AI Search
SEMRUSH ONE
Stay Ahead in AI Search & Traditional SEO
It’s an interesting time to be preparing for an SEO interview. The industry has changed considerably with the emergence of AI search.
Despite how much SEO has changed, foundational knowledge and skills remain important. And it’s a good idea to keep that in mind when thinking about what questions you might get asked.
By the end of this post, you’ll have seen sample answers to more than 60 questions for SEO professionals to ensure you’re fully prepared for your upcoming interview.
Let’s dive in.
The questions below will be most relevant to folks who’ve just started their SEO journeys. And have applied for entry-level roles like SEO coordinator, SEO intern, or SEO associate.
This is likely one of the first questions hiring managers will ask.
They want to understand your motivations and what interests you in SEO as a career. And it’s possible they even have some anxiety about how viable SEO as a practice will be going forward—they wouldn’t be alone.
Many SEOs are at least somewhat concerned about the industry. For example, one Reddit user recently asked if it’s possible that AI tools might make SEO obsolete.
To answer this question effectively, you should briefly describe what led you to pursue SEO and what aspects of SEO appeal to you—including any perspective you have on the opportunities AI presents.
Your answer will be unique, but use the example below as inspiration.
I’ve always been fascinated by how websites rank in search engines, so I took courses on SEO and copywriting when I was in college.
After graduating, I started my own blog and applied various SEO techniques to grow its organic traffic. That included creating content that matches user intent, improving site speed, and analyzing data to detect and address technical issues.
I discovered I really enjoy the blend of creativity and problem-solving involved in SEO. And I love that SEO is always changing. Now that AI search is becoming mainstream, there’s more opportunity than ever to learn and test ideas.
This question is your chance to pitch what you’re great at—it’s wise to mention role-specific hard and soft skills.
Hard skills could include anything from keyword research to technical optimization.
And soft skills could be communicating, analytical thinking, leading, collaborating, or presenting.
Need an example?
I have the necessary skills to contribute to your SEO team and help you achieve your goals.
I have a solid understanding of SEO fundamentals, such as keyword research, on-page optimization, link building, and technical SEO.
I also know how to use various SEO tools like Google Search Console, Google Analytics, and Semrush.
Plus, I’m a team player who can collaborate effectively with other cross functional-teams including, content writers, web developers, and designers.
I think I can add value to your company.
The interviewer may ask you this question to test your understanding of SEO terminology and SEO concepts.
Organic search results are unpaid search results from a search engine—they aren’t influenced by paid advertising.
With the rise of large language model tools (LLMs) like ChatGPT, an interviewer might ask you a question like this to find out if you have an understanding of how to gauge AI search performance.
AI citations are the links to referenced sources in an LLM’s response to a user query. They serve as support for the answer, and users can click on them to verify claims or learn more. That said, most don’t click through.
AI citations have quickly become an important way to measure how visible you are in LLMs and how LLMs perceive your brand.
This SEO interview question tests your knowledge of the Google algorithm and its ranking factors.
Some of the most important Google ranking factors are:
People hiring for an SEO role likely want to know that candidates have a basic understanding of what drives visibility in LLMs.
Here's an example of how you can answer this question:
There’s a fair amount of overlap between what search engines consider a good result and what LLMs consider a good result. Which means things like publishing content quality and providing a good user experience remain important.
Some additional factors that make a difference for appearing in AI answers are:
Your hiring manager may want to see how you explain SEO terms to a non-technical audience or potential client.
Backlinks are hyperlinks that point from one website to another.
For example, if site A links to site B, that link is a backlink for site B.
Backlinks are important for SEO because they’re seen as an endorsement for the linked website.
The more high-quality backlinks a website has, the more likely it is to rank higher in search engines.
Your answer to this question will reveal whether you have knowledge of SEO tools and how to use them.
There are lots of third-party tools for analyzing competitors' backlinks, including the backlink tool.
You can learn how competitors build links and use some of those same ideas for our website.
For instance, if I notice they’ve earned links from major news outlets like The New York Times or The Washington Post, it likely means they’re investing in digital PR. We can follow a similar approach by pitching our own content or stories to relevant media outlets.
Interviewers may ask this question to test whether you know how to identify what a user is looking for when they enter a keyword into a search engine, which is important for effective SEO and content creation.
We can analyze the search query to look for clues that indicate the search intent.
For example, search queries that include words like "buy," "how to," and "best" suggest transactional, informational, and commercial intent, respectively.
We can also analyze the current top-ranking pages to understand the keyword’s search intent.
If top-ranking pages are primarily blog posts, then the keyword has informational intent.
If they’re ecommerce products or category pages, then the keyword has transactional intent.
SEO tools like our Keyword Checker are good for quickly identifying a keyword's type of search intent.
The difference between on-page SEO and off-page SEO is that they center around different sets of SEO factors.
On-page SEO focuses on optimizing parts of your webpages that are under your control. For example, title tags, meta descriptions, internal links, images, and more.
But off-page SEO focuses on increasing website authority by taking actions outside of your website like earning backlinks and mentions. Which you don’t have full control over.
I start by brainstorming a few seed keywords, which are basically the main topics or categories related to the website’s products or services.
Once I have a handful of seed keywords, I use keyword research tools to generate more keyword ideas based on my seed keywords.
Then, I analyze all these keyword ideas using metrics such as keyword search volume and keyword difficulty. And try to determine search intent.
Based on my analysis, I select the keywords that are most popular and relevant for the website. And achievable to rank for.
I do something similar for researching AI prompts. I pay attention to the topic’s overall volume, the topic’s difficulty, and individual prompt variations that may be important to include.
Rich snippets are more visually appealing search results with additional information displayed alongside the title, description, and URL path.
That extra information could be prices, ratings, reviews, or something else.
To get rich snippets, you need to implement structured data on your webpages.
Meta tags are snippets of code that are placed in the <head> section of a webpage to give search engines information about the page.
And they can influence how the webpage is displayed in search results.
The meta title and description are examples of meta tags.
The best way to check a website’s traffic from search engines and LLMs is by using Google Analytics. Isolating LLM traffic isn’t quite as straightforward as isolating organic traffic, but there are a number of ways to do it.
Semrush’s Traffic Analytics tool also comes in handy. It allows you to easily see your traffic from AI search, organic search, and other channels. And lets you compare yourself to competitors.
A canonical tag is a snippet of code that specifies the main (canonical) version of a page.
It’s used to avoid duplicate content issues that may arise when the same or highly similar content is accessible under different URLs.
A redirect is a way to forward website visitors from one URL to another.
They’re used when a webpage or website has been moved to a new location. Or when the URL structure has changed.
Redirects ensure that users are automatically taken to the new URL instead of encountering an error or seeing outdated content.
A 301 redirect is a permanent redirect that indicates to search engines that the original URL has permanently moved to a new URL.
And most SEO authority and ranking power of the original URL should be passed to the new URL.
A 302 redirect is a temporary redirect that indicates to search engines that the original URL has temporarily moved to a new URL.
And the SEO authority and ranking power of the original URL may not be passed to the new URL.
A URL slug is the last part of the URL that provides information about the content on the page.
Crawling is the process search engines use to discover webpages on the internet.
When crawling, search engine bots navigate through website pages and follow the links between them to find new pages to add to an index.
I use the "site:" search operator to check if a website is indexed by Google.
I just enter "site:exampledomain.com" into the Google search bar and press the “Enter” key.
If a site is indexed, a list of pages show up.
But a better way to check a website's indexation status is to use Google Search Console.
The “Page Indexing” report shows whether a website’s pages are indexed.
Local SEO is important because it allows local businesses to target nearby users who are searching for their products or services in Google.
It helps local businesses increase their visibility, traffic, and conversions from local searches.
Anchor text is the clickable text that links one webpage to another, and it helps users understand what they can expect to find when they click the link.
And linking to other pages on your website using optimized anchor text helps the linked pages rank higher for related keywords.
Robots.txt is a file that instructs search engine bots about which sections or pages of the website they should and shouldn’t crawl.
The instructions are written using “User-agent,” “Allow,” and “Disallow” directives, which specify the name of the bot, the path of the website to be crawled, and path of the page to be blocked, respectively.
If there’s no robots.txt file on your site, bots will try to access every page on your site by default.
A sitemap is a file listing all the important pages on a website that you want search engines to crawl, index, and rank in search results.
A sitemap is important for SEO because it helps Google discover pages more efficiently.
The main difference between "follow" and "nofollow" links is about whether they pass link equity that influences search engine rankings.
Follow links allow link equity to get passed from one site to another to help improve the linked page's rankings in search results.
Nofollow links generally don’t pass link equity. But they can still drive referral traffic to your site, especially if the link is coming from a popular website that receives a significant amount of traffic.
One way is to analyze the SERP to see which websites are ranking at the top for the keyword in question.
If big brands in our niche are dominating the SERP, we can assume the keyword has a high ranking difficulty.
But the more data-driven approach would be to use keyword research tools.
For example, Semrush’s Keyword Overview tool shows a specified website’s ranking difficulty for a keyword through the Personal Keyword Difficulty (KD) metric, which ranges from zero to 100.
The higher the number, the more difficult it is for the site to rank for a term.
The lower the number, the less difficult it is to rank.
A 404 error code is an HTTP status code that indicates the server can’t find the requested webpage or resource.
When a user or a search engine attempts to access a URL that doesn’t exist—or has been moved or deleted—the server responds with a 404 error code to indicate that the page is unavailable.
Page speed is the amount of time it takes for a webpage to load.
It’s important for SEO because it affects the user experience, which can affect rankings.
There are lots of third-party SEO tools that help measure a website’ authority of a particular site.
Take Semrush as an example.
Their Authority Score (AS) metric measures the authority of a website on a scale out of 100.
The higher the score, the more authority the domain has.
The lower the score, the less authority the domain has.
To optimize a title tag, I make sure it includes the primary keyword, is no longer than 55 characters, and accurately describes the content on the page.
There are lots of strategies for building links, including broken link building, digital PR, and resource page link building.
Broken link building involves finding broken links on other websites and offering an alternative link from your own site as a replacement.
Let’s say you find a broken link to a resource on SEO. You can email the website owner and suggest your SEO guide as an alternative.
Digital PR is about creating newsworthy content that attracts the attention of journalists, bloggers, and influencers.
For example, if you create a report on a trending topic in your industry, you can reach out to different media outlets and see whether they want to feature it. And receive backlinks if they do.
Resource page link building involves finding resource pages on other websites that list useful links for a specific topic, and then asking them to include your content as well.
For instance, if you have an in-depth guide on email marketing best practices, you can search for resource pages about email marketing and reach out to the website owners to propose your guide as a valuable addition to the list.
I would submit a sitemap to Google using the “Sitemaps” report in Google Search Console by pasting the sitemap URL in the given field and clicking the “Submit” button.
SERP features are modern-looking search results that are different from traditional organic listings because they help users get answers directly on the search results page.
Google's local pack, knowledge panel, featured snippets, top stories, and people also ask (PAA) results are all examples of SERP features.
The meta description is important because it can influence a webpage’s click-through rate (CTR).
A well-written meta description can entice more users to click on a result, indicating to Google that the page is relevant and useful for the given query.
This can indirectly improve the page's ranking. But meta descriptions themselves aren’t a confirmed ranking factor.
Image alt text is a short text description of an image on a webpage that’s added to the image's HTML.
Alt text helps describe the image content for users who can’t see the image, either because it fails to load or they’re using a screen reader due to visual impairment.
The Helpful Content Update is a significant Google algorithm update that started in 2022 and is designed to reward content that’s genuinely written for people rather than just for search engines.
It reduces the visibility of low-value pages—often those lacking unique insights or expertise—and promotes sites offering more useful and user-centric information.
There are several common SEO myths that have persisted over time.
For example, people still believe keyword density—how frequently a keyword appears in content—is crucial for ranking. However, search engines have evolved to prioritize content quality over keyword density.
So, focusing on creating high-quality content that naturally incorporates relevant keywords is the way to go.
Some people also believe that SEO is all about tricking search engines. But this couldn’t be further from the truth.
SEO is about providing a positive user experience and delivering value with your content.
Trying to trick search engines with tactics like keyword stuffing and cloaking can lead to penalties and harm your rankings.
Another popular misconception is that having more pages leads to better rankings.
Simply having a large number of pages on your website doesn’t directly translate to better rankings.
It's more important to focus on creating valuable and relevant content that addresses user needs.
Google has a free tool called the Rich Results Test to validate structured data on a webpage.
The tool will check the structured data format, syntax, and validity. And flag any errors or warnings.
The tool will also show you a preview of how your page might appear as a rich result in Google Search.
No, Google doesn’t always use a specified canonical tag for indexing and ranking.
Google treats the canonical tag as a hint—not as a directive or a command.
So sometimes, Google may ignore the canonical tag and index a different version of the URL.
SEO is an applied science, so recruiters may ask this question to understand whether you can apply your theoretical knowledge to actually solve SEO problems.
There are quite a few ways to fix duplicate content issues on a website.
One is by using a 301 redirect, which is a permanent redirect that tells search engines to index and rank the original page instead of the duplicate one.
Another method is using the rel="canonical" tag in the <head> section of a webpage to tell search engines which version of a page is the preferred one to show in search results. Which eliminates duplicate content issues. You can also use the meta robots "noindex" tag to prevent a duplicate page from getting indexed. This tag is placed in the <head> section of a duplicate page that you don’t want to Google to index.
You can use any of these methods to fix duplicate content issues, depending on the nature of the duplicate content on your site.
Google announces multiple algorithm updates every year.
By asking this question, a recruiter might want to know whether you keep yourself informed about recent changes in Google’s ranking system and how those changes affect SEO.
The most recent confirmed Google algorithm update is the spam update that started rolling out in August 2025.
This update focuses on improving the quality of search results by promoting content that’s genuinely useful and demoting low-quality or spammy content. These types of updates happen periodically to make sure Google is catching new types of spam that emerge.
Note
The above answer is true at the time of updating this article. But the answer is likely to change. So visit Google Search Central to check the recent algorithm updates and frame your answer accordingly.
By asking this question, the interviewer can assess your basic knowledge and understanding of how search engines work
Search engine bots are software programs that visit websites on the internet and collect information about them.
They’re also called “crawlers,” “spiders,” or “robots.”
Search engine bots use the information they gather to create an index of the web, which is like a giant catalog of all the webpages and their content.
Search engines use this index to provide relevant and useful results to users when they search for something online.
Most passionate SEOs regularly follow SEO blogs to learn new things and keep tabs on the latest trends.
This question will help the recruiter see if you’re passionate about SEO.
Here’s an example of how you might respond:
Yes. I follow Search Engine Land, the Semrush blog, and the Google Search Central website.
A hiring manager may ask this SEO question to test your technical SEO knowledge.
I prevent a URL from getting indexed using a “noindex” robots meta tag.
Many believe the “robots.txt” file can also be used to keep a URL out of Google’s index. But that isn’t true.
A robots.txt file controls the search engine’s crawling behavior on a website—not indexing.
These questions are meant for experienced SEOs who’ve applied for mid-level positions such as SEO specialist, SEO analyst, or SEO strategist.
Since it's likely that you're already working somewhere, the employer may ask you this question to learn about your current role's expectations.
When answering this question, be honest and accurate about your responsibilities.
Most companies appreciate candidates who are truthful and transparent about their experience.
As an SEO specialist, I’m responsible for implementing SEO strategies for various clients.
I conduct keyword research, optimize on-page elements, perform technical audits, monitor site performance, and report on the results.
I also collaborate with other teams such as content, design, and web development to ensure SEO best practices are followed across the board.
If you’re already working somewhere, the interviewer might want to know why you’re motivated to find a new job. Being honest and transparent is important—it helps the interviewer understand your goals and aspirations. And determine whether you’re a good fit for the company.
I’m looking for a job change because I want to grow and learn new skills in my field.
I’ve been working in my current role for “X” years, and I have achieved “Y” goals. But I feel that there are limited opportunities for me to progress further.
I’m interested in this job because it offers me a chance to work on “Z” projects that challenge me and align with my career aspirations.
Interviewers may ask this question to gauge your problem-solving skills and ability to apply SEO knowledge to real-world situations.
They want to know if you can think critically, analyze issues, and implement effective solutions.
One SEO problem I faced was when a client's website experienced a significant drop in organic traffic.
After conducting a thorough audit, I discovered that the site had many low-quality, thin content pages.
To solve this, I recommended a content pruning project, which involved identifying and removing or consolidating the low-quality pages. At the same time, we focused on refreshing particularly important pages to improve their likelihood of appearing in AI responses.
A recruiter may ask this question to assess your ability to work effectively with colleagues who have a more technical background.
When working with developers, I clearly explain the SEO requirements and the reasoning behind each recommendation.
I provide them with specific action items and prioritize the changes based on their potential impact on search performance.
To ensure smooth collaboration, I try to speak their language and understand their perspectives. And I discuss the technical feasibility of my suggestions and listen to their input.
SEO revolves around data, so knowing how to use essential SEO tools is a real advantage.
Companies often hire people who have knowledge and experience with the specific tools that the company uses for its SEO needs. And they often mention those tools in the job description.
You can mention those tools during the interview if you already have experience with them.
Here’s an example:
I can effectively use Google Analytics, Google Search Console, Semrush’s SEO Toolkit, and Semrush’s AI Visibility Toolkit.
There are different ways to answer this question depending on your achievements and strengths.
You could say something like this:
What sets me apart from other candidates is my proven track record of SEO success.
I’ve worked on multiple SEO projects in the past and delivered results in terms of traffic, conversions, and revenue.
And I’ve received awards and recognition for my SEO work from reputable organizations and publications.
I can show you some examples from my SEO portfolio and testimonials from my previous clients.
Some people believe keyword density—how frequently a keyword or phrase appears on a webpage—is a ranking factor, which is not true.
This question helps recruiters identify candidates who have a clear understanding of current SEO best practices
Keyword density isn’t a ranking factor.
Simply cramming a page full of keywords won’t improve its search engine rankings.
But it is important to use keywords strategically and naturally in content.
An interviewer may ask this question to evaluate your knowledge of current best practices and your ability to create content that aligns with Google's quality guidelines.
E-E-A-T stands for Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness.
It's a concept Google uses to assess the quality of web content, especially for Your Money or Your Life (YMYL) topics.
In other words, any information that could impact someone’s health, happiness, financial wellness, or safety. Inaccurate or misleading information on these topics could lead to harm.
To integrate E-E-A-T into my work, I focus on creating well-researched content written by subject matter experts, ensuring the content is accurate and up-to-date, and providing genuine value to users.
On top of that, I work on building the site's authority by earning high-quality backlinks from reputable sources.
AI Overviews have become common and can impact the click-through rates and organic traffic.
The interviewer wants to know if you're aware of these challenges and if you have ideas for adapting.
AI Overviews are incredibly prevalent for informational queries, and they present both challenges and opportunities.
On one hand, AI Overviews can reduce the click-through rates and organic traffic to websites. Because users may find the information they need directly on the search results page.
On the other hand, AI Overviews also provide an opportunity for websites to gain more visibility if they get featured in those AI summaries.
This question is designed to test your technical SEO skills and knowledge.
There are different ways to answer this question depending on the specific methods or the tools you use.
Here’s one way to respond:
To conduct a technical SEO audit, I start with a free SEO check to get a quick read on a page, then move to a crawl-based tool like Semrush Site Audit for the full picture.
The tool scans the website and identifies any technical issues that are affecting its SEO performance.
I also use Google Search Console to check the site’s indexing status and Core Web Vitals scores.
Some of the main elements I focus on during an audit are site speed, mobile-friendliness, HTTPS status, canonicalization, duplicate content, broken links, and redirects.
I prioritize the issues based on their potential impact and provide recommendations to fix them.
This question is designed to test your content SEO skills and knowledge.
There are different ways to answer this question depending on your own definition and process, including the example below.
Topic clusters are groups of related, interlinked content that collectively cover a broad topic.
They help to create a clear site structure that improves the relevance and authority of each page.
To create a topic cluster, I first identify a core topic that’s related to the business.
Then, I help to create a pillar page that comprehensively covers the topic and provides an overview of the subtopics.
Next, my team creates cluster pages that dive deeper into each subtopic and provide more specific information.
Finally, we link the pillar page and cluster pages internally using descriptive anchor text.
A hiring manager may ask this question to test whether you know important SEO metrics.
Share of voice (SoV) in SEO means how much of the organic search traffic (or visibility) your website has for a given set of keywords or topics compared to your competitors.
It helps you understand how well your website is performing in your market.
These questions are relevant to SEOs who have years of SEO experience. And have applied for SEO positions such as SEO manager, SEO director, or head of SEO.
This question is designed to determine whether you’ve actually led any successful SEO campaigns in the past and what the results were.
The answer below can help you get some ideas for how to respond.
One of the successful SEO campaigns I worked on was for a client in the travel industry.
They wanted to grow their organic traffic and increase leads for their travel packages.
My contribution was to plan and manage the SEO strategy for their website.
I also supervised and mentored a team of SEO specialists and coordinated with other departments such as content, design, and development to ensure everyone was following SEO best practices.
I also measured the return on investment using metrics like keyword rankings, organic traffic, conversions, and revenue.
As a result of my SEO management, their organic traffic grew by 300% and their leads grew by 185% within 15 months.
By asking this question, a recruiter wants to learn about your perspective on the future of SEO.
Here’s an example of how you could respond:
I believe AI will fundamentally transform SEO in the coming years.
Google has already integrated AI-enabled answers in search results. And this is just the beginning.
More and more queries will get answered through AI. This shift means SEOs need to think about how to get their content featured in AI-generated responses and run experiments to discover what works best.
An interviewer may ask this to assess your leadership skills, management skills, and your ability to foster a positive and productive work environment.
Below, you can see an example to help you think about your answer.
I motivate my SEO team by creating a collaborative environment where everyone can share their input and feel valued for their contributions.
I also set clear and realistic goals, provide regular feedback, and celebrate every team member’s achievements
This question will help the interviewer understand how you would manage client communications.
There are different ways to answer this question depending on your style and experience.
Use the answer below as an inspiration.
I like to use analogies and metaphors to explain complex problems to a client.
For example, if I need to explain that poor internal linking is preventing their website from ranking well, I might compare it to a city's road network.
I would explain that a website needs proper internal links to help search engines discover and understand all their pages in the same way that a city needs well-connected roads to help people reach different areas.
I would then suggest solutions like creating a clearer navigation structure, adding relevant contextual links within content, and ensuring important pages aren't buried too deep in the site structure—similar to how a city planner would improve traffic flow by adding new connecting roads and ensuring key destinations are easily accessible.
This question is designed to test your knowledge and skills in SEO planning and execution.
There are different ways to answer this question depending on your own SEO methodology and experience.
See the answer below for inspiration.
My approach to developing an SEO strategy is to:
Your answer to this question will depend on your experience and perspective.
Here’s an example of what this could look like:
I see SEO becoming increasingly integrated with other marketing channels.
Take content marketing as an example.
Content created for SEO now needs to perform across multiple channels simultaneously—it must satisfy search intent to appear in traditional search and AI search, tie to something timely that makes it good for social media sharing, and compelling enough to include in email newsletters.
I think we’re moving from isolated tactics and channels and toward a more holistic approach.
Knowing how to answer some of the most common search engine optimization interview questions is important.
But don’t stop there. Keep learning and improving your SEO skills. And stay updated on the latest trends and best practices.
SEO is a dynamic and competitive field. And you need to show your passion and dedication to stand out from the crowd.
Here are some resources from our blog to expand your SEO knowledge:
Alex Lindley
Alex is a managing editor with 10+ years of experience leading content and SEO teams across SaaS, tech, ecommerce, and digital publishing. He specializes in building editorial systems that balance human judgment with AI-assisted workflows, helping teams produce original, high-impact content as search and discovery evolve. His work spans SEO strategy, content quality frameworks, and adapting content operations for AI-driven search.
Keyword search volume is the average number of monthly searches for a search term in a particular location.
Google Keyword Planner is a free tool that lets you research the queries people type into Google.
Learn how to get backlinks by responding to media requests, creating link bait, finding broken links, & more.
Try Semrush free for seven days. Cancel anytime.
Semrush
More tools
Company
Support
Community
Legal
English
© 2026 Semrush Holdings. All rights reserved.
