Q + A for SEO JOB

I recently was sent some questions before an interview for a internet marketing position. I will share in the next few articles those questions and more importantly some cool answers

SEO/SMO Manager – Candidate Questionnaire
Candidates for the SEO Manager position are requested to respond to the following questions. Completed questionnaires will be reviewed by our team and candidates for the next round of interviews will be contacted the following week.
Regarding this questionnaire, Please provide as complete a response as you feel is necessary for each question, don’t just copy and paste from external resources but provide your own explanation using your own words.
1. How do you stay on top of trends in the industry?

Read, Read and Read some more. I read and subscribed to a number of high profile websites that include webpronews.com, searchengineland.com, googleblog.blogspot.com, .seomoz.org/blog and mattcutts.com/blog. There are often articles on new developments in different news sources that I read and digest. I am in constant contact with fellow internet marketing people and we often discuss new developments and how they will affect us and the industry. I also can see how new developments have an impact on marketing methods. I sometimes write on my blog some reflections and insights I have.

2. What tools, resources would you need to perform your role as a SEO/SMO Manager?
a. PEOPLE

The most important resources are the people you are working with and their drive to see an internet project succeed. These people need to have enough experience and internet savvy to understand new methods and strategy going forward.

b. SEO
Advanced Keyword research tools that would make a keyword list that much more accurate. Advance backlink tools to check competitor sites and utilize for link strategies. Logfile analytic tools to analyze with precision all traffic and action on website. This info will inform where improvement is needed and give a clear picture of everything that is happening on the site. Heat map software to determine where people click on site and which parts of site could be improved.
c. SMO

Utilize tools that could disseminate quickly and efficiently updates and important messages on the major social networks. Connecting and cooperating with powerful players in the field of Social Media. This type of cooperation would get messages out to massive amounts of targeted people in a timely manner. The company or the client or both should have powerful social media sites available where updates can be made. These would include Facebook profiles and groups; Linkedin groups that discuss the particular product or service that is being serviced ; a twitter account that is ready to send to followers and “real time” search information ad updates on product development etc.

d. Putting it all together. Strategy of assigning individuals with responsibility for SEO/SEM work. Clear goals that need to be met by the SEO team and SMO team. For example
The SEO team would need to place 100 links on similar sites within 60 days of launch of project. Twenty different articles with back links will need to be placed on article sites such as ezinearticles.com, articlealley.com . The SMO team would need to place updates on 50 groups within a certain time frame and/or create a set amount of new groups forums related to the marketing plan. These are just examples of how goal oriented targets are to be met. Clearly every campaign will have different targets and goals but all should accountable to a team.


3. What are five of the most important on-page SEO factors affecting ranking pages? Explain why.

No one really knows this for sure but these five are very important indeed:

1. Title of page- If you have chosen a optimum keyword use it in your title. This simple step will tell the bots the most important part about your page, namely your title. If you do other important steps this will help Google point people to your site for that keyword
2. New and relevant content: Have relevant content with key word that was in title and other keywords in article. This is also called keyword density. Make sure article is 500 words or more. Make sure it is completely original. Google claims that positive user experience is what it strives for. If you give a user info about a product or service or anything else for that matter, that’s the key. If you later backlink to that page with powerful links you will strengthen that trend and move up on the SERPS for that keyword/s
3. Using webmaster tools make sure there are no mistakes/ broken links emanating from the site on any pages. Make sure pages will be cached and noticed by Google as fast as possible.
4. Internal and external sitemaps. These sitemaps make it easier for Google to crawl the whole site at once. The Google Robot loves sitemaps
5. Meta tag description. Many say that the importance of Meta tags for Keyword and description has waned but there is still importance in the meta tag structure. The description is still important in case the site is seen in the serps. A good description will draw targeted people into the site which is what you want anyway.

There are others factors to consider that can be used rather easily like H1 tags, speed of navigation, and avoidance of flash for navigation.