Questions every SEO should be able to answer

So you think you’ve got what it takes to be an SEO technician. Let’s test your knowledge and ability. Here are 8 questions that challenge statements or assumptions made by SOME members of the SEO community on one or more occasions. The correct answers are not all immediately obvious. Take your time.

If you have at least a year’s experience in search engine optimization you should be able to answer 4 out of 8 questions correctly. If you have at least 5 years’ experience in search engine optimization you should be able to answer 6 out of 8 questions correctly.

If you can answer all 8 questions correctly on the first pass you’re pretty good.

1. If we assume that a Web document, “Charlie”, has a PageRank value of N, how much PageRank does Charlie lose when linking out to 5 other documents?

A. N / 5 (N divided by 5)
B. N – 5 (N minus 5)
C. .5 * N (0.5 times N)
D. None
E. It’s impossible to know because PageRank computations are closely guarded secrets

2. Which of the following actions is least likely to cause a drop in your ranking (with an already indexed-and-ranking page) for a targeted query?

A. Changing all occurrences of your keyword on your page
B. Adding another page with similar content to your site
C. Creating a page on another site with similar content
D. Changing your robots.txt file
E. Adding links to your page on other sites

3. Which reason given below is least likely to explain why a link may not pass anchor text or PageRank-like value?

A. The linking page is about pornography
B. The linking page is part of a reciprocal link network (a link farm)
C. The link is nofollowed
D. The linking page does not appear in the index
E. The linking page has more than one outbound link on it

4. If we assume that a Web document, “Donald”, has a Toolbar PageRank value of 5, which of the following is least likely to be true?

A. Donald’s links will pass value to other documents
B. Donald’s content will be fully indexed in major search engines
C. Donald is located on a trusted domain
D. Donald has many links pointing to it
E. Donald will not be penalized or filtered

5. Which strategy is the most likely to provide the best return on investment for optimizing a new Web site for search?

A. Optimize for a query with an estimated 10,000 daily converting searchers (there are already 20 competitive sites)
B. Optimize for 5 queries with a total estimated 10,000 daily converting searchers (there are a total of 20 competitive sites in the combined query space)
C. Find another vertical because this one is too competitive
D. Watch the query space for a year to see how much fluctuation there is in the results
E. Optimize for 20 low-traffic queries (50-100 estimated daily converting searchers each) with few to no competitors

6. You’ve just designed a new Web site (following “best practices”) and uploaded it. As soon as you finish the upload you visit your favorite SEO blogs and forums to see what is happening. People are complaining about lost rankings, penalties, filters, and weird-looking search results at your favorite search engine. Several people are offering theories about what might be causing the lost rankings. Which of the following represents the safest strategy for you to follow?

A. Ignore the buzz and start building links
B. Take your site down and upload it again after the “update” process has finished
C. Compare what you have done and intend to do for your site with what you know about sites that have lost rankings, correcting any factors you conclude may now be suspicious
D. Test the credibility of the complaining people by evaluating the search rankings of your competitors, taking corrective action if your competitors are hurting, too
E. Do nothing, wait and see what happens, and make a decision after the process has run its course

7. You’ve just rolled out a new Web site. Everyone says you need links. How many links per day should you obtain to secure good search results?

A. 1-5 links per day
B. 5-10 links per day
C. 10-20 links per day
D. None, as you’re expecting to earn lots of links naturally
E. No limit because you know you need links to succeed

8. Which of the following is least likely to be true about an expert SEO technician?

A. An expert SEO uses as few links as possible to get new sites indexed and crawled
B. An expert SEO has seen it all and predicts major search engine upheavals
C. An expert SEO looks for consensus when analyzing search engine algorithms
D. An expert SEO uses Yahoo! Site Explorer, search report ranking tools, Google Toolbar PageRank, and traffic estimators for analysis
E. An expert SEO speaks at conferences, moderates SEO forums, and is active in the SEO blog community

ANSWERS:

1. The correct answer is D. Although we don’t know how many iterations of the PageRank algorithm are performed during a computation, or how often the computations occur, a document’s PageRank value is nonetheless static between computations. Given enough time between computations, Charlie can link out to 100 documents 1 day, 2 documents the next, 30 documents on the 3rd day, etc.. Charlie’s assigned PageRank value of N will not change until the next time PageRank is computed.

2. The correct answer is D. All five actions can cause a document to lose or gain position in search results, but changing a robots.txt file does not affect the inbound linkage or the content on the page. Nor does changing a robots.txt file add competitive content to the search environment. In the event that you disallow an indexed page, inbound linkage may sometimes still allow the page’s URL to rank as a “URL-only” listing (except in Safe Search) at least for a short time.

3. The correct answer is A. The fact that a document discusses pornography does not mean it won’t be trusted or that it will be penalized or filtered by search engines. Reciprocal link networks are not necessarily filtered or penalized but search engines do not like them. Nofollowing a link almost guarantees it won’t pass value. A linking page may have been indexed and its links processed before it temporarily vanishes from the index. A linking page with multiple outbound links may or may not quickly pass value to all of their destinations.

4. The correct answer is E. Although Toolbar PageRank is a controversial metric, it in no way predicts the future. Given no other information than the document’s Toolbar PageRank value of 5, a reasonable person would be justified to assume that the document probably passes value through its links, is probably fully indexed, is probably on a trusted domain, and probably has many links pointing to it (most PR 5 documents do have many inbound links).

5. It’s a toss-up between C and E. If there are already 20 optimized sites competing for a mere 10,000 daily converting searchers, the odds of your recouping your investment quickly are very slim. Finding a less competitive query space improves your chances of breaking into the top 5 results quickly. For some poorly developed verticals there is a very limited query space and it’s best to find another vertical. For many poorly developed verticals, however, the rules of language and idiom are in your favor. You should be able to find low-traffic queries that are easy to dominate. They’ll provide you with more traffic than a hyperoptimized estimated 10,000 daily converting searcher query.

You have to estimate your return on investment by measuring how many converting visitors you can draw to your site, not by how many people appear to be searching with a particular query. 4500 of those 10,000 people will never go beyond the first listing in the search results.

6. The correct answer is A. Since your site is new and you’re doing your best to follow “best practices”, the chances of your having done anything to trip a filter or penalty are slim (although this has happened on a few occasions when search engine requirements have changed). Experienced SEOs should know to “wait it out” when an update process upsets rankings for existing sites, but new sites have no rankings to lose. In fact, if you get a few well-placed links quickly, you may capture some good search visibility while everyone else is hurting. That can help you capture even more links, especially if one or more influencers in your market decides you’ve done something worth mentioning.

The worst thing you can do during an update process is try to implement “corrections” that people suggest in forums and blogs. Rarely do these mid-update analyses and explanations of possible causes provide any useful insight into what is happening. Most of them are just hogwash cooked up from anxiety and/or boredom.

7. The correct answer is A. Every Web site needs links regardless of how competitive its targeted queries may be. Most people can achieve 1 to 5 links per day for at least a short time. Usually, you need no more than 5-10 links to help get a site crawled within a month. If you’re depending on links to achieve your rankings you’re not optimizing for search.

Launching a new Web site with the goal of ranking first for a competitive query is very foolish unless you have a lot of experience. Your first objective should be to get your site indexed. Your second objective should be to get the site to rank for its name. Your third objective should be to get the site to rank for non-competitive queries. These benchmarks give you valuable feedback and insight into your site’s strengths and weaknesses. You will probably need to make some adjustments on the way to search optimization success, so expecting success from the start is extremely naive and self-defeating.

8. The correct answer is E. Although there are many experienced and reasonably knowledgable people blogging, moderating, and presenting at conferences, that doesn’t make you an expert SEO technician. Most of the best known SEO bloggers, moderators, and conference speakers are no better than average when it comes to search engine optimization. Many of them have no more than 5-7 years’ experience. Few of them have managed large SEO portfolios (in excess of 100 concurrent campaigns).

Expert SEO technicians do many of the same things that average SEO technicians do. Some average SEOs manage teams including expert SEOs. You don’t have to be the best SEO in the building to lead an SEO team.

You can separate the expert SEO technicians from the average SEO techs by throwing a complex problem at them. The experts usually find a workable solution faster than the average SEOs. It takes a lot of hands-on optimization experience to reach the expert level. You cannot become an expert (or qualified to teach anyone to be an expert) by writing dream guides and top 10 lists. You cannot become an expert by just reading blogs and forums.