Q. Dr. Dave Driscoll, a very credible and well-respected authority on dentistry, just linked to a blog post that you wrote about how to floss from his website. When Google assesses the authority of your post and recognizes the link from Dr. Driscoll’s website, which search engine function is at play?
- A. Crawling
- B. Ranking
- C. Discovering
- D. Indexing
Answer: B. Ranking
Explanation: When Google assesses the authority of your post and recognizes the link from Dr. Driscoll’s website, it evaluates the quality and relevance of that link to help determine how high your post should rank in search results. Ranking takes into account factors like backlinks from credible websites, such as Dr. Driscoll’s, to decide where your content should appear in search results relative to other pages.
Q. You’re trying to rank for one of your target topics using a web page that contains a long, canonical piece of written content. However, when you do your research on what’s already ranking for that topic by searching for it on Google, you notice that the majority of search results on page one are videos. Which of the following actions will give your website the best chance of ranking for this topic?
- A. Do nothing. Because your web page is a lengthy piece of written content, Google will have more text to crawl – so eventually, it will rank your page above the video results.
- B. Delete the written content, and replace it with a video version of that content on the same URL. Because Google is serving up mostly videos on page 1 for this particular topic, the written content doesn’t have a place.
- C. Create a video about that topic, and add it to your existing written page. Because Google is serving up mostly videos on page one for this particular topic, you’ll want to have a video in there – but that doesn’t mean having written content to supplement it won’t help.
Answer: C. Create a video about that topic, and add it to your existing written page.
Explanation: Because Google is serving mostly videos on page one for that topic, adding a video increases your chances of ranking higher. However, keeping the written content alongside the video is still beneficial. Written content provides additional context, information, and text for Google to crawl, enhancing your chances of ranking while serving users who prefer different formats. This combination gives you the best opportunity to rank well.
Q. True or False? Google accounts for the majority of searches worldwide.
- A. True
- B. False
Answer: True
Explanation: Google accounts for the majority of searches worldwide. As of 2024, Google holds approximately 91.54% of the global search engine market share. This dominance underscores its significant influence in directing online search traffic and the importance for businesses to optimize their content for Google’s search algorithms.
Q. What is the primary goal of a search engine?
- A. To drive the most amount of traffic to their own pages
- B. To serve users the most relevant content that matches their search query
- C. To personalize search results for individual users
- D. To index pages as fast as possible
Answer: B. To serve users the most relevant content that matches their search query
Explanation: Search engines like Google aim to provide users with the best possible results for their search queries by evaluating relevance, quality, and authority. While indexing pages and personalization are important functions, relevance is the top priority in satisfying user intent and delivering valuable results.
Q. What do you need to balance when doing SEO?
- A. Focusing on the user and making it easy for search engines to crawl your website
- B. Creating lots of high-quality content and personalizing it for your buyer personas
- C. Adding more content to your website and focusing on your social media presence
- D. Focusing on search engine crawlers and making it easy to share your content
Answer: A. Focusing on the user and making it easy for search engines to crawl your website
Explanation: SEO success requires prioritizing both the user experience and ensuring search engines can efficiently crawl and understand your content. This means creating valuable, user-friendly content that addresses user needs while also implementing technical SEO practices (e.g., proper site structure, sitemaps, etc.) to make your site accessible to search engine crawlers.
Q. True or False? The same SEO strategy will yield the same results for all websites.
- A. True
- B. False
Answer: False
Explanation: The same SEO strategy will not yield the same results for all websites. SEO performance is influenced by various factors, including the website’s domain authority, content quality, competition, industry, audience, and technical structure. Each website has unique characteristics, so SEO strategies need to be tailored accordingly for the best results.
Q. Choose all that apply. Which of these factors will affect your SEO strategy?
- A. How established your business is online
- B. What resources you have to dedicate to SEO
- C. How many followers you have on social media
- D. What industry you’re in
Answer: A. How established your business is online, B. What resources you have to dedicate to SEO, D. What industry you’re in
Explanation: These factors influence how you approach SEO, the competitiveness of your market, and the strategies you can employ. While social media followers can indirectly help with visibility and traffic, they don’t directly affect your SEO strategy in the same way that the other factors do.
Here are the rest of the questions with answers and explanations:
Q. Choose all that apply. Which of these are important KPIs to consider for SEO?
- A. Organic traffic
- B. Keyword ranking
- C. Bounce rate
- D. Content length
- E. Page load time
Answer: A. Organic traffic, B. Keyword ranking, C. Bounce rate, E. Page load time
Explanation: These KPIs help measure how well your SEO efforts are performing in terms of visibility, user engagement, and site performance. Content length can be relevant but is not a direct KPI; rather, it affects user engagement and rankings when combined with quality and relevance.
Q. How do you build discovery and relevance for search engines?
- A. By increasing the number of backlinks to your pages
- B. By driving as much traffic as possible to your website
- C. By creating lots of high-quality content on the topics you want to be known for
- D. By guest blogging on popular, authoritative sites
Answer: C. By creating lots of high-quality content on the topics you want to be known for
Explanation: Search engines prioritize relevance and quality when ranking pages. Consistently creating valuable, topic-specific content signals to search engines that your website is an authoritative source on those subjects. While increasing backlinks and guest blogging on authoritative sites can help with authority and traffic, the foundation of discovery and relevance lies in producing high-quality, focused content.
Q. True or False? Authority directly impacts ranking strength.
- A. True
- B. False
Answer: True
Explanation: Authority directly impacts ranking strength. Search engines like Google consider the authority of a website or page, which is often measured through factors like the quality and number of backlinks, content credibility, and domain reputation. Higher authority websites are more likely to rank better in search results.
Q. Choose all that apply. How do you determine the authority of a piece of content?
- A. The content is optimized for search engines
- B. The content is talked about often
- C. The content is referred to often
- D. The content is cited in other works
Answer: B. The content is talked about often, C. The content is referred to often, D. The content is cited in other works
Explanation: These factors indicate that the content is recognized, trusted, and valued by others, which helps build its authority. Simply optimizing content for search engines does not directly determine its authority, though it may help improve visibility.
Q. True or False? You should optimize a single page for multiple keywords.
- A. True
- B. False
Answer: True
Explanation: You can optimize a single page for multiple related keywords, especially if they are part of the same topic or semantic cluster. This strategy helps improve the page’s relevance for various search queries without diluting its focus. However, it’s important to ensure that the keywords are naturally integrated and relevant to the overall content to maintain quality and user experience.
Q. What is the purpose of heading tags?
- A. To provide a hierarchical structure to a web page
- B. To entice readers to click through onto a page
- C. To accurately describe a web page’s contents
- D. To tell search engine crawlers information about a page
Answer: A. To provide a hierarchical structure to a web page
Explanation: Heading tags (H1, H2, H3, etc.) organize the content on a page by creating a clear structure, which helps both users and search engines understand the layout and the importance of different sections of content. While heading tags can also describe the page’s content to some extent, their primary role is to structure the page for readability and relevance.
Q. When would it be beneficial to have a different title tag than your heading tag?
- A. When your heading doesn’t accurately describe the contents of the page
- B. When your heading is too long and will get cut off in search engine results
- C. When your title is more interesting than your heading
- D. Never, the two elements should always be the same
Answer: B. When your heading is too long and will get cut off in search engine results
Explanation: The title tag is what appears in search engine results, so it should be concise, optimized for SEO, and designed to attract clicks. The heading tag (H1) is meant for users on the actual page and can be longer or more descriptive. In some cases, it’s helpful to have different versions to ensure both the user experience and SEO are optimized.
Q. Choose all that apply. Why are internal links important for SEO?
- A. They help users and search engine crawlers navigate your site
- B. They tell search engine crawlers which content should not be indexed
- C. They pass link authority from one page to another
- D. They allow your pages to appear in search engine results
Answer: A. They help users and search engine crawlers navigate your site, C. They pass link authority from one page to another
Explanation: Internal links improve the flow of authority (sometimes called “link juice”) from one page to another, which can help boost the ranking of important pages. They also aid both users and search engine crawlers in discovering and understanding the structure of your website. Internal links do not prevent content from being indexed, nor are they the sole factor allowing pages to appear in search engine results.
Q. Which of these is NOT part of a URL?
- A. Protocol
- B. Domain
- C. Path
- D. Index
Answer: D. Index
Explanation: A URL consists of the following parts:
- Protocol (e.g.,
https://) - Domain (e.g.,
example.com) - Path (e.g.,
/about-us)
“Index” may refer to the index page (e.g., index.html), but it is not a standard component of the URL structure itself.
Q. True or False? You should use hyphens, underscores, or spaces between the words in your URLs.
- A. True
- B. False
Answer: False
Explanation: You should use hyphens (not underscores or spaces) between words in your URLs. Hyphens are recommended by search engines like Google for separating words, as they are more easily readable and help with SEO. Underscores and spaces can create issues with readability and indexing.
Here are the remaining questions with answers and explanations:
Q. Why is having duplicate content an issue for SEO?
- A. It can dilute your ranking potential
- B. It confuses users
- C. It can negatively affect your authority
- D. It isn’t an issue at all
Answer: A. It can dilute your ranking potential, C. It can negatively affect your authority
Explanation: Duplicate content can cause search engines to struggle in deciding which version of the content to rank, which can dilute the ranking potential of all duplicates. It can also reduce your site’s perceived authority if search engines see duplicate content as less valuable or as an attempt to manipulate rankings. While it might not directly confuse users, it can cause SEO issues.
Q. Choose all that apply. Why is it important to have HTTPS for your website?
- A. It encrypts sensitive data, like passwords and credit card numbers
- B. It’s required by Google
- C. It increases users’ trust in your website
- D. It prevents your site from receiving inadvertent penalties
Answer: A. It encrypts sensitive data, like passwords and credit card numbers, C. It increases users’ trust in your website, D. It prevents your site from receiving inadvertent penalties
Explanation: HTTPS ensures that data exchanged between users and your website is secure, which builds trust and prevents potential security issues. While HTTPS is not strictly “required” by Google, Google does prioritize secure websites in its rankings and labels non-HTTPS sites as “Not Secure,” which can lead to lower rankings and less user trust.
Q. What is the purpose of a 301 redirect?
- A. To temporarily redirect users from one URL to another
- B. To prevent search engine crawlers from indexing a page
- C. To resolve duplicate content issues
- D. To permanently redirect users from one URL to another
Answer: D. To permanently redirect users from one URL to another
Explanation: A 301 redirect indicates to both users and search engines that a page has been moved permanently to a new URL. This is often used when restructuring a website or resolving issues like broken links or old pages. It also helps pass link equity from the old URL to the new one.
Q. Choose all that apply. Which of these are ways to increase your site speed?
- A. Compress images
- B. Upload images at the exact dimensions they’ll be used
- C. Add pages to your robots.txt file
- D. Reduce the number of backlinks to your pages
Answer: A. Compress images, B. Upload images at the exact dimensions they’ll be used
Explanation: Compressing images and uploading them at the exact dimensions they’ll be used helps reduce the size of images and optimize load times, which can significantly improve site speed. Adding pages to your robots.txt file or reducing backlinks won’t have a direct effect on site speed.
Q. Choose all that apply. Why are meta descriptions important?
- A. They increase click-through rate and visits from organic search
- B. They increase visits from social media
- C. They increase the authority of a web page
- D. They give people the right information at the right time
Answer: A. They increase click-through rate and visits from organic search, D. They give people the right information at the right time
Explanation: Meta descriptions provide a summary of the content on a page, helping users decide whether to click on your page in search results. While they don’t directly increase a page’s authority or drive visits from social media, they can significantly impact user engagement and organic traffic by offering relevant information that entices users to click.
Q. How do search engines use sitemaps?
- A. Google uses a sitemap to locate structured data on a web page and display it in rich results
- B. Web crawlers use a sitemap to understand a website’s structure so they can evaluate and rank it more easily
- C. Web crawlers use a sitemap to follow backlinks from one site to another and assign authority to those pages
- D. Search engines don’t use sitemaps, but SEO experts use them to determine the information architecture of a website
Answer: B. Web crawlers use a sitemap to understand a website’s structure so they can evaluate and rank it more easily
Explanation: Sitemaps provide search engines with a clear map of the pages on your website, helping crawlers locate and index your content more efficiently. They do not directly assist with backlinks or ranking authority but are crucial for helping search engines discover and understand the structure and hierarchy of your site.
Q. Which of these teams is NOT involved in the creation of a sitemap?
- A. Marketing
- B. Development
- C. Sales
- D. Legal
- E. IT
Answer: C. Sales
Explanation: The creation of a sitemap generally involves Marketing, Development, and IT teams, as they manage content, technical aspects, and website structure. The Legal team may sometimes review for compliance or regulatory concerns, but Sales does not play a direct role in sitemap creation.
Q. True or False? The further away a page is from the homepage, the worse it is for that page’s SEO.
- A. True
- B. False
Answer: True
Explanation: The further away a page is from the homepage in terms of clicks or site structure, the worse it can be for that page’s SEO. Search engines prioritize pages that are easily accessible from the homepage, as they are often considered more important. Pages buried deep within a website might get crawled less frequently and may receive less link authority, which can negatively impact their rankings.
Q. Choose all that apply. When should you submit your sitemap to Google and other search engines?
- A. When you first publish your website
- B. When you publish a new web page
- C. When you make a significant change to your site structure
- D. When you redesign your website
Answer: A. When you first publish your website, C. When you make a significant change to your site structure, D. When you redesign your website
Explanation: Submitting your sitemap in these scenarios ensures that search engines can properly crawl and index your content. You do not need to submit your sitemap every time you publish a new web page, as search engines will typically discover new pages through regular crawling, but it’s important when making major structural or design changes.
Q. True or False? You should emulate the top-ranking content for your target keyword, but offer unique value.
- A. True
- B. False
Answer: True
Explanation: You should emulate the top-ranking content for your target keyword but offer unique value. Analyzing what works for top-ranking content provides insights into what search engines prioritize, such as structure, topics covered, and keyword usage. However, offering unique value (e.g., original insights, improved readability, or additional resources) is crucial to stand out, attract users, and potentially rank higher.
I covered 20 questions in the previous responses. There are 9 more to be formatted and answered. Let’s complete them:
Q. Sam is the marketing director for StyleHub, a clothing boutique. They opened their brick-and-mortar store last year, but Sam only published the website a month ago, and it isn’t receiving much traffic yet. Now, they’re ready to focus on SEO and have some resources to dedicate to it. Which three tactics should Sam focus on initially?
- A. Creating a series of blog posts and pillar pages; Reaching out to journalists for backlinks; Running a keyword competitive analysis
- B. Implementing structured data on the website; Optimizing the load time of the website; Guest blogging for other relevant, authoritative websites
- C. Optimizing the website to follow on-page SEO best practices; Making the website mobile-responsive; Setting up a Google My Business profile
Answer: C. Optimizing the website to follow on-page SEO best practices; Making the website mobile-responsive; Setting up a Google My Business profile
Explanation: These foundational SEO practices will improve the site’s visibility in search engines, enhance user experience (especially on mobile devices), and help StyleHub appear in local search results, which is crucial for a brick-and-mortar boutique.
Q. Which of these is an example of a long-tail keyword?
- A. Glasses
- B. Do I need glasses
- C. Women’s eye glasses
- D. What does my glasses prescription mean
Answer: D. What does my glasses prescription mean
Explanation: Long-tail keywords are typically longer, more specific phrases that target niche queries. These often have lower search volumes but higher conversion rates because they address very specific search intent.
Q. What was the purpose of the Google Hummingbird algorithm update?
- A. Associating past search history with similar themes and pulling together keywords and phrases
- B. Parsing out phrases rather than focusing on specific search queries
- C. Targeting link spam and manipulative link-building practices
- D. Serving up more personalized and relevant search results
Answer: B. Parsing out phrases rather than focusing on specific search queries
Explanation: Hummingbird was designed to better understand the context and meaning behind search queries, focusing on entire phrases rather than just individual keywords. This helped Google provide more accurate and relevant results, especially for more conversational or complex search queries.
Q. Google measures how interesting other people think your content is through _.
- A. Links
- B. Backlinks
- C. Social shares
- D. Page views
Answer: B. Backlinks
Explanation: Backlinks, or inbound links from other websites, are a strong indicator of content relevance and authority. While social shares and page views can reflect popularity, backlinks are a key factor in Google’s algorithm for determining how valuable and interesting your content is to others.
Q. True or False? Google doesn’t care about the quality of backlinks, only the quantity.
- A. True
- B. False
Answer: False
Explanation: Google cares about the quality of backlinks, not just the quantity. High-quality backlinks from authoritative, relevant, and trusted websites carry much more weight in Google’s ranking algorithm than a large number of low-quality or irrelevant backlinks. Quality backlinks signal to Google that your content is credible and valuable.
Q. What kind of content is most likely to be organically linked to?
- A. Informational content
- B. Promotional content
- C. Clickbait content
- D. All content is equally likely to be linked to
Answer: A. Informational content
Explanation: Informational content that provides value, such as guides, tutorials, research, or in-depth articles, is more likely to attract organic backlinks because it offers useful insights that others want to reference or share. Promotional and clickbait content are far less likely to receive organic links, as they are often perceived as less valuable or credible.
Q. How many links does it take to rank high in search results?
- A. The same number of links that other pages on your site have
- B. More links than your highest-ranking page has
- C. The same number of links that the results ranking on page one have
- D. None of the above
Answer: D. None of the above
Explanation: There is no fixed number of links required to rank high in search results. While backlinks are important, ranking is influenced by multiple factors, including the quality of the links, the relevance of the content, on-page SEO, user experience, and competition. Having more or the same number of links as other high-ranking pages does not guarantee better rankings, as link quality and other factors play a significant role.
Q. When building a relationship with the goal of receiving backlinks, what is the first thing you should do?
- A. Request a link from them
- B. Deliver value to them
- C. Pitch an idea for a piece they can write
- D. Tell them how important you are
Answer: B. Deliver value to them
Explanation: Building relationships for backlinks should start with offering something valuable, whether it’s sharing useful content, insights, or helping with their needs. This establishes trust and reciprocity, making it more likely that they will naturally link to your content later. Starting by requesting a link or pitching without building a relationship can come off as self-serving and less effective.
Q. Choose all that apply. What are the most important things to do when replying to press request alerts?
- A. Respond quickly
- B. Include an image or video
- C. Give the journalist exactly the information they want
- D. Make sure they know how authoritative your site is
Answer: A. Respond quickly, C. Give the journalist exactly the information they want
Explanation: Timeliness is crucial because journalists often work on tight deadlines, and providing the precise information they need increases the chances of being featured. While it can be helpful to mention your site’s authority when relevant, it is not as important as giving accurate and prompt responses. Including an image or video is useful only if specifically requested.
Thank you for catching that! It seems I missed some additional questions in the original set. Let’s review and complete the remaining questions, answers, and explanations.
Q. True or False? Backlinks build authority.
- A. True
- B. False
Answer: True
Explanation: Backlinks build authority. High-quality backlinks from reputable, relevant sites signal to search engines like Google that your content is valuable and trustworthy, which can help increase your site’s authority and improve its rankings in search results.
Q. What are rich results?
- A. Google’s response to a user’s search query
- B. Visually enhanced search results that provide supplemental information to the title, URL, and meta description of a web page
- C. A standardized format for providing information about a page and classifying the page content
- D. A markup language
Answer: B. Visually enhanced search results that provide supplemental information to the title, URL, and meta description of a web page
Explanation: Rich results can include things like images, ratings, reviews, and other details that make search results more informative and attractive to users. They often rely on structured data (such as schema markup) to display this additional information.
Q. Jo is a marketer at Papier, a stationery company that does most of their business online. Jo has noticed that Papier is falling behind their competitors in search results and wants to improve their ranking and clickthrough rate. How should Jo go about optimizing the Papier website for this goal?
- A. Add structured data to the product pages to display reviews and ratings data in rich results, and optimize the pages’ meta descriptions
- B. Implement a topic cluster content strategy to create blog posts and a pillar page on the topic of stationery
- C. Submit their sitemap to Google Search Console and resolve any duplicate content issues and crawling errors
Answer: A. Add structured data to the product pages to display reviews and ratings data in rich results, and optimize the pages’ meta descriptions
Explanation: This approach will enhance visibility in search results by enabling rich snippets, which can improve clickthrough rates. Optimizing meta descriptions will make the listings more appealing and informative, helping Papier stand out from competitors in search results.
Q. What kind of company would benefit from the site links rich snippet?
- A. All companies can benefit from site links rich snippets
- B. A company with a large website, recognizable brand, and high search traffic
- C. A company with a smaller, highly targeted website
- D. A company that has an ecommerce store which sells products online
Answer: B. A company with a large website, recognizable brand, and high search traffic
Explanation: Site links appear when a search engine determines that a website is authoritative and organized, typically for branded searches. These links help users navigate directly to important sections of a large website, improving user experience and potentially increasing traffic to key pages. Smaller, more targeted websites or ecommerce stores may not be as likely to receive site links.
Q. True or False? Structured data is a markup language.
- A. True
- B. False
Answer: True
Explanation: Structured data is a markup language, specifically used to help search engines understand the content of a webpage more clearly. It uses formats like Schema.org to provide context about the content, enabling features like rich results in search engines.
Q. When should you decide to work with a developer to implement structured data on a page?
- A. When there are multiple schema markups that you want to implement on a single page
- B. When you are unable to use a plugin to add structured data to your website
- C. You should always work with a developer to implement structured data
- D. When there are a large number of required or recommended properties in a markup
Answer: A. When there are multiple schema markups that you want to implement on a single page, D. When there are a large number of required or recommended properties in a markup
Explanation: In these cases, structured data can get complex, and a developer’s expertise ensures it’s implemented correctly without errors. You might also work with a developer when you are unable to use a plugin to add structured data if your CMS doesn’t support easy integration. However, it’s not necessary to always work with a developer if you have simpler use cases or an available plugin.
Q. What tool can you use to test for errors in structured data markup?
- A. Google’s Structured Data Testing Tool
- B. Google’s Rich Results Test
- C. Google’s PageSpeed Insights
- D. Both A & B
Answer: D. Both A & B (Google’s Structured Data Testing Tool and Google’s Rich Results Test)
Explanation: Both tools allow you to test for errors in structured data markup. Google’s Structured Data Testing Tool checks the markup itself, while the Rich Results Test checks if the structured data can generate rich results in search.
Q. Why is over-optimizing bad?
- A. You can’t collect any impactful data to inform your next steps
- B. Google will be confused and unable to crawl your site
- C. You won’t be able to update a page after a certain number of changes
- D. It will trigger a penalty in Google
Answer: D. It will trigger a penalty in Google
Explanation: Over-optimizing, such as keyword stuffing or using manipulative SEO tactics, can lead to penalties from Google. This can negatively affect your site’s rankings or even lead to removal from search results. It’s important to focus on natural and user-friendly optimization to avoid these issues.
Q. If you track nothing else for SEO, make sure you track _.
- A. Organic traffic
- B. Clickthrough rate
- C. Conversion rate
- D. Impressions
Answer: A. Organic traffic
Explanation: Organic traffic gives you a clear picture of how well your site is performing in search engines and how many visitors are arriving through organic search results. It is a key indicator of the effectiveness of your SEO efforts.
Q. True or False? No matter what SEO tool you use, the metrics will be exactly the same.
- A. True
- B. False
Answer: False
Explanation: Different SEO tools may use various data sources, algorithms, and methods to calculate metrics, so the metrics will not be exactly the same across all tools. While they generally provide similar insights, there can be discrepancies in the numbers reported, such as differences in keyword rankings, traffic estimates, or backlink counts.
Q. True or False? Domain authority is a ranking factor in Google’s algorithms.
- A. True
- B. False
Answer: False
Explanation: Domain authority is not a direct ranking factor in Google’s algorithms. It is a metric created by third-party SEO tools (like Moz) to estimate how likely a website is to rank in search results based on various factors. While higher domain authority often correlates with better rankings, it is not something Google uses directly in its algorithms. Google focuses on factors like relevance, content quality, and backlinks.
Q. Chris is a marketing manager at The Pet Box, which offers subscription boxes for pet owners. Chris wants to increase traffic to The Pet Box’s main product page. Right now that page ranks on the second page of search results for their target keyword. Chris has started improving the on-page SEO of the page, optimizing it for their target keyword, and seeking backlinks from popular pet care blogs. In order to track progress towards their goal, which metrics should Chris track?
- A. Organic traffic, position, impressions, backlinks
- B. Organic traffic, clickthrough rate, bounce rate, sales
- C. Organic traffic, bounce rate, time spent on page
Answer: A. Organic traffic, position, impressions, backlinks
Explanation: These metrics will help track the progress toward increasing traffic and improving the page’s search ranking. Organic traffic measures the number of visitors from search engines, position tracks where the page ranks for the target keyword, impressions show how often the page appears in search results, and backlinks indicate the authority and popularity of the page.
Q. Why would you want to run competitive analyses of keywords?
- A. To figure out what keywords your web pages are currently ranking for
- B. To determine whether you should be targeting a long-tail keyword or a head term
- C. To ensure the keywords you’re targeting are aligned with your audience
- D. You shouldn’t run competitive analysis of keywords
Answer: B. To determine whether you should be targeting a long-tail keyword or a head term, C. To ensure the keywords you’re targeting are aligned with your audience
Explanation: Competitive keyword analysis helps you understand which keywords your competitors are ranking for and how difficult it might be to rank for those keywords. This analysis can guide your strategy in choosing between more specific long-tail keywords or broader head terms and ensures your keyword choices resonate with your target audience.
Q. If only one answer is needed, which could it be?
Answer: To determine whether you should be targeting a long-tail keyword or a head term
Explanation: This is a key reason for running a competitive
analysis, as it helps you decide which type of keyword is more feasible and beneficial to target based on the competition.
Q. How long should your page’s title tag be?
- A. Under 60 characters
- B. Under 120 characters
- C. Over 60 characters
- D. As long as possible
Answer: A. Under 60 characters
Explanation: Keeping the title tag under 60 characters ensures that it won’t be cut off in search engine results, which typically display only the first 50-60 characters. This helps maintain readability and improves clickthrough rates.
Q. Which of these is a strategy to determine the internal linking structure of a website?
- A. Pyramids
- B. Schema
- C. Canonicalization
- D. Topic clusters
Answer: D. Topic clusters
Explanation: In a topic cluster model, a pillar page covers a broad topic, and related content pages (subtopics) are linked to the pillar page. This internal linking structure helps search engines understand the hierarchy and relationships between content, boosting SEO.
Q. Choose all that apply. Which of these tactics will help improve your website’s internal linking?
- A. Add a related posts section to your blog
- B. Audit your robots.txt file
- C. Create more blog posts and web pages
- D. Create a pillar page and topic cluster
Answer: A. Add a related posts section to your blog, C. Create more blog posts and web pages, D. Create a pillar page and topic cluster
Explanation: These strategies enhance internal linking by connecting related content, making it easier for both users and search engines to navigate your site. Auditing your robots.txt file is related to crawlability but not directly to internal linking.
Q. Which of these is an example of a top-level domain?
- A. www.
- B. .org
- C. https://
- D. All of the above
Answer: B. .org
Explanation: A top-level domain (TLD) is the suffix at the end of a domain name, such as .org, .com, or .net. “www.” is a subdomain, and “https://” is a protocol, not a TLD.
Q. True or False? It is a best practice to make your URLs as long and descriptive as possible.
- A. True
- B. False
Answer: False
Explanation: It is not a best practice to make your URLs as long and descriptive as possible. Instead, URLs should be short, clear, and descriptive, containing relevant keywords but avoiding unnecessary words. Shorter URLs are easier to read, share, and remember, and they help search engines understand the page’s content more effectively.
Q. Zoe is a digital marketer at a graphic design agency, and she’s been tasked this quarter with improving the firm’s SEO. However, the only guidance she has received from her boss is to get the site to rank higher on Google. In order for Zoe to create a successful SEO strategy for the business, what should her first step be?
- A. Perform an SEO audit of the firm’s website to determine if there are any crawl errors or content gaps
- B. Set a SMART goal and establish KPI’s to track if her SEO efforts are successful
- C. Outline a content calendar for the quarter, including target keywords with high search volume
Answer: B. Set a SMART goal and establish KPIs to track if her SEO efforts are successful
Explanation: By setting a clear, measurable goal and defining key performance indicators (KPIs), Zoe can ensure her SEO strategy aligns with the business’s objectives. This will give her a clear direction and help her measure the effectiveness of her efforts. After setting goals, she can proceed with an SEO audit and content strategy.
Q. True or False? When you make a change to a page, Google immediately crawls it.
- A. True
- B. False
Answer: False
Explanation: When you make a change to a page, Google does not immediately crawl it. Google crawls pages based on various factors, such as the page’s crawl frequency, the website’s authority, and how often the content is updated. You can request a recrawl through Google Search Console, but even then, it might take some time for Google to process the changes.
Q. True or False? Adding structured data to a page guarantees that it will appear as a rich snippet in search results.
- A. True
- B. False
Answer: False
Explanation: Adding structured data to a page increases the likelihood that it will appear as a rich snippet in search results, but it does not guarantee it. Google uses structured data as one of many factors to determine whether a rich snippet will be displayed, and it ultimately decides if and how the rich result will appear.