We’ve all been there. 

You have a candidate that looks promising on paper, but then the interview doesn’t go as well as planned.

Or worse… You hire them to handle your digital marketing, only to find out they’re barely knowledgeable about the topic past what anyone else can just Google.

As the need for digital marketing experts becomes more mainstream, you might be tempted to hire someone in-house to handle these types of tasks.

And that’s why we’ve put together this excellent list to help you gauge whether a candidate knows their search engine optimization (SEO) as well as they claim they do.

Check out these 11 SEO interview questions:

3. Explain Your Method for Approaching Keyword Research?

With this SEO interview question, more details are better. 

A candidate should never just say they find keywords with a high search volume and then write content around those words.

Instead, they should talk about elements like user intent, competitor analysis, positive keywords, negative keywords, and more.

If they successfully answer this question with technical details, it is safe to say they are likely a moderate-level candidate. 

However, even simplistic answers with specifics can be fine for lower-level candidates.

4. What Tools Have You Used to Track and Analyze SEO Data?

For this question, there’s also no right or wrong answer. 

Generally, you’ll want to see if the candidate has any familiarity with popular software platforms, like Moz or Google Analytics.

Those who are truly excited about this job position should even be able to rattle off a few of their favorites and why those programs are so useful.

This is a good time for you to take notes, as well. 

Sometimes, candidates have great tips on the latest and greatest tools that your business can use for future digital growth.

SEO Interview Questions to Ask Moderate-Level Candidates

Moderate-level candidates are those that have two to five years of direct experience with search engine optimization. 

They’re also highly skilled with pay-per-click (PPC) campaigns and can likely list clients they’ve worked with in the past.

At this career point, they should be able to explain both on-page and off-page optimization techniques clearly and concisely.

As an interviewer, don’t be afraid to dig into more technical aspects or ask to have them explain their definition of certain terms to demonstrate their knowledge.

What sometimes gets overlooked is a candidate’s ability to actually communicate this expertise to others who aren’t knee-deep in digital marketing jargon. If a person can break down a complicated SEO concept without losing you halfway through, you’re probably onto someone who can explain things to their future coworkers, clients, or even—let’s be honest—your boss who still thinks “meta tags” are some kind of VR headset. Clear explanations in plain English count for a lot, not just technical wizardry.

And if you’re interviewing remotely (which, in 2025, is almost the default), pay attention to how well the candidate navigates the chaos of virtual interviews. Spotty Wi-Fi, awkward silences, screensharing mishaps—it happens. But the way someone handles these moments can actually reveal a bit about their approach to unexpected SEO hiccups, too. Adaptability goes a long way in a field that never sits still.

5. Why is Link Building Important for SEO?

The basic answer to this is that Google favors websites that are popular and it determines popularity by the number of other pages linking to it.

Any answer that elaborates on this fact is a good enough answer. 

Those with strong SEO skills should be able to further discuss the best ways for making this happen and why bad backlinks — i.e. those from spammy sources — can cause potential ranking penalties.

6. How Do You Approach Recommending Changes?

The basic job of any SEO expert is to take their knowledge of industry best practices, analyze the website in question, and then come up with a list of recommended changes. 

In some cases, they’ll be applying these alterations themselves, but not always.

Candidates should be able to clearly articulate why changes need to be made while fully communicating the benefits of doing so.

Also, try to prod a little to see what they would do in a situation where their recommendations were not adopted or ignored. 

This could spark an interesting view on how well they work as a team or do when their ideas are not immediately accepted.

7. What Are Your Thoughts on Black Hat SEO?

As a brand, your website should avoid black hat practices at all costs. 

After all, these are the sneaky little things that some SEOs try to use to get a jump on the competition, but they’re super risky.

Your candidate should state this and fully explain that these elements are to be avoided, no matter what. 

You can also ask them to list examples of which black hat techniques are the worst or any time they’ve seen them used with poor results.

8. How Often Should You Post Content for Better SERP Rankings?

This is a bit of a trick question, as there’s no real timeframe for how often you need to post. 

But there’s a little more to it than that, and the way a candidate answers will give you an understanding of their individual skill level.

Quality candidates will be able to explain that consistency is key. And that the more posts you have up, the easier it is to rank for multiple keywords.

Again, this is a question that you need to feel out to see their response. The more detailed or logical, the better their understanding of the process.

What to Ask SEO Experts and/or Agencies

If you’re looking to hire an SEO expert or an agency, you’ll want to include these questions in your interview process. 

They feature a high level of technical aspects that go far beyond what a novice digital marketer would know.

In addition, they ask the candidate to explain basic strategy and describe how they would handle certain situations. 

The more detailed they can get in their response, the better their understanding of how SEO works.

9. How Would You Catch Up to the Competition If You Were Far Behind on Creating Content?

This is another subjective answer that will depend on the candidate’s personal experience and how they solve issues.

In general, they should include things like competitor analysis to see what the other company has posted, creating content with specific sets of keywords to try to improve rankings, and even optimizing old content to rank for new search terms.

10. Explain the Crawler Trap Problem and Three Ways You Can Fix It

Search engines only have a limited number of pages to crawl on a website within a given period of time. 

Referred to as a crawl budget, it can be easy for a bot to get stuck on pages that have no bearing to your search ranking, such as technical ones or simple contact pages.

A good answer from a candidate should explain this problem clearly and talk about ways to mitigate it, like using rel=no_follow tags and using a robots.txt file.

11. What’s the Easiest Way to Prevent Search Engines from Crawling Specific Pages on a Website?

The answer you’re looking for is a robots.txt file. 

However, there are multiple ways to do this and the question itself really builds off the answer from the previous one in this list.

The real reason you would use this SEO interview question is to check the technical understanding of a potential candidate. 

The more detailed they can be, the easier it is to see if they know their stuff.

Wrap Up: Ready to do these SEO Interview Questions?

Hiring an SEO expert to improve your website rankings is an easy way to increase organic traffic and outperform the competition. 

However, it is vital that you hire the right person with the ideal skillet. 

Using these eleven questions, you should be able to gauge whether the individual or agency you’re looking to hire is a good fit for the job.

But knowing your website’s current search engine optimization maturity level is important, too. 

Check out our SEO Maturity Assessment to see where you’re currently at!

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