Ans 23: Search all the search engines employing relevant key phrases and keywords that are to be optimized. After the results are generated, the methods of optimization can be employed.

Q24: What will be your next step if your SEO methods are not working?

Ans 24: There may be times when the SEO methods might not work as expected. In that case, the problem can be solved step by step:

Check the total time duration of the project and re-check by entering the keywords.
Using different keywords which are related can also be helpful.
Make some changes in the text, title or the description of the webpage or website is not showing on the first ten pages of the SERP.
Advanced corrections might also be required in case the website is not indexed properly.

Q 25: What is cross-linking & what are its functions?

Ans 25: Cross-linking is the process of linking one site to another site. Its features are as follows:

It provides the users with reference sites that contain the content related to the search.
The 2 websites that use the process of cross-linking cannot be owned by the same person.
Cross-linking is somewhat like a barter system where A website is linked to B and vice versa.
It could be a 2-way link or 3-way link. In a 2-way link site X links to site Y and site Y links to site X. In a 3-way link, site X links to site Y, site Y links to site Z and site Z links to site X.

Q26: What methods will you adopt for decreasing the loading time of the website?

Ans 26: Some methods to decrease the loading of the page are:

Avoid Landing page redirects
Minify CSS, Javascript and HTML
Image optimization
Reduce server response Time

Q27: Apart from improving the Search Engine Results, what are the other benefits of SEO?

Ans 27: With SEO the navigation of the website is made easy, the uploading speed is also boosted. Moreover, the overall usability of a website can be improved to a great extent.

Q28: What is the difference between dofollow and nofollow links?

Ans 28: Nofollow links are the ones that tell search engine bots not to follow a certain link. The link is still clickable for a user, but not followed by a bot. On the other hand, all other links could be considered as dofollow links. They don’t generally have special attributes to tell the search engines bots to follow them, the bots will by default.

Q29: What is link auditing in SEO?

Ans 29: Link Auditing is the approach that simply let users to cross verify the links created are working effectively or not. It is done after a certain period. On the basis of the results can be removed, added or modified.

Q30: What are meta tags in SEO & mention their character limits?

Ans 30: Meta tags are snippets of text that describe a page’s content. There are mainly for types of Meta tags in SEO.

Meta Description tag with 1200 pixels limits
Meta Keyword tag
Title Tag with 600 pixels limits
Meta Robots

Q31: How does content play an important role in Search Engine Optimization?

Ans 31: Content is one of the major elements of any SEO approach. It enhances the rank of the website on the search engines.

Q32: Which SEO Factors are not under your control?

Ans 32: Google is the biggest SEO factor that is not controlled by anyone as it does not publically announce the search algorithm it uses.

Also, you cannot force other websites to link to your website, share your website content or spend some more time on your website. All you can do is make excellent user experience and quality content.

Q33: What are some black hat SEO practices to avoid?

Ans 33: Cloaking, keyword stuffing, copying content from another site, exchanging or trading links, buying links, hiding text, and using a link farm are all underhanded techniques and these practices are penalized by Google.

Q34: What is the difference between Page Rank & Search Engine Results Page?

Ans 34: Page rank is calculated on the basis of quality inbound links from other website or web pages to our web page or a website.

SERP (Search Engine Result page) is the placement of the website or web-pages which is delivered by the search engine after a search query.

Q35: How do you deal with Link Penalties?

Ans 35: Link Penalties can be combated and prevented with the help of certain steps like finding all the backlinks, identifying the bad backlinks and Request removal of the bad links or using some tools Ahrefs & Google Webmaster Tools.

Q36: According to you, what are some of the qualities that are required in order to play an effective SEO role?

Ans 36: An SEO professional must have good research skills and analytical skills. He/she should be able to spot trends and adapt to change. Proactive in the approach he/she should be laser focussed in deliver the much-desired results with his/her exceptional SEO skills.

Q37: What is the importance of Title Tag on the website?

Ans 37: The importance of Title Tags is as such that it tells about the contents on that particular web page. With the help of Title Tags, the search engine tells the user what all is there on the page.

Q38: What is Hummingbird?

Hummingbird

Ans 38: Hummingbird was an overhaul of Google’s search algorithm that was released in 2013. It focusses to move beyond just keywords and understand a searcher’s intent.

Q39: What is domain authority?

Ans 39: Domain Authority is a search engine ranking score that predicts how well a website will rank in search results.

Q40: What do you mean by competitive analysis?

Ans 40: Competitive Analysis is a well-researched comparison between your website and the websites that are highly ranked.

Q41: What are the Webmaster Tools?

Webmaster Tool

Ans 41: Webmaster tools are the ones that are provided by Google. From these tools, you can get backlink information, crawl errors, search queries, Indexing data, CTR etc.

Q42: What is keyword density and what is the formula of calculating it?

Ans 42: Keyword density is the percentage of times a keyword or phrase appears on a web page compared to the total number of words on the page. The formula of keyword density is:

(Total Number of Keyword÷Total Number of Words)×100

Q43: What are robots.txt?

Ans 43: Robots.txt is a text file that gives instructions to search engine crawlers about indexing of a webpage, file of a website or directory, domain.

Q44: Mention which is the most important area to include your keywords?

Ans 44: The most important areas to include your keywords are the Page title, Body text and Meta Description.

Q45: Why do internal links matter?

Ans 45: Internal links are those links which are present within your website and link to another page of your website. It helps all of the content on your website to get crawled and ranked.

Q46: What is a Canonical issue? How will you resolve them?

Ans 46: The Canonical issue relates to duplicate pages. For fixing a canonical issue, you have to do a canonical redirect the visitors to a correct version when they try to go to the wrong URL.

Closing Thoughts

Irrespective of whether you are a fresher or an experienced candidate, it is always better to be prepared beforehand and show interest in the job. While technical knowledge is mandatory, it is also important to showcase your passion and confidence to grab that job position. Hopefully, these questions will provide you with better support for your next interview.

October 5, 2018 by Niharika Mahendra 2 Comments

Types of Digital Marketing Strategies You Should Use Right Now

Digital marketing has embarked on a promising journey and has achieved its goal of being the most efficient form of marketing.

Gone were the days when advertising was only confined to traditional methods. With the technological revolution, marketing has also evolved.

It is a well-known fact that only those survive who adapt to their changing surroundings. Hence, the same is applicable in the digital marketing sphere. Internet plays a major role in our personal as well as professional lives. It is obvious to say that people are not only using the internet on their personal level. They are making sure to optimally use the internet for making professional gains as well.

The Evolution of Digital Marketing

The Evolution of Digital Marketing

The rapid use of internet in the marketing sphere has given birth to digital marketing. Digital Marketing is a method of marketing the products and services on various digital media platforms like search engines, social media platforms, emails, content writing etc.

Generally, it is just another way of letting the consumers know about your products and services on the internet. Unlike the traditional methods of marketing, digital marketing has a wider reach.

Also, with the world pacing at a rapid speed, people want almost everything at their doorstep or within a click. Whether it is making a payment online or ordering food, or maybe looking for directions or any other service.

The consumers have become more internet savvy. It becomes exceptionally important for the advertisers and marketers to also come on the same platform with them. This calls them to adopt the phenomenon of digital marketing.

Digital Marketing is a wider phenomenon. As a marketer, you should be aware of all the strategies that it incorporates.

As marketers and advertisers, you need to have a thorough understanding of all the digital marketing strategies. Having a proper knowledge will help you to apply them according to the goals and objectives you desire to achieve.

The Types of Digital Marketing strategies are as follows:

1. Search Engine Optimization

Search Engine Optimization

Search Engine Optimization is the process of getting organic traffic from the search engines by optimizing the online content. To rank higher in the search engines and attract more traffic organically, the Search Engine Optimization strategy is considered. SEO is one of the most crucial strategies of digital marketing and you just cannot afford to ignore it.

By properly following the Search Engine Optimization process, you persuade your website to rank on the top of the SERP. The higher you rank on the SERP, the more traffic is directed to your website. Thereby, the more chances you get to convert a potential lead into a customer.

Typically, this strategy incorporates the use of certain keywords and phrases in the content that are closely aligned with the search query of the visitor.

SEO is further divided into 2 parts, On-Page SEO and Off-Page SEO. While On-Page SEO refers to making optimal changes in your website. Off-Page SEO refers to building relationships and making actions outside your website.

The trends in SEO are dependent on the changes made in the algorithm to fit according to the needs of the visitor. Thus, it is important to know that SEO is not only done to make a website rank higher in the SERP. SEO is about creating your website in the best possible way. Also, SEO improves the quality of the traffic that you receive and delivering the best user experience.

Search Engine Optimization not only helps you reach out to the desktop users. It is equally effective for the mobile users as well. On the more, it has been noticed that most people use their mobile phone. Thus, you should not miss any opportunity to boost traffic from the mobile devices.

SEO Optimization Techniques

The first step to improving the SEO ranking is to start making quality improvements in the content marketing sphere. Content is the king and certainly plays a major role in increasing the visibility of your websites in the SERP. Thus, optimizing the content should be a priority here.

To optimize the content, you need to conduct a comprehensive keyword research. The process of keyword research lets you discover the terms that the consumers type when they look for a business like yours. Hence, by creating the content around these keywords, you can improve your visibility on the SERP.

Although keywords are a significant part of the SEO process, there are other factors like website design, link building and domain authority that determines your ranking on the SERP.

To improve the user experience, Google changes its algorithm multiple times a year. Moreover, you should ensure to keep pace with the latest trends in the SEO and make changes accordingly.

2. Pay Per Click Advertising

Pay Per Click Advertising

PPC stands for Pay Per Click. It allows the advertisers and marketers to show their content to the relevant users in return for a price. This price is based on specific actions that are taken on the ad.

Generally, the advertisers are liable to pay for the clicks that take the users to your websites. But, on other platforms, advertisers are charged for other actions like the impressions, site-engagements etc. It is basically a method of buying visits to your websites rather than earning the visits organically.

The most significant thing about PPC is that it is a very transparent platform for online advertising with no hidden complexities. You only tend to pay when a visitor conducts some kind of action on your ad.

PPC also enables you to set a certain budget limit for your campaigns on a daily and monthly basis so that you do not exceed the budget limit. It tracks your budget and provides you with a clear-cut idea of your budget allocation.

You can make your ad campaigns as targeted as possible as PPC gives you the provision of choosing the platform as well. This way PPC ensures that your ads are displayed in front of the most relevant audience at the right time. Thereby initiating the generation of more leads and sales.

PPC delivers immediate and consistent results in terms of traffic. For new websites who are looking for online exposure and visibility, PPC can surely be a promising platform if optimally used.

Well, the ultimate goal of any marketing campaign is to maximize the ROI (Return on Investment). By displaying your ads in the most relevant places, PPC targets the conversion oriented audience and increases the ROI of your marketing campaigns.

PPC – Quality Features

PPC has some top quality features that just make it an effective platform to work on. Two of them are Geo-Targeting and Ad-Scheduling.

With Geo-Targeting, you can exclude the people who do not come under the range of your target audience. Not only this saves your Ad Spend but it also targets the potential customers. It takes you a step ahead in fulfilling your business goals.

The other feature is that of Ad Scheduling which allows you to show your ads on some specific days of the week and also for specific hours in a day. So, if you are familiar with the day and time when you get the best response from your customers, you can schedule your ads for display according to that.

PPC also complements your SEO strategy. It enables you to identify the keywords and phrases are popular and have contributed to delivering the desired results in terms of sales and conversions. Implementing those keywords can boost your SEO strategy.

3. Social Media Marketing

Social Media Marketing

Social Media marketing is another form of Digital Marketing that includes the creation and sharing of content on various social media platforms. This is done in order to achieve the marketing and advertising goals through social media. It involves activities like posting text content, uploading and updates images and videos and other social media tactics to attract more traffic.

Some years back, people only thought of social media as a platform to form connections with their family, friends and acquaintances. Little did they know that social media was carrying a hidden potential of delivering some best experiences to marketers with respect to the conversions, sales and brand image.

If you are a marketer who wants to build a brand image online, want to improve the customer service or target more potential customers, social media marketing can be a smart choice for you.

Since a larger population is available on social media platforms, hence, the marketers can easily associate with a larger number of potential customers in preferably less time. Moreover, social media initiates you to show a more human side of your brand, thus, you get a better chance of connecting with your target audience in a more genuine way.

Importance of Social Media Marketing

Social media marketing strategy is very cost effective. It not only helps you to reach out to more potential customers but also builds your relationships with your existing customers.

In order to get the most out of the social media marketing, you should strategically choose your channels. To start off with social media marketing, choose the social channels that might be just right for you. Then create a social media calendar to ensure that you consistently post. Share the information about your company, the products and services it sells and also the content that you’ve published on the blog.

Well, posting text, images and videos is not the only thing you need to do. You have to equally be active and engaging with the audience. Respond to comments and answer the questions. This will portray a positive and friendly image of yours which is certainly required.

4. Content Marketing

Content Marketing

Content Marketing is another digital marketing strategy that focuses on creating and distributing relevant content to attract the qualified and targeted audience with an intention to increase conversions and sales.

Content Marketing is essentially important as it forms the base for the other types of digital campaigns. Whether it is social media marketing, email marketing or search engine optimization, you will be needing great content to execute all of these strategies profitably.

Content Marketing deals with the notion of creating valuable content that stimulates the interest of your target audience with respect to your brand. The content does not always have to be promotional, rather you should ensure to inspire, persuade or educate them.

Moreover, content marketing is not just confined to writing blogs, website content, guides or ebooks. Content also includes videos, infographics, podcasts, webinars and social media posts. Your campaign goals and target audience are the major components that decide the type of content you should create and share.

Importance of Content Marketing

Content Marketing is absolutely a profitable strategy for small businesses as they are affordable. It can have a significant impact on the conversion process. It further helps in improving the SEO process.

The more quality content you provide on the website, the more indexable it becomes. Further, it provides more opportunities to reach and engage with a large number of audience. By attracting more qualified traffic, content marketing also boosts conversions.

While creating the content, keep your target audience in mind. Remember the things and concepts that invoke the interest of your target audience. Also, consider the language that your visitors use and knit your content around the comfort level of the users.

In the case of Content Marketing as well, you need to understand the right strategy to implement. The best way to make optimal use of the content marketing strategy is to create a blog.

Moreover, in addition to the blogging, you can also go ahead pretty lengthy written content like ebooks and whitepapers. These lengthy pieces of content are beneficial as they provide with the most valuable and in-depth knowledge to your potential audience.

Furthermore, you should ask your visitors to provide some relevant information before they get access to your content. This will potentially build your database and you can understand what type of leads you generate.

Lastly, share your content on all social media platforms to gain maximum exposure and feedback. Content Marketing is not just a one-time strategy but an ongoing process. Hence, ensure to include it in your daily marketing planner.

5. Email Marketing

Email Marketing

As the name suggests, Email Marketing is the process of sending targeted messages to your contacts through emails. Since, the introduction of the internet, email marketing has been an essential tool for many businesses.

Being a form of direct marketing, it provides a direct contact with your potential customers and persuades them to visit your website. With just a few steps, you can provide all the latest updates, news and insights to a wide range of your potential customers is a comparatively less time.

Just like the other types of digital marketing strategies, the messages that you send via email does not always have to be promotional. You can also share insights unique and valuable information and insights with your customers.

While there are so many other digital platforms that cater to the needs of the marketers and advertisers when it comes to digital marketing, the most common question that is thinking why is email marketing so important. Well, there are certain factors that make email marketing more important in today’s scenario as well.

Benefits of Email Marketing

Email Marketing is comparatively cost effective. Marketing to hundreds to thousands of customers through emails will not cost you much as compared to other forms of digital marketing. Next advantage of email marketing is that it targets the specific ideal consumers which further leads to higher engagement and often generates a higher ROI.

It is more versatile as it integrates the other types of digital marketing tactics. For example, you can use email marketing to promote the content that you have created. Or through emails, you can drive more traffic to your website.

No matter how promising a digital marketing strategy might be, if you do not know how to use it effectively, then you can’t make the most out of it. The first step towards effectively using email marketing is to build an email marketing contact list. You can do this by providing an incentive for subscribing to your email list. By providing them with valuable content can also increase the sign-ups for you.

After creating the email list, segment it into smaller similar groups based on their behaviour, interests, geographical areas, profession, age etc. By segmenting the audience into smaller groups will help you in delivering highly targeted messages to the subscribers.