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SEO Interview Questions

Practice common technical SEO interview questions on redirects, semantic HTML, Core Web Vitals and JavaScript.

Quick check

Quick check: What is the difference between 301 and 302 redirects?

  • They are the same; the number doesn't matter.
  • 301 is permanent; 302 is temporary. Use 301 for moved pages.
  • 301 is faster than 302 on the server.
Answer

301 is permanent; 302 is temporary. Use 301 for moved pages. — 301 transfers ranking authority to the new URL; 302 keeps authority on the old URL. Always use 301 for permanent moves.

Quick check

Quick check: Why should you use semantic HTML for SEO?

  • It makes CSS easier to write
  • It tells search engines what content means, not just how it looks
  • Because search engines only read div tags
Answer

It tells search engines what content means, not just how it looks — Semantic tags like <article>, <section>, <nav> tell Google the structure and meaning of your content.

Quick check

Quick check: What are Core Web Vitals and why do they matter?

  • They are only for mobile optimization
  • They don't affect ranking
  • LCP, INP, CLS — Google's metrics for UX and ranking signals
Answer

LCP, INP, CLS — Google's metrics for UX and ranking signals — Core Web Vitals are essential UX metrics that Google uses to rank pages. Developers must optimize them.

Quick check

Quick check: How do you handle JavaScript for SEO?

  • Use server-side rendering or prerendering; ensure initial HTML has content
  • Avoid JavaScript completely on SEO pages
  • Block crawlers from all JavaScript files
Answer

Use server-side rendering or prerendering; ensure initial HTML has content — Google can render JS, but it's delayed. Use SSR/prerendering or put content in initial HTML.

Final quiz 1 of 8

Final quiz

Quick check: Which tag helps prevent duplicate content by naming the preferred URL?

  • rel=nofollow
  • meta viewport
  • rel=canonical
Answer

rel=canonical — The canonical link consolidates signals to one URL.

Final quiz 2 of 8

Final quiz

Quick check: Which Core Web Vital measures responsiveness to user input?

  • LCP
  • CLS
  • INP
Answer

INP — INP replaced FID in 2024.

Final quiz 3 of 8

Final quiz

Quick check: What is the correct status code for a permanently moved page?

  • 301
  • 302
  • 404
Answer

301 — A 301 passes signals to the new URL.

Final quiz 4 of 8

Final quiz

Quick check: How do you keep a crawlable page out of search results?

  • Add Disallow to robots.txt only
  • Serve a noindex directive
  • Delete the sitemap
Answer

Serve a noindex directive — noindex works only if crawlers can fetch the page.

Final quiz 5 of 8

Final quiz

Quick check: Which structured-data format does Google recommend?

  • Plain text
  • CSV
  • JSON-LD
Answer

JSON-LD — JSON-LD is easy to maintain and keeps markup out of the visible HTML.

Final quiz 6 of 8

Final quiz

Quick check: Why prefer SSR or prerendering for JavaScript-heavy sites?

  • It removes the need for sitemaps
  • It disables caching
  • Initial HTML contains the content crawlers need
Answer

Initial HTML contains the content crawlers need — Content in the initial HTML is indexed faster and more reliably.

Final quiz 7 of 8

Final quiz

Quick check: What does hreflang tell search engines?

  • The relationship between language or region versions
  • The page load time
  • The author's name
Answer

The relationship between language or region versions — hreflang links equivalent pages for different languages and regions.

Final quiz 8 of 8

Final quiz

Quick check: Where should you track queries, clicks and impressions?

  • The robots.txt file
  • Google Search Console
  • A CSS file
Answer

Google Search Console — Search Console reports real search performance data.