SEO Basics Certification Quiz

How is your SEO knowledge?

Get an 80% to "pass" our SEO basics assessment (30 questions).

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* 1. What does URL mean?

Universal Resource Locator

Urchin Resource Locator

Uniform Resource Locator

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* 2. What "equation" reflects the general idea as to how SEO works?

Authority + Relevancy = SEO

Domain + Authority = SEO

H1 + H2 = SEO

Title Tag + Meta Description

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* 3. What answers best describes why is high quality content is important for On Page SEO?

High quality content often has more words, and more words always leads to better SEO performance

Search engines are always on the lookout for the most authoritative, relevant, and credible answers to the questions that users type into the search bar. High quality content is closely correlated with this idea

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* 4. What is the difference between an indexed page and a page that is not indexed?

An indexed page has a primary keyword and a page that is not indexed does not

An indexed page will be crawled by a search engine robot and will be eligible to show on the SERP as an organic result, while a page that is not indexed will not show on the SERP as an organic result

An indexed page has a proper title tag and a page that is not indexed does not

An indexed page has a proper meta description tag and a page that is not indexed does not

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* 5. What does crawling mean in the context of digital marketing?

When an entirely new website launches it takes time for it to ramp up as it moves from "crawling" to "running" at full speed

Search engines have "bots" (robots) or "spiders" that are constantly evaluating content. The process of those bots exploring the various pages on the internet is called crawling.

When a new page on a website launches it takes time for SEO elements to be fully recognized and this phase is known as "crawling" before the page achieves full potential

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* 6. What SEO elements do you see displayed on the SERP for a given search result?

Title tag, H1 tag, H2 tag, URL

Title tag, meta description, H1 tag, URL

Title tag, meta description, URL

Title tag, featured snippet, H1 tag, URL

Title tag, featured snippet, URL

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* 7. If you had a specific page that you didn't want users to find in Organic Search (say a terms and conditions page, or privacy policy for example), how could you instruct search engines not to display the page on the SERP?

Add a nodisplay tag to the page

Add a novisibility tag to the page

Add a noindex tag to the page

Add a nothankyou tag to the page

Add a goaway tag to the page

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* 8. Select the statement that is the most true as it relates to keyword targeting for On Page SEO

The page (likely the home page) with the highest page authority on the entire site should target as many relevant keywords as possible because most Organic Search traffic should be directed to one page

Each page on the site should have between 1 - 5 primary keywords with secondary keywords to be added as appropriate

Each page on the site should have 1 primary keyword with secondary keywords to be added as appropriate

Each page on the site should have between 1 - 10 primary keywords with secondary keywords to be added as appropriate

Page content should be created without a keyword theme in mind. Authors should think exclusively about generating high quality content. After the page is published, the author should use SEO tools to see what search terms are driving traffic to the page and then go and optimize the page so it can better target those keywords

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* 9. What does keyword stuffing mean?

When a single page has more than 5 primary keywords

When a single page has more than 10 primary keywords

When a single page has more than 1 primary keyword

When a single keyword on the page has been used too many times and likely seems unnatural and forced

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* 10. Which statement is true as it relates to On Page SEO and Off Page SEO?

On Page SEO refers to optimization efforts for Organic Search that take place on the website and Off Page SEO refers to optimization for Paid Search

On Page SEO refers to optimization efforts for Organic Search that take place on the website and Off Page SEO refers to other activities that benefit Organic Search but do not take place on the same domain

On Page SEO involves Title Tags, Bids, Keyword Targeting and Meta Descriptions

Off Page SEO involves Google My Business, H1 Tags, Social Sharing, and NAP consistency for local directories

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* 11. In Google Ads Search we referred to Description 1 and Description 2 when constructing text ads. These descriptions show up on the SERP below the Headlines (Headline 1, 2, and 3) in black font. What On Page SEO element looks closest to a Description for a paid search text ad?

The title tag

The H1 tag

The meta description

The H2 tag

The organic description

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* 12. In Google Ads Search we referred to Headline 1, Headline 2, and Headline 3 when constructing text ads. These headlines show up on the SERP above the Descriptions and are in blue font. What On Page SEO element looks closest to a Headline for a paid search text ad on the SERP?

The title tag

The H1 tag

The meta description

The H2 tag

The organic description

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* 13. What do you see on the Google SERP if a title tag is too long?

A warning message

Ellipses at the end of the title tag

Nothing, if the title tag is too long the specific URL will not be indexed

Nothing, if the title tag is too long the entire domain will get a penalty from Google

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* 14. In general, how long should a title tag be?

About 50 - 60 characters

Less than 30 characters

About 40 - 50 characters

Above 65 characters

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* 15. What statement best describes how a meta description influences SEO performance?

A well constructed meta description should use the target keyword because keyword use in the meta description is a direct ranking signal for search engines

A well constructed meta description should be well-written, engaging and use the target keyword because it will help signal to the human searching that the result is relevant, thereby increasing the likelihood of a click, which will ultimately help the page result to move up on the SERP

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* 16. Where should your primary keyword be placed within your title tag?

At the beginning

At the end

Somewhere in the middle

It doesn't matter as long as it's in the title tag somewhere

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* 17. What does a "separator" like a vertical pipe ( | ) or a hyphen ( - ) indicate to search engines when used in a title tag?

The separator tells search engines to treat the page separately from the rest of the domain in terms of index / noindex status

The separator is used to separate multiple keywords that the SEO strategist might want to target on the page

The separator doesn't have a direct impact in terms of search engines but should be used because it makes the title tag easier to read and more likely to be clicked

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* 18. What SEO element could be used multiple times on a page and can be used to target multiple secondary keywords on a single page? Hint: it can also be used to help structure content by separating the content into different sections

Meta description

Title Tag

URL

alt text

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* 19. Why does alt text matter?

Because search engines can't "see" images, they need alt text to understand what an image is and index it properly

Search engines can "see" images, but alt text makes it easier for them to catalog what type of image it is

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* 20. What statement is true considering internal links and external links?

Internal links direct the user to another URL on the same domain, while external links go to another domain

Internal links should be used only by employees internal to a company and external links should be used by regular web visitors

Internal links direct the user to a URL on another domain, while internal links go to another domain

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* 21. Where would you find the anchor text of a link?

Anchor text is the name of the alt text of a linked image

Anchor text is the hyperlinked text that can be clicked on a page

Anchor text is the text immediately preceding the hyperlinked text that can be clicked on a page

Anchor text is the text immediately following the hyperlinked text that can be clicked on a page

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* 22. Why does anchor text matter to a search engine?

Search engine crawlers use the anchor text of a link to understand the context of the page that is being linked to. In that way, it has benefits for the page that is receiving the link, especially if the anchor text is descriptive of the keyword themes of the target page (page being linked to)

Search engine crawlers do not generally follow links, but using anchor text in a link to another page is still a valuable optimization element on the page that has the link

Trick question! Search engines always ignore anchor text of links.

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* 23. How large should the file size of an image on your website be?

As small as possible without sacrificing image quality

As large as possible to enhance user experience

It doesn't matter, as long as the image is relevant

None of the above

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* 24. What are the best descriptors of a great keyword to target? Assume the keyword has already been determined to be relevant for the website in question.

High search volume and high keyword difficulty (competition)

High search volume and low keyword difficulty (competition)

Moderate search volume and moderate difficulty (competition)

Low search volume and low keyword difficulty (competition)

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* 25. You manage a website that has recently deleted a specific URL on the site. You want to redirect traffic (and search engines) away from the deleted page and to a new page that is still relevant. What kind of redirect rule should you likely put in place?

A 302 redirect

A 301 redirect

A 404 redirect

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* 26. True or False: It's a good idea to optimize a page for multiple keywords by using multiple H1 tags

True

False

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* 27. True or False: Reviews have a significant impact on local search visibility

True

False

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* 28. What platform is most closely associated with the Local 3 Pack on the SERP?

Google Ads

Google Search Console

Google My Business

Google Analytics

Yelp

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* 29. What does NAP consistency refer to?

The importance of having a consistent Name, Address, and Phone number listed for a business across a variety of business directories like Yelp, Bing Places, Google My Business, CityPages, YellowPages, and more

The importance of having a consistent Name, Address, and PIN number listed for a business across a variety of business directories like Yelp, Bing Places, Google My Business, CityPages, YellowPages, and more

The importance of having a regular break every afternoon

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* 30. What is a 404 page status code?

The requested page was found but access is forbidden

The requested page was not found (likely because it was deleted)

The requested page has permanently moved to a new URL

The requested page has temporarily moved to a new URL